Singer/Bassist Glenn Hughes (Trapeze, Deep Purple, Black Country Communion, The Dead Daisies) was a recent guest on the “The Classic Rock Podcast”, where he confirmed that Eddie Van Halen nearly asked him to join Van Halen after the departure of David Lee Roth.
“Well, Eddie was newly sober at that time… And we spoke about it,” Huge said (as transcribed by blabbermouth.net). “I had no idea. Eddie had been a friend of mine from the beginning.”
“Look… Wow… Would it have worked? I’m not sure,” Hughes admitted. “Unless I was completely sober — and I’ve been sober now for 24 years. Yeah, it would have been interesting, wouldn’t it? [Laughs] You never know.”
The singer had previously mentioned the hypothetical collaboration in a 1996 interview with Swedish journalist Mike Eriksson. Reflecting on some of the bands that had asked him to join in the past, where said, “Eddie Van Halen told me last year… He said to me that, when they were auditioning Sammy Hagar, that if I would’ve been clean and sober I would’ve gotten the gig.”
Van Halen had repeatedly cited Deep Purple as a musical influence, telling Billboard magazine in 2015 that Burn — which was written and recorded during Hughes’s tenure with the band — was one of his favorite guitar riffs of all time.
In other Hughes news, he recently announced his Glenn Hughes Performs The 50th Anniversary of Deep Purple’s BURN Live, which begins on August 16th in Vineland, NJ and winds downs on September 23rd in Clearwater, Florida. Yngwie Malmsteen will be joining Glenn on most of the scheduled dates. Read more details, and view the entire tour itinerary, here.
6 Responses
Wow, I never knew that! Hughes being considered for the lead singer in Van Halen? Well, I agree, that definitely would have been interesting! However, and this is nothing against Hughes at all whatsoever, but I don’t think VH would’ve had the same success with Hughes as they had with Hagar.
Absolutely nothing against Glenn Hughes, but I don’t think that that would have worked.
Sammy was the right man for the job.
Interesting is a good word if it would have happened, however, don’t think he would have been a good fit. Not stating anything negative, just stating, the style Hughes has is not VH like. Would have liked to seen or heard a recorded jam session way back when of Hughes with VH just to see what it would have sounded like.
Wow, does that mean Glenn would ave played Bass as well, making Van Halen a 3 piece band?
Might have been good. I was never a fan of the Hagar years, so part of me wishes this would have happened. I liked Sammy as a solo artist, but never cared for the VH stuff. If Glenn did hand the job, and this article was about Sammy being a possible replacement for Dave, I’d probably be saying the same thing though. – Glen was great in Deep Purple, but I never liked him in VH –
To me, Dave was the voice of VH and I just couldn’t get past him leaving. They put out good music without him, just not the kind I liked.
I agree about Roth.