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That's right, who are they?? (BTW, sorry about yesterday, ladies, I do have to work sometimes) "Sheep" are defined as people who blindly follow, without questioning anything they're told. Like the Roth fans here....kind of a misnomer, The Sheep Pen, but since Rikk and Limpbergh named it, it's not surprising that they really didn't get that the joke was on them. So I can't accept the honor of Sheep of the Week, or Year, because you define your version of a sheep as being a Hagar fan, and that ain't me. (Talk about not reading posts....) Once again, I was a Roth era VH fan, until the breakup. I choose not to partake in whatever version of VH they produce now, and that would include an embarrassing reunion with crazy ass David Lee. So please, and this would be awesome, make up a whole new thing, just for me, and I'll think about it?? May take a while huh.....Incidentally, I was reading some Roth interviews lately, and where there used to be humor, there's an undercurrent of serious negativity. Poor guy....like you guys, his whole existence is wrapped up in Roth-era Vh too!!!! Here's more stuff from Ed you may enjoy--please note how nicely he speaks of Dave, unlike the other way around, and note they WERE willing to try........
"Eruptions"
By: Steven Rosen
Guitar World (December 1996)
By now, only the brain dead are unaware of the changes that have rocked the Van Halen camp. Singer Sammy Hagar is gone, his solid gold locks nothing but a memory. David Lee Roth, absent over a decade, returned to appear on a pair of new tracks available on the band's Best of Volume I greatest hits package, the band's first such compilation ever. But despite feverish speculation that the flamboyant singer would rejoin Van Halen, fate and, in all likelyhood, Eddie deemed otherwise: Roth is out, history for a second time. Of course, Van Halen had a powerfully felt reason to reject a reunion that would, if nothing else, have been a diamond-studded cash cow for the group.
"We're from different planets; we don't communicate," says Eddie of Roth. "We just don't see things the same way. I'm not saying that he's a bad person at all--I actually fuckin' love the guy. But I don't need that kind of negative energy around me. I don't know how to explain it, but Dave kinda sucks the life out of me." So instead of David Lee Roth making a dramatic re-entry into the Van Halen fray, a dark horse candidate emerged and was handed one of rock's plum jobs outright--none other than former Extreme frontman, Gary Cherone.
"Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love"
By: Chuck Crisafulli
Los Angeles Times (October 20, 1996)
"Utter lunacy."
With a shake of his tousled locks and a flash of his trademark party-boy grin, guitarist Eddie Van Halen summarizes the recent events that have shaken the world of his band--platinum-selling monsters of good-time rock Van Halen.
In the last few tumultuous months, the band has parted ways with Sammy Hagar, its lead singer for the last 11 years. And it reconciled with its original frontman, David Lee Roth, long enough to record a pair of new songs to be included on the "Van Halen Best Of, Volume 1" album being released this week.
But almost as soon as the reunited foursome made its first public appearance as presenters at the MTV Video Music Awards in September, the band and Roth split again as bitterly as they had back in 1985.
Roth's second breakup with the band--Eddie, his drummer brother Alex and bassist Michael Anthony--was followed by a battle of press releases. The singer believed that he had returned to Van Halen as Hagar's permanent replacement and accused Eddie of crass deception. The band claimed that Roth had never been told whether his future with the band would extend beyond the two new songs.
Despite the turmoil, Eddie is in good spirits at his expansive home studio in the hills of the San Fernando Valley, called 5150 after the lunatic-on-the-loose police code that titled one of the band's albums.
After a late breakfast with his wife, actress Valerie Bertinelli, and their 5-year-old son, Wolfgang, the guitarist settles into the clutter behind the studio console, begins puffing on the first of a long chain of cigarettes and displays the affable, unassuming manner of the quintessential Southern California dude.
In conversation, the 39-year-old Dutch-born, Pasadena-raised musician--generally recognized as a major innovator in the art of rock guitar--is open, friendly and almost shockingly free of rock star affectation.
Before a question can be posed, Eddie's nearly ever-present smile fades, and he insists on setting the record straight in regard to his dealings with Hagar and Roth.
"I've just been feeling sick about all this," he says. "I thought we were taking the high road by not commenting on anything, but it got crazy.
"First of all, Sammy quit. I had a final conversation with him where I asked him to be more of a team player. I'm the kind of guy who'll do anything for the music--play with my toes, stand on my head--and I wanted to hear that kind of commitment from him.
"We talked, and he said, 'I want to be a solo artist again.' I thanked him for being honest. We said we'd stay in touch--it felt like we would continue to be friends. Then he went around telling everyone he'd been ousted. I'm saying that if he had wanted to be in this band, he'd still be here.
"As for Dave, he called me up to talk about the 'greatest hits'--how it was going to be packaged and so on. We apologized to each other for childish behavior in the past, and we got together and actually had some fun doing the two new songs.
"But there was never any talk of anything permanent. Anybody who expected us to tour with Dave for an oldies-but-goodies thing--forget it. To me, that would just be taking people's money. I think Dave was putting the cart before the horse, and the horse didn't even exist."
Van Halen sighs and picks up a guitar to strum while he talks.
"Alex and I have been joking that both of these guys suffer from LSD--lead singer disease. But truthfully, it doesn't feel good to say bad things about Sammy or Dave. They're both talented, we made a lot of good music together, and we had a lot of fun together. I still respect them both, but it's going to be hard to ever be friends again.
"The worst part is that I just don't want any fans to think that we were misleading them. I tried to be straight with everybody. And I do apologize to the fans for all this, but I'd just ask that they let the music speak for itself."
Meanwhile at ROTHARMY HQ........
"Eruptions"
By: Steven Rosen
Guitar World (December 1996)
By now, only the brain dead are unaware of the changes that have rocked the Van Halen camp. Singer Sammy Hagar is gone, his solid gold locks nothing but a memory. David Lee Roth, absent over a decade, returned to appear on a pair of new tracks available on the band's Best of Volume I greatest hits package, the band's first such compilation ever. But despite feverish speculation that the flamboyant singer would rejoin Van Halen, fate and, in all likelyhood, Eddie deemed otherwise: Roth is out, history for a second time. Of course, Van Halen had a powerfully felt reason to reject a reunion that would, if nothing else, have been a diamond-studded cash cow for the group.
"We're from different planets; we don't communicate," says Eddie of Roth. "We just don't see things the same way. I'm not saying that he's a bad person at all--I actually fuckin' love the guy. But I don't need that kind of negative energy around me. I don't know how to explain it, but Dave kinda sucks the life out of me." So instead of David Lee Roth making a dramatic re-entry into the Van Halen fray, a dark horse candidate emerged and was handed one of rock's plum jobs outright--none other than former Extreme frontman, Gary Cherone.
"Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love"
By: Chuck Crisafulli
Los Angeles Times (October 20, 1996)
"Utter lunacy."
With a shake of his tousled locks and a flash of his trademark party-boy grin, guitarist Eddie Van Halen summarizes the recent events that have shaken the world of his band--platinum-selling monsters of good-time rock Van Halen.
In the last few tumultuous months, the band has parted ways with Sammy Hagar, its lead singer for the last 11 years. And it reconciled with its original frontman, David Lee Roth, long enough to record a pair of new songs to be included on the "Van Halen Best Of, Volume 1" album being released this week.
But almost as soon as the reunited foursome made its first public appearance as presenters at the MTV Video Music Awards in September, the band and Roth split again as bitterly as they had back in 1985.
Roth's second breakup with the band--Eddie, his drummer brother Alex and bassist Michael Anthony--was followed by a battle of press releases. The singer believed that he had returned to Van Halen as Hagar's permanent replacement and accused Eddie of crass deception. The band claimed that Roth had never been told whether his future with the band would extend beyond the two new songs.
Despite the turmoil, Eddie is in good spirits at his expansive home studio in the hills of the San Fernando Valley, called 5150 after the lunatic-on-the-loose police code that titled one of the band's albums.
After a late breakfast with his wife, actress Valerie Bertinelli, and their 5-year-old son, Wolfgang, the guitarist settles into the clutter behind the studio console, begins puffing on the first of a long chain of cigarettes and displays the affable, unassuming manner of the quintessential Southern California dude.
In conversation, the 39-year-old Dutch-born, Pasadena-raised musician--generally recognized as a major innovator in the art of rock guitar--is open, friendly and almost shockingly free of rock star affectation.
Before a question can be posed, Eddie's nearly ever-present smile fades, and he insists on setting the record straight in regard to his dealings with Hagar and Roth.
"I've just been feeling sick about all this," he says. "I thought we were taking the high road by not commenting on anything, but it got crazy.
"First of all, Sammy quit. I had a final conversation with him where I asked him to be more of a team player. I'm the kind of guy who'll do anything for the music--play with my toes, stand on my head--and I wanted to hear that kind of commitment from him.
"We talked, and he said, 'I want to be a solo artist again.' I thanked him for being honest. We said we'd stay in touch--it felt like we would continue to be friends. Then he went around telling everyone he'd been ousted. I'm saying that if he had wanted to be in this band, he'd still be here.
"As for Dave, he called me up to talk about the 'greatest hits'--how it was going to be packaged and so on. We apologized to each other for childish behavior in the past, and we got together and actually had some fun doing the two new songs.
"But there was never any talk of anything permanent. Anybody who expected us to tour with Dave for an oldies-but-goodies thing--forget it. To me, that would just be taking people's money. I think Dave was putting the cart before the horse, and the horse didn't even exist."
Van Halen sighs and picks up a guitar to strum while he talks.
"Alex and I have been joking that both of these guys suffer from LSD--lead singer disease. But truthfully, it doesn't feel good to say bad things about Sammy or Dave. They're both talented, we made a lot of good music together, and we had a lot of fun together. I still respect them both, but it's going to be hard to ever be friends again.
"The worst part is that I just don't want any fans to think that we were misleading them. I tried to be straight with everybody. And I do apologize to the fans for all this, but I'd just ask that they let the music speak for itself."
Meanwhile at ROTHARMY HQ........
Fucking loser.
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