WHAT DID YOU PUT ON?...first 10 songs after hearing EVH RIP...

[Rikk]

I play Van Halen all the time. My vinyle issues, mostly. It isn't my wife's cup of tea at all, but she understands.

I play the Hollywood Bowl concert in my car. It's great, except for many of Dave's vocals, oh my...

His rant in the middle of DNA is stellar, though!

When I first met my wife, I asked her if she likes Van Halen. She said, "They're fun." I thought, okay, cool. Then I asked, "Which singer is better?" And without missing a beat, she said, "Dave. There's no competition." And then I relaxed.

[Funkmonkey]

Then you should have asked her "Coke or Pepsi?". ;-)

[Rikk]

Then you should have asked her "Coke or Pepsi?". ;-)

Actually, I did. And I can no longer drink cola. For some reason, my stomach has deteriorated to the point I cannot enjoy cola, which pisses me off, because I love it. But every time I drink it, I'm in deep pain. It sucks. (Ever watch a penny sitting in a glass of Coca Cola?...with the Coke cleaning all the grime off the penny?...that's what it does to your stomach lining...) Anyway, she answered very quickly, "Coke. No argument." But I've always been one of those weird people that prefers Pepsi. I like them both (though I've not had a glass of either for 15 years), but I actually like Pepsi slightly more... BUT I LIKE DAVE MORE THAN SAMMY!!!

[Seshmeister]

Anyway, she answered very quickly, "Coke. No argument."

Coincidentally also a common statement by Van Halen back in the day...

[ZahZoo]

"So autobiographic!" I dig on Tatoo.

Mousewife to bombshell in the time it took to get that new tattoo! Ha!

It's actually... Mouse-wife to Mom-shell in the time it took to get that new tattoo...

Momshell is the modern version of MILF...

[FORD]

Coincidentally also a common statement by Van Halen back in the day...

Van HALEN preferred "Coke". But Van Hagar was into Pepsi.... and not even real Pepsi but some bastardized bubblegum flavored shit that barely resembled a cola at all....

....which is fitting, as Van Hagar themselves were some bastardized bubblegum flavored shit that barely resembled a rock band.

[Rikk]

Van HALEN preferred "Coke". But Van Hagar was into Pepsi.... and not even real Pepsi but some bastardized bubblegum flavored shit that barely resembled a cola at all....

....which is fitting, as Van Hagar themselves were some bastardized bubblegum flavored shit that barely resembled a rock band.

I thought of Crystal Pepsi (and the RIGHT NOW ads) when I wrote my honest admittance on preferring Pepsi to Coke...but I also felt awkward because I haven't had a drop of either in 15 years. I miss cola.

[Terry]

I've grown to like TATTOO a lot...but it took a while. I was certainly underwhelmed at that being the first single.

But the thing that pissed me off the most about it was people like that fucking fatass Eddie Trunk used it as the proof he'd been waiting decades for that VH was better with Sam. Man, that pissed me off. The guy who claimed the 1984 tour was boring and nothing but personal solos and Dave showing off (I've watched the Montreal '84 show a couple dozen times and I'm always overwhelmed by how great it is...and they play a TON of songs, with a few theatrical moments, 2-3 Dave speeches), the guy who loves to claim that Sam made VH a better band, the guy who claimed Dave never bothered singing and had a completely shot voice during the reunion tours (this is bullshit...Dave actually sang better during the 2007-8 tour than he did at US Festival or other pre-break-up gigs I've heard)...the fat-mouth who claimed that TATTOO was the worst VH song ever certainly wasn't shooting his mouth off to point out to the world how terrible UP FOR BREAKFAST or LEARNING TO SEE are. Or SOURCE OF INFECTION (possibly the laziest vocal in history).

Man, I got worked up there. I'm just sick of Eddie Trunk and his opinions. I love people having opinions. But he's developed a massive ego over the decades and has begun to act like because he does all this for a living, his opinions are actually fact. If I were a DJ with a big audience and a stupid minority opinion concerning Sammy Hagar's place in Van Halen, I think I would have tired of trying to convince the majority of my listeners that they're wrong about David Lee Roth. He at one point claimed TOKYO DOME is one of the worst live albums ever because they didn't fix it in the studio. One of the things I love about that album is how real it is...yes, Dave fucks up HEAR ABOUT IT LATER, and maybe they could have picked a better show. But I've listened to it a bunch of times and really like it. To actually bitch that they didn't turn a live album into a studio creation is a joke. The band has admitted that RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW is almost completely a studio creation, with almost all drums, guitar, bass & vocals re-done at 5150...it's obvious where I place Sam in the band's history but at least WITHOUT A NET is mostly truly live and sounds a lot better than RHRN.

Yeah, but Trunk is just...he's full of shit.

At one point a few years back, Trunk said something along the lines of he thought the albums with Roth were the definitive Van Halen albums, yet he thought the band was better after Hagar joined: what the fuck is one supposed to make of that in terms of seriousness? I dunno if Trunk was blathering that because neither Roth nor any of the Van Halens did any guest spots on his various shows whereas Hagar and Anthony have, or what.

You rarely hear about the guy these days since TMS went off the air...it's not like any of the more popular aging metal bands consider it a must-get in terms of a spot on Trunk's current show if they have an upcoming tour to promote or whatever.

I'm not gonna say the guy doesn't have an unimpressive amount of Trivial Pursuit-type info re: rock bands stored in his head, but as you say in terms of his opinions...I mean, how am I supposed to take someone like him - who thinks Kip Winger was a misunderstood genius - seriously?

Eddie Trunk. That man never listened to a UFO record in his life.

[Rikk]

Yeah, but Trunk is just...he's full of shit.

At one point a few years back, Trunk said something along the lines of he thought the albums with Roth were the definitive Van Halen albums, yet he thought the band was better after Hagar joined: what the fuck is one supposed to make of that in terms of seriousness? I dunno if Trunk was blathering that because neither Roth nor any of the Van Halens did any guest spots on his various shows whereas Hagar and Anthony have, or what.

You rarely hear about the guy these days since TMS went off the air...it's not like any of the more popular aging metal bands consider it a must-get in terms of a spot on Trunk's current show if they have an upcoming tour to promote or whatever.

I'm not gonna say the guy doesn't have an unimpressive amount of Trivial Pursuit-type info re: rock bands stored in his head, but as you say in terms of his opinions...I mean, how am I supposed to take someone like him - who thinks Kip Winger was a misunderstood genius - seriously?

Eddie Trunk. That man never listened to a UFO record in his life.

I remember there was one sequence on TMS (a show I watched pretty religiously, unless he had bands like POISON or WINGER or something on...I just can't listen to that kind of music): they were talking about the greatest live album ever. And as at least one of the others in the discussion placed Thin Lizzy's LIVE AND DANGEROUS about UFO's live album, he started getting angry. His favorite album is the UFO live album. So, what did he do? He started using any excuse to justify why he was RIGHT. Not just reflecting his opinion? He was actually saying that the other opinions were simply WRONG. And that started to piss me off. I like UFO fine...but they do not exist in the same universe as Thin Lizzy to me...MY opinion. He even then said, "Thin Lizzy's live album was fixed in the studio. That proves UFO's live album is better." First off, I doubt UFO's live LP wasn't also fixed in the studio...but this is the same asshole who claims it makes no difference how much of KISS ALIVE! was recorded in the studio: it's still brilliant. Absolutely it is! (And ALIVE II, though ALIVE I is slightly better...a little more live-sounding, to my ears.) The same asshole who claimed TOKYO DOME was such a mess because they didn't fix it up in the studio because (his words), "Dave can't sing live" (which is total bullshit...he sings with regular Dave range all over that LP).

Again, it's kinda like the Links/Brett thing: I cherish conversations with people who do not share my exact opinion. It's all subjective. I just can't stand when people get their ego so up their lower-intestine that they feel the need to treat their own opinions as completely objective and an offense to disagree with them.

Right now, there's some 35-year-old who thinks back with reverence to losing his virginity to a Nickelback record. And even though I find that very sad, there's nothing I could (or should) do to remove the specialness of that record from said individual. (But still, imagine losing one's virginity to that!! I wish I could claim I lost mine to ATOMIC PUNK or something, but I'd be lying...I don't even remember any music on...)