“No way”: Sammy Hagar on the worst decision Van Halen ever made
There are only two examples of an established band successfully transitioning from one singer to another with an equal amount of acclaim and fan approval. The kings of the frontman swap are Aussie clod-rockers AC/DC, duckwalking from 1979’s Highway to Hell with Bon Scott to 1980’s monster-selling Back in Black following Geordie Brian Johnson’s recruitment. Coming in second, however, are Pasadena hard rock outfit Van Halen with their easy coast between split jumping expert David Lee Roth and the more rugged Sammy Hagar.
By the time of Hagar’s enlistment, Van Halen was huge. Breaking records for their $1.5million headliner pay at 1983’s US Festival and reaching stratospheric commercial peaks off the back of 1984 and its MTV-favourite lead single, ‘Jump’, Van Halen were set to dominate the 1980s.
Yet, due to a clash of creative differences and lead guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s fatigue with Roth’s solo ambitions, the hard rock outfit found themselves in need of a new singer, pronto. Being a huge fan of San Francisco’s Montrose from a few years back, Eddie thought about approaching the old singer for the band’s frontman vacancy.
Hagar stepped up to the task, ushering in a new phase of monumental success for the band and producing a string of multiple-platinum-selling Billboard number-one albums, affectionately dubbed the “Van Hagar” era by their fans.
However, a second bout of internal unravelling struck the band as manager and close friend Ed Leffler died in 1993, leading to disputes as to who could replace him. On the recommendation of drummer Alex Van Halen’s brother-in-law Ray Danniels, Hagar immediately disliked the Rush agent and baulked at his financial demands.
“Danniels walked into a band that had already sold 40million records,” Hagar told Green Magazine in 2000. “He wanted more than equal profits – he wanted a per cent of the gross, not the net. If you give him part of the gross, he makes more than everyone. I said fuck you, and the guys were like maybe. Ed and Al gave him 2.5% more from their share. I wouldn’t. He also wanted a percentage of all the old records. I said NO WAY. His rap was, ‘Your old catalogue isn’t doing what it should, I’ll go in and renegotiate.'”
He added: “He wanted us to pay his office expenses, and now they’re suing him. I make more off the old Van Halen records than Ed and Al. I stand up and sing ‘Jump’ and ‘Panama’ all night, and I don’t make a penny off the pre-Sammy records and never asked to. Ed Leffler never asked for it and never took it. So why should Danniels? It’s one of the worst business decisions I’ve ever seen in a rock band”.
Not the first band to wade bad blood due to money and certainly not the last, the business can often erode whatever musical magic was had before profits and legalities become involved.
Van Halen would limp on with Extreme frontman Gary Cherone, and Hagar would cycle through various projects before returning for a much-publicised reunion tour, but the old hatchet wasn’t buried deep enough between Eddie and Hagar, finishing the tour in separate charts and Hagar later confessing that Eddie was “not the same person anymore”.
