Mad Anthony TV features live and backstage clips of Michael with the ‘Foot, along with stuff from the world of Mikey. A sports car enthusiast, there’s even a full episode of Hot Rod Magazine’s “Hot Rod TV” featuring an upgrade to Mike’s 1968 Shelby GT 500 – a sweet looking ride, for sure.
While the channel is only about a week old, there’s some interesting behind-the-scenes stuff with Chickenfoot, including soundchecks and some backstage jamming that shows how much fun the band was having during its inaugural tour this past year: Mike, Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani and Chad Smith are all wailing away backstage while warming up for a show. It’s cool stuff for fans to see - here’s a sample:
Chickenfoot - backstage jam (Sept 25, 2009)
Mad Anthony TV
It would truly be awesome to see if Mad Anthony TV will ever feature footage from Mike’s years with Van Halen. My guess is that, if anything did show up, it likely wouldn’t feature visuals of the VH brothers, who really seemed to go out of their way to disown Mike, and his work, many years ago, for their own reasons. Suffice to say, it’s been a shame that much of the nonsense has been played out in such a public way for a guy who, by all accounts, hasn’t brought any of the crap on himself.
If there’s ever a rock ‘n roll book waiting to be written, Mike’s got the stories to tell, that’s for sure, although history may not be on his side: Sammy went to court in 1999 to prevent “Red Storm Arising,” a biography by author David Huff, from hitting shelves right before publication. Reports suggest that Hagar originally consented to, and participated in, the creation of the book, but changed his mind after further legal considerations; two chapters were eventually leaked online.
Anyway…the youtube TV channel is now an offshoot of Mike’s online home, Mad Anthony Café. A few years ago, Mike’s love of spicy food led him to develop his own line of hot sauces (Aerosmith's Joe Perry, and others, have done the same thing), and you can buy them in his shop, along with all kinds of other goodies, including miniature replica basses from Mike’s collection over the years. His “garage” features about a half dozen of Mike’s sports cars. Overall, the Café site is well laid out and easy for users to flip through.
Along with Ace Frehley, Bret Michaels, Dave Mason, Billy Sheehan and many others, Mike appeared last month as one of the guest stars/counsellors at the Rock ‘N Roll Fantasy Camp in Hollywood; for the first time in its history, portions of the Camp were filmed by producer Mark Burnett’s team (he, of Survivor, Eco-Challenge and other reality tv fame) for airing this summer on VH1.
Chickenfoot are currently on a break, but there’s always something in the works: a new live DVD from a Tempe, Arizona show on the last tour is on the horizon, and an animated version of the band will be featured this month on an episode of the Cartoon Network’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Crazy!
Here’s a TV highlight from Chickenfoot’s past year:
Chickenfoot - Chickenfoot (Bonus Track Version) - Sexy Little ThingChickenfoot – Sexy Little Thing
Jimmy Kimmel Live – Nov 6, 2009
