‘Chickenfoot’ Update

Back in early October, Billboard.com published an update on the Satriani-Hagar-Anthony-Chad Smith (Red Hot Chilis) “supergroup” that at least for now is titled Chickenfoot. Since I missed it then, hear are some highlights of that article now (all quotes are from Satch):

• They played together live for the first time last February during a solo Sammy Hagar concert in Vegas. “We were very excited about that show,” Satch said. “We had never played together before and when we walked off stage, we looked at each other like, ‘Wow, there’s a connection here. We should do something about it.’ So last week [in September] we were together for five days and we recorded nine tracks.
• “As soon as Sammy and myself finish touring our separate solo tours we’ll reconvene in northern California and finish the record. We hope to mix the album in January, have it ready for April and then we’ll follow it up with a tour.
• “The style is high-energy, kick-ass rock ‘n’ roll. We’ll draw from funk, blues and experimental. We know what we want to get out of it. We want passages in songs that develop and we want everyone’s personality to be able to come out. So it’s going to be expansive, but it’s going to be rough.
• “The material is really slamming, and anybody who has ever been around Chad knows that he is a very huge personality, a very high-energy guy and his drumming in person is explosive,” Satriani says. “This band really gives him carte blanche to go crazy.”

Here’s more about the band, which may actually be called Chickenfoot after all. It’s from an interview with Sammy Hagar conducted by ClassicRockRevisited.com.

• “Hopefully my new band, Chickenfoot, will fill that Van Halen gap for myself and the fans. You have a super guitar player, Joe Satriani, and you have Chad Smith on drums and Mikey on bass and singing. We have the early Van Halen chemistry. When we get together, we start laughing and having a good time, and the music just comes pouring out of us. I am so happy to be in a creative environment like that with other people again. When you put together another kind of band, where everyone inspires each other, and tries to out play each other, and pushes each other to the limit, and I am not running the show—that is what Van Halen was. I love that feeling. It was like that in Montrose and HSAS. Everyone brought things to the table and it is not a solo thing. I am really enjoying this time with Chickenfoot.
• Say we change the name tomorrow to The Brown Boys. We will put a new album out and people will say, “Have you heard The Brown Boys?” People will go, “Who are they?” They will answer, “They used to be Chickenfoot.” No matter what we change our name to everyone will refer to us as “Chickenfoot.” To me, it is more than a silly name. This band is funky and it is like a chicken foot walking around a barnyard. It is down and dirty.”

For VH fans, the interview has some interesting info on Sammy’s feelings about Van Halen’s “inability” to make a new album, his thoughts on Michael Anthony being left out of the VH reunion tour, and an unnerving story about Edward Van Halen in an airplane.

Here’s a little from Mike, via a recent musicradar.com interview:

• “Chickenfoot is phenomenal. I can’t believe the music we’re making. And wait till you hear the blazing lead guitar Joe Satriani is playing. The guy’s a monster.”
• “We’re gonna rock people’s worlds. Just when everybody says nobody makes music like this anymore, here we come.”

The site has three good audio interview clips with Mike, worth a listen if you are a fan. In them he says the energy of Chickenfoot is like early VH — it supposedly has that early VH, Zep-type jamming energy and chops, an “intensity I haven’t witnessed …in a long time.” He added that people will be amazed to hear Joe and Chad play “out of their usual element.”

Mike mentioned Andy Johns, though it wasn’t clear what role he would or might take. Johns is a well-known producer and engineer. He engineered Led Zep, Stones and Blind Faith albums, and produced VH’s F.U.C.K. album, Satriani’s The Extremist and many others, including hard-rock acts Killer Dwarfs (yeah!), Cinderella (insert more-muted reaction here), LA Guns and MSG.

Category: Chickenfoot, Jimmy Page/Zep, Van Halen