Down The Drain

Chickenfoot is a band made up of former Van Halen members Sammy Hagar on vocals and Michael Anthony on bass with Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and guitarist Joe Satriani. Their self-titled debut album was co-produced by Andy Johns (Van Halen). Satriani explained to Ultimate-Guitar.com how this song came about spontaneously: "We got ready to record another track, though I can't remember the name of the track - its name might have been 'Turnin' Left.' I had just tuned my guitar, and we'd just gotten the sound right. We'd changed the snare drum, and I just sat there. I checked the tuning of my guitar, and played a little riff from a track of mine called 'Rubina's Blue Sky Happiness' from The Extremist (1992). Chad looked at me, and I saw him start this type of beat. Spontaneously, I just started playing this blues riff. As I started playing that riff, Sam thought I was playing him a track, which he hadn't heard yet, a track, which turned into 'My Kinda Girl.' Over the microphone, Sam began saying 'Joe, is this the new song? Is this the new song? I like it, I like it', though I couldn't hear him - I didn't have the vocals feeding through my monitor yet. I just played, but played very lightly with my left hand, since I didn't want to put the strings out of tune. I figured that any second, we would stop, and get back to business, which was recording the other track. We just kept jamming, and then Sammy started to sing. Basically, he literally worded the track on the spot. When we were finished, we all looked into the control room, and said 'Did you record that?'. Of course, Andy had. He's a smart gentleman, and knew something was happening. That was the one and only occasion we ever played 'Down the Drain.' The track was written upon the spot, and we just entered the studio, contributing some keyboards here, and an extra guitar there, as well as contributing a background vocal. That's the most magical writing moment I've ever had as part of a group."