In 1974, Michael Anthony, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth became known as Van Halen. That decision took up the following 30 days of Anthony`s life. However things changed in 2004. What started as a reunion tour with Sammy Hagar that should have interpreted the circle round the world disintegrated after 80 shows on the Union American tour.
When the band once again reunited in 2007 for a turn with David Lee Roth, Anthony discovered via the fight that he was no longer in the band.Anthony had no design of retiring but the following stage of his career would be for the fun and music, not the money or the fame. Chickenfoot had played a few casual gigs at Sammy Hagar`s club in Mexico but this year they took it one step further.The first performance was in Feb 2008 in Las Vegas. Anthony, Joe Satriani and Red Hot Chilli Pepper`s drummer Chad Smith joined Sammy Hagar on level at his gig and played three songs. That night is now documented as the first Chickenfoot performance.In June 2009, Chickenfoot released their debut album.To get out the Chickenfoot story and the truth behind the implosion of Van Halen, I talked to Michael Anthony.Paul Cashmere: When Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani and Chad Smith get together in a lot I promise that a supergroup. What do you call it?Michael Anthony: I only call it four friends that got together to jam and started to produce music together. Most supergroups do one album and go out and get as much money as they can. We are not doing it that way. When we first got together and started to turn and distinct we wanted to do this we didn`t yet take a record company. We were doing it for ourselves. One thing leading to another. When we toured last summer we didn`t go into big arenas. There are no egos here. We make all made money in our respective bands. We played theatre size places and a festival here or there. Mostly we only need to build the band and make the fans respect. Paul Cashmere: Chickenfoot had its origins many days ago in a somewhat different line-up as Planet US.Michael Anthony: Joe was in that set for probably 40 minutes. It was with Neal Schoen and so we decided we wanted to get Joe in. We did a radio program from San Francisco and had Joe come down. But so the whole Van Halen reunion thing started to get together so we had to let it go. Originally it was Chad, Sammy and myself jamming down in Mexico at Sammy`s club. We called ourselves Chickenfoot there for a pair of years. Sammy decided to get a proper guitar player if we were actually leaving to do this matter and Joe was the one to call.Paul Cashmere: The first appearance in Jan 2008 in Vegas. Was that an impromptu jumping on level at a Sammy Hagar gig?Michael Anthony: That`s right. If I wanted to get on stage with Sammy with the Wabaritos we would play Van Halen/Hagar era stuff. We wanted to play something different so he asked Chad and myself to get down so we did a Sammy Hagar and friends. Then he asked Joe to get down so that was the start sentence the quartet of us were on stage.Paul Cashmere: Red Hot Chile Peppers are recording at the moment. How will that effect Chickenfoot?Michael Anthony: It has slowed things down a small bit. We did a lot of filming of all of the shows we did over summer and we are putting together a performance DVD. We take another show we are doing in Las Vegas in December. Then we will look and see what Chad`s schedule will be comparable with the Chili Peppers because Chad doesn`t need to make this up.Paul Cashmere: You personally must give a lot more freedom in this band. Does that think you make having a lot more fun as well?Michael Anthony: I have a big time with the talented musicians I get to work with. Joe and Chad, my tongue is on the floor sometimes when we get in the studio and jam. We are all good buddies. Its like how Van Halen used to be in the former days. It reminds me of why I started doing this in the foremost place. Yes, there are no restrictions on anybody.Paul Cashmere:What is the motivation for Chickenfoot?Michael Anthony: The motive is simply having a bed of medicine and performing music with your friends. Having had fame and success and having made money means we don`t get to seem to do that right now. We don`t intend to cause a lot of money and bring big venues. We play smaller venues to make the value of the fans. Paul Cashmere: Running parallel to Chickenfoot is Dave Grohl`s Them Crooked Vultures. What do you remember of their individual ingredients?Michael Anthony: They are all great musicians. Oh man, John Paul Jones, he was my hero growing up. I can`t expect to see their shows. I bet David Grohl is having a large time getting back behind the drums.Paul Cashmere: Who are the bass players who admire?Michael Anthony: I grew up with all the old rockers - John Entwistle, Jack Bruce. I hear to the old blues guys like Jamie Jamieson and when I first started out I was listening to Harvey Brooks who played in a ring called The Electric Flag. All the old rock bass players from all the old rock bands, I listened to them all.Paul Cashmere: Is Paul McCartney under-rated as a bass player? Michael Anthony: I remember so. When you go backwards and mind to an album like `Abbey Road` and a strain like `She`s So Heavy`, some of the bass-lines that he did back then, that was late 60s. Paul McCartney plays guitar great and he is a great keyboard player but when I mind to his bass playing he played some great stuff. He truly was an under-rated bass player.Paul Cashmere: What is your kinship with Eddie Van Halen these days?Michael Anthony: There is no relationship. They chose their own way and their own way to go.Eddie had it in for me ever since I buddied up with Sammy Hagar again which I couldn`t understand because Sammy had asked me sometime back if I would care to do and guest on some shows. This was when Van Halen was passing through a point where Eddie was dealing with some of his own demons. He had the cancer thing he was dealing with and his marriage. As far as I was concerned, I was passing out there waving the Van Halen flag to say, "we didn`t go away, we are still here". Unfortunately, he didn`t see it that way. He never liked me hanging out with Sammy and I can`t see why because Van Halen was my band. They didn`t see it that way so they chose to not let me participate.Paul Cashmere: How was that broken to you?Michael Anthony: Actually, we finished out reunion tour in 2004 and I probably knew that aught was passing to find after that, also because of the forcible and mental state that Eddie was in at that time. That tour did not end very harmoniously I think you could stay. I`m not going to place any fingers but it simply didn`t. It was unfortunate that we had to pull the plug after only 80 shows. We should have gone about the world 5 times. Back in 2007 when they announced their reunion tour with David Lee Roth, I launch out about it like all the other fans did. I saw it in the squeeze and launch out like everyone else did. That didn`t hurt me as often as when they relaunched their site and took my image off a pair of the album covers. That upset me that they would go so far as to try and erase me out of the story of the band. Paul Cashmere: What about being replaced by a teenager?Michael Anthony: That is his son. He is a teenager but he is a nice bass player. I mean that was also division of the ground to do it, to injure me. Paul Cashmere: And it was bizarre that at the Stone and Roll Hall of Fame, the only two members of Van Halen who turned up were you and Sammy Hagar.Michael Anthony: I know. A pair of weeks before the Stone and Roll Hall of Fame I would take thinking that as shortly as Dave knew we were being inducted he would have been camping out at the Waldof ready to go out there. I spoke with Dave`s manager and said we should put things away and be friends for only one evening. When you see at bands like Metallica, they had everybody come back on stage. Unfortunately Dave, from what I heard after talking to Slash, Dave wanted to do certain things that would buy the record and when he couldn`t take it his way he didn`t need to read up. For any reason, Eddie and Alex didn`t show up. It sucked. We were the two people who weren`t even in the band anymore but there was no way I was passing to overlook that. That was better than a Grammy to be inducted into the Stone and Roll Hall of Fame. I think sitting at the board while REM were playing and I turned to Sammy and said, "This would have been great. We would have kicked this matter right in the arse". Nobody would have ever forgotten this induction ceremony if all of us were getting on and went up there. Paul Cashmere: The legendary history of the removal of the brown M&Ms, true or false? Michael Anthony: Ha-ha. True. The understanding we came up with that was because back in the day we would read some really ridiculous things that entertainers would put in their contracts, their riders. I recollect reading about somebody who wouldn`t even go on stage unless it was a certain temperature. It was so absurd that we thought lets get up with something so silly and see if the promoters are actually paying attention to our backstage rider. The just thing I felt bad about was once going to a present and beholding a small daughter who was running with the caterer back thither with this big roll of M&Ms and she`s picking out the brown ones knowing that if she forgot and left one in there it would likely cost her her job. We got more mileage and squeeze out of that. I couldn`t think it.Paul Cashmere: What was a Spinal Tap moment in Van Halen?Michael Anthony: We would play Masonic temples in the Midwest in the late 70s. You love that scene were they are below in Cleveland and they are stressful to guide them to the present? We did that a pair of times where we could not get the present but we could see the crowd upstairs but we couldn't see the stage.Paul Cashmere: I think you are rather a car collector?Michael Anthony: I`ve got a few, yeah. It was all inspired by me meeting Sammy Hagar much to my wife`s dismay. My wife is not too excited about it. The minute I start talking about cars she walks out of the room. She has herself a Mercedes and the way she puts it, she says "I give my one nice car and that's all I need".Paul Cashmere: What is your favorite car?Michael Anthony: I make only restored a 1957 Chevy Nomad wagon. If you go on my website madanthonycafecomI have the car on my website. It was before I redid the car. I am just about to remodel a lot of material on my site with my cars. I didn`t believe it was something anyone would be concerned in but I think a lot of masses are concerned in my cars so I`m getting set to reconstruct the website. I know all of my cars. Its what I wish to do when I`m not playing music.Paul Cashmere: There are a lot of celebrity car collectors, Jay Leno, Brian Johnson .Michael Anthony: Yeah, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck is a big car guy, Metallica. Its cool. It has caught on. I think a pair of days ago running into Joey Cramer and Tommy Hamilton from Aerosmith. We were staying at the same hotel in Michigan and got together to make a cocktail at the bar and we just sat there talking about our cars. I go to a lot of car shows with my cars and a lot of fans are car fans.Paul Cashmere: What is next for Chickenfoot?Michael Anthony: I`d care to come down there. We aren`t ready to enter another album. I reckon we should go out and turn some shows. As shortly as we get out what is happening with Chad`s schedule I`d care to fall downward to Australia at the start of the year. We will put together a DVD and do stuff on the website. Its not wish the spell has ruined and we are leaving to stop. The "Luxurious Version" of Chickenfoot`s debut album is released by earMusic.The Luxurious Version of the eponymous album includes a bonus DVD disc that includes exclusive behind-the-scenes and live footage, plus promo videos for the singles `Oh Yeah`, `Soap on a Circle` and `Sexy Little Thing`. Visit the official site - www.chickenfoot.us
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