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Exclusive Song Premiere: Chickenfoot's 'Three and a Half Letters'

Listen to Sammy Hagar's song for struggling veterans

September 22, 2011 2:45 PM ET
chickenfoot
Joe Satriani, Sammy Hagar, Chad Smith and Michael Anthony of Chickenfoot
Jon Hill

Click to listen to Chickenfoot's 'Three and a Half Letters'

When frontman Sammy Hagar set out to write material for Chickenfoot’s upcoming new release, Chickenfoot III, the once-fired frontman of Van Halen got some help from an untapped resource – the unemployed. "I received a letter from an Iraq vet who was having a tough time finding a job," Hagar tells Rolling Stone. "He closed the letter with the words, 'Can you help me, brother? I need a job.'"

After receiving similar letters, Hagar was inspired to write a song about it, "Three and a Half Letters," which he brought to Chickenfoot. The lyrics contain direct excerpts from some of those letters.
 
"We will play the song on tour with new letters, and we are inviting people to send us their stories," says Hagar. "We will post their letters on our site and hope we can help them find work."

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Song Stories

“Youth Knows No Pain”

Lykke Li | 2011

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”

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