The most insulting Van Halen song Sammy Hagar ever sang: “About an escaped convict”
Any band that had the same setup as Van Halen could feel like a dysfunctional marriage half the time.
If it was going well, there was nothing to complain about, and when things started to go south, even a little bit, it didn’t take long for everyone to start attacking each other. But whereas Sammy Hagar could be the more easygoing singer of the group, he wasn’t safe from a few low blows throughout his time with the band.
For all of the good times that they had, though, it’s hard to think that ‘The Red Rocker’ didn’t have the band’s best interests at heart. He was all for being the exact opposite of David Lee Roth in many ways, and while the band was willing to stretch themselves a lot more with him in the group, there were bound to be a few uneasy moments where they started to call their own shots a little bit more. And when it came to their personal differences, it all went south when they got new management.
While Hagar’s manager taking over during the making of 5150 may have been a double-edged sword, the frontman didn’t like their new manager from the word go. He had worked wonders for bands like Rush, but he didn’t seem to have what it took in Hagar’s eyes. But if they got past the Van Halen brothers’ defences, that meant that Hagar’s bandmates could start reaching for more power when writing the songs as well.
Balance was already one of the most lopsided albums of their career, but Hagar also had to deal with Eddie being unwilling to compromise. The disagreements may have led to one potentially great song on the record becoming an instrumental, but the line was drawn the minute that Eddie started bringing a new songwriter into their musical home when working on new material.
This hadn’t been a new thing, though. Aerosmith had been making the greatest music of their later career with people like Desmond Child, and many of Van Halen’s peers, like Bon Jovi, had some help for a few of their songs. But when someone like Hagar is at the helm, it wasn’t only a matter of him working on lyrics that he loved; it was knocking down that breach of trust that the band members originally had.
So when they started working on a song called ‘Between Us Two’, Hagar was beside himself with anger when he heard that all of his lyrics had been thrown out in favour of Glen Ballard’s work, saying, “I asked him what the song was about, and he said Glen had written about an escaped convict from a mental institution. I paused for a moment to catch my breath and told him, ’That’s the lyrical treatment Glen came up with? First of all, that’s a fucking insult. The lyrics I wrote for that song are great, and for you to go to somebody else I’ve never even met and say he can write lyrics to my song sucks. Fuck you! He can sing them too!’”
It’s not like the idea didn’t hold any water. Ballard was a great songwriter and had even made a name for himself on records like Jagged Little Pill, but considering the more thoughtful approach Hagar was taking, he didn’t want to go in that direction. It could have been their dark masterpiece à la ‘Janie’s Got A Gun’, but Hagar was always going to be happier singing what was on his mind than being told what to sing.
Because as much as any band is about compromise, it’s also about being able to believe what you’re singing, and no matter how much Eddie wanted things to change, there’s an important lesson every single musician needs to know. That being said, if the singer can’t sing the song convincingly, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
