A Different Van Halen Reunion In The Works?
Sammy Hagar once said he would never work with Van Halen and guitarist Eddie Van Halen ever again!
Never say never.
Every time I turned around, it was a no-win situation. If I say what I feel... I would always get 50 percent of the Van Halen fans saying, 'Right on, you rule.' Then the haters would dog me like, 'You're always dogging Van Halen.' I'm going to shut up. They get their wish. We'll see what happens when it happens — if it happens." Sammy Hagar
In a brand new interview with the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, the former Van Halen lead singer and current front man for Chickenfoot was asked how he would respond if the phone rang and it was Eddie asking him to return to the group. The 'Red Rocker' replied with a tongue-in-cheek "No comment". Hagar continued with a comment, "Every time I turned around, it was a no-win situation. If I say what I feel... I would always get 50 percent of the Van Halen fans saying, 'Right on, you rule.' Then the haters would dog me like, 'You're always dogging Van Halen.' I'm going to shut up. They get their wish. We'll see what happens when it happens — if it happens."
Hope was raised about a possible reunion recently, when Hagar wished his former bandmate a happy 61st birthday via twitter, and Eddie graciously accepted and wished Sammy well. It seemed to be a cooling of tensions between the two camps, especially in that Hagar blasted his former band as recently as an interview in Rolling Stone magazine just last year.
In the interview, Hagar commented about what appeared to be a "lack of chemistry" in the band's current line-up, which includes original lead singer David Lee Roth and Eddie's son Wolfgang on bass. The Hagar era lineup included bassist Michael Anthony, who is currently the bass player for Hagar's band Chickenfoot.
"I can only speculate on what I've seen on YouTube, things people send me now and then… There's just no chemistry up there. They don't like each other. I mean, it's obvious. It's like a backup band with a guy out there in front. I bet they don't say five words to each other offstage. Van Halen was always about chemistry in the early days. Early, that band was all about $%&@*^$ chemistry, man. They were on fire. When I joined the band, they had great musical chemistry. We were friends, and we were on fire. We had so much fun, it should have been illegal. Now all that's gone."
Sammy Hagar on current Van Halen line-up
In last year's interview, Hagar added that he has no apologies for anything that happened during his time in Van Halen, but that he doubted he would return to a situation like that at this point. "I'd feel like a hypocrite for joining that band....I'd feel like the biggest hypocrite in the world. And I'm not a hypocrite."
Hagar and bassist Anthony, along with guitarist Joe Satriani and drummer Chad Smith, are currently working on the latest Chickenfoot project. Hagar is also busy hosting "Rock and Roll Road Trip" on AXS TV. But it would be interesting, seeing that pictures have recently emerged of Anthony sitting in front of amplifier cases with the Van Halen logo emblazoned on the side, what the current status is of Van Halen Mach II. And where does that staus put the status of Roth and Wolf Van Halen?
Many questions are still to be answered, but apparently time heals all wounds, even the rock-and-roll wounds.