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Thread: 1996 - An indepth Look at the Roth Reunion - Part 1

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    1996 - An indepth Look at the Roth Reunion - Part 1

    Due to infighting with Sammy, Eddie and Al decided to audition new singers. They did this around February/March of 1996. Sammy would quit in June. Gary would be living with Ed by July.


    SAMMY HAGAR

    Road: I understand you suspected Van Halen of rehearsing other singers behind your back?



    Hagar: "Stevie Salas, a friend of mine, who was dating Sass Jordan, calls me up in February or March of 1996 and goes, 'Wow, man. What's going on?' I said, 'What do ya mean, what's going on?' He said, 'Fuck, man, my old lady's over there jammin' with Eddie & Al saying that if she didn't have tits, she would be the singer of the band.' I had the baby April 1st, so in March, I wasn't coming down so they knew it was safe to bring people down. But, I didn't believe it till later on. I then realized, 'These guys have been planning this forever.' I still love Ed, Al and Mike, I can't help it. We did such great things together and the end was very disappointing. But, it is what made Marching to Mars as great as it is. Disappointment turned into creativity for me. I'm the type of person, you tell me I can't do somethin', I'll do it twice as hard."


    ______________________________

    Michael Anthony

    The Inside: There was also a rumor that you guys were working with Sass Jordan. True or false?


    MA: Sass actually came in the studio and did a few little ditties with Ed and Al. Al was interested in her from a producing standpoint. When people heard she was up there, they thought, "Maybe Sass is gonna join the band?!" But, you can't have a chick in your band singing about chicks! That doesn't work! (laughs)


    ___________________________

    SASS JORDAN


    While on the road, promoting her album Present, Jordan spoke with Wall of Sound regarding her courtship with the kings of "testosterone-driven rock," as she puts it.

    Wall of Sound: How did you end up jamming with Van Halen?


    Sass Jordan: A friend of mine knew somebody in Van Halen's management office in Toronto. I was living in L.A. at the time, and one day my friend came home and said, 'Somebody in the Van Halen camp wants to get a couple of your CDs.' I just said, 'Tell them to call the record company.' Then a couple of months later, Alex Van Halen called me up and said, 'What are you doing? You wanna come over and hang out, maybe sing something for us?' I lived exactly one and a half minutes away from Ed. So I went over, and the two of them were playing me new stuff that they were working on. We hung out for about a month.

    WOS: Were you much of a Van Halen fan before this?

    SJ: I liked Van Halen with David Lee Roth. No offense to Sammy Hagar, but I didn't like his voice. I was not a major fan, but I respected the band.

    WOS: What was the process you guys used?

    SJ: Ed would leave me in the studio and say, "Can you just sing something over this particular piece of music? I'm going to listen to you. You sing whatever you want, and I'll be back." And I'd say, "I can't sing by myself!" I can't say if any of it ended up on the record because I don't remember well enough. Anyway, I didn't come up with anything brilliant, because I have to be sitting there writing with the person to do it well.

    WOS: When did you get the sense that the Van Halen brothers were considering asking you to join the band?

    SJ: One day it just suddenly dawned on me. I don't know how stupid I could have been to not figure it out before. I looked at them and I said, "You guys couldn't possibly be thinking of having a female singer in this band, could you?" And they went, "Why?" I said, "I think that is the dumbest idea I have ever heard in my life!"


    WOS: Did Ed or Al ever ask you flat out, "Will you be the new lead singer for Van Halen?"

    SJ: Those guys never said anything of the sort to me. A couple of weeks later I was talking to their manager Ray Danniels and I said, "I swear to God, I think they were thinking of having a female singer in the band." And he said, "Of course they were! Why the hell else do you think you were up there?"

    WOS: How do you think the public would have reacted if you had gotten the job with Van Halen?

    SJ: I think Van Halen would have pissed off a huge amount of their fans. The press would have had a field day. Just look at poor Gary Cherone. I've known him longer than anyone in Van Halen because we toured together in 1992. He's a very decent human being. He's never said a bad word about anyone. But I've seen all this crap written about him. To blame him for everything is really pretty rude.

    WOS: Do you think Gary was a good choice for the lead vocalist of Van Halen?

    SJ: [pauses] No. I don't think it made it any better. That's just my personal opinion. I think he's terrific as a person. But I don't think it brought anything new to the band.

    WOS: So two years afterwards, what do you think of this whole experience?

    SJ: You know what? Now, I think Van Halen should definitely use a female singer at some point, but not one of those airy-fairy types more somebody like me. I'd be up for it. But not if it was called Van Halen! If Ed and Al did a side project for fun, I'd love to do something like that.

    __________________________________________________ ________________________

    Van Halen Auditions Mitch Malloy

    MITCH MALLOY – Interview, September 2000.

    Another very interesting thing happened while you were out of the limelight so to speak. The great Van Halen experience!! How did you and Eddie Van Halen hook up?

    A guy who worked for their management at the time used to be my road manager and he kept calling me and telling me they were going to fire Sammy and that I was going to be the next singer in Van Halen and he was calling and calling and finally I got annoyed by this and told him to stop and that I didn’t think I was a good fit in VH and that if he was serious he should have Ed call me. A week later Desmond Child calls me and says he has just left Ed’s house and was writing with them and that they were talking about me and that they were watching my “Anything At All” video, and that he told them that I was perfect for them, and that they would be lucky to get me, and before I knew it, I was on a plane to LA. Ed did call, a bunch of times. He was great.

    Things went so well, you actually recorded a demo with the guys – live in the studio. For the record! What tracks did you jam on?

    Yes, it was Panama, Ain’t Talking ’bout Love, Why Can’t This Be Love, Don’t Tell Me (What Love Can Do), Jump.

    And what were you thinking while this was going on? Total disbelief?!!

    LOL, it was very surreal. It was pretty cool. Valerie was very nice to me and Wolfy and I had a great connection. He just took to me right away. Ed was very taken with that as I recall, he told me I must be the guy cause his son loved me. It was cool. It was very nice. Ed is really a great guy, and so is Al and Mike. Ed was treating me like I was his best friend, his little brother. He still does most of the time. I miss him at the moment. I have not talked to him in a while. I hope he is okay. He was very encouraging on this new record. I sent him You Lift Me, It’s About Love, and Draw The Line and he called me while he was still listening to it and was very very excited and saying things that I couldn’t believe. I can’t really repeat them here without sounding like a total egotistic ass, so I will just say, he was very flattering.

    I hung up and yelled at the top of my voice. That felt way better than when he told me I was in the band. I felt like he accepted me as a peer when he like my music.
    I suppose I should tell of the moment when he told me I was in the band….. On the 3rd day I was there, I got a call as I was staying in Ed’s guest house. They told me they wanted me to be in the studio control room in 15 minutes. I went up and sat there and waited, And a few minutes later, Ed walks in stops and says, “well, you are an amazing singer, you look great and you are one of the nicest guys I have ever met, we just talked it over and congratulations, you are in the band.” he walks up to me, I stand up and he kisses me on both cheeks gives me a hug and turns and walks out of the room. I sit back down at the mixing board and say out loud, “I am in Van Halen, shit, now what”? I think I giggled a little in disbelief. It was a very strange moment.


    So the unanimous verdict on Ray Danniels as a manager is shit to say the least. Were you another victim of his control over the band at this stage?


    Well, I am not positive as to what happened there, but Ray told me at first that no matter what happened, he wanted to manage me. I already had a manager though. And he told me he wanted me in the band. I think its best I reserve comment any further on that one. I actually wrote Ray a letter, passing on the gig. It just didn’t feel right to me at the time, what with all the MTV thing with Dave and all that.


    They never told me they were doing that with Dave, and as far as I knew, I was pretty much in the band at that time. I knew they were going to audition Gary, but they told me they didn’t really want to, cause they wanted me. And then I see them walk out on stage with Dave, I called Mike and told him that I thought it was a mistake and that they had just made it nearly impossible for ANY singer to come in and be successful cause now EVERYONE thought Dave was back.

    I never heard back from them, and while I was waiting, I sat down and wrote a letter and had my manager send it up to Ray saying, thanks for the shot, but I am going to have to pass. It wasn’t an easy thing to do. I heard from Ed a few weeks later. I met Gary over the phone that day as well. Gary is a super nice guy. A real class act. I am very impressed with him as a person and would think he would be a very good friend to have. We are not friends, I am just saying, there are not that many people you meet in life that are as gracious as Gary Cherone.

    You did keep in contact with Eddie for a long while after this, but he wasn’t happy at all with you when you recommended something to him was he….can you tell us what you said about what he needed to do for a vocalist?

    Ed actually asked me what I thought, and I told him…….DAVE! You need to get Dave back, and he raised his voice saying, “You know what happened and how he was such an ass and what he said to me and did to me, and you know how hard it was to get him to sing in the studio”, and I said, but Ed, you had Dave singing Desmond Child songs.

    Dave isn’t that type of singer, you had him singing melodies he can’t sing, and what you need to do is just let Dave be Dave. And then he got even louder and said that he wrote all those songs/melodies, and that Dave just wrote the lyrics and sang them. That’s when I shut up. I love Ed, he has been like a big brother to me in a lot of ways. Who am I to upset him. But he did ask. And whatever happened with the Ed / Dave chemistry worked, and I just think that it will always work.

    Even if Ed did write all the melodies, obviously they have the same vocal range and they are connected with that. It WORKS! At least it worked. I have never met Dave, but he doesn’t seem THAT bad to me. I don’t know, I just love Ed and I want what is best for him. If he doesn’t want to work with Dave, then he shouldn’t work with Dave. I mean, you wouldn’t wish for your friend to be unhappy just because it will please the fans. Life is too short for that.


    But he did ask, and I did say Dave. I guess at the end of the day, music isn’t everything. And those guys have already given us a LOT of great music to listen to. Maybe that is enough?

    How do you think Van Halen with Mitch Malloy as lead vocalist would have sounded?


    Well, that’s easy, all I have to do is go put in the tape and listen to it.

    It sounds just like Van Halen with me singing. I had Asked Al on the first play back in the studio. I said, “what do you think?” “Does it sound strange hearing my voice over your music?”, and he looked me right in the eye and said, “no, not at all, it sounds great”!


    Everyone has opinions on the job Gary Cherone did as singer #3, what do you think alienated the fans so much?

    The MTV thing. I just don’t think the fans could get past that. I do think though that if they had had a hit like they did with Sammy that they would have had an easier time of it.
    __________________________________________________ ________________

    Ray Danniels - (Van Halen Manager At the time)

    You were at the helm when Van Halen recruited ex-Extreme singer Gary Cherone for its 11th album, “Van Halen III,” and the subsequent tour.

    I was credited with that. The great audition to be in Van Halen consisted of two people because Eddie didn’t really want to go to that many people. He anointed Gary, and the rest is history.

    Who was the other contender?

    It was Mitch Malloy, who was a pretty good looking country kid who had just gone from rock to country, and was trying to find his place. He might have been a good choice as well.


    __________________________________________________ _________________
    1996

    EDDIE VAN HALEN


    EVH (GUITAR 1997) – So Sammy quit. Around the same time, Dave was informed about the Best Of by people over at Warner Bros. He called me up and I sensed a different guy on the phone. I thought he was humbled by his Mariachi Vegas trip or whatever – he just seemed like a normal guy.

    Anyway, what initially started out to be just a conversation about the Best Of packaging turned out to be a 45 minute phone talk. I told him I’d get back to him and let him know when I knew more. And I was up in the area and I stopped by his house, and we smoked cigars in his backyard for about three hours, just BS-ing and having fun in a way that we never have. We never connected on that level, because we were never really friends. We came from different schools. Our only bond was the band. He had a P.A., so that’s why we got him into the band. Anyway, I thought he’d changed. He really seemed normal, no more-LSD- no more Lead Singer Disease.

    A week and a half went by, and I thought, “What are we gonna do with this Best Of thing?” Because we aren’t going to put it out just the way it is; we want to put something new on. I said to the band, “Roth wants to be involved.” Everyone said, “sure, great idea.” I asked him, “How would you like to be involved for one song?” He said, “sure, I’m not doing anything.” So, one thing led to another…



    ______________________________

    JUNE 26th, 1996

    MTV WEEK IN ROCK 6/26

    Kurt Loder: Hi, I'm Kurt Loder with MTV News.

    This just in, Sammy Hagar is out as lead singer of Van Halen and David Lee Roth, the man Hagar replaced in the group a decade ago, will apparently now be replacing him, at least temporarily. Roth had reunited with the group recently, after years of bad blood, to cut a new track for a greatest-hits album. News of the sudden personnel shift first surfaced on Los Angeles radio station KLOS on Tuesday night, and on Wednesday the band's management confirmed that Hagar is history. Only the reason remains as yet unclear. With David Lee Roth at the helm, Van Halen rocketed to stardom at the dawn of the eighties as a fun-loving camp-rock outfit with a gifted guitarist on board. With Hagar fronting the group, it became more of a standard hard-rock unit. Although no one is saying much more right now, one source at Warner Brothers Records says that Roth is in fact the once and future front-man of Van Halen.

    ___________________________________________

    Van Halen Splits With Singer, Works w/ David Lee Roth
    Wednesday June 26 6:56 PM EDT

    By Dean Goodman

    LOS ANGELES (Reuter) - The impossible has happened. Van Halen is working with original vocalist David Lee Roth after parting ways with Sammy Hagar, the veteran hard rock band's management said Wednesday.
    __________________________________________________ ___________________

    June 27, 1996

    SAMMY HAGAR PRESS RELEASE

    On June 27, 1996, Sam issued a press release announcing his decision to step down as the front-man of one of the most enduring and popular rock and roll bands in the world.
    Los Angeles Times
    __________________________________________________ ___________________

    Back With Van Halen: Van Halen's management confirmed Wednesday that Sammy Hagar has left the band, and that former lead singer David Lee Roth is working with the group on a new song for a greatest-hits album that will be released in October.

    An SRO Management spokeswoman wouldn't speculate on Roth's future with Van Halen and had no comment on reports that the band had fired Hagar. Roth and Van Halen split bitterly 11 years ago, and the group went on to even greater success with Hagar.

    Industry sources say that Roth approached guitarist Eddie Van Halen recently about participating on new songs planned for the greatest-hits collection, and the two patched up their differences.

    At the same time, Hagar, whose wife recently had a baby, is said to have balked at the band's rigorous rehearsal and recording schedule. In addition to the hits collection, Roth and Van Halen are reportedly writing material for a new album and are talking about a 1997 concert tour.

    __________________________________________________ ______________________________________

    JUNE 29th, 1996
    Associated Press

    Saturday, June 29, 1996

    LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Sammy Hagar says recording a greatest hits album was bad enough, but when he learned his Van Halen bandmates were secretly recording with former front-man David Lee Roth he bolted.

    The lead singer has been holed up at his Hawaii home, grappling with the "devastating, backstabbing, I-don't-get-it, real big disappointment" of the band's reunion with Roth.
    On the beach, Hagar, 48, has been reviewing his mental tapes of the last year, piecing together conversations and confrontations that might have signaled the growing tension. He traces the band's troubles back about a year to a dispute with manager Ray Danniels, who is Alex Van Halen's brother-in-law.

    "He took over the band, and the first thing he tried to pull in here was a greatest hits record, and what he jokingly talked about (as) the Sam and Dave Tour," Hagar said in a telephone interview late Friday.
    Hagar wasn't laughing. He harbored no personal dislike for Roth, but had been listening to his bandmates speak ill of Roth for 11 years. And he was dead-set against a best-of record.

    "A band has a greatest hits album when they have nowhere else to go," he said. "Can you name one band in their heyday that's done a greatest hits record?" Danniels "stuffed it down everyone's throat" that Van Halen needed to do a greatest hits album, Hagar said. "Van Halen, the four of us are not clever businessmen. We are not contrived, manipulating businessmen, we are musicians and artists," he said. "I think our vulnerability was taken advantage of. .... I think this band was great and I think we've been screwed with and screwed over, and I'm really sorry that the other guys kind of went along with it."

    Early this year, Hagar said, he was conned into writing a song for a greatest hits album when the band wrote music for the film "Twister." After penning two songs, Hagar was told the filmmakers only wanted one.

    "It was really just (the band) trying to squeeze another song out of me. And I don't go for that (expletive). Bad blood started then," he said. Then came a squabble over a lyric in a song Hagar was reluctantly writing for the greatest hits project.

    Hagar recalled this exchange with Eddie Van Halen in mid-June:
    Van Halen: "Why wouldn't you change (that) one line?"
    Hagar: "Well, why would I change that one line? I think it's a great line. It's like, do you know what this song's about, Eddie?"
    Van Halen: "Well, you never do anything I told you, and you never do anything I asked you."
    Hagar: "Wait a minute, you never asked me to do anything!"
    "All of a sudden it's like, 'blah blah blah blah blah,' and, 'Uh, well, we've been working with Roth,"' Hagar recalled. "I split as soon as I heard that," Hagar said. "It's like when your friend stabs you in the back, or your family." "I've been in this band for 11 years, and I know that David Lee Roth was the enemy," he said. "The three of the guys in the band hated him more than anyone on the planet. They wouldn't even talk to the guy. If anyone brought up the name, they would freak out."

    Representatives for the remaining members of Van Halen and for Roth said they would not comment on Hagar's charges.

    Hagar said two "really, really known bands, not some new guys on the block" have asked him to collaborate with them. Both, he said, would represent a lateral move. He is more inclined to play with some friends and explore where he wants to take his music now. "There's so many options, but I don't know which one I want to do yet," he said. "I think as soon as things blow over I'm going to go back down to Cabo (San Lucas, Mexico), and invite all my musician friends, and I'm just going to jam for about a month."

    _____________________________


    ALEX VAN HALEN

    AVH: "We had already jammed with Dave and it was like he never left... he hadn't changed. I think when you make music there's an energy that develops in the room that you really can't contain. You don't think about it, it just either happens or it doesn't. And when the four of us came together and made music it happened. You don't question it."

    __________________________________________________ __________

    JULY 1996
    ENTER GARY CHERONE

    In his first ever interview as a member of Van Halen, Gary Cherone told Kaz Hirose, Editor In Chief of the Japanese Magazine Burrn!, exactly when he first arrived at Edward Van Halen’s home studio 5150, which vastly differs from Edward Van Halen’s account.

    [COLOR="#FFA500"]
    “I was told from our management to go to LA and write songs with Van Halen from July through September.” Cherone goes on to say, “I remember before I came to LA, I saw MTV showing their old videos with Dave so I called Pat (Badger, from Extreme) and told him, 'See they will get together again' he said, 'No, it's not gonna happen,' but I insisted, 'No, I think Dave will be back.' So I called our manager and asked about it, but his answer was, 'He was back only to record two songs in the studio. That's what Eddie said.' Once I got here, and found that we could get along well with each other, I started to hope to be in this band although Dave was to do two songs.”

    As Internet fans began to question Cherone’s statement, sometime actress Valerie Bertinelli penned the following to the Van Halen Internet mailing list, even further contradicting Edward Van Halen’s insistence that he hadn’t auditioned singers or met Gary Cherone until after his supposed fallout with David Lee Roth at the 1996 MTV Awards. “Can't some of you people read? He (Cherone) didn't come out here 'til the end of August (he was informed of the audition in July) and someone else auditioned before him in mid-August.”

    __________________________________________________ ___

    July 2, 1996
    MTV - The Week In Rock
    MTV Week In Rock Transcript


    Kurt Loder: In news from out of nowhere on Wednesday, it was confirmed that some sort of snit had erupted in the ranks of Van Halen, that singer Sammy Hagar, the man who replaced the orchidaceous David Lee Roth as the band's frontman a decade ago, was off sulking, or cursing, or whatever, in Hawaii, while the rest of the band was back in the studio with none other than... David Lee Roth, who'd returned to the Van Halen ranks to cut a new tune for an upcoming greatest hits album - and might be sticking around, or not, the situation wasn't exactly clear - although record company sources told MTV News that Hagar was, indeed, history. From his retreat, Sammy's minions issued a press statement citing the usual "creative differences", although some observers felt that real problem may have been Hagar's dislike of touring, a subject he brought up last year, during a talk with Jon Stewart at MTV's "Spring Break".


    SAMMY HAGAR: The Monsters Of Rock that we did, I tell you, I almost, I honestly almost said, "I will never tour again." You can ask the band. I was... before "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" I was saying I don't think I'm going to tour this next album, maybe I have to quit the band. I mean, and it was like... I've never even discussed this in camera before, because it was really a kind of personal thing. The band, we actually had a little problem with this. I got sick. The first show I fell down and broke my tail bone in the Monsters Of Rock, and then I got so stressed that I had to have a masseuse to straighten me out every morning, to get me just so I could move around. Once I got moving, I could go out and I'd be sort of okay, but the stress of that. I got a sinus infection. I got strep throat. I got an ear infection from flying with it. That whole tour I never sang worth a crap.


    KL: Ever meet one of those guys at a party? They just go on and on... Meanwhile on Wednesday, Van Halen drummer Alex Van Halen, during a phone-in talk with San Diego radio station Q106, had this to say about the situation.



    ALEX VAN HALEN: We're doing one song together. That's all I know, and that's as far as it goes.


    Q106 DJ: One song on a new album?


    VAN HALEN: Correct.

    Q106: We got news here that there may be a reunion tour.

    VAN HALEN: No, nothing's... we're not going any further than today. We're doing one song.

    Q106: Is Sammy still with you guys?

    VAN HALEN: Sammy's, I'd say, on hiatus, as far as we know. He's in Hawaii.

    And, to put everything in perspective, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, speaking with John Norris at the Lollapalooza launch, weighed in with a few laconic comments of his own regarding the surprising Van Halen news.

    LARS ULRICH, Metallica: All I can say is KISS. OK? Those KISS tickets are selling mighty well out there... And you know what? I think it's great that they're doing it. I hope they'll have the balls to take it all the way. I think seeing Van Halen with Dave again would be the ultimate. And I think it would do as well as KISS. And I hope they wanna do it. And more power to 'em. Good luck. I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

    So what's really going on in Van Halen? That remains to clarified, very soon, no doubt, and we will keep you posted.


    ______________________________________

    JULY 4th, 1996
    MTV - The Week In Rock
    MTV Week In Rock Transcript

    Hi, I'm Kurt Loder with MTV News.
    When it comes to Van Halen these days, either you're a Sammy man or Dave fan. Sammy Hagar got the boot from the band last week. At the very moment his erstwhile buddies were holed up in a recording studio with David Lee Roth, the guy Hagar replaced in Van Halen back in 1985. Now the pop world has split into pro- and anti-Sammy factions, both among fans and fellow musicians. We chronicled the uproar.

    BILLY CORGAN, Smashing Pumpkins: Let's face it: Van Halen was it.

    TABITHA SOREN: When David Lee Roth was with them?

    CORGAN: Absolutely. Absolutely.

    MTV: The return of David Lee Roth has rock fans around the world talking. Many artists who grew up with the early Van Halen are thrilled.

    KIM THAYIL, Soundgarden: I like the raw rock incarnation -- the original one. That's what I turned on to.

    CHRIS CORNELL, Soundgarden: I think it's almost like KISS coming back with full make-up.

    LARS ULRICH, Metallica: Seeing Van Halen with Dave again would be the ultimate. And I think it would do as well as KISS. And I hope they wanna do it. And more power to 'em and good luck.

    TOM SALMORIN, Psychotica: I'm very excited that David Lee Roth's back in Van Halen.

    MTV: Fans are divided on the switching singers and have been flooding MTV News with email about the story.

    EMAIL 1: What is this crap! I don't care if Roth started, Hagar is the man!

    EMAIL 2: Every Van Halen connoisseur I know wanted Dave back.

    EMAIL 3: Get more exposure about the glorious return of David Lee Roth to Van Halen!

    EMAIL 4: If the original Van Halen were to reunite, it will be nothing less than colossal.

    EMAIL 5: What the hell is wrong with Van Halen? Please tell me that they're not getting rid of Sammy.

    EMAIL 6: I can't believe that David Lee Roth is back. He will destroy the band.

    MTV: David Lee Roth fans feel that the original Van Halen is the real Van Halen. But Hagar supporters say that their man was a better fit with the rest of the band, and that David Lee Roth's ego was the cause of the original split.

    SAMMY HAGAR in 1986: Maybe it was because of Roth's showmanship and antics and everything, that he always made a joke out of everything, that musicianship was never quite respected, except for Eddie. But to me, that's the number one thing, and that's why I joined this band.

    EDDIE VAN HALEN in 1986: There's no Vegas trip to it anymore. It's just pure music, and I think that, to me, is a little classier.

    DAVID LEE ROTH in 1986: I'm here to tell ya that it's a lot of b.s. It's a lot of excuses that are being pedaled because these guys couldn't get off their butt and make a record.

    MTV: Back when they were making records, the David Lee Roth-fronted Van Halen recorded six albums with total sales topping 27 million. With Sammy Hagar at the mike, the band didn't do too shabily either, selling 15 million copies of four studio albums and one live recording. So while loyal fans of both camps debate whether Roth's return is good or bad, two things seem certain: Van Halen will probably sell a whole lot more records and Hagar's on hold.

    JERRY CANTRELL, Alice In Chains: I love Sammy and I don't know Dave. But I would have to say that I prefer Van Halen with Dave. I'm sorry to Sammy.

    KURT: No clarification yet on whether David Lee Roth is back to stay or whether he's only recording a one-off track for an upcoming greatest-hits album, which is all Van Halen will say. Sammy Hagar, however, appears to be officially history, at least in terms of this band.
    ___________________________________________

    JULY 16th, 1996
    Special Report: Van Halen vs Sammy Hagar - An Interview with Ray Danniels


    JULY 16th, 1996
    Special Report: Van Halen vs Sammy Hagar - An Interview with Ray Danniels


    Sammy Hagar recently told the press he blamed manager Ray Danniels for his exit from Van Halen. Hagar said if longtime manager Ed Leffler was still alive, the split would have never happened. Hagar said the dispute with Danniels stemmed from the manager's idea of releasing a "best of" package; Hagar vehemently opposed the idea. Hagar said Leffler and the entire band had agreed to focus on new material rather than look back. Hagar refused to go into the studio for a "best of " release but did agree to record two songs for the "Twister" soundtrack. When he discovered that one of the songs was being used for the "best of" record, he said he felt conned. Then, when he got into a dispute with Eddie Van Halen over one of the songs lyrics, he discovered his band mates had already been "secretly" recording with David Lee Roth. Hagar said he was devastated and disappointed, especially since the band brought Roth into the studio. "I've been with this band for 11 years and I now that David Lee Roth was the enemy," he said. "The three of the guys in the band hated him more than anyone on the planet." In a rare interview, Danniels answers some of Hagar's allegations.

    Q: Was Hagar conned into doing a song for the "best of" release?

    A: No one was tricked into doing anything. Sam knew for a year there were discussions about a "best of" record. The reason he didn't like the idea was based on not wanting to have his material on the same record as Roth. Throughout Leffler's tenure and since Sam came into the band, he (Hagar) had done everything he could to ignore that part of the group's history. He felt that this was going to expose that and create comparisons and [make people] pick singer one or singer two. I, on the other hand, felt that was insanity. After 10 years plus, get over it.

    Q: Hagar says a "best of" record will the make the band look bad.

    A: That's just absurd. He did his own greatest hits record right after Ed Leffler passed away. [And] within their contract, Warner Bros. had the rights to a greatest hits record. Sammy had signed that deal. Ed Leffler had signed that deal. The other guys had signed that deal. I didn't create something that wasn't already there. And there are many active artists with greatest hits records. Elton John has got at least three of them. Eric Clapton has numerous. Billy Joel has numerous. And what about Bruce Springsteen: is that a dead act? I don't think so.

    Q: What instigated the work on a collection at this time?

    A: Eddie brought it up saying, "How come we've never had one. I can't believe it." It became a topic of conversation and I picked up on it and said, "Let me check your contract." I came back to them and said, "One day this is going to happen. Do it now. Why not? You're coming off a successful record." What I didn't want was this to be something that happened later. That may have suited Sam's purpose. It didn't suit the band's purpose as a whole.

    Q: Hagar said Roth was viewed as public enemy No. 1 to his band mates. Then Hagar said he had no ill will towards Roth. How do you see it?

    A: At the point these guys separated 11 or 12 years ago, they were 12 years younger and...it was a very different time. There were at least two alcoholics in the band and things were said that the three guys I'm still working with certainly would not say today. I can only tell you that Sam was very much behaving like the second wife in a marriage that wanted the first wife to not exist --- no pictures, no reference, don't mention the word. And when Ed was alive and he managed them, they pretty much successfully eliminated David.

    Q: Did you want to do a "Sam and Dave" tour?

    A: I certainly didn't suggest a reunion tour and I didn't suggest they get back together. But I wasn't going to treat a guy who'd been part of their initial success and sold 35 million records with them as a bad word. To me that was childish. But they will not tour until they've made new music with whoever the singer is. If the chemistry with David is right and David wants to go forward, and they want to go forward, then we'll see. It would be very easy to go out and just do it, but that's not where we're coming from.


    Q: Everyone agreed to a "cool down" period after the split but Hagar took it to the press, saying he was devastated and disappointed.

    A. I understand him being upset and angry. This is a guy who somehow managed to blow being a member of the biggest American rock band, period and heìs smarting. But unfortunately, he’¬s created this situation for himself. Heìs been his own worst enemy and he continues to be.

    Q: Hagar said the tensions were fueled when you started managing.


    A. I’d like to go on record as saying when Ed (Leffler) died, it was Sammy Hagar that changed the rules. It was Sammy Hagar that immediately went to Geffen Records and did new songs for a greatest hits record of his. It was Sammy Hagar that re-did an old deal at Warner Music and started to write and provide songs for Meat Loaf and various other acts. And it was Sam who seemed more focused on his outside projects then he was on Van Halen. And you know what? Ed Leffler probably wouldnìt have allowed that, either. Maybe thatìs the difference between Ed Leffler and Ray Danniels; Ed Leffler could have stopped Sammy Hagar from doing some of the things he did that caused friction. I didnìt have the ability to do that. I didn’¬t have the history with them. So from that standpoint, heìs absolutely right. But he fails to recognize he’s the cause of the friction. The truth of this, more than anything else, is Eddie Van Halen got sober and is capable of making judgement calls today and cares about things that he probably let go for many many years. The boy became a man. And he took his band back. It’¬s as simple as that.


    Q: For the record, who’s idea was it to start working with Roth again?


    A. David made a call to Ed. These were two guys who had spoken twice in 11 years. Once by sheer coincidence, they bumped into each other on the street in New York and exchanged pleasantries. One other time, David had been gracious to call Ed and Al when their father passed away seven years ago. So there had been no communication. Warner Bros. had sent Dave a courtesy letter telling him about the "best of" package. He called with his encouragement and talked to Ed and they hashed an awful lot of things out on the phone. And the timing was right. But this was after this situation with Sam had deteriorated to the point that it is right now. Unfortunately, Sam seems to think that somebody had this great idea that we would divorce wife number two and go back with wife number one, and that is as far-fetched as it can get.

    Q: So one was not the cause of the other.

    A. Oh God no. Absolutely not. If things with Sam were good, why would you want to disrupt a band that had survived the onslaught of new bands and new music and was one of a handful of elder bands that still had the juice? Why would you mess with that?

    ________________________________________

    18 July 1996

    VALERIE VAN HALEN


    *In response to the previous day's announcement on KLOS, Valerie reports to the Van Halen Internet Mailing List, "IF, and it's a very big IF, a tour happens it will not happen this winter."
    Last edited by THE SAINT; 08-21-2015 at 02:07 AM.
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