Five musicians who hated Eddie Van Halen: “We have always hated each other”
To make an omelette, you have to crack a few eggs. While this saying is rarely meant to be taken literally, many rock stars have lived their lives close to their essence, and Eddie Van Halen is no exception.
Despite reaching the pinnacle of success, Van Halen’s personal and professional life was often marked by controversy. Spats, antics, and brown M&Ms all became part of music as the world searched from something new in the wake of the 1960s shadow. In many ways, it was Eddie Van Halen and his roaring group that defined this transition.
The rock world experienced a significant transformation during Van Halen’s reign. Alongside establishing what it truly meant to be a guitar virtuoso, Van Halen single-handedly revolutionised guitar technical prowess, establishing the act of “finger tapping”, where both hands are used on the fretboard, allowing for rapid and complex melodies.
To say Van Halen was instrumental in the band’s success would be an immense understatement, especially considering how his influence extended beyond the confines of rock music. He bridged the gap between numerous genres and challenged others to push their own boundaries regarding innovation and creativity.
As Joe Satriani said in praise of their gunslinging leader, “I hope he gets remembered as the greatest of the generation.” And Michael Sweet said of the band in general, “The most energy, the most fire, the most ‘cool’ factor, the best songs, the best playing, the best singing, the best attitude, the best albums, the best response… This line-up inspired more people musically than possibly any other American band.” From that, you might glean that they were also the best?
However, in rising to the top, he succeeded in burning a few bridges, particularly as tensions began to rise between Van Halen and lead singers David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar. Despite replacing Roth in 1985, Hagar also encountered a number of disputes, leading to his departure in 1996. For the most part, Van Halen’s struggle with drug and alcohol addiction was a major cornerstone of his shortcomings.
His erratic behaviour often led to estrangement among many, including his band members, which paved the way for new tensions. Van Halen also admitted on numerous occasions that his substance abuse meant that he was often drunk on stage and that alcohol played a role in many of his personal and professional struggles.
Van Halen’s relationships grew particularly contentious after he began experiencing several health battles while maintaining his devil-may-care exterior. As his struggles with cancer and ongoing substance abuse became more pronounced, the tensions within his personal and professional circles intensified.
Let’s take a look at some of the figures who spoke out against Van Halen and his actions…
Musicians who disliked Eddie Van Halen:
David Lee Roth
The dynamic between Van Halen and David Lee Roth was intriguing mainly because it was both a source of creative energy and tension within the band. While Van Halen’s focus was often on the music, exploring new sounds and techniques, Roth was more concerned with the band’s image and performance. This difference in priorities led to conflicts, culminating in Roth’s departure in 1985.
Despite Van Halen plucking Roth from his band to collaborate with him musically, their mutual dislike seems to have been a constant, with both admitting on numerous occasions that they were never friends, just exceptional musicians who worked together to create exceptional music. As Roth explained in 2019: “We’ve never gotten along. We started in rival bands. Bitter rivals. But we were thrown together, and it was amazing.”
He added: “We have always hated each other, right up until the last phone call.”
Despite Roth returning to the group for a tour in the 2000s and an album in 2012, the disputes never subsided, and the pair constantly endured heightened animosity. This ongoing strain eventually led to an uneasy working relationship, characterised more by necessity than by genuine camaraderie.
Dee Snider
Between the 1990s and early 2000s, when Van Halen saw the departure of Hagar, Roth only returned briefly before Gary Cherone stepped in. Many musicians made their opinions on the lengthy feud clear, some of them speaking out against Van Halen. Twisted Sister’s glam rock leader Dee Snider was no exception, and amid the fiery endeavours, he demonstrated his loyalty to Hagar, calling Van Halen out for his unacceptable controversial behaviours.
Aside from describing Hagar as “the real deal” and praising him for being “talented and a real bad-ass,” Snider spotlighted Van Halen’s unnecessary standoffishness and inability to show up in the appropriate manner. He said: “As far as Eddie goes, anybody who is really watching and paying attention, Eddie’s out of his mind.”
He specifically referred to an incident when Van Halen showed up at a restaurant wearing worn-out attire, which caused him to reflect on a Van Halen concert his son saw in the 1990s. “He said that he looked like a homeless person,” Snider explained. Adding, “And I’ve heard that from so many people.”
Geddy Lee
Despite the era-specific overlaps with Van Halen and Rush, and both being significant pillars of rock music, the two groups have their specific distinctions. Namely, Van Halen shared more in common with heavy rock and metal, while Rush became established as a forerunner in extended, complicated instrumentation.
Comprising Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart, Rush also represented a band made of independently adept musicians, while Van Halen focused more on the charismatic interplay between its members.
Lee’s gripe with Van Halen seems a little obscure, but when you break down why, it’s easy to understand where he is coming from. One night in 1980, Van Halen played a show in Leicester the same night Rush was in town. After renting out a bar to celebrate, Rush’s party was crashed by Van Halen’s team. Lee and Van Halen got talking, but Van Halen spilt some of his drink, and it trickled into some Rush tapes that Lee was trying to play for him, causing friction.
Later, in 1981, Rush supported Van Halen in Las Vegas, and jokingly told the security team not to let the headliner in to see them play. Although they relented and eventually let some of them in, he went over to Van Halen later in the evening to clear the air. However, the band’s security guard had no idea who he was and ended up tackling him to the ground.
Lindsey Buckingham
Musically, and probably personally, too, Van Halen and Lindsey Buckingham seem worlds apart. Although both likely redefined what it meant to infuse a certain rock ‘n’ roll attitude into their music, the efforts of Van Halen and Fleetwood Mac took divergent paths that showcased the broad spectrum of rock ‘n’ roll.
Buckingham’s dislike for Van Halen might not be as overt as some of the other candidates on this list, but his criticism is arguably the most cutthroat. For instance, how many times can someone comment on another musician’s artistry while simultaneously accusing them of having no good records and not recognising it as a direct diss? In Buckingham’s case, it’s clear that his intentions weren’t to be nice.
Buckingham described his opinion on the guitarist in 2012: “I’ve always believed that you play to highlight the song, not to highlight the player. The song is all that matters.”
He added, “There are two ways you can choose to go. You can try to be someone like Eddie Van Halen, who is a great guitarist, a virtuoso. Yet he doesn’t make good records because what he plays is totally lost in the context of this band’s music.”
Pat Smear
Although the grunge wave didn’t come into full force until the 1990s, Van Halen’s development coincided with the burgeoning punk scene, which shared many similarities to a movement that would later be spearheaded by Kurt Cobain’s grunge outfit Nirvana. Pat Smear was already established in certain circles before his involvement in the band, but the opportunity presented to him by Nirvana opened doors to many other projects that followed.
Like many others, Smear idolised Van Halen, even once calling the band “disgustingly brilliant” and claiming the guitarist “ruined my fucking life when he came out”. However, his opinion swiftly changed one evening when the guitarist came backstage at a Nirvana show, intoxicated and attempting to convince the band to let him on stage with them. Aside from recalling the encounter as “disgusting”, Smear said he made a racist remark, which, as you could expect, left a sour taste in his mouth.
“Eddie turns around and sees me, but he doesn’t say hello or anything,” he remembered. “He just says, ‘Oh no, not a dark one.’ At first, I thought he was kidding. But he kept asking me, ‘What are you? Are you like a Raji or something? Are you Mexican?'”
