Cherone interview from Boston Globe (Thursday)

[tap1966]

CHERONE HOME AGAIN FOR 40TH

"I came home at the end of '99 from LA," says Boston-based singer Gary
Cherone. "And I had some stuff I wanted to get out of my system. It was an
exercise in songwriting."

Cherone, who first came to fame with the band Extreme, had been recruited by
the band Van Halen to fill the shoes of Sammy Hagar. "We did a record and a
tour," Cherone says. "I look at it as being successful. I jumped into
something that was a beast, and it became a three-year whirlwind. But when
we started writing for the second record, the differences came up. [The
split] was truly amicable. Those guys were great, but there were two
different mind-sets. Lyrics were the end-all for me, and, no disprespect to
what they did, but that's where the fit didn't work."

Van Halen is a party-rock band. Cherone says he wanted to explore headier
themes, as he'd begun to do in Extreme. "There was a part of Eddie [Van
Halen] that wanted to go there, but Van Halen was such a monster."

One other problem: "I had short hair." Fans would say, " 'He doesn't look
like Van Halen.' What does a collective Van Halen look like?"

Cherone has recorded a new album, "Benefits of a Short-Term Memory," which
he hopes to release by the end of the year. He's also formed a band, Tribe
of Judah, with keyboardist Steve Ferlazzo, guitarist Leo Mellace, bassist
Pat Badger, and drummer Mike Mangini.

"I was definitely attracted to the new canvas that Steve was setting down
for me," says Cherone, adding that Tribe of Judah emphasizes grooves and
keyboard programming. "The overall mood has been darker, groove-orientated.
I think it's the heaviest band I've been in, dynamically."

Cherone celebrates his 40th birthday tonight with a free Tribe of Judah gig
at the Hatch Shell sponsored by WFNX-FM. The band plays Lilli's in
Somerville Tuesday.

[diggyd]

He's a classy guy. At least the split was amicable this time.

[79th and Sunset]

Whats interesting to me is that Cherone and Ed had a hard time with the lyrics. Gary wanted "headier" themes ?

So, what does a collective Van Halen look like ? The angel on the cover of 1984 ?

[KenyonVincent]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Jonathan:
One other problem: "I had short hair." Fans would say, " 'He doesn't look
like Van Halen.' What does a collective Van Halen look like?"
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Ed had short hair...twice.

[Yesterdays]

Why do you have a hard times with the lyrics part? He tried that on VHIII and got slammed. VH is pretty much primarily known as a party band. Look how alot of fans also slammed Sammy's more message-ridden songs such as Humans Being and Can't Stop Lovin You (well for Sammy they were message songs).

As for the hair, well what's he going to say they couldn't stand my embarressing moves, youth, fill in your own blank.

[Markymark]

"Right Now" was a message song also!

[SactoFan]

I can see that conflict really easily...Gary's new band is NOWHERE near Van Halen...

It's easy to picture Eddie being conflicted about the content direction of the band...

[mrblu]

What's funny to me is that when Sam got shitcanned; they complained about lyrics. Then, with Gary, they got serious. Now, if it goes back to Dave, it's back to worse than the content with Sam. Can Ed make up his mind???

[AbeVanHalen]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by mrblu:
Can Ed make up his mind???<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Considering that he worked with 3 different singers in '96, the answer is a resounding NO.

Lyrically, one thing I always give Dave credit for is being fairly metaphoric, whereas Sammy was usually up front (pun not intended) and straight-forward. If Dave is to ever return, when dealing with young fans, I don't think they stand a chance to understand ANY of it.

After all, this is the 'oops I did it again' and 'i did it all for a cookie' generation we're dealing with. At this point, VH can do nothing 'right' lyrically. No matter what direction lyrics may take, they're gonna get slammed left and right for not doing something else.

There's no reason to even wonder if/why Eddie can/cannot make up his mind. They're stuck in a nasty catch-22.

[pkjr]

All I know is, Gary Mercury's lyrics make "Hot for Teacher" sound like goddamn Shakespere.... [img]smilies/scared.gif[/img]

[SactoFan]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by AbeVanHalen:
[QB]

Lyrically, one thing I always give Dave credit for is being fairly metaphoric, whereas Sammy was usually up front (pun not intended) and straight-forward. If Dave is to ever return, when dealing with young fans, I don't think they stand a chance to understand ANY of it.


Which is why the older fans are going to lead the way for the comeback...Kids don't know what's cool until it IS shown to them and explained to them...Maybe that's why, to me, Led Zeppelin is even cooler now than they were back in the day...I'm smarter now...I'm willing to listen...Not all kids will dig VH, but the RIGHT ones...the SMART ones will...Evidenced by our young Linkers here...

[redfire]

At Metal-sludge.com, they did a Rewind with our favorite coverband frontman, Ralph Saenz. Anyways, he talks about performing with the Punks in front of a bunch of High School kids and Ralph said they loved it. So, I think we the right exposure VH can do it. Hell, every single VH album, except VH3, went atleast, ATLEAST double platinum. Even BOV1, that hit number 1 and sold 2 million units. Not many other bands greatest hits go number one and double platinum.

[redfire]

Here's the Link to it........
http://www.metal-sludge.com/RewindRalph.htm

[SToRM]

let's face it:

Gary could have sung about the influence of Clay Binders on the Performance of Pd/HZSM-5 Catalysts for the Hydroisomerization of n-Butane ...

... if the album would have gone double platinum = no problem at a-l-l !

but the album didn't go anywhere!

good or bad, WB just don't care!

it's really that easy in showbusiness: bring in the cash and you can do whatever u want.

period!

cheers,

SToRM

[SactoFan]

Agreed, Storm...