“That was too long”: the one album Sammy Hagar was forced to make
Any album should never feel like it’s a chore whenever an artist is making it. It might be a job like every other one, but any idea that touches people should come from a place of fun rather than feeling like it’s being made at gunpoint for the rest of the world to hear. And while Sammy Hagar could normally find a way to put a happy face on any album he worked on, he wasn’t exactly shy about the moments when some of his records didn’t have the same amount of heart that he wanted to.
When ‘The Red Rocker’ started rising to prominence in the rock world, he seemed to be going a long way by simply being one of the nicest artists to reach the big time. There were bound to be times when he got frustrated onstage, but in a world that’s centred around dog-eat-dog artists trying to tear their competition apart limb from limb, Hagar was the one happy to have a good time delivering his music to anyone who would hear it.
And despite his solo career going great after leaving Montrose, it was a no-brainer for any rock star to jump at the chance of collaborating with Eddie Van Halen. It was never going to be easy to live up to the standard of frontman that David Lee Roth was, but Hagar’s superpower was his voice, always being able to sing above and beyond anything Roth ever did and getting the most out of every guitar riff Eddie ever threw at him.
But while Hagar’s decision to join the band was a dream come true for Van Halen, it also made for a PR nightmare in many respects. After all, both bands weren’t on the same label, so it would have been strange to see the royalties go to Warner Bros for any material off of 5150 and then into Geffen’s pockets the minute that they tore into songs like ‘There’s Only One Way To Rock’.
Out of everyone involved, though, Hagar’s label was beyond pissed. He had a contract to fulfil, and they weren’t going to let him weasel out of everything by playing a show and putting out a live album of his material. This had to be all-new material, and while I Never Said Goodbye is a good record, Hagar didn’t try to hide the fact that he was being forced to make the record once he joined Van Halen.
Before any announcements were made, Hagar made sure that he had his debut with Van Halen in the can, saying, “I owed them one more record. When I joined Van Halen, we actually got together secretly and recorded 5150. Before anybody knew, it was about 90% done. [David Geffen] got another record out of me that he didn’t have to share with Warner Bros. It took 10 days, and that was too long.”
It’s not like Eddie wasn’t willing to help out his new buddy, either. For the first and final time in his career, Eddie was demoted to bass for the entirety of I Never Said Goodbye, completing most of the record with Hagar and some key players from ‘The Red Rocker’s solo band as they were putting the finishing touches on tunes like ‘Dreams’ and ‘Love Walks In’.
So while I Never Said Goodbye is the product of record company meddling, it’s the best of both worlds in this case. And since ‘Eagles Fly’ would become a major part of Hagar’s setlist and even find its way into Van Halen’s live show from time to time, it’s not like Hagar is looking at the record as the black sheep of his catalogue by any stretch.
