It was 15 years ago today....

[VAiN]

Man, I remember watching this live and being so fucking excited and happy for the next handful of days... All seemed right in the world. It was the best feeling ever.. I will never forget it. And then Ed got sand in his vagina and it was game over.

[David Wolf]

I saw it live had no idea they would come out together , aside from the rumors of a possible Best of with Roth VH sharing half the cd with Spammy no idea about new tunes either.

Was nuts bonkers happy, when I saw Dave walk out shit my pants happy Mf'er.

20/20 hindsight when I re-ran the tape caught the slo-mo and well the look on Daves face sais...

!!!ROTFLWLMAO!!!

I SWEAR TO GOD that picture says it all!

I found out about it all a day or two after the fact via rock magazines; I was SO PISSED at Eddie for doing that to Dave, especially when later I read his ridiculous interview with some magazine in which, I swear, I have never heard a grown man spend an entire "interview" in any publication spewing and cussing his mouth off in such a vile little kiddie tantrum as Ed did. He finally showed off his true colors, and FINALLY Dave gets vindication after years of their bullshit and lies.

I'm enthusiastic about the talked-about new album/tour possibilities, but Dave... if perchance you happen to be reading this... I believe in you and know you can damn well take care of yourself, and I'm rootin' for ya... but as a fellow artist who cares about ya, I gotta say... just *BE CAREFUL*, okay?

[Terry]

At the beginning of the summer, I remember hearing that Hagar was gone and Roth was back in the studio with the band. There wasn't a lot of information beyond that made available in the traditional media outlets, or at least I wasn't really paying attention to them. I didn't even own a computer then, wasn't listening to rock radio much anymore...I probably heard those initial reports that Roth was working with the band via MTV News. It was kind of funny in a way, because I do remember in the spring of 1996 there was a several page story in GQ that featured Roth and focused on his attempt to break into Las Vegas. The tone of the story basically suggested that his career was hitting the skids, at least in comparison to the high-flying 80's. It certainly looked that way at the time. I mean, YFLM hardly made waves in terms of sales, and the videos from that album got virtually ziltch in terms of airplay. Then, a few months after the GQ article, Dave's "back" in Van Halen.
So there was basically a several week period between the announcement that Roth was working with the band again and the MTV VMA's where nothing was being publicized. Then they did the VMA's. I do remember watching those, and despite getting an odd feeling / vibe from Eddie Van Halen, it basically looked like the band was back together. Alex Van Halen's comments on air seemed to confirm it. Then another couple of weeks go by and the MWM single is released. Almost simultaneously as the single is hitting the airwaves, Roth releases his open letter, and in very short order the Van Halens undertake a slew of interviews. It went from a virtual media blackout all summer to a barrage of magazine, radio and tv interviews and all of it was focused on mudslinging. It was just a huge fucking letdown, and just watching/hearing/reading what the Van Halens had to say for themselves it was clear that they essentially led Roth and the fans on in this crank yank that was to have no payoff. That's the art of the cocktease; never expressly saying you're gonna get [a full-fledged reunion], but all the signs and implications are there. I mean, while I understand "no means no"...the way that bitch Eddie Van Halen had dressed this scenario up couldn't fail BUT lead one to the conclusion that "she was asking to get fucked" (and, in the end, he did).
The icing on the fucking cake was the Cherone announcement within days of Roth's open letter. I mean, one could virtually hear a collective groan from the legions of fans who were fucking AMPED to see CVH reunite. If you're gonna pull a bait-and-switch, you don't dangle Classic Van Halen in front of the fans then try to substitute Gary Cherone; what the fuck was Eddie thinking? I guess that's just the point: he wasn't. Perhaps he thought it would be like 1985/1986 all over again. The difference was that back then Roth quit. This time around, Roth wanted back in, the vast majority of the fans wanted to see it happen, but Eddie just wasn't having it. It all came down to what Eddie wanted in the end, and regardless of how the Van Halens tried to spin it in the press, that was the bottom line. Fair enough in one sense, because by 1996 it WAS their band.
"Some people never accepted Sammy, you know? It was always 'Roth, Roth, Roth'. Well, there will be some people who won't accept Gary. Hey, that's just life, you know? We'll make the music, put it out, and if it reaches one person, mission accomplished."
Eddie Van Halen, interview with MTV News, Sept. 1996.
Imagine what the Warner Brothers reps were thinking after they heard THAT statement. Here they are having to contend with Eddie Van Halen, who is apparently content with reaching only one fan with Van Halen's next release. A release that was a year and a half away at that point. I guess the logic in waiting so long was if a substantial interval passed between the Roth debacle and Van Halen 3 then people would forget all about 1996. Not so much.
That whole 1996 biz was really the last time I was totally fucking PSYCHED re: Van Halen. When Cherone bailed in 1999 and all the "Dave's back again, Van Halen are gonna play halftime at the Superbowl" rumors started up, I was a little less enthusiastic. A little less so when Roth confirmed to the press in early 2002 that he had worked in the studio with the Van Halen the previous year. And a little less so with each subsequent go-around. By the time (most of) the band actually DID reform with Roth, it was more a reaction of "fucking FINALLY" than anything else. And they couldn't even get THAT right, as there was no Mike Anthony and (there still isn't) any new music.
1996 was really the template for what Van Halen turned into from that point onwards which is a band now known for botched reunion attempts, false-starts, ravaging addictions, indifference to their fans and quickie cash-grabs. As jaded and cynical as I am toward human behavior, when I think of what Van Halen represented to me all those years ago and see where they are today, I get mildly ill. The band meant that much to me. The upside is that the CVH music was bombproofed to the point where even the band themselves can't generate enough ill will to negate how much I dig those tunes.

[Terry]

Not to prolong this, but it's really what the entity known as Van Halen is good at now: fucking things up.
Like, it's more laughable now than anything else when I consider that there hasn't been a massive CVH box set and all of the old CVH footage is languishing in film cans somewhere...rotting away...and the band are entering their fourth year having reconvened with Roth and there's no new music to be heard.
The Van Halens are content with fucking things up. Dave wanted to hitch his wagon up to this band again for so long, but by the time it finally happened Ed basically fried himself. I think [Ed] is virtually tapped out. Too many years of drug and alcohol addiction combined with too much success; he's in a cocoon where he can hit the road once every several years and crank out the oldies in a half-assed manner to punters willing to pay top dollar for a brief flash and glimpse of what was once sheer rock brilliance. The very success that Van Halen worked tremendously hard to deservedly get has allowed them to coast. There's really no sense of urgency with this bunch of guys.
Hard to imagine how that attitude is gonna translate into high-energy, ass-kicking rock and roll.