Newsbites: Hagar asked to replace Tyler

Keeping busy: Sammy Hagar

Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford has revealed Chickenfoot and ex Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar was invited to join the band when they were thinking about replacing Steven Tyler in 2010. Whitford tells That Metal Show: “We had to talk about it – maybe we could put a different name on it and bring somebody else in? We spoke to Sammy and he was really excited about it. I love Sammy. It was like, ‘Oh, man, this would be so cool!’ But it all started to come back together on its own.”

Meanwhile, Hagar was joined on stage by Whitesnake mainman David Coverdale at the weekend. The pair sang a version of Led Zeppelin track Rock And Roll during a “prototype” of a Four Decades of Rock show Hagar’s planning to tour next year. The Red Rocker said: “I’m turning 65 – I’m cool with it. Everybody’s always trying to lie about their age. Fuck that. I never dreamed I’d still be doing this, but now I never dream about quitting.”

Hagar’s Chickenfoot bandmate Joe Satriani says the band fell into playing Deep Purple’s Highway Star by accident. Their take on the song appears on Re-Machined, the official tribute to Purple’s iconic 1972 album Machine Head, which is on sale as part of a Classic Rock Fan Pack. Satriani explains: “We started our first tour and we were threatening to play it. I don’t think Sammy wanted to do it – he’d never really memorised the lyrics. Somebody printed them up and threw them on the stage. At the beginning of the song you hear me starting up Bad Motor Scooter because that’s what was on the setlist. Chad Smith, in a most mischievous way, started playing Highway Star, so I had to kind of segue into it. I think for the second verse, Sammy is literally on his hands and knees reading the lyrics.” [Music Radar]

Former Megadeth guitarist Glen Drover has commented on his joining Geoff Tate’s version of Queensryche, which the sacked singer has announced in face of his ex colleagues’ own outfit of the same name. Drover says: “This is a band that I grew up with and have always respected a great deal. It will also be great to play with the other musicians involved that I’ve never played with before. Really looking forward to this.” [BraveWords]

Sebastian Bach has clarified a recent statement he made about writing a book. He told the press that if he decided to put together an autobiography it would “make the dirt look clean,” which media took as a reference to Motley Crue’s book The Dirt. Bach says: “Why does the press always put words in my mouth? My answer was exactly this: ‘I could make the dirt look clean if I wanted to.’ I have never used the words ‘Motley Crue’ when talking about my book.”

Deanna Adler, mother of former Guns n’Roses drummer Steven, has summed up her experience of fighting against his addiction issues, saying: “My life has been filled with a constant struggle to keep my son alive and it’s a life I wouldn’t wish on anyone.”

Meanwhile, ex GnR bassist Duff McKagan suffered his own life-endangering moment while taking part in a charity climb of 14,411ft Mt Rainier in Washington state. He reports: “My right eye suddenly blurred at about 11,000ft. I kept it quiet – I didn’t want to be the guy who held up the group. Pride plays a factor and pride is dangerous in those slippery, steep and treacherous places. At 12,000ft both my eyes went blurry and nausea was overcoming me. At about 12,800ft a guide from another climb came up to me and announced he thought I had a cerebral edema, and ‘could die soon if he doesn’t get down very quickly.’ I guess my eyes were rolling about a bit and I was stumbling like a drunken sailor. It was time to turn the climb around. I had to pull everything I had from deep inside me just to get down.” [Seattle Weekly]

Pat Travers accepts that his unique sound may have hurt his career. He says: “I have through about that – it’s very difficult for me to try and be someone else. I have recorded some songs in the past that I really didn’t like because I was being pressured to get on the radio. I didn’t feel comfortable doing that. They didn’t catch on – nobody cared because the songs sounded overwritten, and made just to be pop songs.” [Classic Rock Revisited]

Rush drummer Neil Peart and co-author Kevin J Anderson have revealed a sample chapter from the novel tied in with the band’s Clockwork Angels album. Read it here.