Steve Vai is dismissing reports that he’s interested in reprising his role as guitar villain Jack Butler in a potential Crossroads sequel, explaining that a possible reunion with Ralph Macchio at NAMM was blown out of proportion.
Vai addressed the rumors while appearing with longtime friend and former guitar teacher Joe Satriani on Eddie Trunk’s SiriusXM show, where the pair were discussing their new collaborative album, The Sea of Emotion, released November 6 under their SatchVai banner. .
The rumors surfaced earlier this month, when it was reported that a follow-up to the 1986 cult classic might be in the works. Screenwriter John Fusco and Macchio, who played aspiring blues guitarist Eugene “Lightning Boy” Martone, had apparently been discussing ideas for an anniversary project.
“And I said, ‘We should do the freaking sequel.’ He’s like, ‘No shit, really? Do you have an idea?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I have an idea for it.’ So Ralph and I have talked about it. We’ve got a plan,” Fusco told Guitar World.
The report also claimed that “Steve Vai is game to reprise his role as metal-blues guitar master Jack Butler.”
But in a new interview with Eddie Trunk on SiriusXM, Vai pushed back on that suggestion, making clear that he has no plans to return to the movie.
“Well, that is a very funny rumor that I’ve been reading too. No,” he said (via UCR).
Asked whether there was anything to the sequel talk, Vai explained how a possible meeting with Macchio had apparently morphed into something much bigger.
“I think what happened was — and I’ll just say this — I was contacted by somebody that said, ‘Hey, you’re going to be at NAMM. I know Ralph Macchio, and I spoke to him, and we thought it would be nice for you guys to meet.’”
The two haven’t seen each other since making the movie, although Vai says he’s heard from people over the years that Macchio has asked after him.
“I haven’t seen him since I made the movie. And all through the years I’ve had people come up to me and say, ‘Hey, I saw Ralph and he said to say hello,’ and I would say, ‘Well, when you see Ralph, you tell him I said hello.’”
A get-together at NAMM to mark the movie’s 40th anniversary is still a possibility, Vai says. But that’s apparently as far as things go.
“So there’s a potential that we’ll be able to kind of get together and chat during NAMM. And I think that got leaked, and you know how rumors are – it turned into, ‘there’s a rematch.’”
As for why he’s not interested in making another Crossroads, Vai pointed to the scale of the original production and the challenge of recreating its most famous sequence: the climactic electric guitar duel between Jack Butler and Macchio’s Eugene Martone.
“That movie was a $30 million production or whatever it was, and required a tremendous amount of direction and work. And how do you do something like that now? Like, how do you make a scene that stands up to [that one]? You know, you need a movie studio.”
