The news that they've pooled their inordinate talents to one collective whole quickly spread across the Internet last year (and perhaps that crazy name helped just a little). The fact that they've succeeded artistically beyond anyone's wildest dreams (except perhaps their own) is all the more reason to celebrate.

First, let's consider the stellar line-up. There's Joe Satriani, he of guitar god status, a dream born on the fateful day of September 18, 1970. It was the day Jimi Hendrix died, and it was the same day that Satriani, upon hearing the news, quit his high school football team and decided, at age 14, to devote his life to the electric guitar.

Interesting, what Satriani wanted more than anything was to be part of a big-time rock band fronted by a larger-than-life singer. He bounced around from group to group, but nothing hit the mark. Finally, he scraped money together and made a record of his solo guitar recordings. Not of this Earth attracted the attention of the guitar cognoscenti. But it was 1987's Surfing with the Alien that made Satriani a household name. The album went Gold (it has since gone multi-Platinum) and went on to become a benchmark of its kind.

Since that time, Satriani has become one of the world's most influential guitarists, releasing albums such as The Extremist and Super Colossal that have sold in the millions around the world. "It was all by accident," the soft-spoken guitarist says. "I never mapped out a plan to be an instrumentalist. I really wanted to be a part of a big vocal-oriented rock band. I had offers, but nothing seemed to fit. Everything seemed like career move...until Chickenfoot."

So what about that singer? Well, that would be another guy who needs no introduction; Sammy Hagar, the original "Red Rocker", a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee for his tenure with Van Halen, who made his professional debut as the singer for the much-revered group Montrose during the early 70's. As a replacement for the iconic David Lee Roth, Hagar faced what many would have viewed as an unenviable, if not impossible task, but as Hagar sees it, "I decided I wasn't going to get criticized for being the second singer in the band -- I was going to be the only singer in the band."

Hagar carried the Van Halen brand to new heights, and together they scored a string of No. 1 albums and sold tens of millions of albums. "I upheld the artistry of the band," reflects Hagar, "and brought them to new places they normally wouldn't have gone. That, to me, is what I really accomplished in that band."

Hagar wasn't looking to form a new group in his post-Van Halen career. "I really wasn't looking to have a real band, but when I got involved with these guys, only a fool would say, 'No, I'm not going to do this.' The minute we started jamming it was obvious, like, 'This is something that needs to be heard.'"

// Chicken Links