Hagar Says Eddie Van Halen Didn't Get It?

02/23/2012
. (hennemusic) In a new interview with Goldmine, Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony discuss the Chickenfoot's strategy to beef up its vocal sound even before they recorded "Chickenfoot III" and the conversation turned to their former band Van Halen.

"Singing with him, he's the only guy that I know that could just go above [me]," adds Hagar. "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'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 f**king 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," Sammy continues. "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. So Mike and I, one time, we're in Cabo San Lucas when we were in Van Halen � say probably around '89, '88 or '89, when we were still loving each other, and having a good time � and Mike was in Cabo jamming and doing a live broadcast from the Cabo Wabo for some album network that I think used to be around that would do live broadcasts. And Ed is listening to it on the radio, and we get back and he asked me who was playing bass? He went, 'Yeah, yeah, you guys did 'Crossroads' by Cream,' and he goes, 'Who was playing f**king bass on that?' I'm saying, 'That's your brother right over here.' That was Michael Anthony on the bass. And Ed goes, 'Yeah? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah?' And then he'd smoke a cigarette, take a hit off a beer and go, 'Hmmm.' But, he didn't get it, you know? But Michael has been tearing it up on this record." more on this story

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