Chickenfoot

• Genre: Hard Rock
• Hometown: Los Angeles
• Chickenfoot Website

About

Cabo San Lucas is the home of bikinis, babes, beer bongs and tequila. It's also the stomping grounds for one Samuel Roy Hagar, aka the Red Rocker. In addition to overseeing the hugely successful Cabo Wabo brand tequila, Hagar holds all-star jam sessions at his club, the Cabo Wabo Cantina. It was here, in late 2007, that Hagar hooked up with three fellow hard-rock titans: guitar wizard Joe "The Satch" Satriani, Red Hot Chili Peppers' drummer Chad Smith, and legendary Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, who -- let's face it -- is one of hard rock's coolest dudes. Though this lineup may look odd on paper, the men gelled so well that they reconvened at one of the Red Rocker's glitzy Vegas gigs, where the quartet tore into a pair of classic rock standards: "Rock and Roll" and the brooding "Dear Mr. Fantasy." You'd think these four would be too busy to head straight into the studio, but that's exactly what they did. In June 2009, Chickenfoot dropped its self-titled debut. With crunchy riffage, flashy ax solos, bombastic drums and arena-friendly anthems, Chickenfoot is hard rock the way hard rock used to be played in the 1970s and '80s -- that is, crotch first.

- Justin Farrar