Winter 1998
The Inside: How did you feel about the return of Roth to the VH camp in 1996?
MA: There was nobody that did not want Roth back in the band more than me. I didn't even know he was coming back. I called the studio one day looking for Eddie. Ed picks up and says, "Someone wants to say hi to ya," and all of a sudden Roth was on the phone. I just hit the floor. All those years of him being in the band just flashed through my mind. He picked up the phone and said (doing a perfect Roth impersonation with a whiskey-soaked voice), "How ya doin', man!" I knew exactly who it was. I just said (in a dead-pan voice), "I'm fine, Dave. How are you doing?" But none of that happened until Sammy said he was out of the band. Nothing with Roth was even done behind Sammy's back. Ed might have spoken to him once or twice, but that was the because Roth had called and he wanted to know what stuff was going to be put on the "Best Of."
http://www.vhlinks.com/pages/interviews/ma/tiwi98.php
It doesn't matter because all of a sudden everyone thinks MA is VH. He is the CVH sound. He is Mr. perfect. MA made VH. MA completes VH. If Eddie called up MA and asked him to tour with them this year MA would dump Hagar in a $econd.