MARK TREMONTI On WOLFGANG VAN HALEN: 'He's A Kick-Ass Musician'

September 19, 2012

Jo Schüftan of Horns Up Rocks! conducted an interview with ALTER BRIDGE and CREED guitarist Mark Tremonti on September 12 at the Highline Ballroom in New York City. You can now watch the chat below.

VAN HALEN bassist Wolfgang Van Halen made his first two appearances as part of Tremonti's solo band last week at shows in Rhode Island and New York City. This marks the first time Wolfgang has played with anyone outside of his father Eddie, his uncle Alex and singer David Lee Roth. The Pulse Of Radio asked him how he felt about doing these gigs. "It all feels incredible," he said. "It's just, it's so much fun to be able to do something different, but also do it with three of my best friends in the music business. So it's like, we're just four best friends playing awesome music and it's — I'm just having a great time."

"Wolfgang had been a bass player that we had considered for the band in the first place," revealed Tremonti to Horns Up Rocks! "But he was on tour with VAN HALEN. The situation just came up and he happened to be in New York and had his bass gear — he was hanging out with the guys from SEVENDUST — and I called him up and said, 'Hey, man, we have a show tomorrow night and we need a bass player. Whaddya think?' He's, like, 'Let me call you back.' Calls me back and says, 'I'll be there in an hour.'"

"We rehearsed for an hour and a half, two hours," continued Tremonti. "Went through another rehearsal the next day, and within 24 hours he's up on stage with us playing in the band. He's a kick-ass musician, and he's learned faster than anybody I've ever seen. He's amazing, and he saved the day."

The two shows last week were warm-ups for Tremonti's headlining stint on the annual HardDrive Live tour, presented by HardDrive Radio. The trek begins on Thursday (September 20) in Flint, Michigan.

Van Halen is replacing Tremonti's bandmate from CREED and ALTER BRIDGE, Brian Marshall, who is sitting out the Tremonti trek for undisclosed personal reasons. The other members of Tremonti's touring band include Eric Friedman on guitar and Garrett Whitlock on drums.

Tremonti is on the road behind his debut solo album, "All I Was", which came out this past July.

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