Blog Posts For Tag: Van Halen

Conan O’Brien welcomed his first cast from a Broadway musical to perform on his show last night. The cast from “Hair”, all 50 members flew from New York to L.A. to perform on their day off. The performance was choreographed special just for Conan’s shows and new set. They looked like they were having a great time and if you haven’t seen the show, just watching the cast made you want to run out and do so.  There is something about all the peace and love of the 60’s that is just magical, not to mention those clothes. “Hair” actually won a Tony Award this year for Best Revival of a Musical. Watch the cast sing the title song, “Hair” and “Let the Sunshine In” from Conan last night.
 

I have to tell you about this new band that is so amazing you won’t’ believe it. First though you need a second to get used to the strange name. The band is called “ChickenFoot” and is comprised of one of the world’s best guitarists, Joe Satriani and Sammy Haggar (formerly of Van Halen) is the lead singer. The rhythm section of the group is made up of bassist, Michael Anthony (also from Van Halen) and Chad Smith (formerly with the Red Hot Chili Peppers) as the drummer. The group kind of just came together by accident while the guys were jamming together at Sammy’s Cabo Wabo Cantina in Mexico. In fact several of the guys were not even looking for another great rock and roll band experience, but once they got together and saw how they all clicked as a band, they knew they had to continue. They made a great decision and have an album “Chickenfoot”, which is the kind of rock album that will just literally rock your world, and the guys are going on tour this summer. If you haven’t heard them, here is a sample of their music. These guys have chemistry together and that’s what makes it work.  All their stuff is new stuff that they have done together so you won’t find Chili Pepper or Van Halen tunes. Just pure Chickenfoot.
 

Michael Jackson is still the main news headline but I do have some other happier news to share as well today. I found this interesting though, the former nanny of Michael’s three children is speaking out and what she has to say is not good. I think from watching Michael over the years and some of the choices he has made it is no surprise that he was a tortured soul. Whether it was from being in the fishbowl of the public eye at such an early age and not having a normal childhood as he has said or wherever his demons came from, I think we all always suspected it was there. Friday I shared what Lisa Marie Presley had to say and now the nanny is basically confirming his battle with prescription drugs. The nanny, Grace Rwaramba, who worked for Jackson for more than 10 years was just recently let go. She shares that she had to pump his stomach “many times after he’d take a dangerous combination of drugs.”  She also says that, “He always mixed so much of it. There was one period that it was so bad that I didn’t let the children see him. He always ate too little and mixed too much.”  Rwaramba says that she really wanted to help him and one time even attempted an intervention with his mothers help and his sister Janet’s help. But that upset him and caused Michael to fire her. She also talks about Michael’s debt and how he really had “no idea about money.” She tells how he was so broke he didn’t even have money to buy balloons for one of the children on their birthday. Really all you can say is that it is a sad story. So much talent yet so much pain.