SINGER SAMMY HAGAR ON HIS CURRENT RELATIONSHIP WITH THE VAN HALEN BROTHERS, “THEY CERTAINLY HAVEN’T MADE AN EFFORT TO BE FRIENDLY WITH ME”
Sammy Hagar was a recent guest on Eddie’s, Trunk Nation, Sirius/XM show, discussing his current relationship with his former Van Halen bandmates, Eddie and Alex Van Halen. Quotes from the interview appear below, as per blabbermouth.net.
Hagar said:
“”I have no idea. I’ve done a few things to reach out and be friends, like saying… being honest and saying — after all these guys [rock legends like Glenn Frey and David Bowie] are dying around the globe — ‘Man, I don’t wanna take any enemies to my grave. We’ve gotta be friends [again] at some point.’ But, you know, they probably take it wrong, they probably think, ‘Oh, yeah, he’s trying to get back in the band.’ I don’t know what those guys think.
To be honest with you, I wished Eddie a ‘happy birthday’ on his birthday and I wished Al a ‘happy birthday’ on his birthday, and they don’t return the birthday wishes; they’ve never said ‘happy birthday’ to me on my birthday, or to Mikey [former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony]. So their camp is… I don’t know… They’re just kind of shut down. Obviously, there’s a lot of anger over there and resentment against Mike and I, and I don’t know what we did. And we always sit around scratching our ass, going, ‘What? Do you remember doing anything to piss those guys off? I don’t.’ [Laughs] We were just kind of good guys having fun. I guess that pissed them off. We were having too much fun.”
He continues,”…Honestly, I don’t care… I mean, I care at a friendship level, but I don’t want anybody to get the wrong idea and think that I am trying to beg myself back into that band, because I’m not. I’m a very happy person right now with my band The Circle, or Chickenfoot,, if I wanted to do that, or just do nothing, I’m in a good place…I don’t want to be miserable and I don’t wanna be arguing with guys and all that stuff ever again in my life…So, I don’t know… It doesn’t sound like they’re very friendly right now. [Laughs] They certainly haven’t made an effort to be friendly with me, or Mike.”
In related news, the singer recalled the very first time he was contacted by guitarist Eddie Van Halen. He tells the cable TV show, Jay Leno’s Garage, “I was just coming home from my tour and this car [1982 Ferrari, estimated to now be worth $350,000] was getting its first major tune up. It was sitting in the shop and Eddie comes in with his Lamborghini and he goes, ‘Whose car is this?’ They said, ‘It’s Sammy Hagar’s – you should call him and get him in the band’ – because David Lee Roth quit a day or two before.
“And Eddie says, ‘You got his number?’ He goes into the damn office, picks up the phone and calls me right from there and says, ‘I’m looking at your car right here, man – why don’t you come down and let’s jam and join the band. After five minutes with those guys, and I went, ‘Yeah, this is good.’”
Hagar would go on to appear on Van Halen albums 5150, OU812, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge and Balance before being replaced by Gary Chorine.
additional source: Classic Rock via teamrock.com
It must be that time of the year when we all sit down for a nice turkey dinner, then kill each other at a Best Buy over a TV, look forward to the Christmas holidays and read about Sammy talking about VH. I’d rather be at Best Buy.
You’re going to hear about it because other websites were circulating the rumor that VH was possibly touring with Hagar and Anthony in 2017.
I’ll believe that when I see it.
Some of the stories in Sammy’s book painted a very dark picture of Eddie’s behavior that were very disturbing and alarming. I don’t doubt the validity of the stories, but for Eddie that may have been perceived as Sammy benefiting financially by airing Eddie’s dirty laundry, with stories that Wolfgang will eventually become aware of. My gut tells me that Sammy wasn’t exaggerating at all, but Eddie seems like a very vindictive and unforgiving person, especially by the way he talks about Michael Anthony, who has done nothing but take the high road since day one.
I realize it’s my fault for reading this article, but will the media please stop asking Sam about the Van Halen brothers, and will Sam please stop talking incessantly about them. Ed and Al don’t want to talk to Sam and Mike. It doesn’t matter the reasons. They don’t owe anyone an explanation. Van Hagar is a thing of the past – like dinosaurs, Ford Pintos, and the Carter Administration. They’re all best left in your memories.
(….note to self: stop reading Sam Hagar articles about Van Halen!)
Speaking of dinosaurs, the last round of touring with Roth was a dinosaur longed to put out of it’s misery. Watch the 07-08 tour, then watch the last one. Dave completely phoned it in. From his broadway schtick to his worsening vocals, it was 95% nostalgia and the last album was half old demos, Tattoo, one of the worst VH songs of all time, and a complete ripoff of the Ice Cream Man. There’s about 3 songs on the album that I still have on any playlists. The rest were 2nd rate VH songs.
The band sounded great, but no offense to Wolfgang, his stage presence is like watching paint dry, it looked like a Dave solo concert with VH as the backing band. No chemistry, no pop.
You cant be serious. Up For Breakfast is a great song? Obviously, to me, Van Hagar is unlistenable crap, but those three songs are absolute bottom of the barrel garbage!