'He understood the structure of music and stuff like that.'
Even after all these years, the whole David Lee Roth vs. Sammy Hagar discussion is still ongoing. There's no definitive answer to this debate as both singers contributed to Van Halen's legacy. But at this point, it seems as if the whole thing took the spotlight away from Eddie Van Halen.
During a recent interview with Mitch Lafon and Jeremy White, former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony discussed the differences between the two singers and how they fit in the band. The whole discussion started when Anthony was asked about his friendship with Hagar and how long they have been loyal to each other. He replied (transcribed by UG):
"A long time now. When he first came in as a solo artist, played on a few shows that Van Halen had done. There were some outdoor shows that we did where he was an opening act or whatever. And I never knew him, though. I mean, I knew his music like everybody does. All the bands, they know each other. I know Eddie had met him, also, but I never actually met him until he walked into '5150.' After he and Eddie jammed, and he decided to come in and see what this Van Halen thing was all about. I don't even think Sammy had any intention of joining the band at that point. I think he just wanted to come to the studio, see if the party, drugs and drinking rumors were true." [laughs]
He also added:
"My introduction to him was just as the new lead singer. But we became fast friends. Because let's put it this way – I owned two cars when he joined Van Halen. I had one and my wife had one. And by the next year or whatever, I owned 10 cars, and my wife hated me for that. She owed it all to Sammy Hagar." [laughs]
But it does seem that Anthony is more of a Van Hagar than a Van Halen fan. When asked whether he thought the band was "selling out" or whether they "were doing what the band always needed to be doing," Anthony replied:
"Nothing that Van Halen ever did was a conscious effort. Even from the beginning, Warner Brothers would say 'Hey, what's the first single gonna be?' We said, 'Hey, you guys choose it. We love all our music, we made it, so you guys choose whatever you think.' And we never wrote towards that way, 'We need a number one single.'
When 'Jump,' which was our only big single from the early days of Van Halen, Roth didn't even want that song on the album, because he's all, 'Eddie, you're a guitar god, man, you're not supposed to be playing keyboards.' And Eddie, he grew up classically trained. Piano, in addition to picking up guitar.
When Sammy joined the band, I think it was just a natural progression of the band. We just continued writing and Sammy brought in this whole knowledge of being a guitar player himself, he understood structure of music and stuff like that. From that standpoint, where David would always write the lyrics and go, 'Yeah, man, play that hard or whatever,' Sammy's like, 'Hey, you got this chord here, what if we play this chord or whatever, make this change.'
He brought a whole new element, and it just kind of changed the dynamic of the band. We weren't going to continue doing what we didn't want to continue doing, what we were doing with Dave. Because that was with Dave. It's the natural evolution within the way the band was evolving."
Elsewhere in the interview, Michael Anthony discussed Eddie Van Halen's son Wolfgang and how he's "doing his own thing now." Reflecting on how Wolfgang is always associated with his father's work, Anthony commented:
"Obviously, you get pigeonholed into it, you know? He doesn't want to be known as Eddie Van Halen's kid his whole life. He wants to go out there and make a name for himself, which I totally understand and I agree with."
