Kool and the Gang Talks Opening For Van Halen

Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 02.08.2012

A weird match...

Kool and the Gang's Robert Bell recently spoke about opening fort Van Halen on their upcoming tour. CHeck out the highlights:

On the oddness of the pairing: "We're not that worried about it. 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."

On David Lee Roth lobbying for them to join the tour: "I was kind of surprised, 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."

On his band being fans of Van Halen: "A lot of the guys in my band are definitely into them. Of course Eddie, everyone knows that blistering solo he did for Michael Jackson on 'Beat It,' and a lot of my guys are familiar with other tracks they've done."

On rehearsals so far: "...it flows. Everybody's cool so far. Everything is, as they say, cool in the gang."

On Kool and the Gang's post-tour plans: "We're writing and doing some things, some different concepts. It's not only the original members but the guys who are with us, we're constantly writing and coming up with different ideas. Hopefully we'll get some product out before the year is out."