Loading ...
The easiest go-to joke after yesterday’s long-delayed Van Halen reunion announcement involved the fate of Gary Cherone, who the brothers VH contracted for lead-singer duty on the floptastic Van Halen III. But according to Collider.com, Cherone has, in fact, been writing songs with none other than his ex-bandmate Nuno Bettencourt, who recently escaped the clutches of Perry Farrell’s Satellite Party:
I had an opportunity to chat with Gary and Pat from Extreme for a few minutes, and not only has Extreme written a special song to contribute to the Brad Delp tribute concert this coming weekend in Boston (Extreme is performing), but apparently Gary and Nuno Bettencourt have been writing together all year (perhaps preparing for a new Extreme album?) This would be fantastic news for longtime fans of the band. Stay tuned!
Sure, this could just be a case of both guys just trying to save face after years that didn’t go so well, but for that reason alone, I’d give an Extreme reunion a better chance of surviving into the holiday season than the Van Halen tour. (And yeah, OK, I’m probably looking forward to it more, overarching evangelical messages of some of the band’s songs–”Hole Hearted,” cough cough–aside.) Let’s just hope that Cherone forgot everything he learned in 1998 before the writing process started.
Collider attends the Hard Rock Café Boston Grand Opening [Collider, via Blabbermouth]
Now we need Sammy to reunite Montrose!
Reforming Extreme is at least a more welcome publicity ploy than Cherone’s lamentable “open letter to Eddie Vedder” about abortion: [www.l4l.org]
Don’t Look Back presents Extreme II: Pornograffiti
I am weak. I would so go see that.
I just love blogs (Note: not ragging on Idolator.) that opine: “I haven’t listened to it, but I heard that it sucks.” Dude, make up your own mind.
I thought VH III was the most diverse and interesting of the entire Van Halen catalog. For once, it wasn’t lyrics like “everbody wants SOMMMMEE!” And Eddie produced quite the variety of tasty guitar tones.
While the possibility of an Extreme reunion intrigues me, I might have been ruined by YouTube research inspired by last week’s “wank” post, on guitar solos. Listening to Nuno wail behind a wall of Marshalls was great. I’m not sure I’m up to another hard-right-panned 50-minute listen to his crappy practice amp, like on “Waiting for the Punch Line.”
Unfortunately, if anyone has ever met Nuno(and you’re not a groupie), you know what a self absorbed jerk he is. Gary and the other guys are alright, but it was Nuno’s ego who ruined the band the first time.