What happened with the Planet X project?
Howe: When I first came here to California three years ago, Derek Sherinian was working on a solo album. Tony MacAlpine was leaving to do other things and they thought I would be a good replacement. So I met with them a bit and talked about it, but our schedules at the time didn’t permit it. It was very complicated music and I had other things I had to do and felt I didn’t have the time to devote to it, so didn’t pan out. You also did two albums with Richie Kotzen, how did these come about? Howe: Those were ideas the label had in mind. I knew Richie a long time ago. We both used to live in Pennsylvania and we were in sort of rival bands. After I got singed to Shrapnel, he submitted his demos to Shrapnel, and Varney asked that I’d get together with Rithie as there were a few things he wasn’t sure about, and Mike wanted me to hear Richie. We got together and played quite a bit and became friends. When I heard him I thought he was fantastic. When Mike asked me, I said he was great and he
