Chords for Michael Anthony interview
Tempo:
101.05 bpm
Chords used:
Eb
Bb
Ab
G
Em
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
Yeah, I'm sure.
Yeah, a hot night tonight.
Yeah, in more ways than one.
Boy, there's so much I could ask you about, but in our limited time I'd like to hit some
of the highlights of your career.
For instance, that band that you played in for a long time, Van Halen, I think a lot
of people know the story about how that band formed and how you became a part of it, but
I think as we get further and further into time, there are probably more people that
don't know that story.
So, a refresher for those who know.
For those who knew it, they forget now.
That's right.
They can't remember anymore.
Do you remember?
Yeah, I remember.
Well, what was that story?
You're a young guy.
Yeah, you know, I was playing in bands in the Arcadia, California area, and of course
the Van Halen Brothers were from Pasadena then.
Actually Dave had joined the band probably about a year.
He'd been in the band about a year.
And the band that I was playing in, lead singing, we were called Snake, pretty original name there.
We were both playing at the Pasadena College in the auditorium, no, at the high school,
Pasadena High School, and I remember them blowing up their PA and Ed came and asked
me if he could use the PA that we had.
So I said, sure, you know.
So we opened up for Van Halen that night, and I remember talking with Ed quite a bit
in the parking lot after the show, just kind of BSing around about music, the local scene,
all the local band type stuff.
And it was actually through a mutual friend of ours, I was in a music class with Ed, that
he found out that they were relieving the bass player, they were getting rid of their bass player.
So he mentioned my name and Alex, I think, I don't know if it was Alex who called me
and asked me if I wanted to come over and jam.
They were playing, rehearsing in some little garage in Pasadena, some friend's house.
And I went over there and we played and they kind of put me through the paces and all their
stuff and whatever and asked me that day if I wanted to join the band.
And I said, yeah, sure.
I mean, they were playing clubs in Hollywood and stuff like that, and the extent of our
band, we were doing a lot of parties and that kind of thing.
So that's basically how I joined the band.
You're not with Van Halen anymore.
No, I'm not.
And there are varying stories of why you are not any longer with that band.
And how about we take this opportunity for you to set us straight.
Give us the real story.
I'll get as straight as I can here.
I'm not going to dig deep into it and the dirt and all that stuff because I'm not in love.
You know, just like anything else, people have differences of opinion or whatever, and
Van Halen was on an extended hiatus and I wanted to go out and play.
I didn't want to just sit around and do nothing.
And Sammy put together this tour with Dave Lee Roth.
They were calling it the Sam and Dave Tour.
And he asked me if I wanted to come out and guest on a few of the shows, you know, which
I did maybe about a half of the shows on that tour with Sammy.
Just come out and play a few Van Halen songs.
And well, let's just say that the powers that be, they were not too happy that I was doing
something like that.
And, you know, I kind of got backed up against a wall and, you know, I just wanted to go
out and play.
So I decided that I'm going to go out and play.
I thought I'd be waving the Van Halen flag high while there was nothing going on really
with the band at the time.
So things just kind of blew up from there and I just kind of leave the rest to your imagination.
That's basically how it all kind of came to be.
Well, [N] what kind of thoughts or feelings do you have about Wolfgang, if you don't mind me asking?
I think he's a great kid.
I mean, obviously I've known him since he was born.
And you know, he's a great musician, he's a great bass player.
I mean, he plays drums, guitar, bass, and he sings.
And so naturally I understood when he went back with the reunion thing that his dad,
Ed wanted his son to play with him.
That's totally great.
I found out that he was going to be playing bass with the rest of everybody else when
they did their press conference.
But I mean, I wished him luck in a couple of interviews that I did and hopefully he read those.
And how about the current tour?
How's that going?
This is actually only the third show that I've joined Sammy on.
I just joined him a couple of cities ago in Chicago.
But it's great.
We're obviously, this is coming out.
Sammy's doing this Four Generations of Rock tour where he goes to each of the major parts
of his career, starting with Montrose and then his solo stuff.
And of course the Van Halen stuff was a big part of it.
And that's what he asked me to come out and play on.
And if you really think about it, if you want to hear any of those songs, the Sammy Hearer
songs, this is where you're going to have to come and hear them.
Because this is probably the only time you're going to hear those songs play live by any
of the people from Van Halen.
Because obviously Eddie and Alex and Dave, they're not doing any of it.
What's happening with Chicken Foot?
Chicken Foot is on a hiatus.
We toured last year.
Obviously we didn't tour as much as we would have liked to because one of the reasons was
Chad was unavailable and the Chili Peppers were still way steep into their tour.
And this year, probably in the winter, around November, December, Joe has said that he's
got some demos that he wants to lay on us.
So I think Chicken Foot will be starting to get back together in the winter.
Indoor venues, I hope, when you come to Michigan.
Probably studio first.
We'll be going into the studio.
Next January, we'll probably go in and start hashing some ideas around and stuff like that
and kind of getting back to that.
Obviously we wanted to wait until Chad was free and so that's kind of like why we didn't
do anything this year.
Because his band was finishing their tour, I think they were officially finished early summer.
But they've been doing one-off shows here and there and I think by the end of the year
they'll be completely finished with their tour.
So if Chad's wife will let him come out and play, come on Chad, we're ready.
You've got a new Peavey Signature amp.
Tell me about that.
It's a two-channel amp.
The second channel is a distortion channel but I kind of refined it for him by adding
tone to it and a blend so that you can actually play at a lower volume and blend in the amount
of distortion and how aggressive you want the distortion to sound.
I think it turned out really damn fine myself.
Switching gears, Michael.
Let's talk about Matt Anthony's Cafe.
Let's talk hot sauce.
I know you're very proud of that.
Yeah, well, obviously it's not something that I went into as deep as Sammy with his tequila
or like that.
But I do enjoy it and a company in Southern California makes it for me.
We're basically online and in a lot of boutique hot sauce stores and getting into a few more
of the major markets on the West Coast.
We have two hot sauces.
One's like a regular hot sauce, which still is hot, and then I have a triple X, which
you can want to have, well, maybe not even water.
That's not going to help you.
Plenty of milk, milk helps.
And then we do a spicy yellow mustard and a barbecue sauce, a regular barbecue [G] sauce
and a spicy barbecue sauce.
And it's just something that's [Em] really fun to do.
I'm really passionate about hot sauce.
Ever since back in Van Halen, fans would find out that I loved hot chili, you know, chili
peppers and stuff, and they would start bringing me salsas and peppers and stuff like that
to the shows.
And somebody suggested, hey, why don't you do a hot sauce?
And right then I know Joe Perry was coming out with his.
But I found the right kind of people and they really let me, again, have control rather
than me just slap my name on a bottle of hot sauce [Eb] and call it mine.
This is really my baby.
I don't know a lot of the technical stuff and some of the spices and stuff to use, but
I know what I like with the flavors, so I'd make suggestions there.
It's a fun thing to do and it's going really well.
Last question, Michael.
What would you be if you weren't a bass player?
Something outside of music.
Something outside of [Bb] music?
[Db] Well, [Eb] I'll tell you one thing.
If you asked my wife this, she'd probably say that I'd be a gardener because when I'm
home I'm always fixing sprinklers and stuff like that.
She goes, God, you must have been a gardener in your [Bm] previous life.
No, actually [Ab] the only other thing that I actually [Bb] was working on [Bbm] before
[Gbm] my parents really let
me go full time with music was I [Eb]
took a lot of psychology classes, [Bb] if you can [Ab] believe that.
I wanted to work with underprivileged and [Bb] mentally disabled children.
I really have a soft spot in my heart for that.
[Ab] Beautiful.
Michael [Gb] Anthony, great catching up with you.
Enjoy the tour.
Safe [Eb] travels.
Much luck and continued success to you always.
Good talking [Bb] to you.
And you know, Chicken Foot will be [Eb] around soon.
[Ab] Like you said, check the hot sauce [E] out.
Check the new PVVBMA amp out.
It kicks butt.
[N]
Yeah, a hot night tonight.
Yeah, in more ways than one.
Boy, there's so much I could ask you about, but in our limited time I'd like to hit some
of the highlights of your career.
For instance, that band that you played in for a long time, Van Halen, I think a lot
of people know the story about how that band formed and how you became a part of it, but
I think as we get further and further into time, there are probably more people that
don't know that story.
So, a refresher for those who know.
For those who knew it, they forget now.
That's right.
They can't remember anymore.
Do you remember?
Yeah, I remember.
Well, what was that story?
You're a young guy.
Yeah, you know, I was playing in bands in the Arcadia, California area, and of course
the Van Halen Brothers were from Pasadena then.
Actually Dave had joined the band probably about a year.
He'd been in the band about a year.
And the band that I was playing in, lead singing, we were called Snake, pretty original name there.
We were both playing at the Pasadena College in the auditorium, no, at the high school,
Pasadena High School, and I remember them blowing up their PA and Ed came and asked
me if he could use the PA that we had.
So I said, sure, you know.
So we opened up for Van Halen that night, and I remember talking with Ed quite a bit
in the parking lot after the show, just kind of BSing around about music, the local scene,
all the local band type stuff.
And it was actually through a mutual friend of ours, I was in a music class with Ed, that
he found out that they were relieving the bass player, they were getting rid of their bass player.
So he mentioned my name and Alex, I think, I don't know if it was Alex who called me
and asked me if I wanted to come over and jam.
They were playing, rehearsing in some little garage in Pasadena, some friend's house.
And I went over there and we played and they kind of put me through the paces and all their
stuff and whatever and asked me that day if I wanted to join the band.
And I said, yeah, sure.
I mean, they were playing clubs in Hollywood and stuff like that, and the extent of our
band, we were doing a lot of parties and that kind of thing.
So that's basically how I joined the band.
You're not with Van Halen anymore.
No, I'm not.
And there are varying stories of why you are not any longer with that band.
And how about we take this opportunity for you to set us straight.
Give us the real story.
I'll get as straight as I can here.
I'm not going to dig deep into it and the dirt and all that stuff because I'm not in love.
You know, just like anything else, people have differences of opinion or whatever, and
Van Halen was on an extended hiatus and I wanted to go out and play.
I didn't want to just sit around and do nothing.
And Sammy put together this tour with Dave Lee Roth.
They were calling it the Sam and Dave Tour.
And he asked me if I wanted to come out and guest on a few of the shows, you know, which
I did maybe about a half of the shows on that tour with Sammy.
Just come out and play a few Van Halen songs.
And well, let's just say that the powers that be, they were not too happy that I was doing
something like that.
And, you know, I kind of got backed up against a wall and, you know, I just wanted to go
out and play.
So I decided that I'm going to go out and play.
I thought I'd be waving the Van Halen flag high while there was nothing going on really
with the band at the time.
So things just kind of blew up from there and I just kind of leave the rest to your imagination.
That's basically how it all kind of came to be.
Well, [N] what kind of thoughts or feelings do you have about Wolfgang, if you don't mind me asking?
I think he's a great kid.
I mean, obviously I've known him since he was born.
And you know, he's a great musician, he's a great bass player.
I mean, he plays drums, guitar, bass, and he sings.
And so naturally I understood when he went back with the reunion thing that his dad,
Ed wanted his son to play with him.
That's totally great.
I found out that he was going to be playing bass with the rest of everybody else when
they did their press conference.
But I mean, I wished him luck in a couple of interviews that I did and hopefully he read those.
And how about the current tour?
How's that going?
This is actually only the third show that I've joined Sammy on.
I just joined him a couple of cities ago in Chicago.
But it's great.
We're obviously, this is coming out.
Sammy's doing this Four Generations of Rock tour where he goes to each of the major parts
of his career, starting with Montrose and then his solo stuff.
And of course the Van Halen stuff was a big part of it.
And that's what he asked me to come out and play on.
And if you really think about it, if you want to hear any of those songs, the Sammy Hearer
songs, this is where you're going to have to come and hear them.
Because this is probably the only time you're going to hear those songs play live by any
of the people from Van Halen.
Because obviously Eddie and Alex and Dave, they're not doing any of it.
What's happening with Chicken Foot?
Chicken Foot is on a hiatus.
We toured last year.
Obviously we didn't tour as much as we would have liked to because one of the reasons was
Chad was unavailable and the Chili Peppers were still way steep into their tour.
And this year, probably in the winter, around November, December, Joe has said that he's
got some demos that he wants to lay on us.
So I think Chicken Foot will be starting to get back together in the winter.
Indoor venues, I hope, when you come to Michigan.
Probably studio first.
We'll be going into the studio.
Next January, we'll probably go in and start hashing some ideas around and stuff like that
and kind of getting back to that.
Obviously we wanted to wait until Chad was free and so that's kind of like why we didn't
do anything this year.
Because his band was finishing their tour, I think they were officially finished early summer.
But they've been doing one-off shows here and there and I think by the end of the year
they'll be completely finished with their tour.
So if Chad's wife will let him come out and play, come on Chad, we're ready.
You've got a new Peavey Signature amp.
Tell me about that.
It's a two-channel amp.
The second channel is a distortion channel but I kind of refined it for him by adding
tone to it and a blend so that you can actually play at a lower volume and blend in the amount
of distortion and how aggressive you want the distortion to sound.
I think it turned out really damn fine myself.
Switching gears, Michael.
Let's talk about Matt Anthony's Cafe.
Let's talk hot sauce.
I know you're very proud of that.
Yeah, well, obviously it's not something that I went into as deep as Sammy with his tequila
or like that.
But I do enjoy it and a company in Southern California makes it for me.
We're basically online and in a lot of boutique hot sauce stores and getting into a few more
of the major markets on the West Coast.
We have two hot sauces.
One's like a regular hot sauce, which still is hot, and then I have a triple X, which
you can want to have, well, maybe not even water.
That's not going to help you.
Plenty of milk, milk helps.
And then we do a spicy yellow mustard and a barbecue sauce, a regular barbecue [G] sauce
and a spicy barbecue sauce.
And it's just something that's [Em] really fun to do.
I'm really passionate about hot sauce.
Ever since back in Van Halen, fans would find out that I loved hot chili, you know, chili
peppers and stuff, and they would start bringing me salsas and peppers and stuff like that
to the shows.
And somebody suggested, hey, why don't you do a hot sauce?
And right then I know Joe Perry was coming out with his.
But I found the right kind of people and they really let me, again, have control rather
than me just slap my name on a bottle of hot sauce [Eb] and call it mine.
This is really my baby.
I don't know a lot of the technical stuff and some of the spices and stuff to use, but
I know what I like with the flavors, so I'd make suggestions there.
It's a fun thing to do and it's going really well.
Last question, Michael.
What would you be if you weren't a bass player?
Something outside of music.
Something outside of [Bb] music?
[Db] Well, [Eb] I'll tell you one thing.
If you asked my wife this, she'd probably say that I'd be a gardener because when I'm
home I'm always fixing sprinklers and stuff like that.
She goes, God, you must have been a gardener in your [Bm] previous life.
No, actually [Ab] the only other thing that I actually [Bb] was working on [Bbm] before
[Gbm] my parents really let
me go full time with music was I [Eb]
took a lot of psychology classes, [Bb] if you can [Ab] believe that.
I wanted to work with underprivileged and [Bb] mentally disabled children.
I really have a soft spot in my heart for that.
[Ab] Beautiful.
Michael [Gb] Anthony, great catching up with you.
Enjoy the tour.
Safe [Eb] travels.
Much luck and continued success to you always.
Good talking [Bb] to you.
And you know, Chicken Foot will be [Eb] around soon.
[Ab] Like you said, check the hot sauce [E] out.
Check the new PVVBMA amp out.
It kicks butt.
[N]
Key:
Eb
Bb
Ab
G
Em
Eb
Bb
Ab
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Yeah, I'm sure.
Yeah, a hot night tonight.
Yeah, in more ways than one. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Boy, there's so much I could ask you about, but in our limited time I'd like to hit some
of the highlights of your career.
For instance, that band that you played in for a long time, Van Halen, I think a lot
of people know the story about how that band formed and how you became a part of it, but
I think as we get further and further into time, there are probably more people that
don't know that story.
So, a refresher for those who know.
For those who knew it, they forget now.
That's right.
They can't remember anymore.
Do you remember?
Yeah, I remember.
Well, what was that story?
You're a young guy.
Yeah, you know, I was playing in bands in the Arcadia, California area, and of course
the Van Halen Brothers were from Pasadena then.
_ Actually Dave had joined the band probably about a year.
He'd been in the band about a year.
_ And the band that I was playing in, lead singing, we were called Snake, pretty original name there.
We were both playing at the Pasadena College in the auditorium, no, at the high school,
Pasadena High School, and I remember them blowing up their PA and Ed came and asked
me if he could use the PA that we had.
So I said, sure, you know.
So we opened up for Van Halen that night, and I remember talking with Ed quite a bit
in the parking lot after the show, just kind of BSing around about music, the local scene,
all the local band type stuff.
And it was actually through a mutual friend of ours, I was in a music class with Ed, that
he found out that they were _ relieving the bass player, they were getting rid of their bass player.
So he mentioned my name and Alex, I think, I don't know if it was Alex who called me
and asked me if I wanted to come over and jam.
They were playing, rehearsing in some little garage in Pasadena, some friend's house.
And I went over there and _ we played and they kind of put me through the paces and all their
stuff and whatever and asked me that day if I wanted to join the band.
And I said, yeah, sure.
I mean, they were playing clubs in Hollywood and stuff like that, and the extent of our
band, we were doing a lot of parties and that kind of thing.
So that's basically how I joined the band.
You're not with Van Halen anymore.
No, I'm not.
And there are varying stories of why you are not any longer with that band.
And how about we take this opportunity for you to set us straight.
Give us the real story.
I'll get as straight as I can here.
I'm not going to dig deep into it and the dirt and all that stuff because I'm not in love.
_ You know, just like anything else, people have differences of opinion or whatever, and
Van Halen was on an extended hiatus and I wanted to go out and play.
I didn't want to just sit around and do nothing.
And Sammy put together this tour with Dave Lee Roth.
They were calling it the Sam and Dave Tour.
And he asked me if I wanted to come out and guest on a few of the shows, you know, which
I did maybe about a half of the shows on that tour with Sammy.
Just come out and play a few Van Halen songs.
_ _ And well, let's just say that the powers that be, they were not too happy that I was doing
something like that.
And, you know, I kind of got backed up against a wall and, you know, I just wanted to go
out and play.
So I decided that I'm going to go out and play.
I thought I'd be waving the Van Halen flag high while there was nothing going on really
with the band at the time.
So things just kind of _ blew up from there and I just kind of leave the rest to your imagination.
That's basically how it all kind of came to be.
Well, [N] what kind of thoughts or feelings do you have about Wolfgang, if you don't mind me asking?
I think he's a great kid.
I mean, obviously I've known him _ since he was born.
_ And you know, he's a great musician, he's a great bass player.
I mean, he plays drums, guitar, bass, and he sings.
_ _ And so naturally I understood when he went back with the reunion thing that _ _ his dad,
Ed wanted his son to play with him. _
_ _ That's totally great.
I found out that he was going to be playing bass with the rest of everybody else when
they did their press conference.
But I mean, I wished him luck in a couple of interviews that I did and hopefully he read those.
_ And how about the current tour?
How's that going?
This is actually only the third show that I've joined Sammy on.
I just joined him a couple of cities ago in Chicago.
But it's great.
We're obviously, this is coming out.
Sammy's doing this Four Generations of Rock tour where he goes to each of the major parts
of his career, starting with Montrose and then his solo stuff.
And of course the Van Halen stuff was a big part of it.
And that's what he asked me to come out and play on.
And if you really think about it, _ if you want to hear any of those songs, the Sammy Hearer
songs, this is where you're going to have to come and hear them.
Because this is probably the only time you're going to hear those songs play live by any
of the people from Van Halen.
Because obviously Eddie and Alex and Dave, they're not doing any of it.
What's happening with Chicken Foot?
Chicken Foot is on a hiatus.
We toured last year.
Obviously we didn't tour as much as we would have liked to because one of the reasons was
Chad was unavailable and the Chili Peppers were still _ way steep into their tour.
And this year, probably in the winter, around November, December, _ Joe has said that he's
got some demos that he wants to lay on us.
So I think Chicken Foot will be starting to get back together in the winter.
Indoor venues, I hope, when you come to Michigan.
Probably studio first.
We'll be going into the studio.
_ Next January, we'll probably go in and start hashing some ideas around and stuff like that
and kind of getting back to that.
Obviously we wanted to wait until Chad was free and so that's kind of like why we didn't
do anything this year. _
_ Because his band was finishing their tour, I think they were officially finished early summer.
But they've been doing one-off shows here and there and I think by the end of the year
they'll be completely finished with their tour.
So if Chad's wife will let him come out and play, come on Chad, we're ready. _
You've got a new Peavey Signature amp.
Tell me about that.
It's a two-channel amp.
The second channel is a distortion channel but I kind of refined it for him by adding
tone to it and a blend so that you can actually play at a lower volume and blend in the amount
of distortion and how aggressive you want the distortion to sound.
I think it turned out really damn fine myself. _
_ Switching gears, Michael.
Let's talk about Matt Anthony's Cafe.
_ Let's talk hot sauce.
I know you're very proud of that.
Yeah, well, obviously it's not something that _ I went into as deep as Sammy with his tequila
or _ like that.
But I do enjoy it and a company in Southern California makes it for me.
_ We're basically online and in a lot of boutique hot sauce stores and getting into a few more
of the major markets on the West Coast.
_ We have two hot sauces.
One's like a regular hot sauce, which still is hot, and then I have a triple X, which
you can want to have, well, maybe not even water.
That's not going to help you.
Plenty of milk, milk helps.
And then we do a spicy yellow mustard and a barbecue sauce, a regular barbecue [G] sauce
and a spicy barbecue sauce.
And it's just something that's [Em] really fun to do.
I'm really passionate about hot sauce.
Ever since back in Van Halen, fans would find out that I loved hot chili, you know, chili
peppers and stuff, and they would start bringing me salsas and peppers and stuff like that
to the shows.
And somebody suggested, hey, why don't you do a hot sauce?
And right then I know Joe Perry was coming out with his.
But I found the right kind of people and they really let me, again, have control rather
than me just slap my name on a bottle of hot sauce [Eb] and call it mine.
This is really my baby.
I don't know a lot of the technical stuff and some of the spices and stuff to use, but
I know what I like with the flavors, so I'd make suggestions there.
It's a fun thing to do and it's going really well.
Last question, Michael.
What would you be if you weren't a bass player?
Something outside of music.
Something outside of [Bb] music?
[Db] Well, _ [Eb] I'll tell you one thing.
If you asked my wife this, she'd probably say that I'd be a gardener because when I'm
home I'm always fixing sprinklers and stuff like that.
She goes, God, you must have been a gardener in your [Bm] previous life.
No, actually [Ab] the only other thing that I actually [Bb] was working on [Bbm] before _ _
[Gbm] my parents really let
me go full time with music was I [Eb]
took a lot of psychology classes, [Bb] if you can [Ab] believe that.
I wanted to work with _ underprivileged and [Bb] mentally disabled children.
I _ really have a soft spot in my heart for that.
[Ab] _ _ Beautiful.
Michael [Gb] Anthony, great catching up with you.
Enjoy the tour.
Safe [Eb] travels.
Much luck and continued success to you always.
Good talking [Bb] to you.
And you know, Chicken Foot will be [Eb] around soon.
[Ab] Like you said, check the hot sauce [E] out.
Check the new PVVBMA amp out.
It kicks butt. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _
_ _ _ _ Yeah, I'm sure.
Yeah, a hot night tonight.
Yeah, in more ways than one. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Boy, there's so much I could ask you about, but in our limited time I'd like to hit some
of the highlights of your career.
For instance, that band that you played in for a long time, Van Halen, I think a lot
of people know the story about how that band formed and how you became a part of it, but
I think as we get further and further into time, there are probably more people that
don't know that story.
So, a refresher for those who know.
For those who knew it, they forget now.
That's right.
They can't remember anymore.
Do you remember?
Yeah, I remember.
Well, what was that story?
You're a young guy.
Yeah, you know, I was playing in bands in the Arcadia, California area, and of course
the Van Halen Brothers were from Pasadena then.
_ Actually Dave had joined the band probably about a year.
He'd been in the band about a year.
_ And the band that I was playing in, lead singing, we were called Snake, pretty original name there.
We were both playing at the Pasadena College in the auditorium, no, at the high school,
Pasadena High School, and I remember them blowing up their PA and Ed came and asked
me if he could use the PA that we had.
So I said, sure, you know.
So we opened up for Van Halen that night, and I remember talking with Ed quite a bit
in the parking lot after the show, just kind of BSing around about music, the local scene,
all the local band type stuff.
And it was actually through a mutual friend of ours, I was in a music class with Ed, that
he found out that they were _ relieving the bass player, they were getting rid of their bass player.
So he mentioned my name and Alex, I think, I don't know if it was Alex who called me
and asked me if I wanted to come over and jam.
They were playing, rehearsing in some little garage in Pasadena, some friend's house.
And I went over there and _ we played and they kind of put me through the paces and all their
stuff and whatever and asked me that day if I wanted to join the band.
And I said, yeah, sure.
I mean, they were playing clubs in Hollywood and stuff like that, and the extent of our
band, we were doing a lot of parties and that kind of thing.
So that's basically how I joined the band.
You're not with Van Halen anymore.
No, I'm not.
And there are varying stories of why you are not any longer with that band.
And how about we take this opportunity for you to set us straight.
Give us the real story.
I'll get as straight as I can here.
I'm not going to dig deep into it and the dirt and all that stuff because I'm not in love.
_ You know, just like anything else, people have differences of opinion or whatever, and
Van Halen was on an extended hiatus and I wanted to go out and play.
I didn't want to just sit around and do nothing.
And Sammy put together this tour with Dave Lee Roth.
They were calling it the Sam and Dave Tour.
And he asked me if I wanted to come out and guest on a few of the shows, you know, which
I did maybe about a half of the shows on that tour with Sammy.
Just come out and play a few Van Halen songs.
_ _ And well, let's just say that the powers that be, they were not too happy that I was doing
something like that.
And, you know, I kind of got backed up against a wall and, you know, I just wanted to go
out and play.
So I decided that I'm going to go out and play.
I thought I'd be waving the Van Halen flag high while there was nothing going on really
with the band at the time.
So things just kind of _ blew up from there and I just kind of leave the rest to your imagination.
That's basically how it all kind of came to be.
Well, [N] what kind of thoughts or feelings do you have about Wolfgang, if you don't mind me asking?
I think he's a great kid.
I mean, obviously I've known him _ since he was born.
_ And you know, he's a great musician, he's a great bass player.
I mean, he plays drums, guitar, bass, and he sings.
_ _ And so naturally I understood when he went back with the reunion thing that _ _ his dad,
Ed wanted his son to play with him. _
_ _ That's totally great.
I found out that he was going to be playing bass with the rest of everybody else when
they did their press conference.
But I mean, I wished him luck in a couple of interviews that I did and hopefully he read those.
_ And how about the current tour?
How's that going?
This is actually only the third show that I've joined Sammy on.
I just joined him a couple of cities ago in Chicago.
But it's great.
We're obviously, this is coming out.
Sammy's doing this Four Generations of Rock tour where he goes to each of the major parts
of his career, starting with Montrose and then his solo stuff.
And of course the Van Halen stuff was a big part of it.
And that's what he asked me to come out and play on.
And if you really think about it, _ if you want to hear any of those songs, the Sammy Hearer
songs, this is where you're going to have to come and hear them.
Because this is probably the only time you're going to hear those songs play live by any
of the people from Van Halen.
Because obviously Eddie and Alex and Dave, they're not doing any of it.
What's happening with Chicken Foot?
Chicken Foot is on a hiatus.
We toured last year.
Obviously we didn't tour as much as we would have liked to because one of the reasons was
Chad was unavailable and the Chili Peppers were still _ way steep into their tour.
And this year, probably in the winter, around November, December, _ Joe has said that he's
got some demos that he wants to lay on us.
So I think Chicken Foot will be starting to get back together in the winter.
Indoor venues, I hope, when you come to Michigan.
Probably studio first.
We'll be going into the studio.
_ Next January, we'll probably go in and start hashing some ideas around and stuff like that
and kind of getting back to that.
Obviously we wanted to wait until Chad was free and so that's kind of like why we didn't
do anything this year. _
_ Because his band was finishing their tour, I think they were officially finished early summer.
But they've been doing one-off shows here and there and I think by the end of the year
they'll be completely finished with their tour.
So if Chad's wife will let him come out and play, come on Chad, we're ready. _
You've got a new Peavey Signature amp.
Tell me about that.
It's a two-channel amp.
The second channel is a distortion channel but I kind of refined it for him by adding
tone to it and a blend so that you can actually play at a lower volume and blend in the amount
of distortion and how aggressive you want the distortion to sound.
I think it turned out really damn fine myself. _
_ Switching gears, Michael.
Let's talk about Matt Anthony's Cafe.
_ Let's talk hot sauce.
I know you're very proud of that.
Yeah, well, obviously it's not something that _ I went into as deep as Sammy with his tequila
or _ like that.
But I do enjoy it and a company in Southern California makes it for me.
_ We're basically online and in a lot of boutique hot sauce stores and getting into a few more
of the major markets on the West Coast.
_ We have two hot sauces.
One's like a regular hot sauce, which still is hot, and then I have a triple X, which
you can want to have, well, maybe not even water.
That's not going to help you.
Plenty of milk, milk helps.
And then we do a spicy yellow mustard and a barbecue sauce, a regular barbecue [G] sauce
and a spicy barbecue sauce.
And it's just something that's [Em] really fun to do.
I'm really passionate about hot sauce.
Ever since back in Van Halen, fans would find out that I loved hot chili, you know, chili
peppers and stuff, and they would start bringing me salsas and peppers and stuff like that
to the shows.
And somebody suggested, hey, why don't you do a hot sauce?
And right then I know Joe Perry was coming out with his.
But I found the right kind of people and they really let me, again, have control rather
than me just slap my name on a bottle of hot sauce [Eb] and call it mine.
This is really my baby.
I don't know a lot of the technical stuff and some of the spices and stuff to use, but
I know what I like with the flavors, so I'd make suggestions there.
It's a fun thing to do and it's going really well.
Last question, Michael.
What would you be if you weren't a bass player?
Something outside of music.
Something outside of [Bb] music?
[Db] Well, _ [Eb] I'll tell you one thing.
If you asked my wife this, she'd probably say that I'd be a gardener because when I'm
home I'm always fixing sprinklers and stuff like that.
She goes, God, you must have been a gardener in your [Bm] previous life.
No, actually [Ab] the only other thing that I actually [Bb] was working on [Bbm] before _ _
[Gbm] my parents really let
me go full time with music was I [Eb]
took a lot of psychology classes, [Bb] if you can [Ab] believe that.
I wanted to work with _ underprivileged and [Bb] mentally disabled children.
I _ really have a soft spot in my heart for that.
[Ab] _ _ Beautiful.
Michael [Gb] Anthony, great catching up with you.
Enjoy the tour.
Safe [Eb] travels.
Much luck and continued success to you always.
Good talking [Bb] to you.
And you know, Chicken Foot will be [Eb] around soon.
[Ab] Like you said, check the hot sauce [E] out.
Check the new PVVBMA amp out.
It kicks butt. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _