The song Sammy Hagar said was too good to criticise: “We can’t poke holes in this”
When Van Halen first let go of David Lee Roth, Sammy Hagar managed to do the impossible when he joined.
No one could have ever dreamed of having half the stage charisma that ‘Diamond Dave’ did, but instead of trying to be the consummate rockstar every time he got onstage, ‘The Red Rocker’ was much more interested in making songs where every member of the could have a good time playing and expanding their chops a bit more than Roth’s limited vocal range. For Eddie, getting someone like Hagar was like a gift from the gods, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have a few sparring sessions in between.
Those first few albums were among the finest records that Van Halen would ever make, but whereas Roth’s decision to leave the group felt like a long time coming after one fight after another, there were bridges burned after Hagar’s dismissal that were never going to be properly healed. Hagar always felt like he was making music among friends, but when management started to change, it was the first time he felt like the band was starting to become more like a business than the biggest party in the world.
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge at least gave them a great record to tour behind when ‘Right Now’ became one of their biggest hits, but don’t let the title of their next record, Balance, fool you. This was by far the flimsiest record that they could have ever worked on at the time, and while it did make for some interesting moments and some of Eddie’s most underrated guitar solos, Hagar remembered having to defend nearly every line he sang when the guitarist heard what he was doing.
It was bad enough that one of the songs had to be released as an instrumental when no one could agree on what the lyrics and melody should be, but ‘Don’t Tell Me What Love Can Do’ was among the biggest fights on the record. The basis of the song, centred around responding to the passing of Kurt Cobain, could have been a great idea, but when Eddie started butting heads with Hagar about how the lyrics should go, Hagar figured the best way to get the right sound would be to get as far away from the guitarist as possible.
The 5150 studio may have been their home for years at that point, but Hagar ended up leaving with producer Bruce Fairbairn for Canada to cut a few of the tracks by himself. Being that far away sounds like the exact opposite way to make a record, but when the frontman returned with the finished vocal of ‘Don’t Tell Me’, he knew that he had pushed himself as far as he was able to go.
So once he played the final master for Eddie, Hagar said even the guitarist had to admit that it could never be improved, saying, “We had done the vocal. [Eddie] and Al come up and they walk into the studio and I say, ‘Let me play you something’. I remember I started yelling out the lyrics. I was pouring my heart out. I remember Ed looking at Al going, ‘Yeah, this is pretty good. We can’t poke holes in this.’ [If they said anything else], I had my gun cocked under the couch and I was ready to pull out and say, ‘I’ll kill you motherfuckers.’”
But if you listen to the final version, the idea of Eddie and Alex looking for something more would be like saying that one of Robert Plant’s vocals needed some work. Hagar was reaching one of his true peaks as a vocalist, and even if they had their disagreements, the fact that they could see through all that pettiness for a few minutes was what helped them push through any of their other hangups.
Because as much as people can get pissed off over someone not getting a guitar line or working on a chorus for what feels like the hundredth time, having a song like this is the kind of moment everyone yearns for as a musician. It doesn’t come without a few obstacles, but when all’s said and done, they have a piece of musical magic that no one could take away from them.
