Transcribed (as best I could) by Valerie Schiavone.

WAAF: "Gary Cherone is supposed to be calling me, and I have done some good work around here for Gary lately, and he has left me multiple messages at home, and I have not heard from the guy. Now I'm going to be really pissed, and I'm going to say that he is out of Van Halen if he doesn't call. In fact, you want to try to call him?"

WAAF: "Gary, Gary, it's Greg Hill. I am on the air now, hello, Gary? Get out of bed... you know the guy is living at Eddie Van Halen's..."

You then hear that the phone has been picked up...

GARY: "Who the hell is this?" (jokingly)

Laughter follows

WAAF: "My God, how are you?"

GARY: "I tried to ignore you for three calls!"

WAAF: "Thank God you woke up. Ladies and Gentlemen, the great lead singer of Van Halen, Gary Cherone."

GARY: "I'm sorry, he's not available. He gets kicked out of the band every other week!"

WAAF: "Yeah, but you got a nice car to cruise around in to look for a new gig." Laughter "Yeah, we heard that, I gotta ask you that story. What's up with the car? I heard a story about, uh, that you guys got a bunch of cars for doing that, what is it, Nissan commercial?"

GARY: "Ah, yeah...yeah, around a year and a half ago, they did that Nissan commercial with them. Wait I'm not at liberty to say this, my lawyers won't allow me to say this!" Laughter

WAAF: "Oh well, suffice it to say that..."

GARY: "I get to keep the car, man."

WAAF: "Well, hey, you know, you and I have been trading messages back and forth here the past few days, and I know it was on your mind, and you wanted to kind of clear up this rumor that is floating around that you are out of Van Halen. And you are currently still in Van Halen."

GARY: "Yeah, but I am pregnant, so... I need a leave of absence, but I'm getting paid so..." Laughter

WAAF: "Do we know who the father is ?"

GARY: "No, we don't know who the mother is either!"

WAAF: "Well, you know, people love to talk, and if there is nothing happening currently, people like to speculate as to why that is going on. And then, you guys moved back the release of the album date from February to March. Maybe if you could tell us why that happened, that would be good."

GARY: "I think that's what started the whole thing. A couple of days ago, we found out that the record is being pushed up to March 17th. A couple of reasons: we added a track on the record, then there was the politics of Warner Brothers about our record coming out around the same time the Grammy Awards. There's a lot of crap as far as that date being the best date for the record, but you know, it doesn't matter at this point. We just gotta get the record out. I was kinda bummed out at that and then, but you know, in the big scheme of things, what's three weeks? Extreme records used to be delayed years..." Laughter

WAAF: "We're still waiting for the last record!"

GARY: "I think we recorded it; it's coming out after the Van Halen record."

WAAF: "The delay in itself is not a big deal, and that happens all the time in the record industry, but, when people are... you have to understand and I know you feel, you must feel some pressure...Van Halen is a legendary band, and you are now their lead singer and so everybody is waiting for this product. It's a big deal!"

GARY: "Yeah, I heard rumors that this is a pretty big band! I didn't know... you know how many calls I got yesterday saying I was out of the band!"

Laughter

WAAF: "So long as Eddie doesn't say it, you're okay!"

GARY: "No!"

WAAF: "Usually when you get kicked out of a band, you don't get calls; I'm surprised, you figure everybody would have forgotten about you already!"

GARY: "That's right."

WAAF: "We understand that Eddie does a song on there. How's his singing voice?"

GARY: "I think it's great. I think he's a cross between Roger Waters and Tom Waits. It's real low, but it's great. I think the song is great. I'm kinda pissed that I'm not singing it!"

Laughter

WAAF: "You guys are heading out on tour."

GARY: "Yeah"

WAAF: "When is that now?"

GARY: "March"

WAAF: "Late March?"

GARY: "No, no, around the same time of the record. We'll be in Australia even before the release of the record, finishing up, ah, you know, rehearsing on the stage, I guess, so..."

WAAF: "Now, you've obviously been rehearsing the Van Halen stuff. You're going to do all the old tunes, I assume."

GARY: "Yeah"

WAAF: "What's your favorite one to sing so far, Gary?"

GARY: "Ah, let me see, I think right now it's 'Unchained' and 'Romeo Delight'."

WAAF: "Before you were named the lead singer, did you already know all the words?"

GARY: "No, no, I knew nothing."

WAAF: "Did you get free CDs to listen to?"

GARY: "Yeah, that was the best part. My whole catalog. (laughter) I got eleven new CDs!"

WAAF: "Tell us a little bit about the record. Does it sound like Van Halen? What do you think it sounds like?"

GARY: "At first listen, you point out the differences, but after a couple of listens, you hear classic Eddie and Alex and Michael. A lot of people, they hear my voice and they think one song sounds like Extreme. They hear another song, and they think it sounds like early Van Halen. Another song, sounds like Sammy Van Halen. So, you know, people are gonna... I don't know why, I guess that's my lot in life is to be compared to the past, but..."

WAAF: "Well, it's impossible with that band. I mean, it's always gonna happen."

GARY: "Yeah, but I mean, the song, you know, it's Van Halen. They've proven it regardless of singers, regardless of even me. They're great song writers. I'm psyched. The record sounds great. The proof's in the pudding, when the record comes out."

WAAF: "One of these other reports around here was that Michael Anthony is out of the band. And that's not correct as well, right?"

GARY: "No, he always comes up to me and says 'Are you spreading rumors again?'"

Laughter

WAAF: "I do want to say that my association with the Inside Track (gossip column in the Boston Herald) hurts me because I got home the other night, and Gary leaves me a message 'I hear you're spreading rumors about me in the Inside Track. Thanks a lot, thanks a lot!'."

Laughter

WAAF: "I'm always paranoid. You know when I was out in LA last year, you and I had dinner. And I didn't want to tell anybody around here about that because I'm paranoid that something is going to get into the Track with you."

GARY: "I found out who it is."

WAAF: "You did?"

GARY: "Yeah"

WAAF: "Who is it?"

GARY: "It's Paul Geary."

WAAF: "I knew it was Paul Geary!" (laughter) "Well, Paul's the guy who was out there this weekend and told me the record sounds phenomenal."

GARY: "Yeah, I hung out with him last weekend. I played him the record. Yeah, call him up in the morning next time and see if I'm in the band."

Laughter

WAAF: "Well, you know, one way we could dispel it would be if you could slip me a DAT of the CD. I could play a few cuts on the air here."

Laughter

GARY: "There's already a leak on the Internet."

WAAF: "I heard about that. Isn't Valerie big into the Internet? I understand that Valerie Bertinelli is always on-line?"

GARY: "Yeah, she likes doing that. She likes correcting all the rumors."

WAAF: "She's cool, huh?"

GARY: "Yeah, she's great. She doesn't talk to me yet." Laughter

WAAF: "Did you watch her, there was a big old special on her on Lifetime, the channel for women?"

GARY: "Yeah, that was great!"

WAAF: "I swear to God, I was just flipping by..." Laughter

WAAF: "Gary, when can we expect to see you guys in the US and in Boston. I assume that's part of your itinerary?"

GARY: "Yeah, you know, the good thing is, because this date got pushed up, or pushed back, or whatever you want, you know, March 17th, I think we'll be hitting the States a little earlier. We're going to do Australia, I think we're going to do New Zealand after Australia, when it was before, it was going to be New Zealand, Australia, now it's going to be Australia, New Zealand, it doesn't matter, right? Then, ah, I think we're coming back to the States to do about 20 dates and , I think we're going to start in Texas, and I'm sure we're hitting Boston. 'Cause I got family there, you know!"

WAAF: "Yeah, absolutely, and one or two fans! Yeah, a couple people might remember you!" Laughter

WAAF: "By the way, we have 6, 7, 8 inches of snow here this morning and it's still snowing so.."

GARY: "Oh yeah?"

WAAF: "Be glad you're in Los Angeles."

GARY: "That's good. Next time I'm in Boston, there'll be rumors that I'm out of the band again. It's unbelievable!"

WAAF: "Have you guys done any videos for this stuff yet?"

GARY: "Ah, no, no, actually, that's today, before rehearsal, we're meeting, but thanks to you I won't have a voice to..."

Laughter

WAAF: "You know, I got a suggestion for a video. Make it like a little car commercial, make it like a Nissan commercial!"

GARY: "That's a great idea!"

WAAF: "Thank you. I think in each scene of the video, you should be made up to look like, ah, one scene as David Lee Roth, and one scene as Sammy Hagar... Can you imagine the make-up required to look like Roth? I mean, you'd have to look like an old man!"

Laughter

GARY: "All right, guys!" (clearly not wanting the conversation to go THERE!)

WAAF: "So we can officially, just give me a statement that everything is fine in the Van Halen camp. You are the lead singer of Van Halen, is that absolutely correct?"

GARY: "That is correct."

WAAF: "For the future, you are the lead singer of Van Halen."

GARY: "Yeah, it's been that way in the past. Michael Anthony's safe and sound. Everything is great. We're rehearsing. We're having a lot of fun and it's too bad that the record gets pushed up three weeks, but, life goes on, that's rock and roll."

WAAF: "Let me see if any of these calls are any good because people are dying to talk to you here. Hello, you got a question for Gary?"

CALLER: "Yeah, I'm real big fan of Gary Cherone. I think what he's doing with Van Halen is great."

GARY: "Thanks, man."

CALLER: "Yeah, just a question from the past. How's Nuno doing?"

GARY: "Nuno's doing great."

CALLER: "Oh yeah? I'm really a huge fan of his. I don't want him to go away, man, he's gotta keep doing what he's doing."

GARY: "No, no, he's too talented to go away."

WAAF: "Yeah, I know, he is talented."

GARY: "He just went to Australia to visit Suze's side of the family for Christmas and that's about it. I haven't talked to him since then, but I talked to him before then. He's doing great. He's starting to write songs for the next record."

WAAF: "Well, when you think about it, you are now in a couple of bands with a couple of the greatest guitarists in the world, Nuno and Eddie."

GARY: "Yeah, that did cross my mind."

WAAF: "How is Eddie to work with?"

GARY: "Eddie's great. Eddie's, he, ah, he just on for 25 hours a day! He doesn't stop, and he does literally sleep with a guitar. His hip is fine, too. That, he was going to get an operation, and he went to the doctor a couple of months back. Not that it healed, but it wasn't as bad they thought it was, so he doesn't need the operation. He's fine. I'm psyched. I can't wait to get on tour with these guys!"

WAAF: "I think that's awesome, and I am really looking forward to seeing you guys here, and I probably speak for everybody in Boston when I say how proud we are that you're in the band and that, I know it's not a big deal to you, but it is to everybody who grew up with Van Halen, that you are now the lead singer of Van Halen."

GARY: "Of course it's a big deal, thanks man. I appreciate that."

WAAF: "If I was single, I'd be using that to get chicks, like I know the lead singer of Van Halen!"

Laughter

GARY: "You're a funny bastard at 6:30 in the morning!"

WAAF: "I'm glad you got up this morning, and I'm even gladder, if that's a word, that everything is going well with Van Halen. I hope that when you guys come to town, you'll pop in here and we'll do something. I'll get you up early morning as well. Will you do that?"