Michael Anthony Opens Up on Conflict in Van Halen
Former Van Halen bass player Michael Anthony seems to have found new life in the hard rock supergroup Chickenfoot; and if you ask Anthony, he’ll whole-heartedly proclaim Chickenfoot are “like how Van Halen was in the early days.”
“It’s four friends getting together and having a good time,” Anthony told Ultimate Classic Rock about the band, which includes his former Van Halen bandmate Sammy Hagar, as well as guitarist Joe Satriani and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. “I guess a lot of that has to do with, you know, we’ve all had our own careers and done really well. So, it’s not like we have anything to prove, and we don’t need to do it for the money, so we can do it just purely for the enjoyment of making music.”
He added that Van Halen’s ’04 reunion was more than a little uncomfortable because, “the way that turned out, Eddie didn’t want me on that tour anyway, because I was a ‘traitor,’ because I sided with and was jamming with Hagar…”
As for Chickenfoot’s sophomore album, the men hope to release the new single in July (“Why wait?”), adding the new tracks are “maybe a little darker” than the last release.
“I think we’ve really evolved as a band. The first CD, we just had so much fun jamming, we had some ideas and we put it together kind of quick, because everybody else had their schedules to keep,” he said. “Even though we actually kind of did it the same way this time, we were a lot more comfortable jamming with each other, and I think we dug a lot deeper. There’s a lot more meat to these new songs.”
He also promises Chickenfoot will tour this year, hopefully in the fall. Meanwhile, Van Halen are plugging away on their new album, and according to Alter Bridge’s Mark Tremonti, it rocks.
“It’s four friends getting together and having a good time,” Anthony told Ultimate Classic Rock about the band, which includes his former Van Halen bandmate Sammy Hagar, as well as guitarist Joe Satriani and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. “I guess a lot of that has to do with, you know, we’ve all had our own careers and done really well. So, it’s not like we have anything to prove, and we don’t need to do it for the money, so we can do it just purely for the enjoyment of making music.”He added that Van Halen’s ’04 reunion was more than a little uncomfortable because, “the way that turned out, Eddie didn’t want me on that tour anyway, because I was a ‘traitor,’ because I sided with and was jamming with Hagar…”
As for Chickenfoot’s sophomore album, the men hope to release the new single in July (“Why wait?”), adding the new tracks are “maybe a little darker” than the last release.
“I think we’ve really evolved as a band. The first CD, we just had so much fun jamming, we had some ideas and we put it together kind of quick, because everybody else had their schedules to keep,” he said. “Even though we actually kind of did it the same way this time, we were a lot more comfortable jamming with each other, and I think we dug a lot deeper. There’s a lot more meat to these new songs.”
He also promises Chickenfoot will tour this year, hopefully in the fall. Meanwhile, Van Halen are plugging away on their new album, and according to Alter Bridge’s Mark Tremonti, it rocks.
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