JOE SATRIANI On 'A Different Kind Of Truth': 'The Crime Is That We Don't Have Three New Albums'

In a recent interview with Classic Rock Revisited, CHICKENFOOT guitarist Joe Satriani was asked if he has heard the new VAN HALEN album, "A Different Kind Of Truth", and what he thinks of it. "I kind of like it," Joe replied. "I was talking to Sammy [Hagar, CHICKENFOOT/ex-VAN HALEN singer] about it the other day. I said, 'You know, Sam, I have to congratulate you on the enduring success of VAN HALEN. It is something that Mike [Anthony, CHICKENFOOT/ex-VAN HALEN bassist] and you should be proud of.' Mike and Sam were at least as successful, if not more so, than when Dave [Lee Roth, original VAN HALEN singer] was in the band. If you turn on any classic rock radio station, then you hear just as much Sammy-era VAN HALEN as you do David Lee Roth-era VAN HALEN. As uncomfortable as it might be for those guys to try to sort out business between them, from my perspective, I'm just a guy and I like it all. If I hear Eddie [Van Halen] and Alex [Van Halen] playing together, then I'm pretty much all the way there immediately. I think that both Dave and Sam brought interesting things to Eddie's musicianship, as he wrote different kinds of songs with each. Dave is more vaudeville and Sammy is more rock. For me, just to have a new record with Eddie Van Halen — I like that. When you think that we've been missing him for so long — the crime is that we don't have three new albums."

Speaking to Cack Blabbath in January, Hagar was asked what he thought of VAN HALEN getting back together with David Lee Roth and whether they were doing it for the music or they were doing it for the money. "Well, I'm not going to speculate why anyone does anything, but I'll tell you what — they waited so long and they're so not fan-friendly, and as big as VAN HALEN was in the past," he said. "That's what we used to argue about when I was in the band. I got thrown out because I didn't want to do a greatest-hits record. I said, 'Why the fuck? We're the biggest band in the world. Every album we've done since I've been in the band has been No. 1, we've sold out every arena on the planet. Now why would you want to sell them the same old record again and give them two new tracks? Why do you want to do that to the fans?' And we got into it. They wanted to do it at that time for the money, a new manager came in and he thought we could make a whole bunch of money for doing nothing, and I'm going, 'We've got a whole bunch of money, so why are we doing this?' We really didn't need to do it and it really caused problems in the band. Why they're doing it now, I have no idea, but I think it's about time. I personally don't think that what they have just released [referring to the single/video 'Tattoo'], what I have seen and heard, is great at all. It should be better than it is, but hey, it is what it is, and at least they got together and at least they came out with something, that's all I can say, you know. God bless them, but I was expecting a lot more."