Previously unseen footage of White Lion covering Ozzy Osbourne’s "I Don’t Know" has emerged online and it highlights how the band’s guitarist, Vito Bratta, had the talent to become a guitar superstar. Too bad he didn't have the same amount of luck.
Some guitarists seem fated to become legends. Others, like Bratta, get only a glimpse of the Promised Land. After spending much of his career as an also-ran, he retired from music in late 1991. Nearly 35 years on, his absence is still mourned by fans.
They include the person behind Vito Bratta Forever, a channel created to celebrate his legacy. “I have seen Vito play many times live," the unknown YouTuber writes, "and miss his playing with all my heart.”
It's unclear when and where the White Lion footage was captured, but it showcases Bratta's guitar talents on his instrument of choice, a Steinberger GM2T electric guitar. Pinch harmonics and whammy-bar drops abound, iced with a faithful and fearlessly executed guitar solo. It’s moments like this that reveal why Bratta believed he could have been a major player and even filled in for Randy Rhoads. In fact, he once had that chance.
Bratta started his career in the New Jersey cover band Dreamer and soon found monumental opportunities at his door. After Rhoads' passing in 1982, he was in line to help Ozzy complete the ongoing tour, replacing the initial stand in Bernie Tormé. However, differences with Osbourne's wife and manager, Sharon, led to Brad Gillis getting the nod instead. Bratta was then offered the chance to replace Ace Frehley in Kiss, but he declined because he didn't want to change his name.
Chasing one last crack at stardom, he formed White Lion with Danish singer Mike Tramp in 1983. The guitarist was still in his early 20s when the group recorded its debut album, Fight to Survive. Bratta admitted to Guitar World in 2023 that he wasn’t the most streetwise guitarist.
“What a fucking disaster that record was,” he said. “That whole album is scratch tracks.”
Scratch tracks are temporary placeholders used to aid recording before being replaced with final captures that showcase the player's best performance. But Bratta, perennially plagued with bad luck, didn't get the chance to record his parts properly.
“I laid the scratch guitars down, and then the producer Peter [Hauke] told me, 'Okay, Vito, that’s good for now. We’ll have you come back in and finish the guitars when the rest of the album is done,'” he recalled.
“So, I’m thinking, 'Okay... I guess I’ll redo these and put the polish on after.' I was a dumb kid, I knew nothing. I’d never been in a recording studio and now, I’m in Germany [in Hotline Studios, Frankfurt] with this bald guy yelling at me. I won’t say I was scared, but I wasn’t going to question him.”
Before he knew it, Tramp had wrapped his vocals and had told the guitarist, “‘we’re done. You can go home now.’
“And I’m like, 'What about the guitars?',” Bratta goes on. “Peter just looked at me and said, 'Sorry. We ran out of money and time. We’re going with what we’ve got.'”
That proved particularly irksome for the guitarist, who hadn't bothered to put his heart and soul into the scratch tracks since he assumed “I could do it for real later.
“I was devastated,” he added. “I couldn’t believe a bunch of shitty scratch tracks would be my first record.”
White Lion went on to produce three more albums, with the last being 1991’s Mane Attraction. Shortly after its release, Bratta retired from the music industry for good.
Zakk Wylde, who became Ozzy's third permanent guitarist in '87, is just one player who has praised his talents since that decision.
“Vito Bratta is the only guitarist I've heard who sounds cool doing taps,” he said shortly after joining the band. “I know he often gets compared to Van Halen, but he really isn't like him too much. Vito's solo on [White Lion's] 'Wait' is excellent and doesn't sound like Eddie at all.”
“I got the fingering from Jimi Hendrix.” Zakk Wylde reveals the origins of the first riff he wrote for Ozzy Osbourne and the benefits of learning from those who came before you
“The only way for Gene and Paul to win was to be as zany and nutty as I was.” Ace Frehley goes behind the scenes of rock's greatest TV interview — when Tom Snyder interviewed Kiss in 1979
