GW In what way?
HAGAR It feels like it did in the beginning. It’s exciting. Everybody’s bringing something to the table. I mean, we’ve all got chops, we can all hold our own in our own arenas, and we’re just trying to do things at the highest level possible. I’m digging deeper than I ever have. That’s the way it was in Van Halen when I joined. I decided I wasn’t going to get criticized for being the second singer in the band—I was going to be the only singer in the band.
ANTHONY That’s a good way of summing it up. I remember when Sammy joined Van Halen, there were a handful of songs sitting around kind of unfinished, and Sammy came in and knocked ’em down, lyrics and melodies, and we used everything he had. It’s the same way in this band. Sammy’s really digging down hard. I know I am—and then you add Joe and Chad and they’re just unbelievable.
GW Joe, have you changed your playing style to play in this band?
SATRIANI It wasn’t so much adapting to the other guys; it was more a matter of being excited and bringing things in. Take a song like “Sexy Little Thing”—I could never do that on my own. But with Chickenfoot, I could bring them a song like that and I could add Chuck Berry or Keith Richards stuff. I could put more into my playing in that way.
GW It’s interesting you say “more.” I imagine you’re able to do less in this band. It’s not all about you and your guitar; your guitar doesn’t have to do all the heavy lifting. You can lay back and play rhythm if you want.
SATRIANI I could agree with that first, but then something else happens. When you’re doing an instrumental song and your guitar does the “heavy lifting,” as you say, it becomes a lot about what you don’t do, what you leave out, what things you have to focus on. But for this kind of music, you have to play with the tone quality of everybody else, what they’re doing melodically and rhythmically. It’s not liberating because you’re making it simple; it’s liberating because you have so many other choices available to you. I’m able to do so much in this band.
GW [to Satriani] I want to see how much you can embarrass Michael Anthony…
HAGAR Oh, I’ll take care of that! [everybody laughs]
ANTHONY Oh, no…
GW No, no, it’s not what you think. Here’s the thing: Michael is never mentioned in the same breath of the world’s greatest bass players. Yet he’s played with two of the greatest guitar players in the world. What is it about him that guitar players like? What makes him the go-to guy?
ANTHONY Joe was just stuck with me when the band formed. He didn’t have a choice! [laughs]
SATRIANI Well, he’s fucking great. That’s about it. I mean, I have so many memories in the studio where we were doing mixes, and I would push up the faders on Michael’s tracks, and I’d just listen and go, “God, that’s so cool. Listen to that.”
HAGAR The reason why Mike doesn’t get the kind of credit he deserves is that he’s played with Eddie Van Halen. A bass player is never going to get the kind of respect he deserves next to Eddie Van Halen. Hell, Jack Bruce didn’t get much credit compared to Eric Clapton. That’s just the nature of things.
GW Sammy, do you think your lyric writing has changed in this band?
HAGAR Absolutely. I’m tuned into things in a way I never have been. I find myself looking around at the world and going, “I can write a song about this, I can write a song about that.” The passion and excitement I feel about being in this band, it stirs up my senses. I’m not an educated guy; I don’t know about poetry and all that stuff. But I do know how to write about real-life experiences, and this album is full of them.
Take the song “My Kind of Girl”: I have a 12-year-old daughter and a seven-year-old daughter, and half their friends have single moms. I got inspired thinking about that, so I called Joe and told him I wanted to write a song about single moms. It’s a tough gig, man, being a single mom. I take my hat off to ’em.
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