Serious question...What has SAMMY HAGAR done that is actually any good?

[VAiN]

Hagar saw a guy with serious health & addiction issues and dragged him out on tour so he could line his pockets with cash. That's enough to make even Gene Simmons' stomach churn.

[jpage78]

It's hard to respect someone who doesn't have any self awareness. Hagar seems to really believe the crap he spewed in his book about outselling Dave (laugh) . What get's me about Sam was he took part in the mud slinging at Roth. For a guy who didn't even MEET DLR till 2002 where does he get off throwin' bombs at Dave? That was his most serious offense.

Wasn't it Dave who said Sam "abused a position he attained purely by luck". That sums it up.

[DONNIEP]

I've rethought my response. Compared to anything that Van Halen recorded, nothing. There is not one single thing that I can think of that is praise-worthy. Nothing. Never mind the fact that you can't compare the two bands - that's obvious if you've listened to even one Van Hagar song. But even up to the last Van Halen album - 1984 - they were absolutely on fire! Jesus Christ! House Of Pain? Girl Gone Bad? What could compare to those songs? Not a fucking thing Sammy has done before or since could even come close.

[Nitro Express]

The best thing Sammy has done was to get abducted by aliens. The damn shame was they returned Sammy back to earth. He was enjoying the anal probing too much.

[Hardrock69]

Firstly, you have to consider some things. We are looking at Spamulus in hindsight. We are also looking at the music CULTURE in hindsight.

Montrose's first album came out in 1973 I believe. At the time, HEAVY music was not mainstream. It was not even CLOSE to mainstream. You had Black Sabbath, Led Zep and Deep Purple at the top of the heavy music mountain, but rock music in general was still in the process of getting heavy, and had a long way to go in that department.

The first Montrose album was pretty heavy for the time. Not METAL, but good solid hard rock.

Ronnie Montrose could have had other vocalists, but I have to admit as a singer, Spamulus has a good rock voice. Talking range and technique here. He was a good fit for the band.

Second album was good as well. Space Station No. 5 is a killer piece of hard rock.

When he went solo, and he was left to his own devices, he immediately became more of a penis-puffer. "Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy" is a bullshit pop song.

As a performer in the 70s, he WAS a rocker. Though he wrote pop-rock crap for the most part, I saw him opening for Boston 2wice on the same tour. Sept. 15, 1978 in Seattle, and March 8, 1979 in Wichita, KS.
Both times, as a performer, he put on a good rock show. Can't really say "hard rock", as he was already selling out for fucking dollars. But it was a good solid show. Worthy of an opening act.

I did enjoy the song "Rock and Roll Weekend" as it was a great rock song in a live setting.

But that was the only time I saw him where he was a rocker, and not some effeminate idiot.

Next time I saw him was 1982? Three Sux Cocks tour at Reunion Arena in Dallas. Friend of mine wanted to go, and I wanted to see a show at Reunion Arena....I was living in Dallas at the time. I was pretty disgusted that night.....the mix was so fucking keyboard heavy it was pathetic. That was when I truly began to despise him.

Then came the ruination of All That Is Van Halen. Saw the 5150 show. People still were freaking out because it was "Van Halen", and of course Spamulus had been having some pop success in previous years, but nowhere near the lies he continually goes on about....platinum albums.

Sure. Sure Spamulus. You MOTHERFUCKING LYING FUCK!

I went because it was Van Halen. Or so I thought. This was May 1986 I think. 3 months later, August 30, 1986, Uncle Dave came to town, and cemented my opinion that van hagar was lame.
Ed, Mike and Alex were still doing great instrumental performance, but the new material was pop bullshit, and it only got worse from there.

Uncle Dave totally kicked our asses. Steve Vai and Billy Sheehan were radioactive! I've got a DVD from that tour.....Detroit, MI. Just got it a couple of years back, and when I watched it again, it just confirmed my memories. Totally kick ass fucking show. WAY superior to van hagar.

OU812 tour rolled around to Wichita Kansas. My roommate and everyone I knew were going.
"Van Halen is playing tonight! You sure you don't want to go?"

"FUCK THAT WORTHLESS COCKSUCKER! HE RUINED VAN HALEN!"

My friends were mystified. I was the only one in my circle of friends who had moved firmly into the anti-Spam club. They went, I stayed home and smoked pot.....happy in the knowledge I was NOT wasting 2 hours of my life I could never get back.....on the contrary...I was spending those 2 hours in a very useful and productive manner.....DOING FUCKING NOTHING.

1988 rolled around. Monsters of Rock came to Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. Fuck yeah I was going to go! But not to see van hagar.

Kingdom Clone, Metallica and the fucking Scorpions! Woot!

Before I even hit the road to go to KC, I knew that I was not going to stay for the entire van hagar set. My plan was to wait until Ed began his solo, then I would walk out.

Mikey did his solo first though, and it was a doozy. Abused the fucking shit out of his bass. Tossed it on the ground, kicked it, spit on it, while it lay their rumbling.

Then he picked it up and beat it some more, and it basically fell apart, lol.

When Ed began his solo, I left. I walked out into the parking lot, with Ed's solo going on in the background, and drove away. And was proud to do so.

Late 90s, I saw Spamulus in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the Brady Theater. Much as I despised him, my roommate loved him, and I bought a pair of tix as a birthday present to him. Wound up front row.

The beginning of the Cabo Wabo tequila salesman routine. I was glad to be able to give my friend such a great present, but ugh.....I had to sit through all that bullshit.

Last time I saw "it", was the Sam & Dave tour. Uncle Dave went on first, and totally kicked ass. The Band was SHIT HOT!

Decided that due to Mikey's presence, I wanted to see him play. The REAL and ONLY bassist for Van Halen. So I hung out until Mike came out and played for 3 or 4 songs. Soon as he left the stage, I headed for the exit.

So that is my litany of shame. Every time I saw Spamulus and my reasons for doing so. It has given me a firm idea of his career, his abilities, and his massive shortcomings.

The short answer is - as a hired singer for Ronnie Montrose's solo band, he was good.

As a solo artist, his songwriting was fucking lame, but he was still a decent rock performer in a live setting as late as 1979, as he still had SOME real ability to actually ROCK at that point.

Post-1980 - everything he touches turns to shit. SPECIFICALLY, VAN HALEN.

Fucking worthless bullshit.

His solo stuff post-Van Halen is just a buncha mindless fucking drivel.


Postscript:

Was hanging out with a friend of mine here in Gnashville who owns a record shop. He surprised me by saying he got to hang out with van hagar when they came to town one year. He did not recall which year it was, but eventually mentioned that Alex was wearing a neck brace. So I told him it was most likely 1995 or thereabouts.

He said that the opening band was Our Lady Peace. My friend had a friend who worked for Sony, and so my friend got a VIP pass for the show...

He said that he almost never saw Spamulus.

Ed, Alex and Mikey spent all their time hanging out in the dressing room of OLP, who my friend was hanging with (he had driven them around earlier that day to run errands). My friend said that there were a bunch of Nashville celebrities backstage, and that Spamulus spent all his time hanging with them. My friend said Mike, Alex and Ed were really cool, and a lot of fun to be with, but my friend said "you know, looking back I can see they already did not spend any time together, and did not seem to really interact much...even on the stage". My friend also said that he never met any musician who was as focused on their instrument as Ed was on his guitar. Ed was working on his guitar that afternoon quite a bit, and was constantly noodling on it while just hanging around backstage.
My friend was there for van halen's soundcheck. He said he was standing on Ed's side of the stage....that Ed was literally only 10-15 feet from him, and was talking to him in between blasting out his guitar. My friend is a lucky motherfucker in that respect.

I have said enough about Spamulus.

Fuck that fat worthless cheesedick motherfucker.

[Hardrock69]

Oh, and by the way...Rikk? It is so good to see you post again. Dude....you need to post more often! Been too long! :D

[TJMKID]

It's hard to respect someone who doesn't have any self awareness. Hagar seems to really believe the crap he spewed in his book about outselling Dave (laugh) . What get's me about Sam was he took part in the mud slinging at Roth. For a guy who didn't even MEET DLR till 2002 where does he get off throwin' bombs at Dave? That was his most serious offense.

Wasn't it Dave who said Sam "abused a position he attained purely by luck". That sums it up.

Van Halen and AC/DC are very similar because they were huge rock bands who had to replace very charismatic frontmen in the early 80's. However, it's been like night and day with the replacement singers.

Brian Johnson was respectful of Bon Scott from Day 1 and has been ever since. He's always honored the history of the band by singing Scott-era songs with vigor and passion so he could please the fanbase. Johnson is a classy guy.

Hagarita the Pussy Nugget was a bitter jealous cunt from Day 1 and has shown uglier sides of his character as the years drag on. He could've taken the high road in 1985 and said to the fans --- "David Lee Roth was an awesome frontman who was a HUGE reason for the success of Van Halen, but I'm going to do my best to carry on the great legacy of this band and I hope the fans like me." The VH fanbase woud love the dude if he chose that path, although they never would've equated his talent with Diamond Lee.

Instead, we got a vindictive insecure fuckstick who continues to bash Dave and Eddie in every word barf interview he gives. He writes in his book "I was as huge as Van Halen in 1984" and "Roth-era concerts were not very good because they were 4 solos with about 7 or 8 songs in between." What kind of a cumstain writes TOTAL BULLSHIT like this for profit? Go watch the recent appearance on "That Metal Show" --- Big Pussy Nugget says he regrets writing the book because it further divided the VH fanbase, but yet says a few minutes later "I really held back when it came to talking about Eddie on the 2004 tour". We supposed to pat you on the back for that, Sambo? He's also quoted as "laughing really hard" when he found out about the Soundwave Music Festival being cancelled in Australia. Only a fuckstick gloats about ridiculing an entire nation of loyal fans.

Please die already, you Chubby Pussy Nugget. Nobody is gonna miss your pathetic music or your beach bum legacy. Hopefully, the lawyers will do the right thing and give all your money and cantina franchises to Jimmy Buffett since you stole all his business ideas in the first place. Your wife will grieve for a couple days until she realizes her credit cards are maxed out and then she'll hook up with W. Axl Rose or some shit. The only people I will feel sorry for is your daughters because they will grow older and finally realize they had a liquor salesman fraud for a father instead of a revered rock icon like Diamond Lee Roth.

[heartbreaker]

You know you're opening up a can when you start off a thread like this. Anyway....

I wasn't THAT big of a Hagar fan before Van Halen to begin with. I didn't think he sucked but he wasn't anything really great. I do remember some of the dweeb/geek/spazzes from school singing "I Can't Drive 55" in class back in the 80's to put my Hagar experiences in to perspective. For Van Halen, I liked 5150 and F.U.C.K. with Sam and that's it. The Balance album had "Amsterdam" as an awesome track though "Big Fat Money" was...okay. I do like Sammy's soundtrack contributions with Van Halen like the "Humans Being" song from the Twister soundtrack and also "Winner Takes It All" from the Over The Top soundtrack (Eddie played bass on it). Then Sammy went back to being solo and the one hit wonder solo stuff came in. I tend to really like ONE song from each album ("Little White Lies", "Mas Tequila", "Shakka Doobie", etc.) and I find that the rest of the songs on his albums are just mediocre (at best).

By comparison, I like EVERY song that DLR ever recorded and released (both Van Halen and solo). I mean EVERY song!

[fryingdutchman]

Virtually nobody went to Van Hagar because of Sammy Hagar.

They went to see Eddie, Alex, and Mike. Sammy was a necessary evil. It was a take it or leave it proposition.

I went to see them twice during the 2004 cash-grab tour because I honestly thought it would be the last chance to see Eddie before he died.

[jhale667]

I agree with HR's assessment...I saw Van Hagar a couple of times because I was (and still am) an EVH fanatic (plus my then-girlfriend wanted to go), but with the exception of a couple of moments of brilliance from Ed, it was pretty terrible. My opinion was cemented upon seeing the Eat 'Em & Smile tour - the band opened with "Shy Boy" and they were ON FIRE...after the opening number, Dave says "So....what do you think of the new band so far? He completely eclipsed them with Vai and Sheehan musically and lyrically for a moment....

[wolfsbane]

Standing Hampton is an amazing album. One of the best made by any artist.



Anything else he did, is unlistenable.

[FORD]

Spam auditions for the Bee Gees in 1978.......

[DONNIEP]

That's...just horrible. It's almost enough to turn you gay.

[hambon4lif]

Leif Hagarett

BWHAHAHAHAHA!!!

[FORD]

That's...just horrible. It's almost enough to turn you gay.

And yet, this is even worse........