The sad tale of the most overlooked vocalist Sammy Hagar ever encountered
If you’ve watched any of the blockbuster music biopics, you’ll know this: You’ve only got one shot to make it big. The time comes, and, ready or not, you have to throw yourself at the opportunity, and hope you don’t fall apart in the process.
Sammy Hagar, frontman of Montrose and guitarist for Van Halen, has seen a few misfired shots in his time. In 1998, one of those golden opportunities arose when Steve Perry left the band Journey, a group Hagar deemed a “great commercial band”. Perry was hanging up his hat due to burnout and a burning need to escape party behaviours that were wreaking havoc on his emotional and mental well-being.
As is symptomatic of the cutthroat industry, the door barely closed behind him before his core bandmates, lead guitarist Neal Schon, keyboardist Jonathan Cain, and bassist Ross Valory – elsewhere in the band, the drummer Deen Castronovo replaced the departing drummer Steve Smith, and, all but beaming in via audition tape, Steve Augeri, formerly of the band Tall Stories, was pushing up his sleeves in an attempt to fill the empty shoes with his own vocal attack.
Journey and Augeri shared some successful years; during his tenure, they released the 2001 album Arrival and the 2005 album Generations, as well as the 2002 EP Red 13 and the live DVD Journey 2001 – generally, the band swung back to a harsher rock sound, while retaining their penchant for catchy melodic ballads.
But, as Hagar explained in a 2006 interview, all good things must come to an end. Though the official story is that Eugeri left due to severe chronic vocal cord issues that were a result of non-stop touring, the interviewer poses a different theory: “What do you think of their decision to go with Jeff Scott Soto as vocalist, standing in for Steve Augeri?” Hagar is asked.
To the Montrose legend, Augeri might’ve enjoyed eight years in the limelight, but he was nowhere near as good as the often overlooked vocalist that followed in his shoes: “I think it’s really too bad for Steve, as he is a great guy and he meant well. But he got so hung up on trying to be Steve Perry that I think it took him down,” Hagar ruminated. From one Steve to the next, it’s bound to be a near impossible feat to shake off the shadow that stood long before the sunlight found your silhouette in the frame.
In Hagar’s eyes, one man who could do that was Jeff Scott Soto, who was only the lead singer of Journey for 11 months, from 2006 to 2007, before being let go by the band, who were seeking an alternate direction.
A huge tragedy, in Hagar’s eyes: “Jeff’s a great singer… Jeff’s the real deal. Jeff’s himself…he sings like Jeff Scott Soto. He doesn’t sing like somebody else, and that’s what they needed all along because the rest of the guys in the band are that talented – that good.”
In the end, Scoto had his one chance, and something just didn’t click. At least, beyond Journey, his music career has persisted with bands like SOTO and WET, but as Hagar hinted at, Scoto really was an overlooked diamond in the rough. Too bad.
