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Gary Cherone on Van Halen and Chickenfoot

August 16, 2010 94 Comments

Gary Cherone was recently on the Eddie Trunk show. Here are the segments where they discussed Van Halen and Chickenfoot.

Extreme’s new video, “Run”:

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Filed Under: Gary Cherone, Van Halen
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  • PeteP

    Saw them with Gary in Melbourne in ’98 and I was blown away. Gary did an excellent job on vocals that night. VH3 was a good album, very underrated and like Gary said, EVH was on top of his game at this time although the production let the album down. Shame that they never finished their follow up album. And like Pete, I never understood why they kept “That’s Why I Love You” off VH3 as it is a very good song.

    Would have been good to hear Gary talk more about his working relationship with EVH and all the other stuff that was going on at the time. Nonetheless, it’s clear that Gary is a class act.

  • Chester

    When I hear people talk about wanting the next VH album with Dave (notice I’m hopeful) to sound like the original six-pack, it reminds me of every AC/DC album that has the same riff & chords. I love AC/DC, but after a while, you want to hear a different sound.

  • alexandre

    Let me say: VH3 should have been released as an Eddie’s solo album, because i think he was the only one who wrote all the music…

  • freddiegirl

    Thanks,Roth’s Wacky Son for saying what I couldn’t. I agree with everything you said, I don’t dislike Cherone; just didn’t think he was a great fit for VH. And that’s ok. Like many, as much as I’d love another Fair Warning or Women and Children First(that disk is so underrated!) I am aware that we won’t get that. I realize that Ed and Dave and Alex are older now but that doesn’t make me any less excited to hear what they have to say musically. Anything they do has got to be better than some of the crap that passes for rock music these days.

  • Chris B.

    I had to stop half way through part two. I felt bad for Gary cause I could hear in his voice “Enough VH, Chickenfoot stuff. Can I please talk about Extreme?”

    LOVE the fact that he and Mikey still talk. That’s fantastic.

  • vnhalen8

    VH III was musicaly great live BUT Gary’s wierd on stage antics were BRUTAL. He preened around like a ???? He doesn’t look or act like a VH front man…way too femmy. I saw them several times on the VH III tour. On one date in Vegas people were laughing out loud at Gary’s moves. He just doesn’t fit the sound or look of VH…no skipping or preening in VH. Nooooooooo!!!!!!!

  • kenny

    VAN HALEN 3. SUCKED!! SORRY

  • Dirty-faced kid in a garbage can

    I love how Gary joked about being in the batter’s box for a reunion tour with VH. I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing him and Extreme open for them next tour! Great attitude, and seems like a real nice guy and class act. PS… Van Halen III is OK with me! I’d rather have some VH than no VH at all.

  • nicktx

    @J5150C: I agree most with your comments.

    In some ways, ‘VHIII’ was to ‘Balance’ as ’5150′ was to ’1984′.

    It seems to me that some people just want to hear more of the same style of music to which they’re accumstomed. I’d rather hear a new VH album that’s uniquely different compared to any they’ve released than a re-hash of an already used style!

  • Matt from Australia

    I’m probably gonna get crucified for this, but I thought Gary was a good fit for the band. Yes, VHIII was not a great record, but there are a handfull of tracks on that record that really blew me away when I first heard them. It was an experimental album, and some of the tracks were absolute stinkers (if not a little self-indulging on the part of EVH). Overall though I think Garys voice was a good match for the band (both in the studio & live). I was lucky enough to seem them when they toured Australia back in ’98, Gary’s showmanship and voice craps all over Sammy! Very dynamic, is how I’d describe him.
    Anyway, hopefully Ed is out to right the wrongs he made with VHIII (fingers crossed), because if he doesn’t, it will definatley be over for VH (sad, but true). A lot of pressure for this album to be successfull…I’d hate to be in their shoes.

  • davidbmc

    I remember hearing how bad VH3 was. A few years ago I saw a used copy for a couple bucks and thought “what the heck? it is eddie, dave, mike and gary cherone. how bad can it be?”

    it sucked.

  • Remember the Prom Queen

    ‘VHIII’ is an excellent album.

    Gary is the most talented VH singer.

    That said, I rather listen to ‘Fair Warning’ than ‘VHIII’. I’d rather see a VH concert fronted by Sammy. And, I’d rather hear a new VH album with Dave on vocals.

  • Tater Salad

    After reading all these posts, I think VH3 will be my next buy.

  • http://www.vhnd.com Pat G.

    I had a tough time getting into VHIII. Cherone was/still is an awesome singer, but I can’t really figure out why VH3 was so hard to dig. I have been into Extreme since day one and when Gary joined VH, I was hyped, but the album was hard to get into. But he doesn’t bash Ed and Al, which is cool. Just tells it like it is and doesn’t sling mud. Really neat to hear how he and Mike got along so well back then and still do, now. I bet they could tell some cool behind the scenes stories.

  • Tater Salad

    Just a thought, much as I love Fair Warning, I’ll be happy if a new album is completely different. That’s one of the things I love about VH, from album to album it’s not all the same song. I can listen to VH all day and not get sick of it because every song is different. They achieve a recognizable sound without repeating the same song over and over. I’m interested to hear what a new album would sound like. I know people have said this before, but I think a double album would be really awesome half new recordings and half stuff that got cut(like Lets Get Rockin which is a pretty cool track I heard on you tube but it was cut from VH1). Freddiegirl, you are absolutely right, WACF is underrated! I think it might be my fave album right now :)

  • freddiegirl

    Tater Salad…me too.. ;) I’ve been listening to it alot these days….Take Your Whisky Home might be one of my most fav VH songs ever! And Fools and Loss of Control are just really, really cool!

  • Scottso

    vnhalen8 said:

    “VH III was musicaly great live BUT Gary’s weird on stage antics were BRUTAL. He preened around like a ???? He doesn’t look or act like a VH front man…way too femmy. I saw them several times on the VH III tour. On one date in Vegas people were laughing out loud at Gary’s moves. He just doesn’t fit the sound or look of VH…no skipping or preening in VH. Nooooooooo!!!!!!!”

    It’s like you read my mind ;-)

  • Roth’s Wacky Son

    The only thing I can really slag on Cherone was his stage attire and dance moves in 1998. I remember watching the MTV broadcast of the VH debut concert in Melbourne and it was quite cringe-worthy watching Gary preen around in a black leisure suit and rub his own butt! If you dont believe me, watch that show and you will see him rubbing his own buttocks. That is definitely NOT the Van Halen I wanna see!

    Cherone deserves a lot of credit for singing a lot of the Roth-era catalog that we were dying to hear. In 1998, most of us diehard fans were finally admitting to ourselves that a Roth reunion would probably never happen, and even though Gary doesnt have the greatest voice it was a nice treat hearing those Dave tunes performed again.

    By the way, I saw “VH 3″ at my local Kmart in the $1.99 discount CD bin and I bought a couple copies — they make nice beer coasters!

  • whambamsam

    Poor guy still under the shadow of VHIII…

    Trunk: “Yeah, yeah, we’re gonna talk about Extreme…after just ONE MORE segment on Van Halen…”

    (6 minutes later)

    Trunk: “So really, Gary, don’t you think another Sammy-VH reunion has gotta happen?”

    Gary: “Hey, how bout we talk about EXTREME now?”

    Trunk: “Oh, yeah, sure…you know, I think the fans are gonna want Michael back, too…”

    Gary: (signs and accepts his fate as VHIII frontman and nothing else)

    JEEZ!

  • whambamsam

    Did I write “under the shadow..?” Can you be under a shadow…? How ’bout “under the weight of VHIII” or “living in the shadow of VHIII”?

    Yeah, that’s better…

  • Getchabite

    Roth’s Wacky Son:
    I agree.
    VHIII is one of my favorite beer coasters too.

  • Matt ( from Mass )

    Gary is a class act. Very talented singer as well. I thought Gary did an awesome job on tour with VH. He really kicked ass on the van Halen Classics! Van Halen 3 , unfortunately was a terrible record in my opinion. Every 2 years I dust it off and give it a listen. Yep, it’s still bad.

  • DiamondDean

    VH3 and ou812 are probably the worst produced albums of all time , yes worse then st anger!!! Eddie shd never , never!!!! produce an album .

    Hagar was far more cringe worthy then cherone , ever see that tokyo gig in 89 , yikes yellow banana legs , terrible.

  • RobCT

    Trunk does great interviews! I’d love to see EVH sit down with him and recap the last 15 years!

  • Lupercal

    “For those who do not know, Mike and Eddie made the SAME AMOUNT OF MONEY during their time together. Royalties on each album except the Best of Both Worlds new material)and touring were split four ways during the Dave and Sammy years.”

    They really didn’t. If you didn’t read the leaked excerpts from Sammy’s Autobiography (they’re on the internet somewhere still, just google it) then you’d know that

    Eddie gets more money for being credited with writing
    Sammy gets more money for being credited with writing
    Alex gets more money because his last name is “Van Halen”
    Mike…

    But I really do like VH3. Its very interesting, almost epic in some parts. What I don’t understand is why there was so much record label pressure – if a band that has been around for over 30 years doesn’t have any huge number one radio hits, so what? They have an established fan base already. Thats probably one of the things that ruined Van Halen III as a record – the record company. I hear that Cherone left due to that pressure as he couldn’t just magic up something incredible for Van Halen IV.

    We can only hope that one day all the demo’s in 5150 will be released (c’mon, Warners can’t be stupid) and we’ll get to hear the raw magic of every album’s beginnings.

  • mean street

    The only reason Ed kicked Mikey out was so he could have a reason for his son to play in the band. Now that they did a worldwide tour with him, Wolfie should start his own band with kids his own age (because he is a great bassist) and Ed should invite Mikey back in! Those vocals are a huge part of Van Halen’s sound

    AND THEIR NEXT ALBUM NEEDS TO BE PRODUCED BY TED TEMPLEMAN!!!

  • HowmanysayI

    Gary rides the balony pony – plain and simple. I saw them in ’98 and although it was good to see Ed play old shit, it hurt to see Gary prancing around like Freddy Mercury up there. . .especially when we all knew Roth was ready for the reunion. . .and it would’ve been a real reunion with Mike in the band. Eddie, how’s that tuba playing goin’?

  • pimp

    For the person who said Mikey amd the same amount of money the whole time is wrong. They made him take less in royalties before balance came out.

  • Herb

    Dean….c’mon man. Bring some new material, please.

  • steve

    Gary’s right….the tour was great; Ed played great and there was a great mix of songs. Where else are you going to hear a VH set list with both Sammy & Dave songs?

  • john

    Trunk had an interesting point on a Sammy reunion in regards to at least sammy is capable of doing roth era songs while it’s pretty much impossible for roth to sing sammy era songs.

  • VH 3

    If everyone wants some Hagar era then maybe Chicken foot would be GOOD ENOUGH to play VH covers from that era, why cant there be Van Hagar in the set?

  • Michael

    The DAVEHEADS are the real punks in all of this, they are the ONLY one that slam Sam or Gary!

    Sam and Gary fans dig all three!

  • D Alexander Toluca Lake

    Lupercal may want to go back and look at the writing credits on all ALL SONGS and ALL albums except BOBW, and any songs that were covers of another artist (Pretty Woman, Dancing in the Streets, etc); they are ALL by “Ed, Al, Dave/Sammy, Mike”.

    And if you read the Fair Warning era article with Ed, he complains that he is doing all the work writing songs, while Mike is having his Arcadia house remodeled and paid for with VH money.

  • Lupercal

    Well, D Alexander Toluca Lake, Van Halen III said Mike was playing bass on every song. Looks like credits don’t mean shit!

    No offence man, but don’t believe everything Eddie Van Halen says. Read Sammy’s autobiography excerpts and you’ll be enlightened. Yes its just one side to the story, but its a good side.

    Mike has been sidelined on bass duties for a while and everybody knows it, possibly even since Fair Warning (and I know I’m not the only guy who thinks that). He played bass live but nobody knows what happened in the studio.

    Mike got paid less, doesn’t mean he didn’t get paid a lot of money. Just not as much as the others.

  • Top Jimmy

    Mike played bass on Fair Warning, I know that because the bass playing doesn’t suck. Ed’s genius on guitar cannot be questioned but a Bass player he ain’t.

  • Little Mike

    The reaction from both the fans and Warner Bros. probably has more to do with the silence and lack of material from the VH camp for over a decade. At the time of VHIII, Eddie was sobering up, playing his ass off, and like every alcoholic, he truly let himself get vulnerable, especially on the record. For that sensitivity, EVH was crucified, and the reactions from fans everywhere was abhorable…and EVH sits in 5150 and can say to himself….they didn’t want the real me.
    I hope for new tunes…I hope people accept it’s what he’s got and what he wants to do. The balls in his court, and his battles have already been fought (cancer, alch., hip replacement, divorce…) and now if you get music, it’s going to be just him.
    Long live the king, and for all the haters….
    shut up and listen

  • Cam Winston

    Good lord, you sound like Robert Gibbs trying to spin a typical Obama debacle.

  • Anthony

    I’ve read mentions of people saying they have seen some of the VH ’98 tour on Youtube. I’ve tried to search for some of that stuff but all I found a Cherone version of Jump and Why Can’t This Be Love. Where are you guys finding all the good clips?

    Though I do think Van Halen 3 is one of the worst VH albums, it’s still a pretty good album. Now, I know that probably doesn’t make any sense, but it makes perfect sense ‘to me’. I just love VH THAT much.

  • Guy

    I have been a Van Halen Fan since 1978. I didn’t mind the Sammy Era, but one thing that I always hated was that he didn’t do enough of the classic VH tunes from the Roth Era. I always felt that it was Hagar being selfish.

    I have to admit that I hated VH3, but I dug the live show because the band was playing more of the classics that I liked. The only song I really liked on the VH3 album was Fire in the hole. I Really love the Roth Era, it’s what I grew up on.

  • Cam Winston

    Anthony, you can get the whole concert via bit torrent from any number of sites. Use your favorite search engine & add the word “torrent” to the mix.

  • http://VHND HIKER MAN

    VH3 IS GOOD, YOU JUST HAVE TO LISTEN TO IT A LITTLE THAN THE OTHER STUFF. YEAR TO THE DAY HAS THAT KILLER GUITAR PARTS IN IT, FIRE IN THE HOLE, WITHOUT YOU, AND A COUPLE OF MORE OF THOSE SONGS ARE REAL GOOD, IT WAS SOMETHING NEW. I THINK BALANCE WAS A LOT LIKE VH3, JUST TO MANY INSTRUMENTAL TUNES. VAN HALEN 2 WAS ONE OF THE BEST VAN HALEN ALBUMS IN THE ROTH ERA, I THINK OU812 TO WAS THE BEST SAMMY CD, BUT I PRETTY MUCH LISTEN TO ALL OF THEIR STUFF.

  • Dave from Oz

    Hi VHND,
    If it weren’t for VH3 I would never have seen Van Halen live and I would be sitting here checking out this site all these years later wishing I had. Luckily I got to 2 shows of the VH3 tour in ’98, one in Tasmania and the other in Melbourne, Australia. Both shows were amazing, Eddie’s playing was brilliant and Gary did a fantastic job singing. I like all the VH albums so it was great to hear the earlier Dave material as well as the Sammmy era music.
    Yes I hope there is a new VH album on the way!
    Dave

  • Shanman1973

    I saw the VH III tour at The Palace in Detroit and you rocked it. Personally I was ecstatic over the show and left on a very happy note. You can sing and put on an awesome show. I still crank that album all the time!

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