In a new interview with Trunk Nation, former Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar spoke about the increase in the usage of keyboard in the band during his tenure.
He denied that he was responsible for it.
He said:
“Finally I get my soapbox here”
“Everyone blamed me for the freakin’ keyboard playing on the ‘Van Hagar’ era, starting with [1986’s] ‘5150’. On [1988’s] ‘OU812’, we went very keyboard-oriented. I didn’t do any of that. That’s what Eddie did. Eddie wanted to do that. He liked playing keyboards, and he was freakin’ good at it. He wrote these beautiful songs like ‘When It’s Love’ and ‘Why Can’t This Be Love’, it’s such a cool lick…”
“One Ed really got into the keyboard thing, he [didn’t] pick up his guitar for a long time, I remember,” Anthony interjected. “He was just playing keyboards all the time.”
“So it wasn’t like I was sitting here saying, ‘Hey, man. Let’s do some more keyboards,'”
Hagar continued:
“I’m sitting here saying, ‘What have you got, Ed?’ And he goes, ‘I’ve got this.’ And I’m going, ‘Wow, that’s great. I could sing to it,’ ’cause I could sing to any damn thing. So I’d start singing. Ed would go, ‘Oh, man, this is so cool.’ And, of course, Valerie [Bertinelli, Eddie‘s then-wife] would come in and validate it. When she heard ‘Love Walks In’, she just [said], ‘Oh my God.’ And Eddie‘s going, ‘Oh, man. My wife’s happy, so I’m happy.’ And I’m going, ‘Well, I’m happy.’ And we had success and all that.
“I kind of always got blamed for the keyboard songs and it was not me whatsoever. I’m a damn guitar player. Every time I would pick up — like for ‘Finish What Ya Started’ or something like that — when I would instigate a song, it was a guitar song, ’cause I don’t play keyboards. So it wasn’t me. I just went along with what we had, and if it wouldn’t have been good, I wouldn’t have went along with it. I would have said, ‘This sucks.’ But it didn’t.
“The part that’s most impressive to me is what a good keyboard player Eddie Van Halen is. He’s got a left hand on the freakin’ keyboard that’s as good as freakin’ Bootsy Collins on the bass, man. He’s funky with that left hand. Listen to ‘When It’s Love’, man.”