David Lee Roth Skyscraper

Though the classic hard rock band Van Halen had
reached massive heights of commercial success with
their 6th album 1984, a creative rift had formed
between the band and their frontman David Lee Roth,
who resented the more pop-friendly direction the band
was gravitating towards, preferring the band stick to
the hard rock they came up with. This tension would
lead to Roth breaking away from the band to engage
on a solo career, achieving commercial and
critical success in 1986 with his solo debut
Eat 'Em And Smile.
Fans of Roth's rock purism, who had followed him into
his solo career on the promises of keeping his sound
hard would be taken aback with his follow up, 1988's
Skyscraper. While Roth had criticized Van Halen for
an over-reliance on synthesizers, Roth himself would
add synth-player Brett Tuggle to his backing band
for Skyscraper, which lead to a distinctly more
psychedelic, and dreamy atmosphere.
In spite of going back on his promise of hard rock,
Skyscraper turned out to be another success for Roth,
selling over 2 million copies in the US, and rendering
the Billboard Top 40 hit "Just Like Paradise". It would
also be the linchpin for the solo career of guitar
virtuoso Steve Vai, who at the time was a member
of Roth's solo backing band. Though a commercial hit,
it would also mark the beginning of the end for Roth's
solo career; the hard rock vocalist wouldn't achieve
any major sales success again until re-joining Van
Halen in 2007.