Originally Posted by
Terry
Yeah, well, while I have no idea if Hagar has actually even physically spoken to either of the Van Halens since the 2004 tour ended - who knows for sure what goes on behind the scenes - I'd tend to guess he hasn't. Mostly because Hagar being who he is, if he had talked with either Ed or Al he would have publicly said so.
And Hagar's most recent public comments above are just the latest in a semi-frequent just plain weird series of interview comments Sammy has been making on the subject of a potential future re: Van Hagar for the last ten years since his autobiography came out. It's just this odd passive-aggressive stance Hagar has toward Van Halen not taking him up on his public reunion offer combined with amnesia on his part as to why the Van Halens aren't dealing with him: did Sammy Hagar forget what he had to say about Van Halen in his book?
I mean, it's no secret that Eddie was in dreadful shape for the 2004 tour, and that tour was shambolic as a result. The tour photos of Eddie along with all the youtube clips of those shows confirmed those suspicions while the tour was taking place in realtime, well before Hagar gave his inside take on those events in his book. It wasn't like the Hagar book was a revelation on that topic in general terms: some inside dirt on some particulars of Ed's behavior to be sure, but everybody knew Ed was fucked up. What Hagar's book did was squarely - and possibly even fairly - put the majority of the blame for that shitty tour on Ed's shoulders. Even assuming that was an accurate assertion to make, the feeling I got from reading those passages of the book was that Hagar had an agenda of making sure everybody knew it was all Eddie's fault and that Hagar didn't have a viable option (due to the nature of the contract he signed) of bailing on the tour (and saving the paying concertgoers from seeing a shitty performance) despite being aware that Eddie was too fucked up to play properly because Hagar would have been on the hook for millions of dollars for breach of contract.
So, Hagar kept his mouth shut at the time of the tour, went onstage, did the shows, took the money and fucked back off to his solo career after it was over.
Instead of just remaining silent about it, or perhaps making a brief comment in a post-tour interview if asked about the nature of that tour along the lines of "clearly, Eddie was struggling at times" and just leaving it at that, Hagar went into a detailed blow by blow account in his book of all the dirt behind the scenes...possibly in no small part to boost the sales of the book, then he went out and proceeded to do countless interviews promoting the book where he publicly blamed Eddie and held back nothing in terms of the details as to how fucked up Eddie was.
Now, let's leave the lack of common sense Hagar displayed in signing the tour contract after already having seen firsthand how fucked up Eddie was when they were recording the BOBW tracks to one side, as well as lack of character Hagar displayed in doing the tour knowing full well how fucked up Eddie was, pocketing the money and then going on to blame Eddie for all of it for profit a la his book.
Put all of that to one side.
Rightly or not on the part of the Van Halens, if you were in their position, would you ever want to reunite with Hagar again, much less remain friends? From what I gather, after the 1996 breakup, Hagar and the Van Halens hadn't seen each other prior to 2003. And they haven't been in contact with each other since 2004. So, in the last 22 years, they spent a total of one year together doing a few tracks and a tour that was fairly unpleasant for everybody involved. And Hagar has simultaneously publicly shit on them while putting the feelers out for another reunion every chance he gets. The small amount of time Hagar and the Van Halens have spent together in the last 2 decades - and the shitty quality of the brief time they DID spend together - doesn't leave me with the feeling that there IS any great friendship there to repair or rekindle. If I can understand that, why is Hagar having so much trouble getting it? If Hagar had such a shitty time as he publicly claimed over and over again touring with Roth in 2002, why is it a shock to Hagar that Roth has no interest in making a cameo appearance at The Red Rockers Jammin' Beach Jamboree or whatever the fuck it is?
You can't publicly - and repeatedly - burn your bridges with people then sit there and wonder why they don't want anything to do with you...unless you're the type of asshole who thinks it's everybody ELSE that has the problems and everything you've done is without fault.