During an appearance on The Jenny McCarthy Show, Sammy Hagar remembers the grunge movement and how it made bands feel that their time is over. He said:
“I’m in a totally comfortable place now. But when [I was in] Van Halen, in the ’90s, when grunge came along, that was freaky. Because I’m looking at these guys…
“And we were sort of the glam rock – we were all dressed up and dressing like girls and stuff. Like Motley Crue and Poison and these guys. It was more fun dressing like that than the way I dress now, I’ll tell you that.
“But then, when grunge came, they were down and dirty and funky. And they made me nervous. I thought, ‘These guys are gonna disrespect us. You know, they’re gonna look at us and say, ‘Yeah, your sh*t’s done, buddy.”
“But it didn’t happen. I was so insecure about it that I invited Alice in Chains, with their first album and their first single – when they had ‘Man in the Box’ [in 1990/91] – to open for Van Halen. They came out on the whole tour with us.
“And I’ve been dear friends with Jerry Cantrell since then. But that’s how insecure I was. I said, ‘Let’s get ’em on the damn show. That way their fans will know that we’re cool.’…
“I came out of fear – not bad fear, but nervousness. And they did really good, and business was good. And I made a friend out of it.”