By “Metal” Tim Henderson

Last week we posted Part I of our exclusive chat with former VAN HALEN bassist Michael Anthony - you can check it out here. In Part II, Anthony talks about CHICKENFOOT’s live show and particularly their chosen set-list, which surprisingly features no repertoire from the Van Halen, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS or JOE SATRIANI catalog. As well, Anthony opens up about his Van Halen past and whether or not Chickenfoot signals a closure to the somewhat turmoil-filled relationship. Let’s let the Jack Daniels-chugging bass monster talk!

The Chickenfoot tour has started and there are a few surprises for fans.

“We talked and went round and round about what we should do as far as that goes. Obviously we are playing the entire Chickenfoot album. But we wanted to keep it Chickenfoot. We wanted the focus to be on this band and not so much on our collective bands pasts. And I think the fans are really liking it, because we don’t want to have to rely on that. I don’t want everyone going ‘Whoa, they are going to start playing Van Halen songs,’ and people start shouting out for them. Then more comparisons will start between Joe and Eddie and Chickenfoot and Van Halen. So I think it’s really cool that we decided to stay away from all of that right now. Whether we do any of it in the future, we don’t know. We just figured that we’d try to pull out a couple of old nuggets. We are playing ‘Bad Motor Scooter’ (MONTROSE) though. Chad (Smith) was the one that really wanted to play that and we thought it would be kind of a cool song, so Sammy (Hagar) and Joe (Satriani) could switch off doing some cool leads. So that works out really nice. But we wanted this to be a Chickenfoot thing. We don’t want people saying, ‘Oh, they played a bunch of Van Halen and Satch stuff.’”

It must get tiring regurgitating with a smile like Mick Jagger does every time he sings ‘Satisfaction’.

“Exactly. If I was doing something with Van Halen then sure, people want to hear that stuff. But with this band, we want people to know that it’s a new band.”

With the wonders of the internet - YouTube, fan blogs etc - feedback is instantaneous. Happy with what you’ve seen so far in terms of fan reaction?

“The reaction that I’ve been reading is really favourable. People have really been enjoying themselves. They see us up there having a good time doing our own thing with this band. It’s great that people are enjoying it as much as we did writing it and recording it. It’s really weird, because when you are so wrapped up in doing it, you are in your own little world when we were recording this thing. It wasn’t until a lot of it was recorded and mixed that we sat back and went ‘Wow, this shit’s really good.’ I’m just glad that the fans are accepting it and having a good time. It’s funny, when we get up on stage, it feels like we’ve been together for five, six years already because we are just getting to be very comfortable around each other on stage. It’s a lot of fun, more fun than I’ve had playing on stage in years.”

You guys are quoted saying that you’ll hit the clubs first, then stadiums. Do you miss the bigger shows?

“You always miss the big shows. We’re calling this the Road Test, a pre-tour thing that we are doing. It is great playing these clubs. A couple of them, like Los Angeles at the Roxy and Seattle - very small clubs. I don’t know how they crammed so many people into that place. I’m sure that you’ve read the fire department came in and shut the show down for about 20 minutes. They had to clear a fire path that had gotten blocked. So we went and had a 15 minute break, then we came back on and kept playing. But if you check out the YouTube stuff, there’s a support beam pole right in the center of the stage. I think this place looked like it could hold 200 people and it had 800 people in it. It’s actually more trying for our crew than for us. They bitch and moan a little bit about it. We didn’t want to say ‘Hey, here’s four superstars; let’s jump straight into the arena game and try to sell out all that stuff. WE wanted the fans to get familiar with the material and not just jump into that. So we’re doing these shows, then we’re going to Europe in June and July and do a few of the festivals and hop around. Then we are going to do some of our shows, more theater-type things. We are already booking for August and September - it’s going to be a lot of theaters. We’re just going to see. Obviously in this economy, a lot of the promoters are a little bit shy, so we are going to give them a taste of what this really is and hopefully they’ll go, ‘Why don’t you come back and play the arena next time?’ We really want people to see what this is and get the buzz out.”

Does Chickenfoot signal a type of closure to your past?

“I don’t really even look at it like closure because I’m the guy who’s always said “Never say never” even as far as Van Halen goes. If the situation arose and it was all on the up an’ up across the board and right, then I would love to do something like that again, to play with those guys again. I’m sure Sammy would. I wouldn’t look at it like closure; it’s just like continuing on.”

It does sadden me as a fan to see what has transpired in your career over the past few years. You seem to have tough skin and it’s bounced off you.

“Some people want to go through life being bitter and everything. At my age at this point in my career, I want to have fun. You never know how long you’ve got in this business, so why waste time doing that? It was very disappointing. It started out in 2004 when we did that tour. For whatever reason, the brothers - Eddie in particular - was upset that I was playing with Sammy again. Van Halen wasn’t doing anything. And I didn’t think I was doing anything to tarnish the band’s name, or career or anything. I just wanted to go out and jam a few of these songs - Sammy wanted me to come out and have some fun and the fans wanted to hear it. They were having a great time. So I figured ‘Hey, what the heck.’”

So no connection, business or otherwise with Eddie or Alex Van Halen?

“Yes. I could sit there and be bitter. When I actually found out that I wasn’t going to be part of the last reunion thing with Dave, I heard about it like all the other fans did. Through the press or whatever. The one thing that hurt me more than anything else was that they launched their new website as they announced the tour, and I looked on the website and they had on the side of the screen on their home-page, all the early Van Halen records and on a couple, they actually took my image off the record. On the first record, if you look very close, he put an image of his son on there. And that’s the one thing that actually hurt me, that they - whoever it was, because I’m not pointing any fingers, but I think I know who is behind it - would want to erase me from the history of the band.”

That looks utterly ridiculous and quite childish on their part.

“Yeah, and the fans spoke up, ‘cause they noticed it, so for like a day it was all put back. All my images were on the albums again. That was the only thing that kind of torqued me up a little. Besides that, we all choose our own paths and obviously Eddie... if I had a son, I’d want to jam with him too. Try to do it like a reunion, and make it come off like that - I guess the fans might have got a little short-changed on that.”