FORMER VAN HALEN SINGER SAMMY HAGAR COMMENTS ON THE BAND’S NEW LIVE ALBUM, SAYS “THEY’VE GOT SOME PRETTY ROUGH VOCALS”
Doug Elfman of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports:
I knew Sammy Hagar was calling me Monday, so I kept saying to myself, “Don’t ask him how terrible the new Van Halen album is.” But then, Hagar brought up how terrible it is.
“I’m trying to tread lightly on the whole thing,” Hagar told me. “Every time they do something, I’m like, ‘Oh my god, can these guys do anything worse to their reputation and to the level of the music of the band?”
I can’t believe Van Halen even released the album with Roth’s voice sounding like it does.
“They’ve got some pretty rough vocals,” Hagar said of Roth.
I told Hagar I tried not to even bring up Van Halen.
“I’m glad you didn’t, but I did,” Hagar said and laughed. “I try to stay away from criticism, but here I am, already starting this interview with it. It’s impossible, Doug. It’s impossible to stay away from. Standing back, I’m just going, ‘What the (expletive) are these guys thinking?’”
…He continues, “The Van Hagar era — those great songs, ‘Poundcake,’ ‘When It’s Love,’ ‘Right Now,’ ‘Why Can’t This Be Love?,’ ‘Top of the World,’ ‘Finish What Ya Started,’ ‘Best of Both Worlds’ — you’ll never hear those songs again, unless I’m singing them.”
Read the entire article at the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
source: reviewjournal.com
Thank you Captain Obvious!
I love you Sammy. You were the greatest Van Halen singer ever. But you also have to let it go. Van Halen is in your past. Move on already.
But of course…ripping on Van Halen is the only way the fat toilet brush headed clown can get his name out there. Don’t worry Spammy, Dave and the VH family are laughing all the way to sheds and arenas. Enjoy the state fairs and Ribfests this summer you piece of garbage!
The only way they’ll fill a shed or arena is if Steel Panther opens for them.
They’ll fill sheds on their own, they’ll fill stadiums with the Mighty Panther!
sometimes I feel guilty getting these laughs for free.
I think they should have done a DVD/Video release instead of a CD, but then nobody but dave does much moving around these days, or at least they didn’t when I saw them. VH a visual thing as much as music with Dave.
I’ve listened to the new CD a few times now. Band sounds great, Dave sounds Ok in spots, all screams and screeches are gone, but have been for a while, and in some spots he’s just all over the place.
It’s a ok live album, probably not as bad as Sammy thinks, but nearly as good as the fanboys think either.
I too, wanted a DVD release of live material.
But, after watching Kimmell I understand why they didn’t.
Much easier to hide the warts on audio only.
Given the choice to hear Dave straining through Everybody Wants Some & Atomic Punk or Sammy sounding great on Best Of Both Worlds & Right Now, I’ll take Dave every day.
God forbid Sammy should speak his mind, after all he was only in VH for 10 years, toured with Roth, but who is he to have an opinion?
And why should Sammy care what VH does with Roth now? It’s like, should I care who my ex-girlfriend or ex-wife is banging? When you’re done with something or someone it’s time to move on. If DLR was butchering any of the Hagar-era songs, then I could understand Sammy having a beef with him. But since DLR refuses to sing any of those Hagar-era songs, Sammy just needs to let it go.
Everybody is talking about Roth’s performance, if Sammy didn’t comment on it first, you know as well as I do, he would have been asked sooner or later. I’m a Roth fan as well, but you also know why Roth refuses to sing any Hagar-era songs, because he can’t. He’s having a hard time singing his own songs, Right Now.