In a brand new, exclusive interview with Rock N Roll Universe, SILVERTIDE vocalist Walt Lafty discusses the band's upcoming, as-yet-untitled album, the follow-up to 2004's "Show And Tell", the band's extensive touring which took them around the world opening up for VAN HALEN....

[snip]

Rock N Roll Universe: Also, speaking of touring, you guys did a series of dates opening for VAN HALEN back in 2004 on the first leg of their "reunion" tour. What was that like? Did Edward [Van Halen] or any of the members of the band have any advice for you?

Walt Lafty: "Yeah, we didn't even have a record out then. Sammy [Hagar] just said 'Have fun with it.' He kept on telling us that the whole month and a half. He just kept on insisting, he's like, 'You just have to have fun with it. You just have to constantly remind yourself that it's a good thing, and you're in a good position. You're in a great situation and you have the world at your fingertips.' He was always focusing on the positive side of that, really forcing that down our throats. Just have fun with it. Even then we were touring in a van all the time. Sleeping in it, pissing in it, eating in it, everything. He just said, 'Remember this. You're going to look back on this in 30 years. Whether you're hugely successful or not, you're going to be like, 'Wow, I got a free ticket around the world and it was a great time.'' Eddie was all about just having a good time. I didn't get one serious conversation with Eddie Van Halen the entire tour. He was mostly just a bundle of fun to be around. He was just confident, 'Hey, let's have a drink, a toast, let's have this.' He was a really, really fun guy."

Rock N Roll Universe: What shape was he in at that time? It seems like he's kind of in bad shape these days...

Walt Lafty: "I know he had 18 surgeries on his tongue to get out the mouth cancer. That's a bummer, I'm sure, but he survived it. I heard he had a hip replacement, but he didn't tell me that. Just to be up there, and to try and do that again, for whatever motives or reasons you have to be on that stage. Whether it's for the money, or for the music itself, or for the sheer joy of living that experience over and over again. Because nothing gets close to being onstage. Whatever his motives were, he loved it. You could see that, after all the years."

Rock N Roll Universe: Sammy Hagar has been quoted as saying that Silvertide is the best new band he's heard in quite some time. How does that make you feel when someone of that stature says things like that about that band?

Walt Lafty: "It's good, because we don't have to say it. (Laughs) It's good, we've been lucky enough to play in front of people like Slash and Sammy, and they've all said very nice things about us. We're always very appreciative of that. Especially when it's someone like that."

Read the entire interview online here: Rock N Roll Universe

[Return to Current Headlines]