Sammy Hagar on proposed “Kitchen Sink” Van Halen shows: “I’ve been an advocate of doing a Sam-and-Dave tour from day one”
He compared the idea to his 2002 tour with David Lee Roth.
Images: Amy Sussman / Kevin Winter / Getty
Sammy Hagar has spoken out about his enthusiasm for a “Kitchen Sink” tour with Van Halen, which would have seen both him and David Lee Roth front the band.
His comments come after Wolfgang Van Halen, son of late guitarist Eddie Van Halen, revealed that Eddie had considered the idea – which also would have included ex-bassist Michael Anthony, alongside Hagar and Roth passing off vocal duties.
On a recent episode of the radio show Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, Hagar was asked if he had known about the idea, to which he responded: “It was totally on my radar. No one had confirmed any of it, but it was obviously what was gonna happen.”
He then joked: “I wouldn’t look forward to having to share the stage with Dave, only because he’s not user friendly. I love the guy, I love the music, all that, but he’s just not user friendly. He’s always gonna pull something to try to make you look bad and make him look good and all that kind of stuff. He then reiterated his enthusiasm for the idea, saying: “It would have been a blast. Are you kidding me? A dream come true.”
Hagar also reminisced about the 2002 tour on which he and Roth co-headlined, saying that the point of that was to “to try to get the [Van Halen] brothers’ attention to do the reunion way back then, and do it again and again and again,” and “Give the fans what they want.” At the time, Van Halen as a band were on hiatus, and Roth and Hagar’s co-headlined tour Song for Song, the Heavyweight Champs of Rock and Roll made headlines as an unlikely pairing of two of the band’s ex-frontmen.
He added that had learnt his lesson from that tour (which featured no openers, instead just Hagar and Roth taking turns to play a set first), saying: “This is the way I presented it to them two years ago. I actually presented it to Irving Azoff, their manager and my old manager. I said, ‘Irving, I’ll come out and do two songs. I leave the stage. Dave comes out and does two songs. He leaves the stage, I come out and do two.’”
While the tour may have been a treat for fans, Eddie Van Halen’s passing has made it an impossibility, as Hagar notes: “I get excited just talking about it, I’m totally fired up about that. But it ain’t gonna happen.”
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