Joe Satriani was recently announced as the guitarist for the Best of All Worlds tour in summer 2024, which will see Satriani, Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, and Jason Bonham tackle – along with material from the Hagar/Anthony/Satriani supergroup Chickenfoot, and the former two's modern-day project, The Circle – a wealth of Van Halen material.

Now, in a new forthcoming interview with Guitar World, Satriani says that the biggest challenge he’s facing is the mental battle involved when it comes to doing his “best impression of the greatest guitar player of all time.”

“I have to get over arguing with myself that it doesn't sound right,” says the virtuoso. “I'll have to go through some mental therapy and be okay with sounding a bit different.”

As Hagar explained in the quartet's recent appearance on the Howard Stern Show, Satriani was chosen precisely because he wasn’t a complete Van Halen sound-alike, but the guitarist is still keen to do the material justice. 

“I spent decades sitting way back in the pocket because I was playing melodies,” says Satriani. “To get melodies to work, you've got to sit back and let the band get things established to where the groove and rhythm guitars push.

“But suddenly, I've got to play these parts that Eddie wrote, where he was functioning differently. He was pushing with this incredible architecture of chord work, like in a song like 5150, where Sammy gets to sit back as he's doing the melody. 

“So, the most awkward thing was suddenly not doing the melody and stepping in first on top of the beat. Eddie did that, but he never sounded like he was rushing.”

In the same interview, Satriani compares the experience to the challenge of taking on Ritchie Blackmore’s parts on tour with Deep Purple in the early-’90s – and acknowledges that it’s a tricky balance to strike.

“This is a mental thing for me,” reiterates Satch. “And that’s something I experienced when I played with Deep Purple; I went through the mental torture of playing Smoke on the Water and having my guitar not sound like Ritchie Blackmore's.

“This thing in my head kept going, ‘It’s not right. It should be a Strat into a Marshall.’ It affected how I played, even though I tried to sort myself out, saying, ‘It doesn't matter; it's the notes and the phrasing,’ but, as a fan, I wanted to hear the right sound… That's the case here, where I want to honor the sound, but I don't want to lose myself in somebody else's sound.”

The guitar icon has time to work out the foibles ahead of the summer 2024 tour dates. 

However, he drew criticism from some Van Halen fans following a performance of EVH’s “impossible to play” Mean Street intro on the Howard Stern Show – the result of seemingly rushed preparations for the group’s appearance. 

For his part, Satriani acknowledged the error, saying, it “hurt like a thorn in my side… But I’ll get over it.”

For more on the virtuoso’s packed calendar, including his collaboration and co-headline tour with Steve Vai, and the new G3 Reunion tour, keep an eye out for our full interview with Joe Satriani, due later this week.

While The Circle have been together for several years now, the band - a supergroup of sorts consisting of singer Sammy Hagar, bassist Michael Anthony, drummer Jason Bonham and guitarist Vic Johnson - have spent most of that time gigging in front of crowds with a setlist consisting largely of classics from the numerous legendary projects they’re associated with, from Van Halen and Montrose to Led Zeppelin and Hagar’s solo years.

“In the beginning it was more about getting together and playing all of the music that we’ve done in our individual careers,” Anthony says. “But,” he continues, “after playing together for a certain amount of time, there’s bound to be some ideas that start coming out.”

Indeed, those ideas did eventually start flowing and, as can be heard on Space Between, the Circle’s debut studio record of original material, there were a lot of ‘em. The new effort runs the gamut from heavy riff rockers (Free Man, Trust Fund Baby) and lighter-waving anthems (Wide Open Space) to hopped-up blues boogies (Full Circle Jam [Chump Change]) and bouncy garage-rock romps (Bottom Line).

And while Space Between is constructed as a concept album - with money, and specifically individuals’ and society’s motivations in pursuit of it, at its core - the songs, true to the band’s onstage roots, have an energetic, almost live-sounding quality to them.

“We’ve been playing together for so long now that when we got into the studio we just said, ‘Let’s see what kind of magic we can come up with,’ ” Johnson says.

Interestingly, Johnson adds that the experience of writing and recording together also served to benefit the band when they got back out onstage. “I feel like we have an even better connection to each other. And it’s been great to add some of these new tunes into the setlists along with all the classics.”

Which is saying something, given the caliber of the material he normally plays onstage with The Circle.

“It’s a trip because I’m doing Montrose stuff and Van Halen stuff and Sammy solo music and Led Zeppelin and even a Chickenfoot song or two sometimes,” Johnson says. “I get to play all these great guitar parts from all these legendary players.”

As for whether he ever finds that intimidating? Johnson laughs. “Well, luckily all the guys in my band can play really good, too. So that definitely makes it easier.”

● GUITARS 1997 Gibson Les Paul Elegant, 1999 Gibson Les Paul Custom, Fender Custom Shop ‘59 Reissue Telecaster and ‘59 Reissue Stratocaster, Martin D-41, Taylor 814ce (Johnson); Schecter Michael Anthony Signature bass (Anthony)
● AMP David Bray Vic Johnson signature 4550, Marshall 100-watt, Matchless, Fender Custom Shop ‘59 Bassman (Johnson); Ampeg B-50R Rocket (Anthony)
● EFFECTS DigiTech Whammy, DigiTech Whammy Ricochet, RMC Real McCoy Teese Wah, Dunlop 535Q Cry Baby Multi-Wah, Xotic RC Booster (Johnson)

Earlier this week, Sammy Hagar teamed up with former Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir to host the fifth annual Acoustic-4-a-Cure concert at the Fillmore in San Francisco. During the show, Hagar was joined by his bandmates in Chickenfoot—Joe Satriani, former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith—for an all-star cover of Otis Redding's "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay" that also featured Taj Mahal and REO Speedwagon's Kevin Cronin.

This pro-shot video of the cover opens with an on-stage cameo from Guy Fieri, him of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives fame, presenting Mahal (who turns 76 today) with a birthday cake. The all-star group—with Hagar and Mahal sharing lead vocals, Satriani on acoustic guitar, Weir on electric and Anthony on electric bass—then proceeds to jam on the Otis Redding classic. You can watch the performance above.

"I was a fan of Taj Mahal long before I had a record deal in Montrose 1973," Hagar said of Mahal in a statement. "He's become a dear friend over the years and without a doubt, is one of the few living blues legends left on this planet!"

For more on Chickenfoot, follow along on Facebook.

Earlier this year, Sammy Hagar—while mostly casting doubt over the potential of a Van Halen reunion—kept the door open for one, saying he would be open to it if it included original bassist Michael Anthony and, oddly enough, original and current frontman David Lee Roth.

Hagar proposed that him and Roth would trade off songs, while all the proceeds from the tour would be given to charity.

Now though, Hagar has poured a bit of cold water on that idea, calling the idea of a reunion with the Van Halen brothers a "dead horse."

Speaking to Newsday, Hagar said "The last thing I want to do is have one of us, that are still alive and able to do something, die and then go, 'I wish we would have got together one more time.' The Van Halen thing, I think, is a dead horse."

"Honestly, I'm so busy and occupied with everything else in my life that it's not on my front burner where every day I'm checking my e-mail.

"It's not on my bucket list."

The bulk of this story is from the Guitar World archives, from our "100 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time" series. Enjoy!

“Highway Star” is but one highlight of Machine Head, Deep Purple’s greatest triumph.

Ironically, it almost never came to be. In early 1972, shortly after retreating to Montreaux, Switzerland, to record, the British band was beset by a wealth of problems. "First, the place they were staying, which overlooked Lake Geneva, burned down—inspiring them to write “Smoke on the Water.”

Then, in response to a complaint about excessive noise, the police kicked the band out of the ballroom where they were recording. “We were stuck in Switzerland with nowhere to go, and a friend of ours who was the mayor of the town said that there was an empty hotel we could use,” recalls guitarist Ritchie Blackmore.

“We gladly accepted and retreated to this lonely hotel in the mountains. We set up all the equipment in the corridor, with the drums and some amps tucked into alcoves. “We had the Rolling Stones’ mobile recording unit sitting outside in the snow, but to get there we had to run cable through two doors in the corridor into a room, through a bathroom and into another room, from which it went across a bed and out the veranda window, then ran along the balcony for about 100 feet and came back in through another bedroom window.

"It then went through that room’s bathroom and into another corridor, then all the way down a marble staircase to the foyer reception area of the hotel, out the front door, across the courtyard and up the steps into the back of the mobile unit. I think that setup led to capturing some spontaneity, because once we got to the truck for a playback, even if we didn’t think it was a perfect take, we’d go, ‘Yeah, that’s good enough.’

Because we just couldn’t stand going back again.” But while the vibe may have been loose, Blackmore’s solo on ‘Highway Star’ was well planned. “I wrote that out note for note about a week before we recorded it,” says the guitarist.

“And that is one of the only times I have ever done that. I wanted it to sound like someone driving in a fast car, for it to be one of those songs you would listen to while speeding. And I wanted a very definite Bach sound, which is why I wrote it out—and why I played those very rigid arpeggios across that very familiar Bach progression—Dm, Gm, Cmaj, Amaj. I believe that I was the first person to do that so obviously on the guitar, and I believe that that’s why it stood out and why people have enjoyed it so much.

“[Keyboardist] Jon Lord worked his part out to mine. Initially, I was going to play my solo over the chords he had planned out. But I couldn’t get off on them, so I made up my own chords and we left the spot for him to write a melody. The keyboard solo is quite a bit more difficult than mine because of all those 16th notes.

• "Over the years, I’ve always played that solo note for note—again, one of the few where I’ve done that—but it just got faster and faster onstage because we would drink more and more whiskey. Jon would have to play his already difficult part faster and faster and he would get very annoyed about it.”

Deep Purple (with Ritchie Blackmore) perform "Highway Star" in 1972:

Generation Axe play "Highway Star" in 2016:

Steve Vai, Glenn Hughes and Chad Smith play "Highway Star" in 2012:

Chickenfoot (with Joe Satriani) perform "Highway Star":

Street musician Damian Salazar plays "Highway Star":

Deep Purple (with Steve Morse) perform "Highway Star" in 2011:

Dream Theater perform "Highway Star":

Deep Purple, "Highway Star" isolated guitar track (studio version):

It’s been more than a year since Sammy Hagar sent Eddie Van Halen a birthday greeting via Twitter, signaling a thawing in their frosty relationship and leading fans to wonder if a Van Hagar reunion could be possible.

But Hagar, who recently reunited with his group Chickenfoot, tells Billboard he sees little chance of that happening.

“Let’s put it like this,” he says in a new interview with the magazine. “When it came to my birthday, I didn’t get a message, so obviously that camp, him and Al [drummer Alex Van Halen], still have some kind of trip against me.

“I’m certainly not looking to get back in that band when I’ve got Chickenfoot sitting in my lap, and I’m scared to grab the reigns of that one. Van Halen would be twice the nightmare of the workload and the anxieties about getting along or being worried about being stabbed in the back again or something. I don’t want to put myself in that situation, that’s for sure.”

In other words, don’t expect that reunion to happen anytime soon.

But wait, Sam says—there is one potential opening here. Hagar says he could be persuaded if Van Halen would go back on the road with him and current singer David Lee Roth as well as founding bassist Michael Anthony, with the two singers trading off songs.

“That’s really the only way I would be interested in a Van Halen reunion,” Hagar says, though it’s doubtful Ed would be willing to leave his son, and current bassist, Wolfgang out of the picture.

Hagar is even proposing to do just such a tour and donate the proceeds to charity.

“Everybody’s saying, ‘Well, what would it take?’” he says. “For me, no money, man. I don’t need money. I would do that for the fans and give the money to food banks or something. I’m not sure anybody else would agree with me, but that would interest me enough to sit down across the table from everybody and work that one out.”

Hagar and Anthony’s last outing with the Van Halen brothers was for a 2004 U.S. summer tour. Reportedly, Anthony agreed to a pay cut and signed away his rights to the band name and logo in order to perform.

For now, both Hagar and Anthony are busy with Chickenfoot, the group they formed with Joe Satriani and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. The band just released Best + Live, a collection that includes their new song, “Divine Termination.” The song, streaming below, is the band’s first new material in five years.

As we reported last week, Chickenfoot—a supergroup featuring Joe Satriani, Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony and Chad Smith—are releasing Best + Live, a new best-of collection, on March 10.

The album happens to feature “Divine Termination,” their first new studio track in five years.

Last night, they premiered the official music video for the song, and you can watch it below. Below that, you'll find the complete track list for the album.

For more about Chickenfoot and Best + Live, visit chickenfoot.us.

Best + Live Track Listing
CD1: Best Of
1. Divine Termination
2. Soap on a Rope
3. Sexy Little Thing
4. Oh Yeah
5. Get It Up
6. Future in the Past
7. Big Foot
8. Different Devil
9. Lighten Up
10. Dubai Blues
11. Something Going Wrong
Bonus Live Tracks:
12. Highway Star
13. Bad Motor Scooter
14. My Generation

CD2: Live
1. Avenida Revolution
2. Sexy Little Thing
3. Soap on a Rope
4. My Kinda Girl
5. Down the Drain
6. Bitten By the Wolf
7. Oh Yeah
8. Learning to Fall
9. Get It Up
10. Turnin' Left
11. Future in the Past

Chickenfoot have released their first new track in five years.

Titled “Divine Termination,” it will be included on the group’s first-ever best-of collection, Best + Live, out on March 10.

The band, which features singer/guitarist Sammy Hagar, guitarist Joe Satriani, bassist Michael Anthony and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, was formed in 2008. Its most recent released was Chickenfoot III, the band’s second album, issued in 2011.

Best + Live will feature 11 selections from Chickenfoot’s two studio albums and 90 minutes of unreleased live music.

“Listening to this collection of songs from the ’Foot brings back memories of some of the most fun I’ve ever had in a band,” Hagar says. “The chemistry between Chad, Joe, Mike and me is very special. It’s almost like visual music—you can see us having fun when you listen to these songs.”

Best + Live Track Listing
CD1: Best Of
1. Divine Termination
2. Soap on a Rope
3. Sexy Little Thing
4. Oh Yeah
5. Get It Up
6. Future in the Past
7. Big Foot
8. Different Devil
9. Lighten Up
10. Dubai Blues
11. Something Going Wrong
Bonus Live Tracks:
12. Highway Star
13. Bad Motor Scooter
14. My Generation

CD2: Live
1. Avenida Revolution
2. Sexy Little Thing
3. Soap on a Rope
4. My Kinda Girl
5. Down the Drain
6. Bitten By the Wolf
7. Oh Yeah
8. Learning to Fall
9. Get It Up
10. Turnin' Left
11. Future in the Past

There's only one way to celebrate 40 years of rock, and that's with your friends.

Sammy Hagar's new album, Sammy Hagar & Friends, is a collection of songs that pay tribute to the Red Rocker's musical success.

With contributions from Joe Satriani, Neal Schon, Nancy Wilson and Michael Anthony (among others), Hagar not only looks back on his solo career, but also his time with Montrose, Van Halen and current bands the Waboritas and Chickenfoot. The new album also gives fans a taste of what the future might hold for Hagar.

I recently spoke with Hagar about the new album and got his thoughts on Van Halen, Chickenfoot and some of his best memories from four decades in rock.

GUITAR WORLD: What sparked this new album project?

John Carter [Hagar's manager who died in 2011] had a dream of getting me to do a "four decades of rock" record and tour. The idea was to do something from the Montrose, early Sammy, Van Halen and Geffen years and write a new song from each of those eras. Write a Montrose-type song, a "cars" song from the Red Rocker era, a Van Halen/Chickenfoot-esque-type song and a lifestyle song.

I remember being on vacation in Tahiti and I kept hearing all of this music that sounded like a cross between pagan, zydeco, French and island. It was really rhythmical and passionate. It inspired me, and I wound up writing "Father Sun." When I came back, I kept writing lifestyle-themed songs and wrote "All We need Is An Island."

Then I called up Jay Buchanan from Rival Sons. He's from my hometown of Fontana, California, and is also a Montrose freak. I asked him to write me a song about growing up in Fontana, and he contributed "Not Going Down." Next thing I know, Ronnie Dunn calls me up and says, "Hey, I've got this car song ['Bad On Fords and Chevrolets'] that's going to blow your mind!" The whole process of making this album was so easy. All of my friends just started calling me up wanting to get together to jam and record. I'll never make a record another way.

Let's discuss a few more tracks from the album: "Personal Jesus."

Martin Gore was the guy who wrote the song and came up with that big, bad-ass blues riff. It's such a mean riff that John Lee Hooker could have written it. But if you've got a song that has god or Jesus in it, then you'd better take it to church. So I got a few gospel singers to sing on it with me. It's kind of brave and a bit risky, but I just love it.

"Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man."

I love this version because it really pays homage to [Bob] Seger. I'm kind of like a West Coast version of him. He's a white, American soul singer and that's kind of what I am. I could relate to the music and lyrics of the song and thought it was perfect.

"All We Need is an Island."

Not only is Nancy Wilson a great guitar player, but she also has one of the most beautiful, soft girly voices. She surprised me more than anyone else on this record. She not only made it a duet, she made it a love song.

Are you making plans to tour?

I definitely want to go out next year with the Four Decades of Rock. I'll take Denny Carmassi and David Lauser on drums, Michael Anthony and Mona Gnader on bass and get an opening act with a guitar player who can play the Montrose and Van Halen stuff with me. My plan is to put together a road show/review and then sprinkle it with some of the new material.

Do you still enjoy performing the Van Halen material?

We sold 40 million with all No. 1's, and I feel very comfortable doing those songs. The music that came from that era will always be in my repertoire, and even more so today because they can't play that material. And it's not because they hate it; although I'm sure Dave [Lee Roth] probably does [laughs], but they won't play it because they can't.

So it's my obligation to go out and play those songs. Fans deserve to be able to hear "When It's Love," "Best of Both Worlds," "Poundcake," "Right Now," "Finish What You Started" and "Dreams." I have about 40 minutes of Van Halen material in my set right now that I get to play with Mikey. And when really you think about it, there's half of the band right there [laughs].

When you first joined Van Halen and made 5150, did you see yourself as Dave's replacement, or was the plan going in to reinvent the band?

My state of mind at the time was purely a, "Let's see what we can do together and act like we're a brand-new band." In fact, that first tour we only did a few old songs (two of theirs and two of mine). We were definitely trying to re-invent the band; and not even trying, we just did it. We went in with the idea of "Forget about who I am, forget about who you are, forget about the other guy. Let's just see what kind of songs we can come up with."

And back then, we were so fucking prolific that if we hadn't been so anxious to take it out on the road right away [like all musicians who like to play live do], we could easily have written a double album.

What was your impression of A Different Kind Of Truth [Van Halen's 2012 reunion album with David Lee Roth]?

Do you really want me to comment on it?

Off the record.

No, if I'm going to talk about it, then it's on the record. My honest opinion is if i were a Van Halen fan, I would be so disappointed that after all of these years, that's what they give: outtakes from the first record. I think that for as great a musician as Eddie Van Halen is, he would have written all new material. The last really "new" material came from the Best of Both Worlds CD where I wrote three new songs ("Learning to See," "It's About Time" and "Up For Breakfast"), but I remember it was like pulling teeth just getting those songs written. So maybe there's not a lot of creativity going on over there, but I would think that for waiting all those years for a reunion and a new album, they could have done better.

Can you give us an update on Chickenfoot?

Joe [Satriani] and I have been working on some lyrics and musical ideas and are talking about getting together in January. Maybe not necessarily to make a new record, but writing, jamming and recording. I love this band. So much that if someone told me that I could only have one band and that's it — it would be Chickenfoot.

It just wouldn't be right if I didn't ask you about your songwriting process. What's the origin of "There's Only One Way To Rock"?

Man, I'm so easily inspired, you have no idea. I see a chick on the back of a motorcycle riding across the Golden Gate Bridge and I write my first song ever ["Bad Motor Scooter"]. For "There's Only One Way To Rock," I remember there was a rock station up in the Bay area that used to call themselves "The Rock of the Bay." They were the biggest radio station in San Francisco but wouldn't play my music because they said it was too heavy. I remember being so pissed that I went down in my basement, cranked up my Les Paul through a Marshall and just started jamming that riff and screaming those lyrics. It was really that simple.

Looking back over the course of your four decades in rock, are there any moments that stand out as most memorable?

I really feel that I'm at a very productive time of my life right now, both musically and with my businesses. I also don't feel there's any turmoil in my music. There's no arguments or disagreements as to which direction to go and I don't feel like I'm trying to struggle to be something. But as far as electrifying moments go, one would have to be the beginning of Van Halen and the 5150 album going to No. 1. That first tour was so successful. All the energy of a new band with new blood. We went out and had so much fun. I don't think anyone could have that much fun again. We were one of the biggest bands in the world and it felt like it. That was pretty special.

For more about Sammy Hagar, visit his official website and Facebook page.

Photo: Randee St. Nicholas

James Wood is a writer, musician and self-proclaimed metalhead who maintains his own website, GoJimmyGo.net. His articles and interviews are written on a variety of topics with passion and humor. You can follow him on Twitter @JimEWood.

Here's a Guitar World video from the 2013 Winter NAMM Show, which took place January 24 to 27 in Anaheim, California.

During the gear- and rain-filled weekend, we paid a visit to the gang at the Ibanez booth to check out some new guitars. This video profiles the company's new Joe Satriani signature model, the JS2410.

For more about this guitar, head to ibanez.co.jp.

Thanks for following along with our continuous NAMM 2013 coverage on Twitter during the NAMM Show! Even though the NAMM Show is over, be sure to follow Guitar World on Twitter right here.

For more GuitarWorld.com NAMM 2013 gear news, visit and bookmark our dedicated NAMM 2013 page here.

[[ Guitar World at NAMM 2013: Gear updates, photo galleries, videos and more! ]]

Metallica, Iron Maiden, Chickenfoot, Steve Vai and other artists will appear on Re-Machined: A Tribute to Machine Head, a Deep Purple tribute album scheduled to be released by Eagle Records on September 25.

The album, which features cover versions of every track on Deep Purple's classic 1972 album, also will feature appearances by Carlos Santana, Joe Bonamassa, Black Label Society, The Flaming Lips and two groups featuring Steve Vai, Chad Smith, Joe Elliott, Steve Stevens, Duff McKagan and former Deep Purple member Glenn Hughes.

Machine Head, one of hard rock’s most celebrated albums, features eight now-classic tracks, including “Smoke on the Water,” “Highway Star” and “Space Truckin’.” The tribute album features two versions of “Smoke on the Water” and “Highway Star.”

“We were asked if we’d contribute to the anniversary of Machine Head -- we can’t turn that down,” Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich told Loudwire.com in a recent interview. “We’re circling the Dio and Purple catalogs and hopefully we’ll come up with something that is worthy of these wonderful men.” Metallica covered "When a Blind Man Cries" on the Deep Purple tribute album.

News of the album’s release comes soon after the death of former Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord, who died July 16.

Re-Machined: A Tribute to Machine Head Track Listing:

• 01. Smoke on the Water – Carlos Santana
• 02. Highway Star – Chickenfoot
• 03. Maybe I’m a Leo – Glenn Hughes, Chad Smith, Luis Maldonado
• 04. Pictures of Home – Black Label Society
• 05. Never Before – Kings of Chaos (Joe Elliott, Steve Stevens, Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum, Arlan Schierbaum)
• 06. Smoke on the Water – The Flaming Lips
• 07. Lazy – Jimmy Barnes, Joe Bonamassa
• 08. Space Truckin’ – Iron Maiden
• 09. When A Blind Man Cries – Metallica
• 10. Highway Star – Glenn Hughes, Steve Vai, Chad Smith, Lachlan Doley

Steve Vai is back on the cover of Guitar World! Check out the September 2012 issue of GW, in which he discusses his upcoming album, The Story of Light. It's available now at the Guitar World Online Store.

Chickenfoot are gearing up for their upcoming "Different Devil" tour and want to give fans an inside look at what it's like when they're prepping for a tour.

The band recently posted a very funny tour announcement video from inside their rehearsal studio, dubbed The Foot Locker. (I know this is all in fun, but someone please tell me that's actually what they call it.)

You can watch the four-minute clip below, and get all the dates under the video.

Chickenfoot 2012 Tour Dates

• May 09 The Fillmore Aud. (Denver, CO)
• May 11 The Brick (Minneapolis, MN)
• May 12 Chicago Theater (Chicago, IL)
• May 14 The Fillmore (Detroit, MI)
• May 16 Orpheum Theater (Boston, MA)
• May 18 House of Blues (Atlantic City, NJ)
• May 19 Mohegan Sun (Uncasville, CT)
• May 21 Beacon Theater (New York, NY)
• May 23 Fox Theater (St. Louis, MO)
• May 25 Winstar Casino (Thackerville, OK)
• May 27 Rocklahoma (Pryor, OK)
• May 29 Verizon Wireless Center (Houston, TX)
• May 31 Anselmo Valencia Amphetheater (Tucson, AZ)
• Jun 01 The Joint (Las Vegas, NV)
• Jun 03 Schnitzer Hall (Portland, OR)
• Jun 05 Queen Elizabeth Theater (Vancouver, BC)
• Jun 06 WaMu Theater (Seattle, WA)
• Jun 09 Santa Barbara Bowl (Santa Barbara, CA)
• Jun 10 Greek Theater (Los Angeles, CA)

This past Friday, the remaining members of Montrose — along with some very special guests — took the stage at The Regency Ballroom in San Francisco, California, to pay tribute to and celebrate the life of the late guitarist Ronnie Montrose, who committed suicide last month at age 64.

Handling guitar duties for the evening was Sammy Hagar's Chickenfoot bandmate, Joe Satriani, and you can check out footage of Satch performing "Bad Motor Scooter" with Hagar, Denny Carmassi and Bill Church below.

"One of my top priorities this year was a Montrose reunion," Hagar said in a press release earlier this month. "Ronnie and I planned to do it in Cabo in October. I am so sad it won't happen, but on April 27, Joe Satriani, Denny Carmassi, Bill Church and I are going to play the hell out of some Montrose!"

Joe Satriani will release Satchurated: Live in Montreal on April 24 via Epic Records. The concert film and soundtrack will be available on CD, DVD and Blu-ray.

Satchurated was filmed live during Satriani’s The Wormhole Tour, in support of his album Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards, at the Metropolis in Montreal, Canada.

The December 12, 2010, show was filmed by Pierre and Francois Lamoureux. It was filmed with 10 cameras and was recorded in 2D and 3D HD formats. The film was released for a limited run on March 1 and again on March 8.

SATURATED: LIVE IN MONTREAL

• DISC 1:
• 1. Ice 9
• 2. Hordes Of Locusts
• 3. Flying In A Blue Dream
• 4. Light Years Away
• 5. Memories
• 6. War
• 7. Premonition
• 8. Satch Boogie
• 9. Revelation
• 10. Pyrrhic Victoria
• 11. Crystal Planet
• 12. The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing
• 13. Dream Song

DISC 2:
1. God Is Crying
2. Andalusia
3. Solitude
4. Littleworth Lane
5. Why
6. Wind In The Trees
7. Always With Me, Always With You
8. Big Bad Moon
9. Crowd Chant
10. Summer Song

BONUS TRACKS:
11. Two Sides To Every Story
12. The Golden Room

We usually don't do much reporting on European tours, but when three of our favorite guitarists hit the road for the return of the G3 tour, we can't help but let everyone know.

Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Steve Morse will embark on a run of dates across Europe this July/August, including stops in Budapest, Hamburg and Moscow, with more dates to be announced soon.

Keep your eyes here for more tour dates and all the latest info on tickets and VIP packages.

Satch and Vai also will be kicking off a "Down Under" version of G3 with Steve Lukather in the coming days, hitting cities in Australia and New Zealand.

Joe Satriani's new 3D concert film, Satchurated, debuted in select theaters around the country last week, and you can now check out the performance footage of "Satch Boogie." Watch below.

To celebrate the theatrical release of Satchurated — Joe Satriani's new 3D concert film playing in select theaters on March 8 — we are giving away the incredible opportunity for an in-person, one-hour guitar lesson with Joe, plus and two tickets to an upcoming concert.

Click here for all the info.

"Can't Slow Down," a song from Joe Satriani's Flying In A Blue Dream album, might turn 23 years old this year -- but it's never been a more accurate description of its creator.

The guitarist's new 3D film, Satchurated, makes its theatrical debut today -- the same day he happens to be appearing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno with Chickenfoot.

[[ Find out how to win a private, one-hour guitar lesson with Joe Satriani! ]]

Later this month, Satriani will take the G3 show on the road in Australia with Steve Lukather and longtime cohort Steve Vai. As if that weren't enough, Chickenfoot are hitting the road in May for their Different Devil Tour of North America.

And then there's the new Marshall Joe Satriani Signature Series JVM amp, which will be unveiled later this month. We recently spoke to Satriani -- in great detail -- about the new amp.

GUITAR WORLD: When will we get to see your new JVM signature series amps?

The signature amp will be unveiled at Musikmesse in Frankfurt this month after a long and really fruitful R&D period. I took it out on tour with the Wormhole Tour. I had the very first one when we did the overdubs for the Black Swans album. I had it for the Chickenfoot III album and the touring we’ve been doing. I’ve put all the prototypes to really great use. I’ve made a 3D film (Satchurated), two albums, a bunch of tours and TV. I tried to put it through all its paces.

Does it differ significantly from the off-the-rack JVM410?

Yes, quite a bit. The obvious things are that there is no reverb. We have replaced the reverb with four individual noise gates that can be programmed for each of the channels. This is something I thought was important for doing TV and studio work where you need to have certain setups. You need it to be quiet, but you need to have it come in roaring with gain stages up high for certain parts. There are so many great reverb pedals. Like the little Wet Reverb Pedal (Neunaber Technology). I really love that one. You don’t want to be carrying around spring reverbs in your head.

We re-biased the presence and resonance controls to be much more effective for how guitarists like to hear their sounds. I think a lot of those controls were set decades ago and sort of got grandfathered in and people weren’t thinking about them. Some amplifier companies took a really good look at them, like Peavey and Two-Rock, and so my time with Peavey educated me that you can tailor them to how guitar players want to hear them.

The next thing to me was looking at the overall sound of the amp. It is a four-channel amp with three modes per channel. The first thing was to look at that clean channel and to make that very first mode of the clean channel and make it like the original Marshall 6100. For me, that was one of the greatest clean Marshall tones that would accept a pedal distortion. You get that up to club or concert level and it sounds almost as good as having your favorite tube amp running at its perfect level.

All of us know that if do a lot of gigs, you can never count on getting your amp up to that perfect, peculating level for every gig. You always have to reset your volume for the venue you are in. Sometimes the tubes can have you scratching your head because they react differently at different volumes. Distortion pedals are just fantastic for not only rehearsing quietly but also for all those moments when you are going to play in highly compressed environments like radio, television or recording against compressed loops.

I started many years ago using the Boss DS-1 and then graduated the to Satchurator and putting that right into that clean channel, and that sounds great. I’ve done many tours with that setup. Then we took the next two channels that were part of the JVM sound in channel 1 and made them a little more subtle. So when you go from green to amber to red, the gain grows and you get into those other colors. I wanted just that first one to just dip its toes into that world of gain. Then when you go from amber to red again, I wanted just a little bit more.

I’ve found in practical applications very often that’s what you are looking to do. You just want to go to one or one and a half numbers more gainy as you step through. Channel 1 gets you from super clean to just a tiny bit dirty to a little bit dirty. We’ve adjusted the volume of those to make sense during those real playing situations where you are going from rhythm to the same sound with a little more sting for some solo or melody playing. That’s a radical change there.

When we get into channel 2, it really is -- in my mind -- where we get into the vintage area of the amp where you are looking to emulate the JMP, the 800 and a modified 800 from the '80s. Those three modes are really fantastic for that. I used a lot of that on Chickenfoot III and in about a third of my live show I’m using that channel. I want it to be cleaner. I still need the sustain. I want that attitude and that crunch. It’s great for rhythm playing and solo playing. I do a lot of neck-pickup solo playing when using the red mode of that second channel.

[[ Find out how to win a private, one-hour guitar lesson with Joe Satriani! ]]

I should introduce a very important part of the modification of this amp in general to all of the gain channels. This had to do with my impressions of doing a full-on Chickenfoot tour with the stock JVM210 and the JVM410. At quiet volume, it was very appealing.

It had high-end emphasis and had a lot compression that made you feel good when you were playing quietly. But up really loud, sometimes I thought [Chickenfoot drummer] Chad Smith could dominate this amp just by his dynamic playing. I thought I couldn’t just keep turning it up. When I was sitting down with Santiago Alverez, the head engineer for Marshall, I told him that everything about the layout of the JVM410 is really intelligent and intuitive to have these four channels and three modes.

The one thing I really wanted to not have was all that compression. I don’t really spend all that much time huddled in the corner of the room playing quietly. I’m actually in front of thousands of people all the time. I need this thing to stand up to Chad Smith, Jeff Campitelli and all the drummers I play with. We figured out that we needed to remove all that compression.

Every time you move another number into the world of gain, the amp is going to naturally compress. The sound wave gets smaller and rounder. I wanted it to be natural and nice and open when I wasn’t hitting the strings hard. Then when I was really digging into the strings, I was ready to accept that that beautiful round sound you get when the tubes are cringing at the aggressiveness of the player.

That was the biggest thing we did. In my mind, it was like taking the blanket off. We allowed those strong dynamic moments to not just be pointy treble ones. We focused a lot on OD1, which is to me the biggest, most forceful overdrive channel I’ve ever heard in an amp. But it has all those hallmarks of that Marshall sound. It gives you everything, and you'd better have your parts together. Marshall amps make you hear everything about what you are doing. They don’t smooth anything over, but that’s what we love about them.

We carried those changes over to OD1 and OD2. Here’s where the other big change is between the stock JVM and the signature. In the stock one, OD1 and OD2 are quite different. All three modes have a bit more mid-range. For obvious reasons, OD1 was the most popular channel from the stock amp. Then OD2 was scooped a bit in kind of a nod to the nu-metal sound. I had no use for that at all.

What I really wanted to do was to work it out so if I had the perfect sound at 95db I could go up just a couple decibels and maybe have just a little more mid-range. So what I did was ask Santiago to just make OD2 a carbon copy of OD1. That sounds sort of strange and weird. Generally when they are making amps, they want every channel to be different to throw in as much as possible. We were able to accomplish two things. By having those two channels identical, it affords the player the ability to have the same setup at so many different volumes.

Also I was thinking that I didn’t want to throw away that slightly scooped sound. There are people out there that like having a little less mid-range. Maybe they have another guitar player in the band, maybe their guitar has a little more mid-range, or maybe they are trying to fit in with keyboards. We decided to make the channels identical with a scoop switch that emulates the original JVM410 had on OD2. But now it is programmable. You can use that switch on both channels.

This has been really helpful to me because I can have the same sound at different volume levels. I know from years of playing in clubs that is what you want. Sometimes you just need to go to 11!

Do you find yourself using that scoop much or was that a feature that you put in there for other players?

That’s a very interesting question. What I noticed in the short time I’ve been in Chickenfoot, we wound up doing a tour and a live DVD with basically that scoop sound. I was using OD2 for that entire tour. When we went out on this new tour and made the new record, I used the amp in an entirely different way. It was already modified. It was a thicker, heavier, more aggressive tone, and the clean sounds were more full and natural sounding. But I realized that some songs can benefit from having that little scoop.

On this last road-test tour, I started to utilize that feature. I’m starting to use the first production run with the blue vinyl in my home studio. It’s not a feature I’m going to ignore. It looks like I’m dipping into it now and then.

You have a G3 tour in Australia with Steve Vai and Steve Lukather coming up. Will you be in the States for the theatrical release of your film Satchurated?

It’s going to play in San Francisco on March 1. I will actually be in Los Angeles with Chickenfoot doing Jay Leno's show. It has started this week. It’s going to be in a little more than 500 theaters. I’m new to the movie industry. It just sort of unfolds. Every 24 hours we see a whole new list of theaters. I wouldn’t go anyway. I’d be so embarrassed to see myself in a movie theater. I barely survived seeing myself in For Your Consideration and Moneyball even for the few moments I was in those.For to find out where Satchurated is playing, visit satchurated.com. To keep track of Satriani's many tours, visit satriani.com.

For all the positive reviews of Van Halen's new album, A Different Kind of Truth, there has always remained a steady drone of a naysayers claiming that the band is just not the same without bassist Michael Anthony.

While Anthony himself has remained mostly quiet on the issue, his longtime bandmate Sammy Hagar has been quite outspoken in his defense.

In a new interview with Goldmine magazine, Hagar was asked about the difference in singing with Anthony in Van Halen and Chickenfoot, and Sammy used the opportunity to once again sing the bassist's praises.

"Singing with him, he’s the only guy that I know that could just go above [me]," he said. "I don’t care if I’m at the peak of my range; he can get up above me, just squeeze his nuts and get on up there – and right on key, he can mimic my phrasing."

he continued, "He’s just … he’s so fast. That’s the thing that people don’t understand about Mike. He learns faster than anyone I’ve ever met in my life. Joe Satriani, Eddie Van Halen … guys come up with riffs, and come on, I can’t fucking play them. I’m sitting here with an acoustic guitar around the house still trying to learn these riffs on this record, and I ain’t got ‘em down yet … And he’s playing his ass off in this band. He never played like this in Van Halen. Eddie [Van Halen] doesn’t even realize what a great bass player he had. I think he never realized it, and that is his complete loss. I remember recording in Van Halen, Eddie was always saying, “Just play eighth notes.” And he would play all this stuff, and Mike’s just going, 'boom, boom, boom, boom.' Boy, Mike’s really capable of playing more than that, and he never found out."

You can read the rest of the interview here.

Chickenfoot -- Joe Satriani, Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony and fill-in drummer Kenny Aronoff -- have announced a 20-date North American tour that kicks off in May.

The Different Devil Tour, which is named after the band's current single, starts May 4 in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and ends June 10 in Los Angeles. Chickenfoot are touring with Black Stone Cherry.

Official Chickenfoot drummer Chad Smith is still touring with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, so Aronoff will continue to fill in.

Chickenfoot on tour 2012:

• 5/4-5 — Lake Tahoe, NV
• 5/9 — Denver, CO
• 5/11 — Minneapolis, MN
• 5/12 — Chicago, IL
• 5/14 — Detroit, MI
• 5/16 — Boston, MA
• 5/18 — Atlantic City, N.J.
• 5/19 — Uncasville, CT
• 5/21 – New York, N.Y.
• 5/23 — St. Louis, MO
• 5/25 — Thackerville, OK
• 5/27 — Pryor, OK
• 5/29 — Houston, TX
• 5/31 — Tucson, AZ
• 6/1 — Las Vegas, NV
• 6/3 — Portland, OR
• 6/5 — Vancouver, B.C.
• 6/6 — Seattle, WA
• 6/10 — Los Angeles, CA

While at the 2012 Winter NAMM show, TheToneKing.com scored an exclusive interview with Joe Satriani. I got a chance to talk to him about his new Marshall Signature Series Amp.

His new amp is the result of a joint designing venture between Joe and Marshall’s lead engineer, Santiago Alvarez.

Based on the circuit and layout of the JVM410, this amp sports four channels and three modes per channel.

Modifying the amp to be punchier and more dynamic, the Satriani Signature Series includes a noise gate on each channel and a simplified FX loop.

Joe has already put his new Marshall amp through its paces on tour with Chickenfoot, recording his latest solo album, Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards, and for his performance in Satchurated, his upcoming 3D 7:1 concert film hitting theaters this month.

Stay tuned! More gear from NAMM 2012 is on the way.

The Tone King

The Tone King has interviewed countless artists and manufacturers, receiving various awards and recognitions for his coverage of NAMM. He has also produced hundreds of videos showcasing the latest gear from manufacturers big and small. Having garnered millions of followers through his YouTube page, he has expanded his web presence through his website, TheToneKing.com, which includes lessons, articles and tips and tricks about all things gear. See more here: TheToneKing.com.

Sammy Hagar is not a man afraid of sharing his opinions.

Speaking to Radio Metal recently, the Red Rocker got his chance to share his thoughts on the new Van Halen record, and sound off about whether VH or Chickenfoot are the reigning four-piece rock band of today.

"What I've heard so far, I wasn't impressed with at all, personally," said Hagar of his former band's new stuff. "I think in Chickenfoot, we've raised the bar a little bit on what a four-piece rock band can do, and I think they chose to take the easy route and take some of their old stuff and and re-record it instead of writing new songs. Who is Van Halen today? I don't know, I don't think the fans are going to be happy with it. I couldn't care less if it's the biggest album of the year; that wouldn't be important to me. What is important to me is that, as artists, why would you do that? They haven't released an album since my last album in something like 1991 or '92, and then they just go back. To me, it makes a strange statement, it kind of says, 'We don't have anything, we're not a band anymore, we're not creative.' Isn't it a strange statement to you?"

Hagar once more criticized the band for writing songs based on old demos from the '70s, as opposed to writing all new songs. When asked if he think the band were out of inspiration, he replied: "I think there's zero inspiration and zero creativity. If there was any, they would write new songs. What does the band do? When Chickenfoot got together for our first album, we were four new guys and we got together and wrote ten, twelve songs and made an album."

And of course, Hagar couldn't resist comparing his old gig with his new one, adding: "If you take Joe versus Eddie, you take Dave versus me, Wolfie versus Mikey, Chad or Kenny versus Al… I mean, come on! You know what I mean? Man for man, who can sing the best? Dave or I, today? Who can play the best? Joe or Eddie, today? Who could play or sing the best? Wolfie or Mikey? I think it’s a joke."

Van Halen's new album, A Different Kind of Truth, is out February 7, 2011.

If you thought Chickenfoot III was just some clever joke from Sammy, Satch and crew, think again. According to a new episode of Behind the Foot, there was indeed a Chickenfoot II, but the 'Foot's sophomore album was not to be.

The guys finally come clean and explain why Chickenfoot II never saw the light of the day in the video below. Watch to find out what Sasquatch had to do with the album getting scrapped.

Chickenfoot vocalist Sammy Hagar recently sat down with Rolling Stone to discuss, among other things, his old band, Van Halen, signing with Interscope Records for a new album. A few excerpts follow.

On Van Halen signing with Interscope: "I thought they signed to Sony. Hmmm . . . Interesting. I'll be the first guy waiting in line at the record store, if I could find one anymore. I'll be really curious. I think they owe the fans that. I would love to see them make a great record. They have some of the most loyal fans in rock, and they've been treated so, so bad these last 20 years. I'm a real fan friendly guy."

On Michael Anthony's departure from the band: "It didn't bother me when they threw me out. I'm a solo artist. I can start a new band. But Mike? He's the most loyal guy, and the best bass player in the world – and the best background singer on the planet. His vocal sound is as much a part of Van Halen as anyone's. When they threw him out, I just thought "WHY? This is so wrong. This is so damned wrong!" Then to go back to Dave, FINALLY – but they threw Mike out first. Once again, it's not a fan friendly band. Eddie could have played a solo album with Wolfie. He could have produced it and gone on tour and played theaters with him. He could have done so many different things. He did not have to make Wolfie the bass player in Van Halen."

On Van Halen making use of old demos for new songs: "I'd be curious to be a fly on that wall. I heard this record is old outtakes from the old days. I mean, stuff from before I even joined the band. I heard this five years ago though. Michael Anthony was curious if his background vocals would wind up on the album. I don't think it's a bad idea. It's kind of interesting. Bob Seger did it, and so did the Rolling Stones."

You can read the full interview here.

Last night, Chickenfoot took the stage on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to perform two tracks from their new album, Chickenfoot III. You can check out video of the band playing "Three and a Half Letters" and "Big Foot" below.

Chickenfoot III -- the band's deceivingly titled sophomore album -- moved over 42,000 copies in its first week on sale, landing it at No. 9 on the Billboard 200 charts.

With the current incarnation of Guns N' Roses on tour and the pending Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nod, there has been a lot of -- well, more than usual -- speculation about the original lineup of GNR getting back together, at least for a performance at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Among those who wish the band would get back together is none other than Sammy Hagar, who even threw his name in the ring to manage the band.

Speaking to Bryan Reesman of Attention Deficit Delirium, the Red Rocker said: "They’ve proved it again and again and again that it ain’t [about] the money. They just don’t get along because Axl goes out for a lot less money with his version of Guns N’ Roses, and Slash goes out for a lot less money with Velvet Revolver or by himself. The amount of money they could make if they got it all back together, made a great record and toured the world would probably be as much as The Rolling Stones [get], and for them not to do it, it obviously ain’t about the money. Because they could do it. I would manage them. I’d be their manager and make sure they got the right deal from all the promoters. They could be the biggest band in the world if they wanted to."

You can read the full interview here.

Here's to wishful thinking, Mr. Hagar.

Fresh off a Top 10 debut for their album, Chickenfoot III, Chickenfoot have just premiered a new music video for their song "Three And A Half Letters (I Need A Job)." You can check out the video premiere over at ARTISTdirect, or watch the video below.

Chickenfoot III, the band's misleadingly-titled sophomore album, sold over 42,000 copies in its first week on sale, leading to a debut at the No. 9 spot on the Billboard 200 Chart.

There's been a lot of positive news for guitar music this fall in the charts, and it's safe to say that September was one of the stronger months for six-string-heavy releases in recent memory.

Two releases that closed out the month with September 27 releases were Chickenfoot's Chickenfoot III and Mastodon's The Hunter, both of which cracked the Billboard Top 10 this week.

Chickenfoot III moved somewhere in the neighborhood of 42,000 copies to land at the No. 9 spot, while The Hunter sold just over 39,000 copies, landing one space behind Chickenfoot at No. 10 on the charts.

It's proving to be a big day for music premiers today -- Warbringer, Sebastian Bach, Megadeth, Loutallica, Animals As Leaders.

You can now add Chickenfoot to that list, as they're now streaming their new album, Chickenfoot III, online at this location.

The band's sophomore album will be released officially tomorrow, September 27, via eOne Music.

You can check out the video for the album's first single, "Big Foot," here.

Every other day leading up to the release of Chickenfoot's new album, Chickenfoot III, the band are rolling out a series of podcasts featuring band members talking about each song on the new album, along with clips from the songs.

You can check out the second episode, featuring the song "Alright Alright," below. In case you missed episode one, you can find it here.

As previously reported, the band will also be webcasting an exclusive concert and Q&A session on their website on Septmber 27. You can submit questions now at this location.

Every other day leading up to the release of Chickenfoot's new album, Chickenfoot III, the band are rolling out a series of podcasts featuring band members talking about each song on the new album, along with clips from the songs.

You can check out the first episode, featuring the song "The Last Temptation," below.

As previously reported, the band will also be webcasting an exclusive concert and Q&A session on their website on Septmber 27. You can submit questions now at this location.

Chickenfoot will release their sophomore album, Chickenfoot III, on September 27 through eOne Music, and are inviting fans to take part in a very special webcast that same day.

At 9 p.m. EST on September 27, the band will perform a set of new songs from TRI Studios in Marin County, California, which will be followed by a special Q&A session with fans. The webcast will be streamed on the band's official website, where you can also submit questions for the Q&A.

"These are exciting times," said Chickenfoot lead singer Sammy Hagar. "When a band can have the technology to allow them to perform in a state-of-the-art setting and take that performance out around the world is amazing! I’m up for that!"

You can pre-order Chickenfoot III at iTunes now.

Chickenfoot have just released the new music video for their track "Big Foot." You can check out the video below.

"Big Foot" is the first single to be taken from the band's upcoming sophomore album, titled Chickenfoot III, which is due out on September 27.

"We took a giant step on this record," Hagar recently said of the record. "It still sounds like Chickenfoot, 'cause it's the same guys, but I think the experience that we had together on tour and the success of the last record really opened us up to who and what we are."

The single is currently available on iTunes.

Chickenfoot drummer Chad Smith has issued an important video message regarding his replacement in the band as he prepares to tour behind the latest Red Hot Chili Peppers album. You can check out the video below.

Red Hot Chili Peppers will release their latest album -- and first to feature guitarist Josh Klinghoffer -- on August 30, while Chickenfoot will release their sophomore album on September 27.

Smith will hand over drum duties to Kenny Aronoff during Chickenfoot's upcoming tour dates.

Chickenfoot are now streaming their new single, titled "Big Foot," online. You can hear the track in its entirety below.

"Big Foot" is now available via iTunes. The track is the first single taken from the band's upcoming album, Chickenfoot III, which will be released on September 27 through eOne Music.

"We took a giant step on this record," Hagar recently told Artisan News. "It still sounds like Chickenfoot, 'cause it's the same guys, but I think the experience that we had together on tour and the success of the last record really opened us up to who and what we are."

Chickenfoot have announced that the lead single off their forthcoming album, Chickenfoot III, titled "Big Foot," will appear in the finale episode of Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1 (formerly Aqua Teen Hunger Force). The episode will air on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim line-up at 11:45 tonight, July 24.

"Big Foot" is set to be released on August 2.

Chickenfoot III is set for release on September 27.

"I am very proud of the new album," said Chickenfoot lead singer Sammy Hagar. "We're calling the album Chickenfoot III because it's so good, the songs are so tight, it's like we jumped right past having to make a second record. We’ve established a real trust, Joe and I; we truly bring out the best in one another, and that spreads to the whole band."

Chickenfoot III track listing

• 'Last Temptation'
• 'Alright, Alright'
• 'Different Devil'
• 'Up Next'
• 'Lighten Up'
• 'Come Closer'
• 'Three and a Half Letters'
• 'Big Foot'
• 'Dubai Blues'
• 'Something Going Wrong'

A second teaser for the new album from Chickenfoot, Chickenfoot III, has been released online. You can listen to the teaser below.

Chickenfoot III will be released in late September via eOne Music in North America.

According to lead singer Sammy Hagar, the Chickenfoot III album cover and first video will be in 3D.

"We took a giant step on this record," Hagar recently told Artisan News. "It still sounds like Chickenfoot, 'cause it's the same guys, but I think the experience that we had together on tour and the success of the last record really opened us up to who and what we are."

You can listen to the first teaser here.

A teaser for the new album from Chickenfoot, now officially titled Chickenfoot III (It was previously thought the album would be titled Chickenfoot IV), has been released online. You can listen to the teaser below.

Chickenfoot III will be released in late September via eOne Music in North America.

According to lead singer Sammy Hagar, the Chickenfoot III album cover and first video will be in 3D.

"We took a giant step on this record," Hagar recently told Artisan News. "It still sounds like Chickenfoot, 'cause it's the same guys, but I think the experience that we had together on tour and the success of the last record really opened us up to who and what we are."

As previously reported, the first single from Chickenfoot III will be titled "Bigfoot," and will hit radio sometime this month.

Chickenfoot have named the song "Bigfoot" as the first single from their upcoming sophomore album. The single is expected to hit airwaves sometime later this month.

The second album from Chickenfoot, Chickenfoot III, also has finally been given a release date and will hit shelves on Sept. 27.

Bassist Michael Anthony describes Chickenfoot III as "a lot heavier than the first record."

According to vocalist Sammy Hagar, the album cover and first video will be in 3D.

Chickenfoot -- the supergroup composed of Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony and Chad Smith -- are hard at work on the follow-up to their self-titled debut album, and guitarist Joe Satriani assures us there will be no sophomore slump for the band.

“Chickenfoot’s second album is almost finished," says Satriani, "and we’re hoping to mix sometime in June. It is heavier and better than the first one, and I can’t wait to get it out there!”

Some track names that have been revealed so far are: "No Change," "Who's Next," "Astral Years" and "I Ain't Got You, I Got The Two By Blues."

The album, which will be called Chickenfoot IV, is set for release later this year, but no official date has been confirmed.

This fall, Kyuss -- featuring original members John Garcia, Nick Oliveri and Brant Bjork, plus new guitarist Bruno Fevery -- will unleash their desert-rock fury on the United States for the first time in more than 15 years. The return of the California rockers follows the band's sold-out spring European tour.

The band will play Kyuss Lives! shows on both coasts: Sept. 23 at Terminal 5 in New York and Oct. 8 at The Fox Theater in Pomona, California. The Sword will open both shows. Additional Kyuss Lives! tour dates are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

Click here to see the official Kyuss Lives! European tour trailer.

Chickenfoot's Michael Anthony tells Guitar World why he plays bass, his first gig and his most embarrassing moment on stage.

What first inspired you to play bass?

It was by default that I started playing bass. Everybody that I knew wanted to be Robert Plant or Jimmy Page. Nobody wanted to play bass, because then you’re [former Rolling Stones bassist] Bill Wyman—you stand in the background while everybody else gets the chicks. So the first band I played in, I borrowed a friend’s guitar, took the top two strings off and played it like a bass. And then I grew to like how the bass vibrated me.

What was your first bass?

My father bought it for me at a local flea market. It was a Japanese bass called a Victoria, and I had a little Gibson amp. I immediately blew that up. As I kept playing, I saved money for my first Fender Precision bass. I sold the Victoria bass to a buddy at school, and around 10 years ago, I ran into his brother. He had the bass and gave it back to me. It was still in the original case, with the curly cord and the pitch pipe.

What was the first song you learned?

“Little Black Egg” by the Nightcrawlers [a mid-Sixties garage rock band; the song was a minor hit in parts of the U.S.].

What do you recall about your first gig?

My amp wasn’t loud enough. I had this Standel amp with two 10-inch speakers. I’d turn it up to the point of farty distortion just to keep up with the guitar player.

Ever had an embarrassing onstage moment?

• In 1978, Van Halen were playing in North Carolina, opening for Boston. I did this little bass solo thing where I’d play a little bit, then jump up and hit the fuzz. This particular time, nothing happened. There’s nothing worse than having to do a tap dance in front of 60,000 people. That was pretty embarrassing. My tech wasn’t too pleased with me after the gig. Unfortunately, I couldn’t
• afford anybody else!

What’s your favorite instrument or piece of gear?

That’s a tough one. I have an old Gibson EB1 violin bass. One of my favorite players, Felix Pappalardi of Mountain, played one. I don’t take it on the road a lot, but I play it at home and in the studio.

Do you have any advice for young players?

Do it for the love of it. Don’t do it for the fortune and fame, because it never works out.

On November 1, 2009, Chickenfoot, the rock supergroup comprised of guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ drummer Chad Smith, and Van Halen front man Sammy Hagar and bassist Michael Anthony, will release a Deluxe Limited Edition of their eponymous debut album, recently certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America with over 500,000 in album shipments. The album will be exclusively released through Best Buy and is available for pre-sale now at bestbuy.com/chickenfoot.

Chickenfoot’s Deluxe Limited Edition will feature a reverse design from that which was featured on their self-titled debut. The original black album artwork was printed with heat sensitive ink and the new design will feature a white background printed with flourescent ink. In addition, the package will include one bonus track, ”Bitten by the Wolf,” and a bonus DVD containing an hour of behind the scenes footage of the band, music videos, interviews and concert footage from their European and U.S. tours. It will be available initially for a sale price of $9.99, exclusively through Best Buy.

Chickenfoot just completed a 30-city cross-country U.S. tour in support of their debut album. The band made their first ever TV performing appearance during the first week of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien on Friday, June 5. The self-titled debut is a hard rock album that sets the standard for rock music. “The album is an 11-song slab of raging rock,” says writer Joe Bosso of Guitar World magazine. Chickenfoot is produced by Andy Johns (Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones) and mixed by Mike Fraser (AC/DC, Metallica). The band’s first single, “Oh Yeah,” has been embraced by radio. It has proven to be a true multi-format smash, topping both the mainstream and classic rock charts at #1, as well as charting in active rock.

For more information about Chickenfoot, the upcoming self-titled debut album Chickenfoot and tour dates, please visit chickenfoot.us. Fans can also stay connected with Chickenfoot by becoming a fan of the band on Facebook or following their Twitter updates at twitter.com/chickenfootjoe.

Originally published in Guitar World, June 2009

They hardly seem like birds of a feather. But when Joe Satriani, Sammy
Hagar, Michael Anthony and Chad Smith get together, the result is
Chickenfoot, rock and roll's most unlikely—but most talked
about—supergroup.

I'm riding shotgun with Sammy Hagar as he varooms his brand-new, custom-built Ferrari—one of the 15 he owns—through the suburban streets of Marin County, California. Images of passersby, UPS drivers and even a cop or two whiz by in a mind-bending blur. We’re going 140 mph at least—it’s hard to tell when your head is about to explode.

“You’re loving the hell out of this, aren’t you, Joe-Joe?” Hagar yells, cackling with laughter like a kid in a water park.

Even though Hagar has primed me well with a generous, super big-gulp of his premium Cabo Wabo Tequila, the ride is too much for my stomach, and the singer—who can’t drive under 100, much less 55—is oblivious to the fact that my face has turned green.

“I don’t know how to tell you this, Sammy,” I say, trying to control my chattering teeth, “but I’m fucking scared to death!”

This only makes Hagar laugh harder. He brings the car to a screeching halt (thank God for seatbelts or we both would’ve been through the windshield) and looks at me with a mixture of amusement and pity. “Yeah, I get that a lot. That’s the problem with these babies. Nobody will ride with me.”

Hagar loves playmates of all kinds, and recently he’s found a willing bunch of the musical variety in shred virtuoso Joe Satriani; good friend, and one-time Van Halen bandmate, bassist Michael Anthony; and drummer Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The four have formed an unlikely alliance in an outfit called Chickenfoot. Yes, you read that correctly: Chickenfoot. It’s a dopey name for a group that is anything but.

“I am so goddamn excited about this band,” Hagar says as we make our way back to his three-story office/compound/recording studio/car lot. “When I think about the fact that I could probably retire or be in this group, brother, that’s a no-brainer. Only an idiot would pack it in when he can play with motherfuckers this bad!”

Inside, the “motherfuckers” Hagar refers to are sitting in a conference room. There’s Joe Satriani, dressed in his customary black, listening to final mixes of the Chickenfoot album that are, even at the time of this interview, being sent to him on his MacBook (he’s also receiving hourly updates from his lawyer on his ongoing lawsuit against Coldplay, on this, the day after the English band won numerous pieces of Grammy hardware for what he calls “my song.”) He’s the “studious, serious” member of this enterprise, the world-famous guitar god who has finally, at long last, stumbled upon a group of like-minded players who wanted to play vocal-oriented hard rock in a day and age when the art form is being seriously questioned.

Then there’s Michael Anthony, the gregarious good buddy to all. Unceremoniously dumped from the latest Van Halen reunion, he’s now smiling ear-to-ear, happy as a bucket of clams to be in what he describes as “the best damned band around right now. No joke. We’re not fucking around here.”

And there’s the oddball of the bunch, Chad Smith, heretofore thought of as a “funk/alternative” drummer, who’s champing at the bit to “play in a big-time rock and roll band, where the rock is right up front and there’s no second-guessing what we’re all about.”

Of all the members, Joe Satriani has waited the longest to be part of a group like Chickenfoot, and in his opinion, “the hoping, wishing and the dreaming were all worth it. I could have jumped into any number of bands over the years—I’ve definitely had offers—but nothing really felt right. Everything seemed like a career move, not a way of life, or an artistic expression. And the thing with Chickenfoot”—he still stumbles on the name occasionally—“is it never felt like a calculated career move; everything about it was very organic. I think that’s why the record turned out so good.”

The members admit they’re no young pups (Hagar is 61, Anthony is 54, Satch, 52, and Smith is the baby at 47), but according to Hagar, “We’ve already got the money, and we have enough fame. This band is about being part of something again. Something great. Maybe even something better than we’ve ever been in. Otherwise, I’d retire—I don’t have anything to prove to anybody anymore. But hey, if I can knock somebody’s dick in the dirt with this record, then goddamn, I’m gonna enjoy every minute of it.”

Clearly, enthusiasm is no problem in the land of Chickenfoot. At the time of this writing, the band is negotiating a record deal and lining up dates for the summer. Produced by Andy Johns (whose long list of credits includes Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart—not to mention Van Halen and Satch), the finished album is an 11-song slab of raging rock. From no-bones good-time rockers like “Sexy Little Thing” to “My King of Girl” (both clear-cut singles) to heavier, darker tunes like “Avenida Revolution” and “Learning to Fall,“ the songs stomp and snort and do all the things that great rock songs should do.

And there are surprises galore: a banjo intro here (courtesy of Satch), a snatch of Hagar beat-poetry there, not to mention the constant head-turning fluidity of the Anthony-Smith rhythm section. What’s also interesting is that Satriani, who has, over the years, established a personality on the guitar that is instantly recognizable, doesn’t quite sound like himself. He sounds like another guitarist entirely, one still blessed with ungodly chops, but not the same Joe Satriani we’ve come to know since 1986. His playing is grittier, dirtier, less “fussed over” and, in effect, more soulful than ever. When I mention this to him, he grins an inscrutable grin. “You really think so?” he says. “That’s great. I think I’m too close to it to tell.

“Beyond that, the greatest compliment anybody can give us is that we sound like a band,” he says. “A ‘project’ is the last thing we had in mind; in fact, it’s the biggest thing we hoped to avoid. We’re a band that’s excited to be together, and if that translates onto the tracks, then we’ve succeeded. I can’t wait to do it again.”

GUITAR WORLD Last I spoke to you guys, you were adamant that Chickenfoot was not going to be the name of the band. What happened there? [All eyes go to Satriani.]

SAMMY HAGAR Joe, you want to answer that?

JOE SATRIANI [reddens, chuckles] Why me?

HAGAR ’Cause you were the most opposed to it.

SATRIANI Well, yeah, but…

MICHAEL ANTHONY All right, I’ll tell you what happened. During the time it was first announced that we were forming a band, the news got so big and everybody started talking about us, and the name just took on a life of its own. It sort of got to the point where it was like, “Okay, everybody assumes we’re called Chickenfoot. Why change it?”

HAGAR It’s true—the name got out there. I was telling this one guy about the band, and I said we were maybe going to call it the Nine—that was a name we had for about three minutes—and he just goes, “Oh, you mean Chickenfoot.” [laughs] So that’s just it: before we could think of anything else, we were Chickenfoot. And I’ll tell you, the more I see it in print, the more I think it’s right.

SATRIANI I didn’t like it at first, that’s true. But during the past year, we actually became Chickenfoot. My resistance to the name has gradually gone away, and I’ve accepted it. The music is there, which is what matters most.

HAGAR Dude, the music is so there. It’s dirty, it’s greasy, it’s swampy, it grooves. It’s as tripped out as a fucking chicken foot! [laughs]

GW Since you were announced, you guys have been branded a “supergroup.” What are your thoughts on this? Do you feel as though there’s too much expectation put on you?

HAGAR “Supergroup”? Hey, I don’t know. We were just trying to make a kick-ass record and be a great band. I love being a part of this. [points to Satriani]

CHAD SMITH When I think of the word “supergroup,” I think of those bands that were kind of artificially put together, where guys auditioned and record company guys got involved and all that. We came together very naturally. Everything was fun, it felt good, there was nothing preconceived about it.

GW Before you guys officially said, “Okay, we’re a band,” were there any discussions about what you wanted to avoid—problems you had faced in other bands that you didn’t want to repeat?

SATRIANI We had no time. We were too busy writing and making the record.

ANTHONY The thing is, we’ve all played together in various ways: Chad came down to Cabo and jammed with me and Sammy; Sammy and I had a thing going for a while with Neal Schon and [drummer] Deen Castronovo; then Joe came down and was possibly going to be a part of that…

HAGAR But we never sat down and said, “Hey, we’re gonna be like this, or we’re not gonna be like that.” Joe came with his riffs, Mikey started playing over them, Chad went loose and laid down the groove, and I started scatting—and that’s how it all went down. Song by song, we did it just like that.

GW So there were no discussions beforehand, like, “Well, let’s make sure this guy isn’t crazy, like so-and-so from my last band”? [laughs all around]

SMITH I don’t think so. Of course, now that I think of it, you’d have to be crazy to be in this band. Nothing about it makes any sense.

HAGAR Joe won’t hang around with me on tour, I guarantee you that. I’m waaaay too crazy for him. When I start bringing naked pigs into my hotel room, brother, he’ll be long gone! [laughs]

SMITH But in all seriousness, I don’t think we had those kinds of talks. We’ve all been in bands with, you know, drama and drugs and stuff like that—all except Joe. But we knew going into this that we were four guys who just wanted to play music. The great thing is, there’s a terrific democracy in this band. Everybody’s involved, everybody contributes equally. It’s not like Sammy’s up there and we’re his backing band.

HAGAR I wouldn’t want that. This isn’t the Sammy show. This isn’t the Cabos. No siree. I’m tired of being the boss. I just wanna sing and be part of something great.

GW Joe, this is something you’ve wanted for quite some time.

SATRIANI I’ve wanted this since I was a kid, basically.

GW When you signed your deal with Sony back in the early Nineties, you made it clear you were intent on being part of a vocal-oriented rock band. Yet, you’ve had this incredible career as a solo instrumentalist.

SATRIANI By accident. [everybody laughs] I kind of fell into it.

GW Now, let’s say Chickenfoot is a smash. What happens to the solo career?

SATRIANI I’m sure I’ll be able to keep it going. I would imagine that everybody in the band wants to keep doing their own thing. From my own perspective, as you know, I did fall into this instrumental career, and it’s been amazing, of course, going all over the world and playing my songs. But this…just in the last six, seven weeks, it’s been amazing. To be in the studio and watch these songs come together, it was like, “Wow, I’m in a band!” And I’m in a band with these guys. Song by song, it was very exhilarating. And we’ve even got a name! [everybody laughs]

GW Chad, last we spoke, you said you had a year clear to pursue other things. Yet, when I spoke with John Frusciante recently… [see Guitar World,April 2009]

SMITH Oh, how did that go?

GW It was…interesting.

SMITH He’s an interesting guy. [laughs] He’s in his own world.

GW He did tell me, however, that there were “no plans” for the Chili Peppers at all. I took that very literally, as in you guys might not be getting back together.

SMITH The status is that we’ve been on a break for a year and whatever. I can’t speak for John; he’s doing his thing. I think when the Chili Peppers are ready to play, we’ll play. I’m not naming names, I’m just saying we’ll do it again when we want to. We have to feel it. I don’t have a time frame. I thought it was going to be a year off, now it looks like it could be longer. Maybe it’ll be two years, maybe longer.

GW If Chickenfoot is a smash, would that make going back to the Chili Peppers harder for you?

SMITH Well, I still love playing with those guys, and I have tremendous loyalty to them. But hmmm, to be in two hit bands at once… wow, what a choice! [laughs]

HAGAR The best karma we’ve created is that we’ve never put any pressure on anybody not to do their thing. If this thing is supposed to happen, it’s gonna happen. Although personally, I can’t see anyone wanting to go back to doing what they were doing without playing this music first—it’s that good! Already, this feels more like a band than Van Halen did in 12 years.

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.

GW Talk to me about Andy Johns. How did he come to work on this record?

ANTHONY I fell in love with Andy’s work when we did [Van Halen’s] For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. He brought the bass up, and you could feel it.

SATRIANI I’ve worked with him before [on 1992’s The Extremist], and every time was just an explosive musical situation. He captures the velocity of a rhythm section. Plus, he knows what makes musicians tick.

GW Did he challenge you?

HAGAR [laughs] Oh, he challenged us! He’s a sweetheart, but he can be a rude motherfucker. At first I had a problem with that. [adopts a gruff British accent] “You call that singing? That ain’t singing! Now sing the song in key already and get it right!” And I’m like, “Fuck you! That’s the best I can sing it, asshole!” [everybody laughs] But he knows how to get the job done. I have a ton of respect for the guy.

GW Let’s get into some of the songs on the record. Tell me about “Avenida Revolution.” Joe, what are you doing in the beginning guitar-wise?

SATRIANI It’s just a little trick with a guitar pick. For that song, I was trying to create something that had the weirdest-ass riff, something nobody could ever sing over, and of course Sammy nailed it. At first, the song was called “Into the Fire,” so I was trying to come up with a part that sounded like it was boiling—like it was bubbling up, you know? I did a pick thing that really worked.

GW Sammy, this song is one of your weightiest lyric-wise. Do you sometimes feel hampered by your “good time” image, being Mr. I-Can’t-Drive-55?

HAGAR I am a good-time guy. And I can’t drive 55! [laughs] I don’t feel hampered by anything. I write about what I want to write about. I put no limits on anything. When I heard that music, I saw people running through ditches and crawling through mud. And there’s this area in Cabo called “Avenida Boulevard” with nothing but crosses on the streets, and people have died literally trying to make their way across it—so that’s what I saw. That song wrote itself.

GW Michael, you’re all over this record as a background singer. Are you aware of how familiar your background singing voice is to people? It immediately sounds like Van Halen.

ANTHONY Sure. In the early Van Halen days, Eddie and I would sing together, and it was as much a part of the sound as Eddie’s guitar playing. Then when Sammy joined the band, it increased. You hear it and you’re like, “Whoa, that’s Van Halen!” Our fans know the sound. They grew up on it.

GW Joe, on the solo to “Sexy Little Thing,” how are you getting that cool tubey sound?

SATRIANI It’s the [Ibanez] JS6 guitar. I’m also using a set of 11s, the guitar is tuned down a whole step, and the capo is on the second fret. [laughs] Why? Why would I do such a thing? It was all about keeping the guitar in tune. It contributed to that tubey sound.

GW Sammy, are you playing any guitar on the record?

HAGAR Nope. Not one note. What would be the point of me playing guitar? Put it this way: I can play guitar as well as Joe can sing. [everybody laughs]

GW But how about live?

HAGAR Live, yeah. There’s some songs that’ll need the rhythm guitar. We’re figuring it out.

GW The song “My Kind of Girl” sounds like a single to me.

HAGAR [laughs] That’s funny. Joe tried to have me go back and rewrite it ’cause he thought it sounded too commercial. I’m like, “Joe, there’s no such thing!”

SATRIANI Because I’ve succeeded so well at obscurity. [laughs]

HAGAR You know, there’s an old Eddie Van Halen statement: “They call it ‘pop’ because it’s ‘pop-u-lar.’ ” That’s a driving-your-car-fast kind of song. The minute I heard Joe’s music, I had it. I sat down and wrote it and nailed it.

GW The solo you do is very cool, Joe, that one sustained note really works.

SATRIANI I didn’t feel like I had to fill up the space with all these notes. I’m really excited about playing rhythm guitar, and that was a moment in the song where I could do that. It would belittle the song if I did a crazy solo. Less was definitely more there.

HAGAR Musically and emotionally, everybody in this band is very plugged in. The fact that Joe listens deeply and makes those kinds of connection is great. That’s the spirit in this band: everybody is so conscientious and considerate of what the other guy is doing. You can’t do that when you’re a young band. That’s seasoning. It comes with experience; it comes from doing this for a long time on a very high level. If people wanna call us a supergroup, fine, but it’s only because we’re communicating with one another in a way that other bands don’t. It’s about storytelling. It’s deeper than anything I’ve ever been involved in. It’s taken us a while to get here, but I’m so damn happy we made it.

Chickenfoot, comprised of guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ drummer Chad Smith, and Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar and bassist Michael Anthony have announced their first major North American tour beginning on August 2, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Until June 8, users can download the entire Chickenfoot album for $3.99 from Amazon.com. Click here for the special offer.

All dates will go on-sale June 13th, with the exception of the August 24th show in Boston, which will go on sale June 12th. Additional dates will be announced shortly.

Tour Dates:

Aug. 2 Citadel Hill Halifax, NS

Aug. 4 The Sound Academy Toronto, ONT

Aug. 5 Riverplex Amphitheatre Pittsburgh, PA

Aug. 7 Chicago Theatre Chicago, IL

Aug. 8 The Fillmore Detroit Detroit, MI

Aug. 10 Myth St. Paul, MN

Aug. 11 Uptown Theatre Kansas City, MO

Aug. 13 Fifth-Third Ballpark Comstock Park, MI

Aug. 15 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Cleveland, OH

Aug. 17 Beacon Theatre New York, NY

Aug. 18 Palace Theatre Albany, NY

Aug. 20 Mohegan Sun Arena Uncasville, CT

Aug. 21 Borgata Spa & Resort, Music Box Atlantic City, NJ

Aug. 23 Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom Hampton Beach, NH

Aug. 24 Bank Of America Pavilion Boston, MA

Aug. 26 Ntelos Pavilion Portsmouth, VA

Aug. 27 The Uptown Amphitheatre at The Music Factory Charlotte, NC

Aug. 29 House of Blues, Myrtle Beach N. Myrtle Beach, SC

Aug. 30 The Tabernacle Atlanta, GA

Sept. 5 Harveys Resort Hotel and Casino Lake Tahoe, NV

For more information about Chickenfoot, the upcoming self-titled debut album Chickenfoot and tour dates, please visit chickenfoot.us.

Fans can also stay connected with Chickenfoot by becoming a fan of the band on Facebook or following their Twitter updates with @chickenfootjoe.

Chickenfoot, the highly anticipated new rock group, comprised of guitar hero Joe Satriani, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ drummer Chad Smith, former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony and frontman Sammy Hagar, will take the stage for a limited number of live shows, featuring music from their self-titled debut album, Chickenfoot, set for a June 9th release.

Playing a series of intimate venues, this initial tour is set to launch on May 14th at the El Corazon in Seattle, WA, and coincides with the release of the band’s first single, “Oh yeah.” The shows will conclude at TLA in Philadelphia, PA, on May 29th, with ticket prices throughout averaging $50 per show. The new album will be released through major retailers and digitally on June 9th and will be available for pre-sale through Best Buy beginning April 19th at bestbuy.com/chickenfoot. Following the North American tour, Chickenfoot will head to Europe for four weeks of festivals and headline dates starting June 20th at the Nova Rock Festival in Austria.

“We spent a lot of time together in the recording studio working long hours to make Chickenfoot live up to expectations,” said Satriani. “We really feel like we’ve mastered it and recorded a great album but now we’re especially excited to take the show on the road and see how the fans react to it live. I think we are really going to feed off of the fan’s energy. We’re really that type of band.”

Tour Dates:

May 14 El Corazon Seattle, WA On Sale 4/18

May 15 Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, BC On Sale 4/17

May 17 The Fillmore San Francisco, CA On Sale 4/19

May 19 The Roxy Theatre West Hollywood, CA On Sale 4/18

May 22 Park West Chicago, IL On Sale 4/17

May 24 The Mod Club Theatre Toronto, ON On Sale 4/18

May 26 Middle East Upstairs Cambridge, MA On Sale 4/18

May 28 The Fillmore NY @ Irving Plaza New York, NY On Sale 4/17

May 29 TLA Philadelphia, PA On Sale 4/18

Chickenfoot’s self-titled debut is an 11-track hard rock album that sets the standard for rock music in the new millennium. Chickenfoot is produced by Andy Johns (Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones) and mixed by Mike Fraser (AC/DC, Metallica).

“The album is an 11-song slab of raging rock,” says Guitar World writer Joe Bosso.

For more information about Chickenfoot, the upcoming self-titled debut album Chickenfoot and tour dates, please visit chickenfoot.us.