CHICKENFOOT Rehearsing With Drummer KENNY ARONOFF

Christina Fuoco-Karasinski of SoundSpike recently conducted an interview with Sammy Hagar (CHICKENFOOT, VAN HALEN, MONTROSE). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

SoundSpike: Why did you decide to call [CHICKENFOOT's] second album "Chickenfoot III"?

Sammy: We took a long time before we could get back together because of everyone's schedules. When we started working on it, we jokingly called it "Chickenfoot IV" as a joke. But then when the album was done, we said, "This is not a joke." We went, "If we say 'Chickenfoot IV', it's going to put a little bit of a joke twist on it." But it was way, way too advanced to be "Chickenfoot II". The only song that kind of bridges the gap is the one you're hearing, "Big Foot". The rest of the stuff is way in the distance, man. We took a giant step forward and it's more like a third or fourth CD. We're not joking when we call it "Chickenfoot III" because we skipped over the dreaded second record.

SoundSpike: Are you going to tour in support of "Chickenfoot III"?

Sammy: We're trying out at the end of the week on Saturday and Sunday [August 6-7], [drummer] Kenny Aronoff is coming up and we're going to play with him for two days. If it works, we're going to go out in November, I think, and do a buzz tour, play small venues in five cities, [like] New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco. Then, we'll make sure that it works and the chemistry is good. If it is we'll go out with Kenny. We don't want to just grab a drummer just because he's good and find out that we don't have the chemistry. CHICKENFOOT is all about the chemistry. You pick your favorite bass player, drummer, guitar player singer and you don't necessarily have a great band. It can be a disaster because of chemistry and people don't get along. It isn't just arguing; it's just the music can start arguing and doesn't gel. There's been a lot of "supergroups" that people have contrived and put together in the past. That's why we don't like to call ourselves a "supergroup." We grew together. When you throw these people together you don't necessarily get good music. We have to make sure that Kenny brings a different chemistry that works or the same chemistry as Chad [Smith, CHICKENFOOT drummer]. Chad picked him because he said Kenny's just like him. He beats his drum set to death. He doesn't play them. He beats them to death. At the end of every show you have to buy a new drum set for these guys. We need that power. Chad, he's powerful. [Aronoff will] just be on loan anyway. Chad's handing him the baton and he's going to run for awhile. When Chad can come back, we'll make "Chickenfoot IV" probably with Chad.

Read the entire interview from SoundSpike.