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Classic Rock Briefs For December 1, 2008

Drummer Michael Lee Dies At The Age of 39

Probably recognized most for his work with Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, drummer Michael Lee has died at the age of 39. Lee was tapped to be a part of Plant’s solo band and remained with Plant when he reunited with Jimmy Page in 1994. He was also on both albums that resulted from that reunion, No Quarter: Jimmy Page And Robert Plant Unledded and Walking Into Clarksdale.

Lee was also known for his work with other groups including Echo & The Bunnymen, Little Angels, The Cult and Thin Lizzy, as well as for his playing in bands for several theatrical performances.

It was reported that Lee died as the result of a seizure after being out the night before and reporting that he was not feeling well. Former Queen frontman Freddie Mercury and KISS drummer Eric Carr also passed away on the same date, November 24.

Live Earth Event Cancelled

As a result of the recent terrorist attack in the Indian city of Mumbai, it has been decided to cancel the Live Earth concert that was to take place there.

Major rock acts such as Bon Jovi and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd were scheduled to perform.

Tour Rider From Van Halen Tour Revealed

Although there were no reports of requirements for M&M’s candies with the brown ones removed, the tour rider for the recent Van Halen tour does contain a few interesting details that may hint at the state of the personal relationships between the members of the band.

Frontman David Lee Roth was required to have a dressing room that was as far away as possible from the dressing rooms of the other group members. Roth’s dressing room was also required to be lacking any carpeting or rugs in order to facilitate his martial arts activities that are presumably part of his preparation for his performance.

Not surprisingly, a “study room” was also called for, where bass player Wolfgang Van Halen could spend time with a tutor. Being 16-years-old at the time of the tour’s starting date, private tutoring may have put a slight damper on his new rock star status, but his continued education was obviously considered important enough to add a private tutor to the tour.

Although no request was made for any alcoholic beverages in any dressing room, it appears that Eddie Van Halen’s on-stage cooler was stocked with a modest selection of wine. Full Story.

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Tags: India, Live Earth, Michael Lee, Tour Rider, Van Halen

Michael Anthony And Sammy Hagar Let Loose on Van Halen

Until now, former Van Halen bass player Michael Anthony has been pretty kind to his former band mates by not sharing his true feelings about his experiences while he was with the group, and his more recent exclusion from the Van Halen reunion tour. At least not publicly. Although he still seems reluctant to say anything really nasty about Van Halen, he does reveal a little more about the process that led to his separation from the group.

Although Anthony concedes that he sees himself as the ultimate “sideman”, and not necessarily the guy in the spotlight, he stresses that the role of a sideman is vital, and holds things together when the guy who is in the spotlight plays a ten-minute solo.

Although Anthony has talked about his disappointment that resulted from his exclusion from the Van Halen reunion tour which featured the return of original vocalist David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang on bass, he is talking more about his feelings now and admitted that he would have loved to have been part of it.

Revealing some of the negative feelings and disappointment about his parting ways with Van Halen, Anthony sounds like he has it all behind him now and seems to be very excited about the new group he has been playing with, which is being called “Chickenfoot” for the time being.

You can read more from the interview Anthony did with Music Radar and even download the audio from the interview.

Sammy Hagar, on the other hand, is a lot more open about his feelings when he talks about his time spent with Van Halen – a period in the group’s history that resulted in some of the group’s best material in my personal opinion.

Hagar, talking with Classic Rock Revisited not long ago, was clearly not pleased about the way Michael Anthony was treated by Van Halen when he was excluded from the last tour. “He got f***ed and it was horrible. I am not going to go on about ‘why and what,’because I have no idea…(The fans) have been waiting for this reunion and they (Van Halen) did it wrong. It is one more strike against those guys. They are not healthy, mentally, and they make bad decisions. They don’t take the fans in mind for one second and it is not good."

Hagar also relates the story of how a drunken Eddie Van Halen tried to knock the window out of a plane the group was flying on during a tour, and almost left the group as a result. Although Hagar remained in order to finish up the tour, he insisted on flying in a separate airplane for the duration of the tour to avoid being exposed to Van Halen’s alleged dangerous drunken rampages.

Hagar has his own album that was released just yesterday called Cosmic Universal Fashion, and he is also heavily involved with Michael Anthony, guitarist Joe Satriani and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith in the aforementioned “Chickenfoot” project, something Hagar is no less excited about than Anthony and has described in the past as something that “could rival Led Zeppelin.” A bold claim to be sure, and it will certainly be interesting to hear this new material when it finally starts making its way out for us all to hear. They are hoping to complete the album they are working on sometime next summer.

For more on Hagar’s comments, check out KBS Radio.

Tags: Chickenfoot, interview, Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar, Van Halen

Former Van Halen Bassist Michael Anthony Back on Track

Thinking back on how he was booted out of Van Halen evokes some painful memories for Michael Anthony. After a long career with the Van Halen brothers, Anthony learned early last year that he had been replaced by Eddie Van Halen’s son, Wolfgang.

According to Anthony, that wasn’t the most painful event that marked his split with the group, who had decided to reunite with frontman David Lee Roth for a full-blown tour. The real low blow was delivered by way of the Van Halen website where Anthony had discovered that his picture had been removed from all Van Halen album covers that appear on the site – including the first one – and replaced with pictures of Wolfgang.

Outraged fans made their voices heard, and Anthony’s pictures were soon restored to their rightful positions on the album covers as a result. “I mean, to think that somebody would go to the trouble of trying to erase me from the band’s past, that hurt. But I think the fans felt the same way because a day or two later the website was changed and my pictures were put back,” Anthony said.

These days things are looking up for Michael Anthony. He’s joined up with Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani and Chad Smith to form what is currently being called “Chickenfoot,” but word is that the name may be changed when they settle on what they actually want to be called.

The group is currently finishing up work on their new album, which Anthony sounds quite enthusiastic about – comparing the group’s energy to the early days of Van Halen.

No official release date for the album has been announced yet, but the group’s earlier plans were to finish recording by the end of September.

Read more at Music Radar.

Tags: Chickenfoot, Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar, Van Halen, Wolfgang

The Politics of Rock

As we draw nearer to the Presidential election, the rhetoric and attacks flying back and forth between the McCain and Obama camps is intensifying. But the political candidates and their campaign teams are not the only ones who are out there in the public eye making their voices heard.

National campaigns in the past have traditionally been accompanied by public support from various celebrities, who, for one reason or another, are convinced that the rest of us really need to know who they are voting for. I’m not sure if it’s just me, but doesn’t this kind of activity seem to be cranked up a notch this time around?

I first started paying attention to this when the Wilson sisters of Heart complained about the McCain camp’s use of their hit song “Barracuda,” which was said to have been chosen because “Sarah Barracuda” was a nickname that Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin picked up in High School as a result of her aggressive style while playing sports.

Later we heard that Jackson Browne had his knickers in a twist over the use of his song “Running on Empty” as part of a McCain television advertisement.

In addition to those well-known rockers, by digging back just a little bit in history, we find that John Mellencamp asked the McCain campaign to stop using his music back around February.

Since then we’ve heard from Van Halen, who was not happy about the use of their song “Right now,” which was written during the “Van Hagar” days, and apparently did not present any problems for Sammy Hagar who thought it was just fine, but Hagar is known as a GOP supporter.

More recently, it seems that the Foo Fighters are angry with the McCain people over use of their song “My Hero.” In a statement the group said the following: "The saddest thing about this is that ‘My Hero’ was written as a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential. To have it appropriated without our knowledge and used in a manner that perverts the original sentiment of the lyric just tarnishes the song."

In response, McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said: "The McCain-Palin campaign respects copyright. This campaign has obtained and paid for licenses from performing rights organizations, giving us permission to play millions of different songs, including ‘My Hero.’”

I guess that’s probably something that some famously politically active rockers are not too happy to hear, but if the McCain campaign did indeed follow the proper procedures and pay to use those songs (any appearance of doubt on my part is a result of the fact that we are dealing with politicians and their cronies here), it seems there is little that the flustered artists can do except whine to the press about the use of their material.

I guess it also explains why the McCain campaign continues to use many of these songs despite the requests from the artists who wrote them to stop.

But the vitriol that has been flowing freely from some artists in the direction of John McCain and his supporters is just one side of the story. There are a few artists out there who are very willingly lending their music, as well as their celebrity status to the causes of their chosen candidate.

Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel are very vocal supporters of Barrack Obama and have even been out performing in support of their candidate. Not to to be outdone, Jon Bon Jovi hosted a $38,000-a-plate dinner with Obama, although those of lesser means had the chance to opt for the more reasonable $2,300 ticket which did not include dinner with the Presidential candidate.

Speaking of supporters, most recently we heard from Alice Cooper, who is known as a Republican supporter, and has been quoted during an interview saying that he thinks Sarah Palin is “…totally a breath of fresh air. When they say she has no experience, maybe that’s what Washington needs. I still don’t know who I’m going to vote for. But in a shooting war, I want a pit bull, not a poodle. I’m gonna go for the hawk,” Cooper said.

There is certainly an element of the citizenry that is not too pleased with the attention and money that celebrities are lavishing on their candidate of choice. For example, a letter to a New Jersey newspaper from a reader makes her views on the subject quite clear.

Personally I tend to agree with the author of that letter, and I wish celebrities, who have a distinct advantage over the common citizen when it comes to getting the message out in support of the candidate, would keep private the choices they intend to make when they enter the voting both.

That is a message I would direct at both political parties (the only two we appear to be stuck with for eternity, by the way), since I am a true independent, and could go on at length about the problems I have with both Republicans and Democrats. However, this is Real Rock News and not a Washington Times or New York Times editorial column, so I will leave it at that.

What do you think? Does the political activism of celebrity rockers annoy you or do you see it simply as their right to free speech?

Tags: Biden, Billy Joel, Foo Fighters, Heart, Jackson Browne, McCain, Mellencamp, Obama, Palin, Politics, Springsteen, Van Halen

Sammy Hagar Talks Van Halen And Tequila

Sammy Hagar has been making himself heard recently, and some of his comments may have rubbed a few people the wrong way. Not long ago, he was reported to have compared the group he is currently working with, Chickenfoot, with Led Zeppelin, and commented that, “Chickenfoot could rival Led Zeppelin.”

Well, since that eventful moment, Hagar has backed away from that comment and says that he was under the influence of Tequila at the time, referring to himself as “ripped” and admitting that he “said something stupid.”

Although he has conceded that the Led Zeppelin comment was “stupid,” Hagar still sounds like he has great expectations for this new group, which will probably be called something other than Chickenfoot when all is said and done.

“The world needs this band right now. The rock ‘n’ roll world needs this band. We are a rock band, and we’re at the top of our game. When the world hears this, it’s gonna turn on its side,” he says.

Reflecting on his days with Van Halen, which is referred to at times as “Van Hagar,” Hagar reveals what he says were the real reasons he ended up parting company with the the group.

According to Hagar, it came down to a power struggle within the group between him and Eddie Van Halen, who , according to Hagar was not the kind of guy that handled a leadership role very well, and was happy to allow Hagar to call a lot of the shots.

All of that changed when the group came under new management, according to Hagar, and he believes that the new manager worked behind the scenes to “poison” Eddie Van Halen, and convinced him to become more assertive about leading the group.

Hagar also suggested that Eddie’s well-publicized drug use contributed to the conflicts that eventually convinced him to leave the band, and also believes it made Eddie  more susceptible to the new manager’s influence.

Hagar recently sat down with Music Radar for an interview where he revealed these details and more. You can check out the entire interview and download it at Music Radar.

Tags: Chickenfoot, Led Zeppelin, Sammy Hagar Interview, Van Halen