Sammy Hagar picks the moment Van Halen could “do no wrong”
It would be shocking if Sammy Hagar knew half of what it took to be a rock star when he got started.
He was hardly out of his teens when he started working with Montrose, and while he did manage to set himself up to be one of the most commanding voices in rock and roll, even the biggest rock stars only have a few years in the spotlight before the audience starts dissipating a little bit. But for ‘The Red Rocker’, the slow and steady pace ended up helping out in the long run.
Because while everyone knows him for his time in Van Halen, the fact that he was making classics all the way back in the Montrose days is astounding to hear. ‘Rock Candy’ may have been a bit of Zeppelin-flavoured hard rock, but for a long time, Hagar was known as one of the hidden gems that the rest of the rock world only talked about in hushed tones, eventually finding fans in everyone from Vince Neil to the members of Iron Maiden.
But when he began focusing on his solo career, anyone else in his position would have been a little bit wary when being asked to join Van Halen. He had the potential to be a fantastic solo artist, and he even had a great single in ‘I Can’t Drive 55’, but when you’re looking at the greatest guitarist on the face of the Earth asking you to be his lead singer, are you supposed to not jump in headfirst?
It’s not like Hagar didn’t have his reservations, though. David Lee Roth was far from the kind of frontman that he had dreamed of being, and while the band wanted to move in a different direction as well, he wanted to be more hands-on with the songwriting process. It was going to be a risk making 5150, but when they took to the road, Hagar remembered the era going into the recording of OU812 to be the true apex of his time with Van Halen.
5150 was simply an experiment at the time, so getting the chance to cut loose and actually have some fun making the follow-up was all Hagar was asking for, saying, “Recording of that album, that’s when things were still great. We could do no wrong. And we didn’t stop getting along until the very end. So OU812 was still fantastic. We were very prolific and anxious to write and came in with nothing. And we just put them together and jammed in the studio. It was complete, simple, magic.”
Granted, it’s not like they have a few problems on the record as well. ‘When It’s Love’ is one of the best songs that the band ever released, but when paired next to the other Van Halen albums, this was the first time where bloat entered the equation. Some of the songs are a lot longer than they really need to be, but that also might be because of the production as well.
Yeah, remember how Hagar talked about going in with nothing? Well, that also meant without a proper producer in the mix, and while that can work when making a few dry demos, a lot of the songs feel like they are trying to cram everything they can into the mix. That can lead to interesting moments like ‘Cabo Wabo’, but more often than not, that means a few toothless songs like ‘Finish What Ya Started’ made the final version of the record.
That shouldn’t dissuade people from the record entirely, though. There’s a lot more magic in the Hagar period than most people give the band credit for, and while there are a few moments where things simply don’t work, the best parts of OU812 is when you can hear the band enjoying playing together.
