VH TO THE POWER OF 3

Rip It Up, Issue 247, 1 March 1998, Page 12

VH TO THE POWER OF 3

Van Halen are coming! After a controversial change of |ead singer (Sammy Hagar was replaced by ex-Extreme vocalist, Gary Cherone), the kings of hig rock are bhack ‘With a brand new album and a world tour that kicks off in New Zealand. Eldest Van Halen brother Alex, had more than a few words to say about their new bandmate and the revitalised power they now have with Van Halen 3.

“"' going to be a blast, it’s a s new season for us, so to speak with a new singer. We just finished the record which will be released on March 17 and we’ll take it from there.”

How’s Gary fitting in to the scheme of things? “Great. When we first got together it was never an issue of his talent. We were mainly

interested in whether or not we could get along, because in a band you spend a lot of time together so it’s important to get along. If you don’t, then things fall apart very quickly. With Gary it was almost instant, we could feel it was right.” ' What’s the real story behind the short-lived reunion with David Lee Roth in 1996? “It wasn’t really a reunion. What happened was Hagar had departed on a solo thing, and we wanted to put a couple of extra songs on the Best 0f... album. [Hagar] wasn’t interested and Roth called up, wanting to know how he was being represented on the record. One thing led to another and before you know it, he’s singing on a song, but that’s as far as it went. It didn’t take long to figure out all the reasons why it fell apart the first time were still there — it wouldn’t have

worked. Of course, Dave took the ball and ran with it, made a big deal of it, and painted a picture which was totally non-existent. Problem is, he goes to his press person and you see it in print, on MTYV, and on the news, and people start wondering. The reality of it is, it never happened!”

Why wasn’t ‘Hot For Teacher’ on the Best Of?

“It was a tough call to figure out which songs were going to go on there, and obviously we

couldn’t put it all on. Who knows, maybe it’ll be on volume two.” Are you including more Rothera material in the live act now?

“Absolutely. The last 11 years with Sammy, it was very difficult to do some of the earlier material because he wasn’t really interested. It got to the point where a lot of the audience were asking for preSammy stuff and to not play it is to deny there was actually a history to the band. Now, it’s not an issue because Gary will do it all. Anything that the four of us all it takes. Since it’s the first time in 20 years that we’ve been to New Zealand, it’s going to be quite a chore to figure out what to play. Maybe we’ll play four songs at the same time! Of course, the new record is something that’s very fresh in our blood, so we’ll want to play stuff from that one Was it a satisfying album to make? . ~ “It really was. The more you listen to it, the more things you start to hear. It was the first time that the lyrics came first. Gary wrote them and Ed wrote the music to it, as opposed to the past where Ed, Mike and I would get into the studio and hammer out would be added over the top. It was a refreshing way to do it and shows how inspirational the lyrics are.”

Who’s that singing on the nice final piece ‘How Many Say I’? “That’s Ed. Nothing’s off limits in this band. It really worked out best for Ed to sing that song and Gary had no qualms about it.” Gary’s voice sounds a little like Sammy Hagar’s.

“Ive heard that comment before but I don’t hear it. All that I can attribute it to is that when

you’re singing in that high register, the voice seems to take on that

character. But the voice part is not high for the sake of being high, it just happened that the melody went that way and the only way to get to it was to get up there. You could transpose it, but it would sound different on the guitar and it’s odd how everything revolves around how the guitar is tuned.” Are you still playing on a huge Ludwig kit?

“Pm still playing Ludwig. It’s fairly large, it’s enough for me to get around on and it has what I need. It depends who you ask I guess — some people think it’s huge, and some people say ‘well, I’ve seen that before!’”

So Alex, how do you tell the right drumstick from the left? “I haven’t figured that out yet but I’'m having the guy who takes care of my stuff put ‘R’ on one and ‘L’ on the other!”

Will Van Halen be bringing all their stage set down here? “As much as we can possibly fit, we’ll try and cram it all in

there. We’re actually going to get there finally, it’ll be great. It’ll be raw, it’ll be fresh — we’re very much looking forward to it.”

GEOFF DUNN