“The best”: The album Sammy Hagar wrote about Van Halen’s breakup
No one can simply leave a band and shrug off any of their troubles. Any group can become like family after a while, and when they decide to cut ties over business or creative differences, it can be like going through a major divorce, only this time amongst four or five different people. And when Van Halen finally decided to call it a day with Sammy Hagar, ‘The Red Rocker’ knew that he wouldn’t sidestep that era and not try to channel it into his own music.
When Hagar first came on board, though, there were already sceptics questioning his abilities before he sang a note. ‘I Can’t Drive 55’ was already one of the biggest songs in the world at that point, but considering this was coming off the era with David Lee Roth, the idea of replacing someone that flamboyant whenever the band took to the stage would have been a rock and roll miracle.
Then again, Van Halen may have had some divine power behind those guitar riffs when 5150 came out. Hagar never once tried to be an imitation of Roth, but the minute that people latched onto tunes like ‘Summer Nights’ and ‘Why Can’t This Be Love’, they were more than happy to give Hagar a shot. Outside of having his own charisma, Hagar had a much broader range than what Roth was working with, which meant the band could experiment a bit more on their records.
Did that lead to some questionable moments? Absolutely. There was hardly any reason for them to make some of their later records as bloated as they were, but it was a small sacrifice if it meant getting tunes like ‘Right Now’ and ‘When It’s Love’ during this era of the group. But that inevitably leads to burnout if they keep going for too long, and when Hagar had disagreements over putting out a greatest-hits record, the band figured it was better to move on than compromise for the 100th time.
When Hagar finally got back to his solo career, though, he couldn’t go back to the same kind of rock and roll he was playing on VOA. He needed to let out some of those internal feelings, and Marching to Mars became the first record that got more candid about his time working with his old buddies.
And whereas Van Halen were trying to make it work with Gary Cherone, Hagar had no problem saying that his record told his side of the story, saying, “Marching To Mars, I think, is the best songwriting, vocal performances and guitar playing I have ever done in my life. It’s a very serious record, and Sammy Hagar is not the most serious guy in the world! I’ve got a serious side to me, but mostly I like to have fun – that’s what I’m into. This new record is a lot more fun because I got all that serious stuff from the breakup out of my system. Half of Marching To Mars is about the breakup, ‘Little White Lie’ is about when those guys were saying that I quit.”
But Hagar isn’t on this album expecting crocodile tears from the fanbase or anything. This is simply his side of the story in many respects, and since he had learned to be a bit more compassionate when writing later Van Halen ballads like ‘Can’t Stop Lovin’ You’, it was the same way when hearing him talk about the lies that he listened to his bandmates saying about him in the press.
He may have been more than a little bit pissed off at the time, but that was no reason for him to become angry right off the bat. He knew that they simply fell out, and while that happens to the best of bands, that didn’t mean he had to roll over and start begging for sympathy from his audience.
