“He could actually sing”: The singer Eddie Van Halen preferred in Van Halen
The whole premise behind Van Halen was to create the perfect party atmosphere wherever they went. Whether it was looking at the way that David Lee Roth held an audience in the palm of his hand or Sammy Hagar lighting up a stage with a guitar across his back, no one could claim that each lineup gave everyone their fair share of things to talk about. When given the choice between the two rock icons, though, Eddie felt that there was no contest as to which one of them was better suited to be a rock and roll lead singer.
At the same time, comparing Roth and Hagar is one of the more glaring apples-and-oranges situations in hard rock. Both of them were great at what they did, but looking at the way they approached the stage, it should have been a lot more disorienting watching the band make the sudden shift to ‘The Red Rocker’ when they started coming out with tracks like ‘Why Can’t This Be Love’.
Looking back on their time together, Roth was practically a court jester onstage catering to what the audience wanted, and considering Hagar’s everyman demeanour, it wouldn’t be easy to switch on a dime like that. But by keeping himself incredibly humble, Hagar was one of the most engaging stage presences of the 1980s, usually looking like he was having as much of a ball onstage as the audience was.
However, how they worked as singers was all that Eddie was worried about, and despite Roth’s electric stage presence, he was never a fan of his schtick. The gimmick surrounding them jumping out of helicopters had become ridiculous, and even when they started mixing in new sounds, hearing Roth talking about not messing with the formula wasn’t what Eddie needed to hear.
Since Hagar did have as many hangups, hearing albums like 5150 and For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge marked the moments where Eddie was fine with spreading his wings. He could still shred when he wanted to, but he was also willing to go off on a tangent if the time called for it, whether that was the massive piano opening on ‘Right Now’ or bringing in ballads like ‘When It’s Love’.
Despite having some of the greatest hard rock songs already under his belt with Hagar, Eddie thought that Hagar had everything that he was looking for in a lead singer, saying, “When Sammy joined the band, I was so excited because he could actually sing, and the other guy couldn’t. You can’t goofball your way through a song like ‘Dreams’ or ‘Love Walks In.’”
Even when performing Roth’s material, Hagar was still as electric as ever when playing everything. He had already been envious about not writing ‘Jump’, but listening to him put his own spin on it on the album Live Without a Net is the kind of chocolate and peanut butter combination that most people didn’t know they needed in their lives.
While Hagar lasted about as long as Roth did in the group, it was always clear in Eddie’s mind which one of the singers stood out as the best. ‘Diamond Dave’ may have been the rockstar, but Hagar was the musician that Eddie could depend on for almost anything.
