EXTREME singer Gary Cherone (ex-VAN HALEN) spoke with Niclas Müller-Hansen from Sweden's Metal Shrine Bloggen recently about a number of topics including his new side project called HURTSMILE. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Metal Shrine Bloggen: What's the story behind Hurtsmile and working with your brother (Mark)?

Cherone: "After all these years it´s a wonder why didn't hook up sooner, but we had different bands. He´s a little younger than me and during the Extreme days, in the clubs, the funny thing was that he hooked up with Nuno's brother Paul and he was in a band called Flush. It (Hurtsmile) was a project that started in 2007 and the I had to put it on the shelf because of the Extreme reunion and we did the record and tour and then when Nuno had an opportunity to do the RIHANNA tour, it made sense to finish the record. I love playing with those guys, they're all East coast guys and I've known them for years and I really wanted to write a record with my brother.

Metal Shrine Bloggen: You mentioned that with Extreme you're working on some new stuff and I also realized that it's the 20th anniversary of the release of Pornograffitti this year. I read somewhere that you had plans of doing something before the end of the year. Do you still have any plans of playing?

Cherone: "We really messed with that idea and we were excited to do it, but scheduling didn't permit it because of Nuno´s Rihanna thing and I don't blame him. It was an intriguing gig. He says it's great, but he misses the rock and roll part of Extreme. I think someday… we missed the 20th anniversary, but I'd like to do a string of dates and do the whole record because there are some songs there that we haven't done in over 20 years or let alone, I think, have ever done. Maybe get some horns out for 'Get The Funk Out' and 'Li´l Jack Horny' and some of those tracks."

Metal Shrine Bloggen: When you were singing with Van Halen, do you have any memory of the first meeting you had with those guys and the first jam session? Do you remember what songs you played? Was it just Van Halen songs?

Cherone: "Yeah, that was the plan. Here I am, just getting out of Extreme, I had a vocal operation and that year I did Jesus Christ Superstar and my manager says 'You're gonna be auditioning for Van Halen!' and I go 'Yeah, right!' and he goes 'No, really!' Eddie called me and we had a great conversation and we talked about maybe five or six songs I'll learn. A couple from the Sammy era and a couple from the Dave era and I remember arriving there in the afternoon… I knew Michael Anthony before that and he came out and greeted me. Alex and Eddie were in the studio 5150 at the time and I go 'Hey Mike, what's up man?'. I'd met him a few times and he remembered me and I go 'You gotta help me out here man, I'm a little nervous!' and he goes 'Nah, don't worry about it!' Then Eddie literally came out and shook my hand and said 'Hey man, you ready to sing?' I go 'Yeah! You mind if I go to the bathroom?' (laughs) So I went to the bathroom and said a little prayer, you know, 'Just let me do good!' (laughs) If I'm not in the band, so what!' Believe it or not, I went in there and I had nothing to lose. I sang… I think it was 'Panama' and then we had a little break and he showed me what was to become 'Without You' and we wrote that and I even think some of that take was even on the record."

Read the entire interview here.