Ten years ago today....

[Angiekay]

It was 10 years ago today (June 16th, 1996) that the Van Halen/Sammy Hagar marriage came to an abrupt end. Hagar had joined the group after David Lee Roth went solo, and "Van Hagar" had even greater success than the original band did. However, there were rumors about tensions between the members, and there was also talk about Roth working with the band again. Back when it all happened, Hagar told what went down: "June 16th, Sunday morning. Nine o'clock in the morning -- I'm telling you right now, Father's Day. 'Hi Ed, Happy Father's Day, Ed. What do you want?' 'We gotta talk! We gotta talk!' And for sure enough, he admitted they'd been in the studio with Roth, and brother, that was the end, man! (laughs)"

Hagar returned to his solo career and Van Halen released a greatest-hits album called The Best Of Van Halen Volume 1, which had two new songs with Roth. The Van Halen/Roth combo was even more volatile than before, and they quickly broke up, after which Van Halen brought in singer Gary Cherone from the band Extreme for one badly-received album.
In 2004, after years of nastiness, Hagar reunited with Van Halen for a reunion tour and the anthology called The Best Of Both Worlds, which featured three new songs with Hagar. On the surface, the tour seemed to go well, but tensions flared again, especially between Hagar and Eddie Van Halen, and Hagar left on bad terms again. In a recent interview, Hagar has said that he's willing to do it again with Van Halen, but only if Eddie Van Halen cleans up his act: "Maybe he'll change, you know? He used to be a great guy, he used to be a fun guy, and wasn't miserable. You know, I mean, he went through the cancer thing and all that, but he should be grateful, and not miserable. That's (how) I look at it. Maybe he'll change -- if he changes, we can do it again."

[verslibre]

EVH is an ass. Oh, well.