Sammy's New Book

[Saint John]

Seems like a heck of a guy? How could you possibly know this?

Get back to me after you watch this. Hell, everyone should watch this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh8KtYsmXSE

Hell, I could say the same about Dave & Eddie, and Alex, they just don't go airing their dirty laundry in public,

Probably pretty hard to do when you stand to lose more than gain in a shit tossing contest. Besides, Sammy hasn't dropped any bombshells. All of this stuff that has been mentioned is just more specific details about already known stuff. Those 3 clowns don't have any fucking friends and don't even get along with each other!

A shit vocalist? Your kidding right? It's not always about the vocals, it's fronting a band and their image.

I can agree with you to a certain extent here. However, he ws all image and virtually no vocals. There were some cool studio shrieks and other wizardry that made some of the vocals come off as difficult, but there isn't a live show known to man where Roth is going to impress any of his peers.

I'm not getting into a pissing match about Roth's vocals, hell there are probably thousands of actual singers who can sing circles around him. It was all about the "Frontman" image in my opinion. It fit the band and what they were about. The rapport with the audience, the drinking on stage, it fit the image of what Van Halen was all about. Nice video on Sammy, it's good that he gives, but whose to say the others in Halen haven't? They could and probably have just quieter about the way they give and who they give to. I to am going to be very interested in how the new Halen cd sounds. I for one am just glad they decided to give it a try again. I hope it's like this:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P1d8BVvY-I

We're all good, No Surprize. I'm interested in hearing the sound of the new CD, too.

[verslibre]

While most nail it, VH Roth era is legendary, without that, Sam wouldn't even have BEEN in VH, and without VH his career was and would have been on par with Billy Squire, .38 Special, Night ranger, LoverBoy. In other words shit on a shingle motherfucker! Rick Springfield covered a Sam tune. fluff.

Way to throw away the two Montrose albums Sammy sang on. Two of the best hard rock albums ever recorded. So I think that would put Sam a notch above Loverboy and Billy Squier.

And what would DLR be had he never joined Rat Salad, I mean Van Halen?

The singer for a SoCal-based Black Oak Arkansas tribute band, maybe?

Sammy wore THE Gayest shit in rock history.

Not by a longshot. His Red Rocker persona was cool. His Halen gear was in line with the band's image at the time.

You want gay? See Enuff Z'nuff, Poison, and shit like that.

Dreams, The "Alien" song, synth music at it's finest! I'll Take "Mean Street", Dirty Movies", Sinners Swing", "Unchained" any fucking day over that!

Fair Warning is my fave DLR Halen album, too.

Are you saying you don't like synths with your rock? Better throw away your 1984 CD. Eddie plays a lot of synth on that one. "I'll Wait" is one of the best tunes VH recorded, and that baby is anchored by that killer synth line Eddie plays.

[verslibre]

I'm not getting into a pissing match about Roth's vocals, hell there are probably thousands of actual singers who can sing circles around him. It was all about the "Frontman" image in my opinion. It fit the band and what they were about.

Sammy's one of the best frontmen ever. Check.

The rapport with the audience,

Sam had no issues there. Check.

the drinking on stage,

Sam's no stranger to that. Check.

it fit the image of what Van Halen was all about.

Nobody seemed to have an issue with the band's image with Sammy out front. Ticket sales looked fine to me. Check.

Nice video on Sammy, it's good that he gives, but whose to say the others in Halen haven't?

Ed gives, alright. Gives everyone the finger.

I to am going to be very interested in how the new Halen cd sounds.

Everyone is. I'm not holding my breath for an amazing vocal performance, though.

[conversationpc]

Sex tents under the stage? I'm so sick of hearing about the sexual exploits of rockers. Dudes are lucky they're still alive and their dicks haven't rotted off in the process.

[Don]

I think Sammy was to Van Halen what Cain was to Journey, someone who could bring te sugar needed for the pop/rock market.

[conversationpc]

I think Sammy was to Van Halen what Cain was to Journey, someone who could bring te sugar needed for the pop/rock market.

Some of the stuff they did, especially on "5150" and "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge", was just as hard rocking, if not more so, than anything they'd done previously.

[Don]

Both of Van Halen's Diamond records are from the Diamond Dave era; The debut album for the group and 1984.

I wasn't a big fan of 1984 but it definitely was a precursor of things to come for VH from a musical stand point.

[Saint John]

Both of Van Halen's Diamond records are from the Diamond Dave era; The debut album for the group and 1984.

Both from that era that had the benefit of (some) vinyl, cassette(s) and then CD. Not to mention shady accounting. Rumors suggest that a lot of those sales figures could be bullshit. Impressive, nonetheless, but Sammy's era didn't have the benefit of the album being bought several times by the same person.

[Don]

Both of Van Halen's Diamond records are from the Diamond Dave era; The debut album for the group and 1984.

Both from that era that had the benefit of (some) vinyl, cassette(s) and then CD. Not to mention shady accounting. Rumors suggest that a lot of those sales figures could be bullshit. Impressive, nonetheless, but Sammy's era didn't have the benefit of the album being bought several times by the same person.

I didn't know the plokkers were Diamond Dave fans too.

[mikemarrs]

i always preferred the rawness and heaviness of the dave era ever since the eighties and beyond but here recently i've went back and listened to 5150,OU812 & FUCK and all of those were really really good albums.i never cared for OU812 because i thought it was a little to happy,poppy and ballad heavy but stuff like dreams,feels so good,when its love,etc. all sound just as good twenty years down the line.by the last roth album they were already branching out and getting more keyboards in their music and there was a bit more of a pop edge to the stuff they were doing.the reason they broke up with sammy in '95 was his wife just had a baby and the van halen brothers fired him for not leaving his wife and being at their beak and call.that made both eddie and alex look really shitty.you don't make a man leave his wife and new born baby over trivial crap like they were pulling.i began to suspect then that they didn't have much of family life or what it meant.

[mikemarrs]

Sex tents under the stage? I'm so sick of hearing about the sexual exploits of rockers. Dudes are lucky they're still alive and their dicks haven't rotted off in the process.

i'm really shocked we haven't heard of at least a few having HIV as much screwing as these guys did back then.some of these had two or three women a night and that adds up to around nearly or close to a thousand women a year.robbin crosby of ratt died from HIV but he said he got from using shared needles.

[steveo777]

Sex tents under the stage? I'm so sick of hearing about the sexual exploits of rockers. Dudes are lucky they're still alive and their dicks haven't rotted off in the process.

i'm really shocked we haven't heard of at least a few having HIV as much screwing as these guys did back then.some of these had two or three women a night and that adds up to around nearly or close to a thousand women a year.robbin crosby of ratt died from HIV but he said he got from using shared needles.

Not very many guys get HIV from women, save for the ones who get it on with street hookers who are intravenous drug users. Most of the guys that get it are pluggin each others bung holes without protection.

[Rip Rokken]

This is Sammy describing him just before their Van Halen reunion tour in 2003: "I hadn't seen him in 10 years. He looked like he hadn't bathed in a week. He certainly hadn't changed his clothes in at least that long. He wasn't wearing a shirt. He had on a giant overcoat and army pants, tattered and ripped at the cuffs, held up with a piece of rope. I'd never seen him so skinny in my life. He was missing a number of teeth and the ones he had left were black. His boots were so worn out he had gaffer's tape wrapped around them and his big toe still stuck out."

...

After describing the squalor that he claims Eddie lived in, Sammy lays into him again, writing: "This was Eddie Van Halen, one of the sweetest guys I'd ever met. He had turned into the weirdest (expletive) I'd ever seen, crude, rude and unkempt."

They say there is a fine line between genius and madness, and it's the truth. EVH has obviously crossed over into insanity these days, just like Axhole Rose (except I don't consider Axhole a genius), and it's a physiological issue in his brain. That plus way too much alcohol, but alcohol abuse is just another symptom of whatever is really going on inside him now. Maybe medication could help him, but I doubt he could ever be the same guy again. A sad tradeoff for all that brilliance and innovation. Give him another few years and he'll be locking himself up in a room, alone with his paranoia, collecting bottles of his own piss if he isn't doing that already.

[jestor92]

The deal with Van Halen with DLR and Sammy Hagar are two totally different monsters musically.

The original VH was ground breaking to say the least. That was due mainly to Eddie's guitar sound. When they broke out finger tapping on the guitar wasn't heard of. They also wrote some great songs. The thing that always struck me as odd is the amount of covers the band used when they had DLR in the band. I mean You Really Got Me, Ice Cream Man, You're No Good, Where Have All The Good Times Gone, Pretty Woman, Dancing In The Street, Big Bad Bill, and Happy Trails. Was it because DLR couldn't think of lyrics to write down or was it the entire band had creative lapses. This band though was great.

Then we had Van Hagar. That band wasn't interested in continuing on the Hot For Teacher train of thought, but expanding more of the softer melodic stylings EVH started with Jump. Sammy and Eddie had a great working relationship in their time for this kind of music.

Both bands were great. Had they renamed Van Halen when Hagar joined I'm sure they still would've been a huge hit because of the great songs they wrote together.

[Michigan Girl]

Both of Van Halen's Diamond records are from the Diamond Dave era; The debut album for the group and 1984.

Both from that era that had the benefit of (some) vinyl, cassette(s) and then CD. Not to mention shady accounting. Rumors suggest that a lot of those sales figures could be bullshit. Impressive, nonetheless, but Sammy's era didn't have the benefit of the album being bought several times by the same person.

I didn't know the plokkers were Diamond Dave fans too.

Huge fan of both of these lead men ...

[slucero]

Damn I miss the old days...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDPS8-X2 ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwAgmnXg ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq8wIvHb ... re=related

[Memorex]

I'm a big fan of Hagar era over Roth, but both definitely made their mark.

I was always really annoyed with Dave back in the day and post break-up. But, I was impressed with how he handled things on the last tour in the face of Eddie's issues. Seems like he took the high road and kept things going, even if there was hatred behind the scenes. I also think he has done well to stay mostly quiet during this current process. He probably knows full well that if he says something, Eddie might react in some bizarre way and unravel the whole thing. Seems as far as that aspect goes, Dave finally grew up and put the music and the business first.