In a new interview with Jeremy White about Extreme's return with their forthcoming album, Rise, vocalist Gary Cherone looked back on his days with Van Halen, his friendship with Eddie Van Halen, and discovering unreleased Van Halen material.
Cherone was with Van Halen from 1996 - 199, having replaced Sammy Hagar. He recorded one album with the band, Van Halen III. Hagar returned to the band in 2003.
Cherone: "I was cleaning out my closet and there were a bunch of CDs, and I completely forgot about it. It was a demo, and it was maybe not the first thing he (Eddie Van Halen) showed me this thing with the working title 'Four On The Floor'. It was a driving kind of ZZ Top thing, had a little 'Panama' in it. I was looking at it thinking 'What the hell is this?' It was actually two songs, and I just wrote to them for fun, and when I reconnected with him, I played him one of the them. He had no recollection of it, but I didn't either. That's how much material he had. To me, all that stuff is sacred ground."
With the force of a wrecking ball, Extreme swing between unapologetic fits of fret-burning hard rock and intimately introspective balladry on the 12-track SIX, which also features such tracks as “Other Side of The Rainbow,” “#Rebel,” and “X Out.” For the recording of the Nuno-produced SIX, the members buckled down at his home studio in Los Angeles. Once again, they channeled the electrifying eclecticism that defined their seminal output with a 21st century twist.
This dynamic affirms the iconic Boston quartet as one of rock’s most unpredictable, undeniable, and unbreakable groups whose songs course through the very fabric of popular culture. They’re the rare band whose music has appeared in an actual cult series a la Bill & Ted as well as the Netflix juggernaut “Stranger Things.” They’ve sold 10 million records, topped the Billboard Hot 100 at #1, packed major venues on multiple continents, memorably performed at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in London, and regularly average over 5 million monthly listeners on Spotify. However, their dynamic approach hits harder than ever on their 2023 full-length offering, SIX.
“With Extreme, there’s always a lot of passion and a little piss and vinegar,” says Gary. “We’re not in competition with anybody else, but we strive to outdo ourselves. There are some moments on this album where we did. We’ve managed to stay together after all of these years. We feel like we have something to prove when we get on stage or in the studio. Because of that, I believe some of these songs are among the best we’ve written.”
“Whatever you think an Extreme album is after two or even three songs, it’s not,” states Nuno. “That goes for every record we’ve ever done. True Extreme fans know to ‘expect the unexpected.’ I feel like we need a good old school rock album. Six is definitely modern, but you can put on headphones and go on a journey from top-to-bottom. It’s like ‘Extreme 2.0’.”
Pre-order SIX here.
SIX tracklisting:
"Rise"
"#Rebel"
"Banshee"
"Other Side of the Rainbow"
"Small Town Beautiful"
"The Mask"
"Thicker Than Blood"
"Save Me"
"Hurricane"
"X Out"
"Beautiful Girls"
"Here's To The Losers"
"Rise" video:
