Kool & The Gang talk about opening for Van Halen

On February 18, Kool & The Gang hit the road opening for Van Halen.

The unlikely pairing was not only a surprise for fans, but for the RnB band themselves.

"I was kind of surprised," co-founder Robert "Kool" Bell tells Billboard.com, "because Van Halen is more on the rock side and we do what we do. I said, 'That's an interesting combination...' It really caught us by surprise. But the more people I mention it to, the more interesting they're saying it is."

Bell says having Kool & the Gang open for Van Halen's North American tour was frontman David Lee Roth's idea. Roth saw Kool and company perform at the 2011 Glastonbury festival and enjoyed it so much that he lobbied the band onto the bill.

"We're not that worried about it," said Bell. "We had big hits in the 80s, and so did they. They've been kind of like a party band on the rock side, with their audience, and their audience is 60 percent female and we have songs like 'Ladies' Night' and 'Celebration'... and our audience is at least 80 percent a pop audience. Most of the time we have a crowd that's 80 percent white. Plus we do a lot of international dates with Def Leppard, Meat Loaf, Uriah Heep, Chicago, Elton John...A lot of people don't know that 'cause they don't really see it.”

"So I think we'll survive."

Kool & the Gang will play a 50-minute set before each Van Halen show, according to Bell, and in addition to the big hits the group plans to incorporate its handful of more rock-leaning songs such as "Misled," "Tonight" and "Emergency," which it also played at Glastonbury.



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