Recently interviewed by Guitar World, singer Sammy Hagar mentioned that Eddie Van Halen began to be jealous of him and bassist Michael Anthony to a point, as both started to collaborate on different projects.
About this, Hagar said:
“Because in Van Halen, Eddie was so busy with the way he played a guitar that there wasn’t much room for Mikey to do anything. Eddie played lead, rhythm, melody, and in some ways, the bass line all at once because he was just a master.
“So, Mikey rarely got to stretch out, but the truth is that he’s up there with John Paul Jones, John Entwistle, Geddy Lee, and Jack Bruce, but he never got to show it with Van Halen. But now, we’ve got Mikey off the leash, so we get more from him than we ever got when he was in Van Halen. […]
“And this was when we were all getting along great, not towards the end when our marriage fell apart. But even in the early days, Eddie would say, ‘Hey, I wanna hang out like you and Mike do.’ And I was like, ‘Cool, man. Let’s do it. So, what’s the problem?’
“The way it was in Van Halen was Eddie and Alex would get together and do their family thing. And Mike and I would always be the ones that would get tacos and margaritas and talk about life when we were on the road.
“And in the end, when we were arguing, and Van Halen was falling apart, me and Mike had our own plane because they were trying to keep Eddie and me apart.
“I guess Mike and I are cut from the same cloth. Eddie hated it, would get mad on stage, and called it stupid, but we had our inside lingo and were always very close.
“And that’s accented by the magical sound of his background vocals layered over my lead vocals. It’s a unique sound that can’t be described and that I’ve never had with anyone else.”
1 comment
Cheers for the great times and experiences you all lived together, I wish it would have last forever! You guys sounded powerful and great.. cheers again!!
And see you at The Cabo Wabo soon!!