From the always entertaining Metal Sludge: You knew this was only a matter of time. This was taken from Page Six, at http://www.pagesix.com/pagesix/pagesix.htm SAMMY Hagar, finished with fellow Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth, is dissing Diamond Dave's oversize ego, deteriorating singing voice and vanishing hairline. Hagar and Roth had been co-headlining this summer's laboriously titled "Sammy Hagar and David Lee Roth Tour 2002: Song for Song, the Heavyweight Champs of Rock and Roll." But after butting heads with Roth non-stop since they began touring in May, Hagar vows never to work with him again. "The guy is a [bleep]hole," Hagar told PAGE SIX. "He will never go on tour with me again. He's gonna have to draw a crowd on his own." Hagar and Roth, who were fired from Van Halen in 1996 and 1985 respectively, had traded insults for years before declaring a truce for the tour. But Hagar says that Roth's prima donna antics have ruined their relationship. "He's not a man of his word," Hagar fumes. "Dave came to me because no one wanted to book him by himself, because he's such a flake and he has such a bad reputation. But I just can't work with him anymore." While Hagar admits that Roth's set of Van Halen classics is a crowd-pleaser, he ridicules Roth's decline from swaggering rock god to middle-age nostalgia act. "His voice is not too good. You sit there and go, 'I just saw a guy who was half the singer and half the performer he used to be, who spray-paints his hair on before he goes on stage and still acts like he's in Van Halen in 1982!' . . . It's a joke to me, it's like Liberace or something." One of mop-topped Hagar's favorite targets is Roth's thinning locks. "We were all on the same plane to go to a show in Dallas, and Dave's hair was brown underneath his hat," Hagar tattles. "The night of the show it was raving platinum. I'd hate to be there when he puts that thing on." Hagar says that he and Roth were supposed to finish their tour Sept. 2 at Jones Beach, but Roth vetoed it. "He said, 'I don't like the venue.' He wanted to play at Madison Square Garden and he wanted to close. He wasn't going to do it, so we canceled the show." But while New Yorkers won't see Hagar and Roth sharing the same stage, a solo Hagar is playing a free concert Aug. 29 at Irving Plaza. Since it falls close to the one-year anniversary of Sept. 11, half the tickets will be distributed to Port Authority cops and 9/11 rescue workers. Despite his dislike of Roth, Hagar says the tour was a hit with Van Halen fans. "It was always a great audience and it was a great rock and roll show," he said. "If it wasn't for that, I would have put him back in nightclubs were he belongs." Roth did not return calls for comment.
Yea, but at least Sammy still has the talent to back it up.. I went to that show at the Woodlands, and it was pathetic..Dave was straining all nite long..you could tell his voice was gone..and his hair did look soo fake, I was disappointed since I was kinda wanting him to play his solo stuff and get off the stage...but his set was more like a sorry bar band trying to imitate VH.. Thank god Sammy came out and did some of his classic solo stuff..with just a few VH songs mixed in..
He does seem to talk about Cabo and Tequila real often... but he played plenty of his old solo stuff(ie..Heavy Metal, 3 Lock Box) which I enjoyed immensely. Don't get me wrong, I love VH, but if Eddie isn't playin on-stage...it aint Van Halen...so I was understandably not impressed by the lame attempts to cover them.
I saw Van Halen with Sammy Hager at the Monsters of Rock trashfest at Rice Stadium in, like, 1988. Kind of pedestrian. At least DLR would distract you from 1) how profoundly lame Michael Anthony and his lame-ass *bass* solo (which consisted of him drinking lots of iced tea out of a jack daniels bottle..rock and roll!) 2) the fact that Eddie kind of stopped coming up with new great guitar parts after a point and 3) Alex sure has a lot of drums to be so boring. Guns and Roses, on the other hand, rocked when I saw them. I was there more for Faith No More (someone mentioned how awesom "Angel Dust" was...right on!), but G-n-R were pretty epic in a Rolling Stones classic stadium rock kind of way.
I was thinkin that I hadn't heard any real original guitar playin for the last 3 albums... That's why I haven't bought a new VH album since F.U.C.K.... No argument on Anthony..he does one thing well...he holds down the bottom end..and that's it.. I will always be a EVH fan just because of what he's been for the genre...A massive influence on many, many players over the years. GnR was a great band..with a nutcase for a singer...I saw them on that ill-fated Metal-claw tour..and by then Axel was always comin on late and screwin up his lines....how do you screw up lines that are in front of your face??? The rest of the band rocked...Slash, Duff...and Matt Soren were all awesome musicians.. It's a damn shame about what happened to em...
Could things be any worse for Halen fans then Gary Cherone? That guy was total cheese. The only way for the band to re-establish any credibility is to get Hagar or Roth back, and that aint gonna happen. I miss the good ole days
Man...he sucked badly. At this point I think VH should just go ahead and disband. Eddie needs to work on getting rid of the cancer, go make up with Val...then settle down and start teaching guitar and producing bands at 5150.. I would hate for them to continue to put out bad albums and denigrate the VH legacy.. I agree, some times I really miss the old days. So many great bands at the peak of their skills...An era like that will probably never come again..I'm glad I was there for it when it happened.
The two songs they put on their greatest hits album w/Roth a few years ago rocked, especially "Me Wise Magic". Oh, and don't ever not mention backing vocals when you talk about Michael Anthony -- VH has always had great backing vocals. Sammy's tequila is pretty darn good, Mrs. JB. GnR always disappointed me live...although I never saw them pre-UYI unfortunately. They had all these great rock songs and they insisted on Axl playing the piano for half the night. Yawn.
Got me..you're right Freak...He did do some good backing vocal work.. I really liked the song they put out awhile back from the Twister soundtrack..."Humans Being" also on the Greatest Hits album (I did get that one) Axl, the worst member of that band...I'm just glad I was able to see them on the Appetite For Destruction tour...They were like night and day compared to the tour with Metallica..
holy crap, i was at that show, though, sadly, it was as much for dokken as anyone else.... hottest day EVER! metallica blew out the speakers; dokken's set was a mess because of it and the scorpions rocked, iirc. michael anthony was the butt of soooooooooooo many jokes among my friends back in VH's heyday; maybe the luckiest man in rock-n-roll history. i mean, there're comedy, high comedy and then there's a michael anthony bass solo, which transcends comedy and shoots into some other place we don't get to visit very often and doesn't make a lot of sense in our world.
There are very few bass players that deserve solo time during a show..Steve Harris..John Entwistle(rip)...Billy Sheehan...Most of the other ones should just hold down the bottom end. With shows being as short as they are these days...I would rather hear another song than have a half-a$$ bass player or drummer waste my time with a solo...
I'm a bass player, and I think bass solos are just stupid, no matter how talented the musician is. For me, the bass is just not set up tonally to be a good solo instrument. For example, Victor Wooten is an amazing player, but I can't enjoy his stuff because his bass tone sounds like a cheap toy piano. As far as DLR being finished, it's probably true. But I'd argue that his musical legacy is far more cemented than Sammy Hagar's. Maybe he should quit and just live off the residuals.
I'm also a bass player, which is why I do appreciate talented bass players. I don't mind hearing a short solo break if the man has the chops to pull it off and it's not just another excuse to show how fast you can play up and down the neck. I guess it all depends on your sound as too how well it comes off as a solo instrument. DLR...well, I'm not convinced of how much of DLR's "legacy" is due to him. I believe that without Eddie's playing, the rest of the band would have just been another casualty of the H-Wood bar scene. whereas with Sammy, he wrote the songs, he played the songs..and he was the primary focus of his solo band.. Even in the old days with Montrose, he was the man that put butts in the seats...Montrose went nowhere once Sammy left..
I think bass solos are ok so long as they are used properly. Flea does it tastefully and with style. Wooten is a show-off IMO. Dude is good, but I think the bass was built for holding a song together. If a bass player is all over the place, it makes the song sound lost.
Listen to early Iron Maiden (hell, ANY Iron Maiden) and hear how Steve Harris is absolutley all up and down the frets, and there is no qustion IM's songs are far from lost..His bass lines are the fuel that drives Maiden's songs.. I think that's why he doesn't really do bass solos..he plays plenty enuff during the songs! or even listen to the Who and check out John Entwistles stuff...he was soo awesome. (RIP)
