Latest Bass Player Interview

[FORD]

Sammy can sing Dave's songs??

Bullshit.

[Sarge]

I don't believe anything that comes out of Sammy's mouth....

[fraroc]

I don't believe anything that comes out of Sammy's mouth....

After learning the truth about Sammy Hagar, me either. Sammy Hagar is a fucking asshole who bit the hand that fed him for 11 years and is proud of the fact that he took advantage and then stabbed Eddie in the back. That's why I fucking hate listening to Van Hagar music now, knowing what a shitty human being Sammy is.

[Seshmeister]

I don't believe anything that comes out of Sammy's mouth....

I like the review of his book on Amazon by someone called TruthTeller...


1) Page 54: "...the first Montrose album has sold more than 4 million records over the years." According to the RIAA, it's certified just ONE million. (Worldwide sales are barely more than USA sales for all Hagar's albums).

2) PAGE 78: I sold out the Oakland Coliseum that Fourth of July [1980]. He fails to mention that he was on the bill with 4 other bands, three of which were hugely popular at the time: Blue Oyster Cult, REO Speedwagon, and Triumph, (and also Randy Hanson). Hagar conveniently implies he sold it out by himself.

3) PAGE 80: [In 1982]: "We went out on tour, headlining arenas, double nights in a lot of places." From my years working in concert promotion at Electric Factory in Philly in the 80s (a huge concert promoter back then), I have the list of Sammy's 1982 tour dates straight from Pollstar. There was only ONE city listed where he played twice: San Francisco. Again, he is lying through his fake teeth.

4-7) Page 90 contains one incredible paragraph that is the biggest pile of BS I'(tm)ve ever read relating to Van Halen in my life!:

"The tour for VOA was my most successful. I sold out arenas everywhere, two, three, or four nights some places, one of the top grossing tours in 1984-right up there with Van Halen, who broke at the same time with Jump and all that. I remember getting an award in Portland, Oregon. I sold out two nights and got the Show of the Year. Van Halen was runner-up. We were neck-and-neck on the road. My album was 1.6 million, but they ended up selling 10 million records."

4) "VAN HALEN 'BROKE' WITH JUMP IN 1984"?? How he belittles VH's earlier success! I was under the impression that they broke in 1978, when they exploded with their earth-shattering debut, rewriting the rules for rock music and sold 2 million copies right out of the gate! Ed was winning every guitar player award in site. In only their first year, VH far eclipsed everything that Montrose & Hagar ever did. Everyone was talking about VH in '78, and NO ONE was talking about Hagar or Montrose.

5) "I SOLD OUT ARENAS EVERYWHERE, TWO, THREE, FOUR NIGHTS IN SOME PLACES, ONE OF THE TOP GROSSING TOURS IN 1984-RIGHT UP THERE WITH VAN HALEN".

6) "We [VH and Hagar in 1984] were neck-and-neck on the road." On what planet? Anyone who was alive during the 80s knows that Van Halen was infinitely more popular than Hagar. Perhaps Hagar was the only person on EARTH who didn't see it that way. In 1984, Van Halen was through the stratosphere - their tour absolutely dwarfed all other rock band's tours, especially Hagar's.

7) "I remember getting an award in Portland, Oregon. I sold out two nights and got the Show of the Year." Again, from my years working in concert promotion, I have here Sammy's 1982 tour dates. He played ONE night in Portland, Oregon, on 3/19/82, at the Memorial Coliseum. The dates before and after were both in Washington. No other Portland dates.

8 ) Page 113: "Before I joined the band, Van Halen didn't have a particularly tight show. Roth would talk. They'd do another song. Ed would play a 20 minute guitar solo. They would do another song. Roth would talk some more, another song, Al would do a drum solo for 30 minutes. On the 1984 tour...they were doing 8 songs in a 2 hour show. They ended every song the same way."

Any fan who reads this who either saw Van Halen before Sammy joined, or owns ANY amount of old Van Halen bootlegs, knows that every single thing Sammy said in that paragraph is complete bulls***. EVH's solo was always around 10 minutes. Alex's was always 3-4 minutes. They always did 16 songs, not counting solos. VH was a well-oiled machine, a stellar production, and tightly choreographed - the exact opposite of what Sam describes. Again, he is shamelessly rewriting history to try to diminish what Van Halen was before he joined.

9) Page 121: aeThe record [Sammy's solo album "I Never Said Goodbye"] went platinum immediately.

As of today, 4/26/11, it has only been certified Gold status. It's never been Platinum, and certainly not immediately.

10) Page 122: "We [VH in 1986] were selling out four nights in arenas anywhere." Although the 5150 tour was a smashing success, and they occasionally would sell 2, 3 or even 4 nights in certain cities, the band played ONE night vast majority of cities. Also, the 5150 tour wasn't as big as the 1984 tour, which had the band playing one additional night in several cities than they were on the 5150 tour.

11) Page 173: aeThe fans went against Roth. He died a quick death as a solo artist.

I would say that most current VH fans are under the impression that Hagar's solo career has been more successful than Roth's. However, if you want to measure the success with ALBUM SALES, Roth's solo career has actually been more successful than Hagar's! Roth's first 3 albums went Platinum (Crazy From The Heat in 85, Eat 'Em And Smile in 86, and Skyscraper in 87). Hagar, however, never had could match that success - he never had 3 consecutive Platinum solo albums... just 3 consecutive GOLD albums, and then later in 1987 released another one that only went gold, with the help of Eddie playing bass. Hagar's solo career simply was never as big as Roth's was in the 80s.

12) Page 222: When Irving Azoff told Hagar that the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame wanted to induct Van Halen, but only the Roth-version of the band, Hagar says, "aeI went nuts on Irving. I was in the band longer than Roth. He was in Van Halen seven years. I was with them eleven years. I sold more records than he did. How could they do that to me?"

He is wrong on both counts. Roth was in VH for 12 years (74-85) and VH sold twice as many albums with Roth than with Hagar. (See published figures at RIAA.com).

13) Page 234: Sammy says that, before he joined VH, "I was selling out multiple arenas, had five platinum albums in a row on Geffen, and I was ripe to join Van Halen when they asked..."

I already went over the "multiple arenas" bull. As for "5 platinum albums in a row on Geffen"? He had only 3 Geffen albums! And none were platinum!

1981 Standing Hampton -" Gold as of 1985.

1982 Three Lock Box - Gold to this day.

1984 V.O.A. "Gold as of mid-1985.

Those are all the major lies that I can detect, just as a fan. I can'(tm)t even imagine how many more lies are in the book that the fans would have no way of detecting.

Hagar wants all the fans to think that he was hugely successful BEFORE he joined VH, as if joining them wasn'(tm)t necessarily the thing that catapulted his career. In countless interviews, he states that his solo albums were going platinum before VH.

This is all a lie. In reality, NONE of his solo albums were platinum by the time he joined VH in mid-1985. Sure, as of 2011, 3 of his albums have gone platinum (Montrose, Standing Hampton, and V.O.A.). But Hampton didn't go platinum 'till 1992, V.O.A. didn't go platinum until Nov. 85, and Montrose didn't until many years later, either.

[DLR Bridge]

I believe that was written by a VHND poster named Adam. Halen High could probably confirm that for me. It's actually a superb skewering of Hagar from one of his own disappointed fans.

[atomicpnk47]

And his album sales were only enhanced after he joined Van Halen....

[Heater]

Hagar treated Ed like shit the WHOLE time he was in the band? And should he have just walked away from his Tequila company because Ed was a drunk? Didn't realize he was forcing Ed to guzzle it every night, what an enabler. If Dave is such a class act and stellar (God we love that word) human being, why did he ignore Ed's condition when the "reunion" came around? All Roth cared about was getting in front of a big crowd again, it was all about him. Yes, they did finally postpone the tour so Ed could clean up but it seems Dave had his own agenda- which never included vocal lessons! And, what about Dave continuing to smoke after Ed looses part of his tongue to cancer? How uncaring and selfish and disrespectful, and not to beat a dead horse, but it sure ain't helping his pipes any. Dave's last solo album sold what? 43,000 copies?
Sam and Dave are more similar than we like to admit.

[FORD]

Hmmm.... so the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame actually wanted to induct only the REAL Van Halen, and then Sammy had a hissy fit until he got added in (based on his repeated lies about record sales)

Well, now I'm beginning to understand why Eddie, Alex and Dave decided to skip the whole thing. I suspected it was Azoff's doing that the Cheese Peddler got included in that fiasco.

[fraroc]

Hagar treated Ed like shit the WHOLE time he was in the band? And should he have just walked away from his Tequila company because Ed was a drunk? Didn't realize he was forcing Ed to guzzle it every night, what an enabler. If Dave is such a class act and stellar (God we love that word) human being, why did he ignore Ed's condition when the "reunion" came around? All Roth cared about was getting in front of a big crowd again, it was all about him. Yes, they did finally postpone the tour so Ed could clean up but it seems Dave had his own agenda- which never included vocal lessons! And, what about Dave continuing to smoke after Ed looses part of his tongue to cancer? How uncaring and selfish and disrespectful, and not to beat a dead horse, but it sure ain't helping his pipes any. Dave's last solo album sold what? 43,000 copies?
Sam and Dave are more similar than we like to admit.

You're a cuntfuck.

[FORD]

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[Von Halen]

If Dave is such a class act and stellar (God we love that word) human being

Who said that?

Here's the biggest difference between Dave and Sam. Dave NEVER portrays himself as some stellar human being. Dave never sits around and tells everyone how great he was, and how great he is. Unlike Clichegar, Diamond Dave does not have an inferiority complex. Dave does what he wants to do, when he wants to do it. He makes no excuses, and offers no apologies. Dave knows exactly what has been successful in his career, and what hasn't. He just doesn't dwell on either. Especially in the media.

[fraroc]

Who said that?

Here's the biggest difference between Dave and Sam. Dave NEVER portrays himself as some stellar human being. Dave never sits around and tells everyone how great he was, and how great he is. Unlike Clichegar, Diamond Dave does not have an inferiority complex. Dave does what he wants to do, when he wants to do it. He makes no excuses, and offers no apologies. Dave knows exactly what has been successful in his career, and what hasn't. He just doesn't dwell on either. Especially in the media.

As much as you piss me off, I agree with you. Dave may seem like he's arrogant and cocky, but in reality he's just being the person he is. He never went "I'm the greatest singer ever and everyone else sucks." Hell, during the 2002 Sam and Dave tour, Dave was the one wanting to make peace until Sammy decided to give him a hard time about everything and called him a faggot. What an asshole Sam is.

[Von Halen]

Hell, during the 2002 Sam and Dave tour, Dave was the one wanting to make peace until Sammy decided to give him a hard time about everything and called him a faggot.

Well, I'll probably piss you off some more, but you couldn't be more wrong about that. I was at quiet a few of those shows, and got to see a lot first hand. I can guarantee you, Dave NEVER tried to make peace on that tour. He didn't have to. He went out there with a hot band, and blew Hagar off the stage every night.

[Seshmeister]

Who said that?

Here's the biggest difference between Dave and Sam. Dave NEVER portrays himself as some stellar human being. Dave never sits around and tells everyone how great he was, and how great he is. Unlike Clichegar, Diamond Dave does not have an inferiority complex. Dave does what he wants to do, when he wants to do it. He makes no excuses, and offers no apologies. Dave knows exactly what has been successful in his career, and what hasn't. He just doesn't dwell on either. Especially in the media.

A great example was on the Dave and Sam tour.

They had agreed that each got to put on a 10 minute video before they started whether they were first on or second.

Hagar chose to put on the most insipid sickening vile montage of 40 people one after another saying what a great guy he was, how talented he was and how he was just wonderful.

Dave had 10 minutes of the Van Damme triplets in skin tight outfits chasing dwarfs through underground tunnels.

I think that summed things up pretty well and that's why we're here...

[Seshmeister]

That and you don't get blackmailed with a begging bowl here every couple of months...