EXTREME Vocalist GARY CHERONE Looks Back On His Time With VAN HALEN - "It Was A Project That Turned Into A Band; By The Time We Were On Tour, It Was A Brotherhood"

Extreme vocalist Gary Cherone fronted Van Halen from 1996 and 1999, recording only one album with the band, Van Halen III. On June 16th, Cherone spoke with Eddie Trunk on SiriusXM's Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk about recording with the band.

Cherone: "I wish I went on tour with the guys before I did the record, because it was a project that turned into a band. We wrote from the first day on, and that was great, and we hit it off, but you had to feel each other out. But by the time we were on tour, it was a brotherhood. So when we got back in and we would write write, we would jam, scat over things, that's when things felt good. I was comfortable there, but I thought it locked in. That '98 tour was great. I thought Eddie was on fire. The setlist was both eras."

Cherone also discussed reconnecting with Eddie Van Halen prior to the guitarist's death in 2020.

Cherone: "Eddie and I rekindled our relationship end of 2015, 2016. I reached out to him and we picked up where we left off. It was wild because we went back and forth and we talked. And then when I went out to L.A., I finally got to see him, and it was great. He was going through (cancer treatments). All he said to me was, 'I'm kicking its ass,' and at the time, he was. He'd have good days. I think the last six months it got real quiet. I reached out to him a few times and he got back to me later. I just had a feeling something was going down."