SAMMY HAGAR (CHICKENFOOT, ex-VAN HALEN, MONTROSE) spoke with Christina Fuoco-Karasinski from SoundSpike recently about a number of topics. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

SoundSpike: 'Big Foot' is a fun song. It seems like it fits in well with the catalog.

Hagar: "The album, probably, is not as much fun as the last record. This record's a little more serious. 'Big Foot' could have been on the last record. Why we picked that single, it wasn't my first choice. I thought it was too typical of what people would expect from Chickenfoot, and it is. It's kind of like an extension of the first record, and our personalities -- fun, fun fun. The rest of the album is much more musical. It's not like heavy, "Woo, we have to listen to this." We got down. It's really good. It's not to be messed with. This being the most typical song, the record company and some of the people said, 'Let's make that the first single.' I said, 'I don't care, every song on the album's great. You can throw a dart.' When they kept saying to me, 'What song do you want?' I 'm going, 'I don't care, every song's great.' It's the first time I could ever say that on a record. Usually, you have two or three songs that you know are your best songs. This time I don't know what the best song is. I have very high hopes for that CD."

SoundSpike: Why did you decide to call your second album "Chickenfoot III"?

Hagar: "We took a long time before we could get back together because of everyone's schedules. When we started working on it, we jokingly called it Chickenfoot IV - as a joke. But then when the album was done, we said, 'This is not a joke.' We went, 'If we say Chickenfoot IV, it's going to put a little bit of a joke twist on it.' But it was way, way too advanced to be Chickenfoot II. The only song that kind of bridges the gap is the one you're hearing, 'Big Foot'. The rest of the stuff is way in the distance, man. We took a giant step forward and it's more like a third or fourth CD. We're not joking when we call it Chickenfoot III because we skipped over the dreaded second record."

SoundSpike: Are you going to tour in support of Chickenfoot III:

Hagar: "We're trying out at the end of the week on Saturday and Sunday (Aug. 6-7), Kenny Aronoff (TONY IOMMI, CINDERELLA, STRYPER) is coming up and we're going to play with him for two days. If it works, we're going to go out in November, I think, and do a buzz tour, play small venues in five cities, (like) New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco. Then, we'll make sure that it works and the chemistry is good. If it is we'll go out with Kenny. We don't want to just grab a drummer just because he's good and find out that we don't have the chemistry. Chickenfoot is all about the chemistry. You pick your favorite bass player, drummer, guitar player singer and you don't necessarily have a great band. It can be a disaster because of chemistry and people don't get along. It isn't just arguing; it's just the music can start arguing and doesn't gel. There's been a lot of "super groups" that people have contrived and put together in the past. That's why we don't like to call ourselves a "super group." We grew together. When you throw these people together you don't necessarily get good music. We have to make sure that Kenny brings a different chemistry that works or the same chemistry as Chad. Chad picked him because he said Kenny's just like him. He beats his drum set to death. He doesn't play them. He beats them to death. At the end of every show you have to buy a new drum set for these guys. We need that power. Chad, he's powerful. (Arnoff will) just be on loan anyway. Chad's handing him the baton and he's going to run for awhile. When Chad can come back, we'll make Chickenfoot IV probably with Chad."

Read the entire interview here.

Chickenfoot III - produced by Mike Fraser (AC/DC, METALLICA) - is set for worldwide release on September 27th from eOne Music in North America and around the world by earMUSIC/Edel in a special 3D designed package. ‘Big Foot' is available via Amazon and can be heard on youTube below:

Chickenfoot III full tracklisting:

'Last Temptation'

'Alright, Alright'

'Different Devil'

'Up Next'

'Lighten Up'

'Come Closer'

'Three and a Half Letters'

'Big Foot'

'Dubai Blues'

'Something Going Wrong'

Chickenfoot III follows up the band’s 2009 self-titled debut Chickenfoot, which was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, topped the charts at #3 on Billboard’s Top Independent albums of 2009 and #88 in the Top 200 Albums of 2009, was supported by performances on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel Live, an initial sold out nine-city club test tour and rolled into a full 30-city cross-country US Tour.

Chickenfoot III teasers: