In a recent conversation to UCR Podcast, singer Sammy Hagar talked about former Van Halen singer David Lee Roth, expressing the “rivalry” between them.
Here’re few interview parts:
Have you ever invited Roth to come down to Cabo?
“I certainly have. I’ve invited the Diamond himself, when I did the Huntington Beach party – the High Tide beach party – I invited Roth, I told him he could headline the whole event.
“I’d play before him. Not because I feel like I’m less than him, but because I was trying to rope him in. But he’s not a fun guy, he doesn’t play well with others, I don’t think – especially me, I guess.
“I’m not even sure he’d even want to do a tour again. Not that I would, because I definitely wouldn’t from the last experience, but I don’t even know if he’d want to ever dot hat again, I have no idea where his head’s at.
“He’s invited, anytime, anyplace, anywhere I go, and I would play the old Van Halen stuff, man, we know it.
“Me and Mike [Anthony, bass], I’d sing background vocals, let him do his thing, it’d be awesome, but I’m not sure it’ll ever happen.
“And when you talk about this, you put the laugh symbols after everything I say about Roth. [Laughs] You make sure you put a ‘ha ha ha’ after it because it’s so tongue-in-cheek to me, to think about him and not doing anything ever again.”
I think that people have seen you made numerous attempts to build a friendship there, and it just appears that he’s never been able to let his side of the perceived rivalry go.
“Yeah, it’s so weird because it’s so silly now, I mean, now especially, after the death of Eddie [Van Halen], it’s like, there’s not a Van Halen anymore.
“So it ain’t like we’re competing for who’s going to be in the band or anything like that. I don’t know, it’s silly, but who knows, I might run into him some time and we can meet as grown-ups and adults finally.”