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Originally posted by Terry
Ed and Al took control of the band AFTER Dave quit in 1985. Think it was pretty much Ed and Dave who were responsible for the decision-making prior to that split.
Dave wasn't fired from Van Halen in 1985. Don't know how that got started, although it is perpetuated by lazy music journalists who can't be bothered to check the facts.
Ed contacted Roth in 1996, THEN sacked Sammy shortly thereafter. Gary was hired in August. VMAs with Roth in September. Roth's open letter in October. Far as I can make out, nobody from Van Halen or VH management even told Roth in 1996 that he was fired. They just didn't bother contacting him after the VMAs, and only responded after he put out his press release. It took Roth's letter to goad Van Halen into letting the rest of us know what the fuck was going on.
Alex is the boss now. Yep, he's calling the shots for a band that has no record label, no singer, no future, and won't even put out product under the Van Halen name that somebody would want to buy (classic live video).
I wouldn't even hire Alex to manage a hotdog cart at a baseball stadium for me. He'd end up selling tofu dogs while trying to convince people they're just as good as ballpark franks and put me outta business.
Ed and Al took control of the band AFTER Dave quit in 1985. Think it was pretty much Ed and Dave who were responsible for the decision-making prior to that split.
Dave wasn't fired from Van Halen in 1985. Don't know how that got started, although it is perpetuated by lazy music journalists who can't be bothered to check the facts.
Ed contacted Roth in 1996, THEN sacked Sammy shortly thereafter. Gary was hired in August. VMAs with Roth in September. Roth's open letter in October. Far as I can make out, nobody from Van Halen or VH management even told Roth in 1996 that he was fired. They just didn't bother contacting him after the VMAs, and only responded after he put out his press release. It took Roth's letter to goad Van Halen into letting the rest of us know what the fuck was going on.
Alex is the boss now. Yep, he's calling the shots for a band that has no record label, no singer, no future, and won't even put out product under the Van Halen name that somebody would want to buy (classic live video).
I wouldn't even hire Alex to manage a hotdog cart at a baseball stadium for me. He'd end up selling tofu dogs while trying to convince people they're just as good as ballpark franks and put me outta business.
Some slight errors and/or discrepancies: My understanding is that Dave was, in fact, fired. All the parties agreed to keep it as "Dave has left" b/c a) it was more diplomatic, and b) it was beneficial for VH b/c saying that Dave left wouldn't anger the fan base so much, and c) it was beneficial for Dave, b/c he didn't have to lse face.
Even Billy Sheehan - at the time of Eat 'Em and Smile has said that one day he called Ed to invite him to an upcoming Talas show, and Billy mentioned that Dave had called him recently, figuring that he was calling to invite Talas to open for VH on upcoming otur dates. Ed said, "Don't tell anyone, but we fired the fucker." My impression overall of that whole thing was that no one knows really what happened other than that the relationship was dissolved.
But you are mistaken re: who called who in '96. It was Dave who made the initial phonecall. Before Sammy was even out of the picture, Dave ad heard that they were putting a Greatest hits together, and he wanted to find out how they were handling it and what material would be on it. Dave had also recently completed the bulk of the CFTH manuscript, and wanted to put all that in the past (he also saw the mid-east peace negotiations taking place at the time on TV, and, in his own words, figured, "If they can do it over there, then I should be able to do it over here."). Ed mentioned that - as Dave states in CFTH ("Reunion Blues") - they were thinking about adding some new bonus tracks, and things took shpae from there, and they began working together. This was all taking place behind Sammy's back.
The rest is history.
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