[MrSandMan]

Former Van Halen members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony have teamed with guitarist Joe Satriani and Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith to form Chickenfoot.

Hagar has revealed that the super-combo has already written 8 or 9 songs and has described the band as sounding like Led Zeppelin.

The band plans to record in September and will release an album before the end of this year.

Hagar's last solo album was 'Ten13' in 2000. He also sang three new songs on the Van Halen compilation 'Best Of Both Worlds' in 2004.

Smith has time on his side for the project. Red Hot Chili Peppers are taking 2008 off.

Anthony hasn't done much since leaving Van Halen. The founding bass player for the band was dropped from the line-up for the reunion tour with David Lee Roth. Eddie Van Halen's son Wolfgang replaced him.

Satriani will be touring Australia in July in support of his new album 'Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock'.

Read more on Chickenfoot

[Brian Krashpad]

Actually on close reading Hagar says that they're as good as Zep, not really that they sound anything like them. It's difficult for me to imagine the Red Rocker writing those trippy Lord-of-the-Rings-inspired lyrics found on some Zep songs. Or for that matter Satch playing as loose as Jimmy Page.

That said, saying you'll be as big/good as Led Zeppelin is the kind of thing that can come back to bite you in the ass. Great for publicity in the short run (unless you're somebody who says something outrageous in every few sentences, like say John Lydon/Rotten, such that everyone simply dimisses everything you say as hucksterism), but could be the kind of thing a lot of people laugh about later.

[ninja636]

I bet it's gonna ROCK . It's got all the ingredients for a great band.