Man Injures Lips Whistling Vai

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In a humourous anecdote that has people around water coolers and coffee machines everywhere talking, Eltham man George Tobias last week strained the muscles in his mouth and lips attempting to whistle along to virtuoso guitarist Steve Vai's 1990 album Passion and Warfare.

Driving alone in his station wagon, the 29 year old student first noticed his lips numbing around track 5 'the Riddle', after successfully humming and whistling the main melody lines to the opening songs of the groundbreaking instrumental guitar album.

"Look, I thought I'd done pretty well to get through that lick at the end of 'Answers'" Tobias said. "By the time 'For the Love of God' came on, my entire mouth was aching. But I pressed on". The former mechanic actually made it to the three minute mark, which guitar experts say is a considerable feat.

After being checked out by a doctor today, Tobias was given the all-clear, but was warned to 'lay off the difficult stuff' at least until his face muscles had fully healed. In the meantime, he will be humming and whistling along to the considerably less-challenging 1998 Follow the Leader album by Californian outfit Korn.

As strange at it sounds, this is not the first time a person has been injured singing along to an instrumental work. Back in the late 80s Johnson Tyle severely hurt his vocal cords trying to skat along to the shredding on Jason Becker's solo album Perpetual Burn. It took weeks to recover.

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