CHICKENFOOT Has 14 New Songs In The Works

Last week Bryan Reesman's Attention Deficit Delirium spoke to guitar guru Joe Satriani, who is currently on the road in Europe, about Satriani's latest solo album, "Black Swans And Wormhole Wizards", and the forthcoming CHICKENFOOT CD, which is in the works. Back in the spring, Satriani mentioned that one song that the group was working on was called "Come Closer".

"I haven't listened to it in months," confessed Satriani. "I've been busy, as you can tell. Right after I finished mixing the 'Black Swans' record, I got home and had a few weeks and wrote 10 songs and sent them off to Sammy (Hagar; ex-VAN HALEN and current CHICKENFOOT singer). Right now he's sitting on 14 songs that he's writing melodies and lyrics to, and the original band will get back together at the end of January to record [the second CHICKENFOOT album]. Right now my hand is totally into this [solo tour], so I don't have any room for any other material. I am just getting to the point where I can memorize the tour set and start to mess around with it, so I don't want to get another band's set list into my head and disrupt everything."

Drummer Chad Smith recently confirmed that he won't tour with CHICKENFOOT next year in support of the band's second album due to scheduling conflicts with his main group, the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS.

Although Smith plans on taking part in the recording sessions for CHICKENFOOT's second album, he will be enable to go on the road with the rest of the band — Hagar, Michael Anthony and Satriani — because RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS will be touring in support of their long-awaited new album.

"I can't play in both bands next year," Smith told MusicRadar.com. "Believe me, I'd love to play with CHICKENFOOT and I'm pretty certain I'll be able to finish the second record. I'm really excited to get deeper into the mussy with those guys. Touring, though? I don't see how."

He added, "CHICKENFOOT started out as this fun thing to do, then it just got bigger and bigger. Everybody loves it — I love it, too. We have the best time together. But I got this other group. The PEPPERS have festival dates booked for the summer of 2011 already.

"It's funny — I'll be talking to Joe about CHICKENFOOT stuff, then when I bring up the CHILI PEPPERS he'll say, 'Man, I keep forgetting you're in another band.'"

When asked whom he would ike to stand in for him with CHICKENFOOT, Smith said, "I don't have a preference — it's whoever they want. I'm cool with it."

In a recent interview with MusicRadar.com, Satriani said he had a few replacements in mind for Chad Smith already. Satriani said, "Were Chad not able to be in the band because of the CHILI PEPPERS, I think it would be fun to get somebody really outrageous like Tommy Lee. He's a great drummer, a lot of fun and a crazy personality. We've had some guys sit in from time to time. Some names that have been thrown around are (Paul McCartney drummer) Abe Laboriel Jr. and (LED ZEPPELIN drummer) Jason Bonham — they'd be really great."

CHICKENFOOT's self-titled debut disc came out in June 2009 and was certified gold for sales of more than 500,000 copies.