MICHAEL ANTHONY On CHICKENFOOT: 'We Didn't Have Any Type Of Supergroup In Mind'

Joe Matera of Ultimate-Guitar.com recently conducted an interview with bassist Michael Anthony (CHICKENFOOT, VAN HALEN). An excerpt from the chat follows below.

Ultimate-Guitar.com: The CHICKENFOOT album oozes such a strong sense of fun and excitement, something that reminds a lot of what was captured on the early VAN HALEN records.

Michael Anthony: You hit that one right on the head. Obviously playing in a new group situation like this really inspires you to play differently. And these guys are great musicians and I don't have to tell you that. And so we're all good friends having a great time. And it is exactly like what it was in the early days of VAN HALEN because later on, everybody was kind of doing their own thing. But it makes me remember why I got into this business in the first place. And that is that you can have fun doing it.

Ultimate-Guitar.com: As a bass player, having played with Alex Van Halen for many years, was it challenging for you to play with Chad Smith, who's more of a funk player than the sort you're used to?

Michael Anthony: It is definitely an unusual mix of characters that make up this band. Chad is such a great guy. I actually first met him about four years ago, down in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. He's got a house down there and that was actually where Sammy met him also for the first time. The three of us have camped down there numerous times, and obviously before the CHICKENFOOT thing, I'd jam with Chad on many occasions. And he has this funk and unconventional rock style that he plays, which is really cool and which he brings to the band.

Ultimate-Guitar.com: Listening to the album, it feels like the music and songs came together from more of a loose jam type situation with each other than any sort of structured songwriting format?

Michael Anthony: Yeah. Actually we first jammed almost two years ago now and the magic and the fire, was great from that initial jam. It was then that we said, "We've got to take this to see where it goes," and so we went into the studio but without a producer or anybody. We did this for ourselves. We didn't have any type of supergroup in mind when we were first thinking of putting it together as we were just four friends jamming. And because Joe [Satriani] had just put his last solo album out, he was ready to go out on the road so it wasn't like we had a lot of time to go into the studio. We only had about three days over a weekend and so we went in and just jammed and came up with about six or seven ideas. Then whenever we could, we would just get together and basically jam and work on ideas that we had and also come up with different ideas.

Ultimate-Guitar.com: Was it a total difference approach making this album compared to how you and Sammy made the VAN HALEN records?

Michael Anthony: It was much closer to how we did the music in the early days of VAN HALEN where somebody had an idea. Like Joe came up with most of the basic guitar riff ideas for this album, and then we would all just throw our own two cents into mix. Nobody during the recording and rehearsing of this whole thing ever told anybody else what they thought they should play.

Read the entire interview from Ultimate-Guitar.com.

Photo below courtesy of Mad Anthony Cafe