VAN HALEN NEWS DESK

Chickenfoot: Two Chad Smith interviews

Chickenfoot_by_Ross_HalfinThere’s two new interviews with Chickenfoot’s drummer, Chad Smith. Below are excerpts from both of them, and links to both full interviews:

From BostonHerald.com:

Red Hot Van Halen Chili

Here’s an excerpt:

Boston Herald: You seem like you exist in a different universe from the ex-Van Halen crew, how’d you meet these guys?

Chad Smith: We hooked up through eHarmony. Or was it Match.com? Our profiles just clicked, “Male, digs late-’60s and ’70s hard rock, likes to get drunk.” No, I met Sam in Mexico when I was on vacation. You know, he’s like the mayor down there in Cabo. So I stopped into his place and next thing I know he’s like, “Let’s jam!” He’s like Mr. Energizer Bunny, he just goes and goes.
And, from Boston.com:

Four legends: Veteran rock gods crank it up in a new direction

Here’s an excerpt:

Although the band could sell out much larger venues, Chickenfoot decided to road test the music on a club tour, which stops at the Middle East Downstairs – which, with a capacity of 575, is the smallest venue on the tour, according to Smith – next Tuesday. The show is sold out.

“We don’t want to come off like, ‘Oh yeah, we’ll go play this sports arena,’ ” says Smith, who, at 47, is the youngest member of the group. (Satriani’s 52, Anthony 54, and Hagar 61.) “We’re playing all of our own music. We’re not playing Van Halen, Chili Peppers, Joe, nothing. This is a whole separate thing, and it has to fly on its own merit, so we’re taking it to the street like a new band.”

Chickenfoot will play larger venues in late summer, but for now, Smith is enjoying the rush of the new at the small gigs. “I haven’t felt that in a long time,” he says.

One thing Chickenfoot won’t be doing is worrying about whether this project makes any money.

“We’re all very rich, especially if Joe wins that Coldplay lawsuit and gets some of that Gwyneth Paltrow money,” Smith says with another laugh. “Sammy’s [expletive] loaded. It’s so funny, we’re on tour and we’re playing 600-seat clubs and we’re staying at the Four Seasons and flying on a private plane. It’s definitely clearly for the music. No one has anything to prove. Why would you want to do this when you could just kick it? It’s because we’re really digging the music and having a good time.”

  • Rodney

    I think Chickenfoot needs to sell some chickenfoot shoes.

  • Vanicionado

    ROFL!!

  • Rick

    “Although the band could sell out much larger venues” – yeah right, as if!!!! The “veteran rock gods” can sell 575 tickets just because of the ex-VH hype they and the Hagaritas gere create. Dream on, its gonna be lonely in those sports arenas they attempt next. Lame, really lame. This is so over already. Fact is, nobody really cares apart from this site.

  • Rick

    Nobody has to prove sth, then dont try next Led Zep best guitar player ever played with! You are just full of it and you suck big time.

  • Rodney

    How about a Chickenfoot alarm clock….clucks at you in the morning.

    It would be cool if the Chicken shoes cluck everytime u take a step…..

  • Vanicionado

    Oh Rick… go beat your dog and kick your wife…

    So much anger…

  • SCAR

    Sounds like Rick is Chief of the Fun Police!!! Oops, I said the “F” word again!!!

  • SCAR

    How about a Rick alarm clock – it talks a bunch of shit all day long!!!!

  • pushtoshove

    I just popped a cold one Scar-cese ….I’m with you bro…Oops! I’m having fun again!

  • Chris B.

    Flea wanted to know what it was like to play with Mike Anthony. That’s awesome.

  • pete

    sounds like you care more than any of us Rick.

  • ace5150

    Rick you cared enough to post twice.

    What an idiot! LOL

  • http://vhlinks EL c

    Hey Rick,
    you of ol ye short memory,
    You waste so much of your life critising CF, and lurking on these topics that you really, really, have to get it together.
    Its your diamond,the dysfunctional brothers and junior who are resting on their name, but oh thats right, your holding on to the 10 albums worth, the new guitar, the shoes, the pics, the loon, to bide your time.
    VH = new tunes = Dream on, Dream on
    Oh and by the way hows that new porno sundtrak working out for ya?
    Pretty well by the sounds of things

  • nate5150

    I’ll tell you what guys. CHICKENFOOT is the real deal. Satch is a SHREDDER, sam and mike are the other half of van hagar(nuff said), and Chad Smith sounds like the second coming of John Bonham! SO enough with the haters. THis isn’t Van Halen, this is 2009, and a Band that is actually making music. Not Eddie and ALex touring on the same ancient material, selling sneakers. Rock on CHICKENFOOT.

  • Nat

    Nice. The entire home page of the Van Halen News Desk is filled with Chickenfoot stories :-)

    They must love the fact that they’re getting all this free press from a site that caters to Van Halen fans. I wonder if there’s a Joe Satriani News Desk or a Red Hot Chili Peppers News Desk somewhere out there that are giving Chickenfoot carte blanche coverage?

    Why doesn’t this site just stick to posting all the news coming out of the Van Halen camp? That would be enough to keep it going, right? ;-)

  • Jeremy

    Everytime I read a new article on here, we have the same stupid fucks who have to shit on it all the time!

    We have of course Rick(or DICK which he prefers)!

    Then we have Erick(which is close to Rick)

    See these guys and there are more who bash this are assholes!

    I’m sorry for cursing VHND but this is getting lame.

    These guys just don’t like the fact that a bunch of millionaires can go out and play small clubs to show that they aren’t above all of us.

    But yet if Van Halen did this again, which they did with Sammy at the Whisky, it would be cool and ground breaking!

    Well Nat, which is an annoying bug, if you took the time to read the top of this page, you would understand why this is on here!

    THERE IS NO GOD DAMN NEWS FROM FUCKIN VAN HALEN TO POST ON HERE!

    If they would do something, it would be on here. They are done for the millionth time and get over it.

    If you don’t like Sammy, Mike, Joe, or Chad and Chickenfoot, don’t come on these great articles the VHND shares with us and ruin it.

    What I would like to do really here is take each and every one of you posers and shove every piece of Eddie’s merchandise right up your asses!

    This band is for real, it will be around for a while and will do more than Van Halen has done in over 11 years!

    Get over the fact that this is good new music and it’s going to be the best of 2009!

  • Johnny

    Sammy and the boys are havin fun.. Eddie is getting married, Dave is saving lives in NYC, Wolf is graduating from High school, Alex is doing whatever Eddie Tells him to do, I,m just hoping Van Halen Shits and gets off the pot and Dave returns as Dave and not a Ring Master Circus Clown, I hope if VH does something new It will be better than the 2007-2008 Not as good as we once were tour, back in the 70-80,s Van Halen was King, Dave was King , Edward will always be King, Dave needs to Step up if I,m gonna pay $150.00 for a nose bleed next time……OVER…JOHNNY

  • Johnny

    Nat, If we waited for VH Camp stuff there wouldnt be any thing for all of us to bitch about, Right?

  • http://www.myspace.com/aarxn aarxn

    wow that interview was just arrogant!

    if they wanted to ‘start out like a real new band’ then staying at Four Seasons, and flying on private jets, doesnt really sound like rock n roll to me.
    sounds like Sammy trying to pull a make-shift band together for bragging rights only.

    all jokes aside, i’ll buy the cd and give them a chance, the tunes ive heard arent too bad, but wow this is sure over hyped. im already sick of chickenfoot from this site alone!

  • http://vhlinks EL c

    this cd is the shit.
    avenida revolution is one of the best. if not the, best riff joe has ever written, and Hagar’s voice is incredible on this track. you gotta hear it. even his detractors should concede, he sounds unreal and the song is a classic.
    the snippets we have heard are great, some hard to get the full scope of whats going on, but when you listen to the disc in full, this is a mighty, mighty effort and the production is fantastic.
    they have not let anyone down, and at this stage of each of their respective careers, and the fact that NONE of them have to do this, to take this shot and go back to the clubs is awesome.
    congrats guys.

  • Mark

    Look Edd and joe are my favourite guitar players and this chickenfoot is a little over hyped but come on its kinda fun its like a band from the old days just four guys goofing around . All musicians today are too serious and afraid to actually talk or show they are having fun .Sure it ain`t led zeplin 1 or Van Halen 1 but it still sounds good . If they stick around I think the next album could be even better once they really get to know each other and actually get in a room together . This was a little rushed but it still rocks and surely now Edd will have to bring something out and forget this whole embarrasing sneaker thing . I think Sammy`s Cabo tequila sucsess got to him and now he is trying to compete he would stripe his shit if he could and sell it .

  • http://myspace.com/timkarplus t1m

    I am excited for these guys that they are having fun and enjoying making music so late in their careers, but I’m not going to make the effort to go see them.

    I am curious about the apparent contradiction between “We’re not playing Van Halen, Chili Peppers, Joe, nothing” and Sammy Hagar’s assertion that they will eventually split up the show into sections featuring the individual members.

  • Nat

    Jeremy: “Well Nat, which is an annoying bug, if you took the time to read the top of this page, you would understand why this is on here!”

    Apparently the wink at the end of my post wasn’t enough to clue you in that I was BEING SARCASTIC!

    I guess I should spell it out so you’ll understand…

    Chickenfoot is dominating the site because there is no news coming from the Van Halen camp.

    Ever.

    I think that’s funny, and it doesn’t bother me a bit that CF is all over the site.

    How’s that, feeling better?

  • Tool-Man

    I saw the Road Show in Seattle. Nobody should be talking smack on these guys for anything unless they saw one of these shows first. Ive been to many shows in my life and that one ranked in the top 5.

    Number #1 you ask……Ozzy with Randy Rhodes, Paramount Theater in Seattle Early 80′s, Randy was off the charts….

  • Rick

    Jeremy – “These guys just don’t like the fact that a bunch of millionaires can go out and play small clubs to show that they aren’t above all of us.” Man you are delusional. Yeah right, thats the sole reason why they are not playing stadiums. The amount of self-delusion at these message boards is incredible.