In a new interview with OC Weekly, rock legend Sammy Hagar talked about Van Halen.
When asked about the band, he said:
“If there was ever going to be one reunion — I’d say, you’ve got one more shot, one more; you’re going to put the guys together — it would be VAN HALEN. Not for a tour; not to make a record; not to go on and on and on, because I don’t think we’re there. I don’t think I can be in the same headspace as those guys personally. We’re in different headspaces, so I don’t think we could create well together, but just one time for a good time? VAN HALEN, number one, hands down.
If I said I’ve only got one more show left in my whole life, who would you want [it] to be [with]? Eddie [Van Halen], Alex [Van Halen] and Michael [Anthony]. The good times and the stuff we made in the band, it was the peak of my life, musical life, career. It was during the MTV [era] — the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll that was the most… People idolized that lifestyle. You ask any actor from that era, ‘What would you want to be?’ ‘I want to be a rock star. Those guys are having all the fun, making all the money.’ That was VAN HALEN. MONTROSE, we never made it. It was a struggle; it was fun; it was lovely; I loved it.
The first record, one of the greatest records I ever made in my life. Then, solo stuff — hey, it’s great. I hit it big time. Double arenas, a couple stadiums here and there. But VAN HALEN — we hit it. All number ones; sell out every frickin’ show you’d ever play in your life anywhere, any sized building in the world. It allowed me to build Cabo Wabo [tequila]; it allowed me to be a household name long enough to say, ‘I think I’ll keep a face in that house. I may have to do it on a TV show — whatever I’ve got to do…'”
On VAN HALEN‘s successful but tension-filled 2004 reunion tour, he said:
“Even if I sit and ponder on that, which I don’t — I don’t take inventory; I don’t look back at all, ever. I’m just always looking forward, looking up, looking at the ground, looking straight ahead, and I very seldom look over my shoulder. Even if I did and I think about those times, I have more sympathy for what Eddie must have been going through personally then, because I never found out, because we didn’t communicate very well. I was so disappointed with the tour at the time that when I tried to reach out, rarely did we connect and really have an honest love for each other. It was rough. Looking back, I feel sorry that he must have been going through something really bad. He wasn’t sharing it with me. I wish him well, and I hope they’re okay. One last show — ‘Sammy, you’ve got one more show to do’ — boom. If those guys wouldn’t do it, I’d go park in their driveway and make them. I’d say, I ain’t leaving here. Al‘s going to come over eventually, so I’ll get him when he pulls up and hog-tie his a*s. Me and Mikey will sit in the car out in the driveway until they fold.”
On whether he’d enjoy performing a VAN HALEN album in its entirety, Saamy said:
“I’m starting to see so many people do it… I just interviewed DEF LEPPARD for my ‘Rock & Roll Road Trip’ [TV show]. They did some shows where they played the whole ‘Hysteria’ record. Everybody’s kind of doing that. REO [SPEEDWAGON] just did it with ‘High Fidelity’, their biggest record. It’s such a trend, but man, I don’t think I could play a whole night without moving all over my career, because I’m so used to it with THE CIRCLE and I’m so happy about it.
“Every night, we can go, ‘Let’s play ‘Best Of Both Worlds’. No, we played ‘Best Of Both Worlds’ last night. Let’s play ‘Top Of The World’.’ ‘Let’s do ‘When It’s Love’ — no, let’s do ‘Right Now’ tonight.’ ‘Let’s do ‘Rock Candy’ instead of ‘Bad Motor Scooter’.’ On and on and on. There’s so much that we can do, and it’s so… It’s the set list from heaven.
Every single song, I look at the audience. When we kick each song off with THE CIRCLE, these guys — or a guy and a girl, or two girls — they look at each other and shake their head like, ‘Yes. All right. They’re playing that one. Oh my God — they’re playing that.’ Song after song, you see that response. I would love to do it, and I kind of do that in Cabo — the only thing I do in Cabo is not a whole record. I’ve done ‘Marching To Mars’ in Cabo, and I’ve done ‘Space Between’ in Cabo, the whole record.
Just those two, oddly enough. What we do, a lot of times, we would just go out and start playing MONTROSE — as many MONTROSE tunes as we know. The first hour is just MONTROSE, mixed up [on] shuffle. Or we play VAN HALEN. Many times, I went out with either band and just said, ‘Let’s play every VAN HALEN song we know.’ Before the night is over, we start mixing it up. It’s never one album, but it’s, like, 20 VAN HALEN songs in one night. I’ve done that before. With THE WABOS this year in Cabo, one of the nights, it’s going to be pure Sammy — no MONTROSE, no VAN HALEN. It’s going to be deep Sammy tracks… It’s going to be pure Sammy. I only get, like, five Sammy songs in THE CIRCLE set, and I get a lot of sh*t for it. [Laughs]”