Chickenfoot
Keep It Fun

26.08.2011

Take two quarters of Van Halen, a quarter of Red Hot Chili Peppers, add a guitar hero for a harder kick. Shake, but not stir. This is the formula of a spicy cocktail called Chickenfoot. Fans of Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, Chad Smith and Joe Satriani already tasted this explosive mixture in 2009, when the band’s first self-titled album came out, but they didn’t have enough. That is why the team of legendary musicians got back together for cooking the second portion of their fine elixir, which eager fans will be able to get in September this year. We talked to bassist Michael Anthony (ex-Van Halen) about the secrets of cooking “Chickenfoot III” and about the hard rock “kitchen” in general.

Your new single is out today, so are you exсited, do you feel like stepping with your “Big Foot”… on everybody’s ears maybe? Or are you a bit worried?

(laughs) No, we’re not worried about anything! We like this single and we wanted to choose something that… You know, there are other songs we could have chosen from the album, but we thought it was great to have that good rock song that was representative of the band.

Sammy Hagar said that your new album “Chickenfoot III” is called so because you “jumped right past having to make a second record”. But as far as I know initially the title was “Chickenfoot IV”, so does it mean that jumping past not only the second but also the third record was too difficult for you?

I guess that maybe we discovered we jumped too far, so we came back one step. Actually it was more like a joke. I remember everybody would naturally think that the second record would be called “Chickenfoot II” and we were all in the studio and Chad Smith suggested, “Why couldn’t we call it “Chickenfoot IV”? And we said: “Okay, that’s funny”. And then somehow we decided to call it “Chickenfoot III”. There is really no meaning behind it, you know, just a kind of mess around with the fans.

All Chickenfoot songs are written by Joe Satriani and Sammy Hagar. And, as far as I know, during Van Halen era you were almost always credited as one of songwriters, too. Don’t you write songs anymore?

Actually there are some songs on the album that all four of us wrote. Joe or Sammy, basically Joe, would come up with base ideas for songs and then we work together, so it’s basically like we all write the songs. Everybody has their input, everybody is free to put their ideas in, so it is actually a band effort.

As far as I know, you’re going to have a 3D cover artwork this time, and last time you did a heat sensitive cover. Do you think that there should be some special tricks to make your albums more attractive for your fans to buy them?

Oh, no, I think that’s just something that is fun to do. We’re putting much trust in the creators, the people that work on the album cover for us. They came up with this idea of 3D and they proposed it to the band, they asked us what we think about it… And we’re sure it’s great. I really miss the days… I don’t know how old you are, you’re probably much younger, but when I was young I always loved looking at the albums, looking at the pictures… So we just tried to keep it fun and give something that the fans can actually have in their hands and look at, instead of having it all on computer or go on the Internet to see something.

And what about touring with Chickenfoot? Are there any plans and isn’t it a bit of a problem for you to tour? I mean, you’re busy people with a lot of things to do, aren’t you?

(laughs) Well, obviously our drummer Chad has another band that he’s going on tour with, but we definitely want to go out and tour, we have another drummer, his name is Kenny Aronoff, and he’s going to play in the studio with us to see how everything goes there. But we’re very much looking forward to going out on tour and we’re probably going to do a small promotional tour in the USA in November – we did the same thing in 2009 for our first album. And then probably next year we’re planning to go out and do a full tour. When we did our last tour there was a very tight schedule and we didn’t have much time to play in many places, we didn’t have much time to play abroad. And with this tour we’ll try to reach more distant places.

Would you like to get to Russia then?

I’d love to come to Russia! I’ve really been to Russia once when I was connecting on a flight. So we’re definitely looking forward to playing wherever we can. We’re actually gonna allow ourselves enough time for this tour, so we’ll be able to do that.

You said that Kenny Aronoff is going to fill in for Chad Smith. Why he? I mean you were talking about many other candidates like Tommy Lee and others…

There are plenty of drummers that are playing very well, but we wanted to make sure that we all get along, that our personalities all get along. And Kenny is actually a pretty good friend of Chad and though I’ve never met him before I know he’s an easy going guy and I know obviously that he’s a very good drummer. So why not? We’ll try to play together and see what happens…

By the way, Chad once said that Red Hot Chili Peppers is like marriage for him and Chickenfoot is like his mistress…

(laughs) Yeah, I remember that…
 
And what about you? I mean, you’re not a full-time member of any other band, so is Chickenfoot your “marriage”? Or is it still a “mistress” you can run to from your “Mad Anthony” business, for example?

Well, you know, obviously the marriage was when I was in Van Halen, so I got divorced. So I’m a single guy right now and let’s put it like Chickenfoot is my girlfriend. And we’re having a lot of fun right now. (laughs)

Talking about your ex-marriage, on the net you can find some fans’ opinions like that, “That [Chickenfoot] must have been the perfect revenge for Michael Anthony... Getting thrown out of Van Halen in the most disrespectful way after 30 years, and then coming back with a band that's even BETTER!!!” So do you feel like you’re taking your “perfect revenge” now?

No, no I don’t see it like “revenge”. But obviously when my time ended with Van Halen I wasn’t going to sit around and do nothing. I tried to do some other things for a while, tried to do something solo or whatever, and then with Sammy Hagar we had an opportunity to put this band together and it was just real fun to do. We were not thinking that we’re going to put together a “supergroup”. Chad and Joe are just our good friends. And we didn’t even know… we never expected that anything ever comes out of it, but it just happened and now it’s just going and going. Next thing we do we’re in the studio and next thing we do we have an album coming out and we’re going on tour. So I don’t get it like revenge, but I do feel fortunate that I were able to find players that wanted to get together and form a band like this.

But as far as I know you did have some tensions with your ex-mates from Van Halen. So are they all in the past now and do you communicate somehow?

You know, I personally haven’t spoken to any of them since we finished our tour in 2004. They went their way and I went mine.

But they were a big part of your life, don’t you feel something like nostalgia sometimes?

Yeah, you know, I do! And I think that there can be some time some day when we come back together and play some music together too. You never know and I’m not closing the door to that myself at all. But right now I’m just having a great time doing what I’m doing, so…

So no hard feelings, right?

No. For me there’re no hard feelings, for me it was a great… no matter how it all ended it was a great time of my life, you know, and I’ll always remember this being great and I’ll always keep only good memories.

Van Halen are now having Eddie’s son on bass. And what’s your attitude towards musicians’ children also becoming musicians with some help from their parents? I mean, for example, would you like your daughters to become musicians?

You know, actually both of my daughters used to play music at first at school – but that was before they discovered cheerleading and boys. That’s when music kind of stopped. But, you know, they were given an opportunity to choose what they want. But I think it’s great for parents to play music together with their children, like Eddie and his son. And if one of my daughters ever wants to do the same thing I would love to do it also.

Rock stars are supposed to have cool sport cars or something like that. But in your videos we see a totally different car, a tiny and funny thing. Whose car is it and why did it become the “star” of your videos?

Are you talking about that little smart car? That’s Sammy’s wife’s car! (laughs) Sammy brought that. I have sports cars. Did you hear on our last album the song called “Soap On A Rope”? And there’s one part in the video where I’m standing in front of an old Chevy hot rod that I own. I love cars, that’s something I got from Sammy Hagar, he got me interested in cars. I had one car when I first met Sammy Hagar, now I own ten.

And talking about videos, are you planning a video for “Big Foot”?

Yeah! Actually we are. Actually this coming weekend we’ll be in San Francisco shooting a video for this thing.

Will it be another video with you having fun or are you planning a story performed by actors?

Yeah, I think it will be us having fun, I mean we don’t consider ourselves actors, so… (laughs) We only want to do something that’s fun. We don’t want to be serious, actually the song is not a serious song, it’s a fun song. I won’t give anything away what we have for this song, but it’s gonna be a very fun video.

Yeah, by the way, it feels like most of your songs are like fun songs. Is it because you want to have a good time together and don’t want to write about some sad or, let’s say, “bad” things?

Well, actually we have songs like that on the new album. There are a lot deeper songs than there were on the first album. There are a lot more background vocals and we have more like ballads there than on the first record where we had only one.

You still record background vocals as you did in Van Halen, don’t you?

Yes, sure, I do! And actually Sammy and myself decided… Actually the music that was being written for this album just calls for a lot more background vocals than we had on the previous record. And I enjoyed that! It is a signature sound that people can identify with when I was in Van Halen, so Sammy and I actually made this conscious effort to put a lot of background vocals on it so people recognize the sound.

And don’t you think about recording maybe at least one song in your career with you singing lead vocals?

Oh… Me myself you mean?

Yeah!

No-o-o, we have a lead singer in the band and they never like if you do a thing like that! Their ego is too big! I might sing better than him and what will happen, they will kick me out of the band! (laughs) No, I’m just kidding. You know what? Maybe I’d like to do it some day in the future, I don’t know. I don’t see myself a lead singer, but if I had an opportunity to sing lead vocals I probably will.

I think many of your songs are about beautiful women and love affairs, but still you have one and only wife in your life…

One and only, yes. Last February we just celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary.

That’s so great! Congratulations! What’s your secret of such a strong marriage? You know, it’s not really common for rock musicians to have only one woman…

Yeah, I know! (laughs) I keep my home life and my professional life separated pretty much. Obviously I can’t totally keep it separated, because this is what I do and when I come home from tour my wife starts grudging a bit because I’m walking around the house as if I’m still on tour. I don’t know, but I guess that we just get along somehow.

You know, a lot of your fans say that your band is like some fresh air they need so much in this world full of “shitty” music and thanks to you good old rock’n’roll is not dead. Do you agree that there’s not that much good music around? Or is there any so to speak “modern” music you like?

Actually there are good bands around. Obviously I’m into rock music, you know… But there are bands like the one called Alter Bridge, they’re very good. And I’ve listened to the new Foo Fighters album, which I think is also really good. And in the music we’re making we just can’t help it, we play the kind of music that we’re all influenced by, that we grew up with. We all listened to Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Who, so obviously they all influence what comes out when we make our music, and it’s great that people still enjoy that type of rock music.

You know, you always look so happy and active…

Yeah, I am!

And everyone can see that! So how can you remain so cheerful throughout your life?

(laughs) That’s all about my life and career. I want to have fun and be around positive people and obviously if you’re happy with what you do and the people you spend your days with, you feel like your life is great.

Chickenfoot on the Internet: http://www.chickenfoot.us

Special thanks to Maxim Bylkin (Soyuz Music) for arranging this interview

Ksenia Artamonova
August 1, 2011
© HeadBanger.ru