Van Halen III released 11 years ago today

March 17, 2009 84 Comments

copyright_zlozower_1998 Van Halen III was released 11 years ago today, on March 17th, 1998.

The album is considered to be the only disappointing Van Halen album ever made, but the tour was another story.

The 1998 tour was the second Van Halen tour when Eddie was clean and sober. While many fans didn’t think Gary Cherone was a good fit for Van Halen, most fans who caught a concert that year loved it. The tour was known for a couple things. Eddie’s playing was flawless on that tour, due to his sobriety and also his overall happiness. That showed itself during the live show as he was completely on top of his game, and jumped around throughout the show with his patented “Flying Eddie” scissor-kick jumps.

While Cherone was not fully embraced by the Van Halen fan base, he was appreciated for resurrecting many David Lee Roth-era gems that had remained buried during the Sammy Hagar years. Fans were treated to many songs that had gone unplayed throughout Hagar’s tenure with the band, including guitar showcases such as “Mean Street”, “Romeo Delight”, “Dance the Night Away” and “Feel Your Love Tonight”. The band even performed “Somebody Get Me a Doctor” with Michael Anthony on lead vocals – a move that was so well received that it remained part of the setlist when Hagar returned for the 2004 tour. Indeed, Cherone’s greatest achievement with Van Halen might have been his decision to play many of the old VH classics. The entire Van Halen catalog has never been as well represented as it was on the Van Halen III tour. It really is the best mix of the Hagar and Roth years that has ever been performed, and of course, it was the only tour to feature material from the III album.

Here’s three rare treats from 1998:

“That’s Why I Love You” (UNRELEASED demo put to rare footage) by Sphen5150:

“Fire In The Hole” (LIVE audio put to rare footage) by Sphen5150:
“This is taken from the broadcast of MTV’s live at the 10 Spot, recorded by my self back in 1998 off of television. It is mixed with amateur and other various footage. I have re mastered the audio as well. I hope you enjoy.

“Dance The Night Away/Feel Your Love Tonight” (LIVE) by 5150EVH5150: Forgive me for the bad audio-video match, but to match Gary Cherone era clips to classic Roth is tough. This is from the VHIII Tour, and despite most opinions about Gary, he kicked ass on this one.

Filed Under: Gary Cherone, Van Halen

Mark

Whilst officially on the 3 tour Ed was sober, unofficially that wasn’t coffee in his mug when he was doing those press releases, I am sorry to say.
Gonzalo

Underrated record, not bad to me.

I think this record is a lot of good ideas badly executed in some cases. Eddie’s work is the most amazing in III at some points but is overshadowed but some terrible tones…

Despite this I listen to it often.
Juca

I agree with Gonzalo! I think VH3 is quite good album!
Icarus

VH3 is one of my absolute fav albums of all times. I really dig it. Some of the vocals sounds a little rushed and the overall sound of the album could have been better. But the songs gives a much broader picture of what VH is about. Maybe not classic radio music and that’s mayb why I never get bored with this album, it so versatile. I would have loved to hear more albums with Gary…
Robert

The tour was hot, saw it front row in Orlando at the HOB, highlighs were of course, ” A year to the day” with Ed jamming on his Wolf special with the sustainer. Other cool licks from the album were the ending of “fire in the hole” and the bridge to “one I want”, although poorly mixed, it’s not that bad, except for Ed trying to sing lead…ugggg. Anyone know details on why Gary left, I mean they were recording the second album and then the “musical differences” came out, I suspect the old Earth Guide Only (EGO) was a factor.
Gee Lopz

All Right!!

Van Halen with Cherone, unfortunelly, not works…But, he is part of Van Halen history too!

Finally, something about Gary Cherone(!!???)…

Congratulations vhnd!!

(And he have no problems with play the DLR-era songs!!)

“Cherone’s greatest achievement with Van Halen might have been his decision to play many of the old VH classics. The entire Van Halen catalog has never been as well represented as it was on the Van Halen III tour. It really is the best mix of the Hagar and Roth years…”

It´s a good character, a humble guy , a good person. A Van Halen/David Lee Roth fan, like us.

Van Halen III was a disaster, but i wish all the lucky and success for him.
Karl

Not sure about the whole album but I love the first song. The guitar is so ‘live’. You can hear his amp buzzing away in the background during the solo. It’s a small thing but it tells you a lot about VH. Most bands would have engineered out the buzzing amp but I bet Ed said “Nah, are you kidding, leave it in!”

But on another note: How the hell did Gary ever become a lead singer? Could never understand why Nuno put up with him for so long (Christ! He even got back with him!) and then he managed to sell his meagre talents to VH. Hats off to the guy!
ian

To this day I think “Without You” is a great Van Halen song (one of my favorites) and I really wish Sammy or Dave had performed it in subsequent tours. It fits really well with the Sammy material in particular. I always thought it had a “Balance” vibe to it.
I think it would be a real shame if they never play it again.

By the way, the “III” tour was the first time I saw Van Halen, and they blew me away. Cherone may not be the finest songwriter, but certainly was more than competent on stage.
http://www.501stlegion.org skutch

I’ll agree with Ian. This totally fits in with the Sammy material.
John

I agree VH3 has good and bad. I like the album and the tour. The tone of his guitar was not quite what I was expecting. Did not care for it, but his playing was great. Gary is not a bad frontman and I think he did a good job singing songs from both eras. It was great hearing those old Dave songs. I think at the time I was happy ther were actually doing something. I wish we could get another album out of them soon.
Myron Philpot

11 years since VH dropped this turd in the bowl?! Sheesh, I’m getting old. Naw, I still crank Fire In The Hole at maximum volume to the dismay of my neighbors. Ed’s project album has some interesting moments to it but lacks the musical vision of their earlier efforts. It’s like he had only bits and pieces to put together rather than (mostly) completed songs to record. I know a lot of the finishing touches are developed in the studio, but this album doesn’t “feel” like it had any framework to it from the get go.

I skipped this tour but have seen enough boots to agree that Ed’s playing was very tight. He probably wasn’t 100% dried out but his guitar was focused, crisp and very toney. Didn’t like the excessive wallowing in Sustainer feedback (which reached critical mass during the ’04 tour). Very glad he ditched that altogether for the last tour.
John

Just wanted to add Gary was much better than velvet revolvers attempt on Ain;t talkin bout love. sorry, but that was sad.
ikethebird

Has anyone attempted to figure out any songs on guitar off of III? Good luck.
rich

Huge fan. Tried and tried to like vh3 for a long time and never could get into it. I often think who would have been a better fit. My answer Robert Plant
crystal dawn

I think Gary is a great singer but I just have never liked his sort of screaming on the high registers. In other words, I like the angel more than the elephant with balls approach by him. So a lot of his singing on III kinda irked me.

That said, Eddie once talked about the CD being pressed as opposed to the “tone” from the analog (or cassette) version. The songs very may well have sounded much better in the studio than what was pressed for CD.

Overall, III had many great ideas as opposed to some of the previous albums with Sammy. It was a step forward, whether you liked it or not.
Gonzalo

I totally agree it fits Sammy Material. In fact, I read an interview where Hagar says that ‘III’ contains some discarded songs from the ‘Balance’ album…
Chris

I was just happy that Van Halen with Gary in the band discovered again the classic Roth/Van Halen songs that were brushed aside and almost forgotten when Sammy joined. So I got respect for Gary on that. It’s hard what to think of VH 3? I wasn’t happy with Alex’s drum sound (drums sounded like buckets!) but Eddie was on fire!! His playing and songwriting went up another level, he is the man!!! I just hope the new album with Roth can pick up from ‘Me Wise Magic’ and some little gems that are on the VH 3 album. VH 3 album, not the best, but it does grow on you over time.
Coyoteface

Ah, when I listen to VHIII I listen to a singer and an album that never really got a chance from day 1. It certainly isn’t my favorite VH album, but it’s absurd to think what many people want others to believe, namely that the album is terrible. If you talk about a giant leap in quality the first thing that pops into my mind is the follow-up of DLR’s A Little Ain’t Enough cd, Your Filthy Little Mouth. Then we’re talking about an album that deserved the crap VHIII had to get.

But fact is that hardcore David Lee Roth fans were disappointed VH asked Gary and Sam Hagar fans were disappointed Sam was out so unless VH would come up with the most wicked stuff ever, the album was doomed to fail in terms of sales. Unfortunately, VH wasn’t able to come up with a classic, super-high quality album.

A classic example of an ok album at the wrong time made for an audience that wasn’t really open for it. Sad.
Erick

I never heard anything from VHIII, but I guess it can’t be more boring then Van Hagar.
Coyoteface

Erick just proved my point. Thank you Erick.
http://www.thejohngarrett.com john

vh3 is a good album- if youve never given it a fair listen– do it–

its van halen– and gary is good-

reccomendations:

without you
dirty water dog
once
how many say i– ( ed on vocals )
Beau

As much as Gary didn’t fit in Van Halen as much as Eddie and whoever else held his audition could have forseen, I really appreciate his work with Van Halen. “Without You”, “One I Want” and “Dirty Water Dog” are some really great tracks! Eddie’s tone was very cool, Al’s drums sounded big as ever, and Gary (as much as he didn’t fit the “Van Halen timbre”) did some intense vocal work. Actually, my biggest problem with Van Halen III was the fact the Mikey was only allowed to play on three of the tracks. The tour was great though. Eddie’s live tone was kind of funky, but his playing was spot-on.
http://www.ericleland.com Jungleland2

I got free passes for this tour and got to meet the band. Eddie and Mike were SO NICE and SO OUTGOING! Alex I think was ready to start the show and Gary looked lost in the shuffle of people. Mike & Ed acted like I was their long lost cousin, which was very cool (the pic I have is me with the band in a big bear hug..no lie). We had great seats and the energy was great. The new songs were not good, but the classic VH stuff was so good to hear. They did not use tapes as much as F.U.C.K which was the only other tour I had seen (at that point)

Overall and important part of their touring history, if not an LP highlight
DLR7884

Cherone was a clown on stage.

Like a ballerina on crack.
Big J

Album just had a really bad mix. That’s the worse Al’s drums ever sounded. I think their next album would of been better because they were on fire on that tour, but Warner Brothers stepped in and pulled the plug. You never Cherone or Van Halen bad mouth one another.
stew

I agree Erick Cherone is better than Sammy ! Anyone is!!!!
http://www.derekgores.com Derek Gores

ed on the end of ‘once’ is one for the highlight reels.

agree sounds like a project album. i re-assert that to make something great again it might be best to give the guys one sound setup and 2 weeks in an unfamiliar studio- that’s all ya got. like the old days. guarantee you won’t get any helicopter samples.
ER

“Once” is probably my favorite song on this album – great melody – the album didn’t quite come together the way it should have, but it shows that Eddie’s ability to come up with good tunes was still intact.
Drumshine

Cool guys! It’s great to hear some love and respect for Cherone. When they announced he was in the band, I was excited and thought it was a great choice. VHIII turned out to be just okay, but it had it’s moments. “Ballot or the Bullet” and “Dirty Water Dog” are favorites for me. The truth is, on tour, Cherone sang DLR era songs better than Dave probably ever did. His voice didn’t seem to fit the Hagar era tunes at times. I agree with Big J and think the next album would have been much better after getting to tour together and feel each other out.
Frank “The Tank”

Just like every VH Album since “82” I purchased III the day it hit the stores. Unlike the other albums I wanted to toss it in the trash. I was so disgusted with the “Lead Singer Saga” and Ed statements “Gary’s my musical soul mate” crap, that I had enough. I didn’t even go see them live for the first time since “81”. That disk sat on my shelf for years until I played it again about two years ago.
In all fairness it is better than I remembered and “Without You” is the best song on the disk. But there is some major Crapolla too! “How many say I” is the worst song VH has ever done and I remember that being the reason I wanted to toss III out the window of my car. I have all the respect in the world for Gary stepping into that situation and singing some Classic VH but Howard Stern was right when he asked Cherone on his show if he had signed the VH contract in disappearing ink. Obviously Stern was right.
Drummer Boy ’72

I saw VH twice on the III tour. Once in Denver, CO, and once in NJ. Eddie was for sure sober for the Denver show. We had good seats for both. In Denver Valerie and Wolfie were on the side of the stage, so he was on his best behavior. In NJ it was just him, and you cud tell he was for sure in party mode with the infamous red “party” cup as I like to call it nearby. Both shows were great!!
RickieVanWhalen

VH III was outstanding. An excellent guitar playing record that rivals Fair Warning in terms of playing. III would have been a huge success if “Dirty Water Dogs” was released first without the long intro. It is an excellent pop/rock tune. Cherone, cleary is a talented singer who was forced out due to big business. I listen to VH III often and the show at MSG was A++
http://VHND Jason

By far Eddie was playing better than ever!!! Especially Live…I have seen every tour since Diver Down and his playing during III was the best I have witnessed…there was such a buzz during the VHIII tour about Eddies playing and how fast and clean it was…anyways we all have our thoughts, but they still remain the greatest band ever!!!
iwannaberr

Puke, hurl and whatever. VH3 was total crap. I’ve heard bar bands that sound better. Cherone sounded like a Sammy wanna be. Only VH disc I don’t own. Let’s hope that when Ed gets tired of Dave, they don’t get Britney in the band!
Aftershock

I can’t believe no one else has mentioned “From Afar.” That’s always been my favorite song on this album.
DANOOOSH

CHERONE AND SAM ARE BOTH DAVE WANNABEES.SORRY BOYS, YOU CANT COMPETE WITH THE BEST.
stew

Hell Yaaaa! Diamond Dave Forever!!!!!!!
http://www.501stlegion.org skutch

I’m glad some people like this album. I remember sitting down at Sound Warehouse the day this came out and listening to it start to finished. Needless to say, I didn’t put down $12.99 for it. Well, I listened to it again about a year ago and still didn’t care for it. I can’t speak as to whether Ed’s playing was great or not because the songs are so uninspired to my ears.

I’m not a fan of the Hagar years, but at least there are a handful of tracks I love (Inside, 5150, Get Up). Unfortunately, there are zero tracks on VHIII that are redeeming.

I’m with Iwannaberr, I know guys in bands (that opened for VH in 2004) that write better songs than this, and sing better.
http://www.freewebs.com/maelstromcustoms/apps/photos/photo.jsp?photoID=187518&prev=1 MAELSTROM

Van Halen III was a great disappointment to me. Unlike many people who were booing it before it was ever released, I was looking forward to it. Like many other people, I think there were some pretty good ideas there as well. I bought it on the day it was released and listened to it about 3 times back to back on a long road trip that day. All that time I was waiting to be impressed…it didn’t happen. But I think the reason that this album simply just doesn’t measure up is not Gary Cherone, it was WEAK SONGWRITING! To me, it seemed like the guys just put some stuff together without much foresight or planning. Perhaps they thought that anything with a VH logo on it would simply be great. I think Gary Cherone actually did a very good job with what he had to work with, but the songs just failed to engage or move me in almost any way. One thing I really hate is when a band takes some political stance on something, but “Ballot or the Bullet” was a vague attempt at this at best anyways. I really liked “Without You”, it has a nice groove to it(the only song I have on my ipod from this album). It just seems like the album spiralled into oblivion after the first track. Worst of all is “How Many Say I?”…………
Well, I have always thought that Eddie should shy away from so much keyboards, but DAMN!…he needs to stay away from the mic as well.
Cherone gracefully bowed out after the album, but I think had the songwriting simply been better, it could have been a great success with him on board.
I think maybe they were trying to do something arty-farty and it just backfired.
http://www.freewebs.com/maelstromcustoms/apps/photos/photo.jsp?photoID=187518&prev=1 MAELSTROM

Oh yeah, Eddie should stay away from funky stocking caps too!
Kenny in FLorida

This album was pretty good. It definitely is worthy of the VH catalogue. Without You should have been a big hit. It really should have. It’s underrated like Me Wise Magic with Roth (another one that should have been big hit material). There were other songs from VHIII that would have done well if edited and given a chance on the radio. What held it back? You have to remember the time when Best Of Volume 1 and VHIII were released. The radio stations and the music industry in general were trying to move away from classic rock bands. Alternative was at it’s peak (which alternative would soon be on a downward slide after this time, making way for nu-metal). Those songs never got a chance on the mainstream rock stations. They were only played on the classic rock stations. If you called a mainstream rock station and asked the DJ why they were not playing the new VH material you got some answer like “They are an old band, they play that on the classic rock station, it fits better there.” If VH would have released something shortly after this last tour it would have done great. The Best of Both Worlds discs did great in sales and airplay. The music industry and radio welcomes the old guys again cause everything is bogged down by cookie cutter metal now. The other reason why Best Of Volume One and VHIII bombed was the fact that VH was becoming a media circus with it’s revolving door of singers. That era is when there were the most VH jokes on TV. The DLR thing blew up immediately and people were not ready for a new Van Halen with a new singer playing experimental material. In my oppinion, this is why VH didn’t even have a chance to sell us on some pretty good material. P.S. I still get goosebumps when I hear Me Wise Magic and Without You. Those songs are THAT good.
Mark Sachs

Does anybody know who the other finalist was to sing lead besides Gary Cherone? Who else did he beat out to get the gig? I read that one of the people was a guy named Mitch Mitchell. If Eddie wasn’t going to stick with Sammy or return to Dave, there could have been a lot of different choices besides Gary. Especially since there were a ton of defunked hair bands at the time. The former lead singers for the Bullet Boys, White Lion, or Sebasian Bach of Skid Row would have made interesting choices. I remember a reporter asking Alex who else they considered and he shot back that, that would not be revealed because it would be insulting to the person/people who didn’t get picked.
http://michaelquinn.com.au Michael

Wasn’t a huge fan of the III album until I saw it played live (and LOUD) at Van Halens only tour to Australia in Sydney (yes – the MTV one, yes – my boof head is in the front row).

“Without You” and a couple of others were great tracks – but too many fillers and indulgent crap like Josephine.

The concert was awesome – I was right in front of Mikey and he blew me away. Was actually impressed with Gary’s singing – the dude is so “clear” and “unstrained” when he really belts it out.

Thankfully I did get to see Diamond Dave before he became Botox Dave on his solo tour here. One of the best entertaining nights I’ve seen.
Rocko

I agree with Rich on The Robert Plant Singing for Van Halen. Robert Plant would kick Dave, Sammy and Gary’s Ass. As for Van Halen III it was not bad but not exciting either. It had about 6 good songs but it lacked the intensity compared to Roth and Hagar. Gary was not the right fit but at least he get’s credit for not having an ego problem.
Coyoteface

Hahaha, I totally forgot, but now that I read the name of that one-dimensional Sebastian Bach as the then-possible new lead singer of VH and later a whole bunch of names including (from the top of my head) David Coverdale and Eric Martin and even Billy Sheehan on bass, I recall this particular rumor people started….about van Halen being in the studio with a different David, turning the band from (vintage) Van Halen to Van Hagar to…

…. Van Hasselhoff. You gotta love sarcasm.

I do miss the rumor mill btw. More exciting than the “Wolfie is finishing school, I am getting married, we’re all so happy now, I write 20 songs a day, look at the guitar I am designing” news we have to digest nowadays.
Skutch

Kenny, I see what you are saying, and it makes some sense to a degree. I don’t think radio stations necessarily thought ‘this belongs at this station and not here’. Stations are going to play whatever people will listen to (within the format). The classic Van Halen albums were so popular is because their sound fit the times. VH 1 was a natural progression after Led Zeppelin.

VH3 wanted to be modern and mainstream, but just wasn’t in any way shape or form. The people rejected it, so there’s no way it was going to get much airplay. I suspect this is part of Ed’s fear of recording again. The VH fans will eat it up (if it’s good), but “the kids” will care less unless the sound matches the modern sound to some degree. Look at someone like Primus. Those guys wrote weird stuff, but it still fit into the alternative category. Why does U2 keep selling a jillion records EVERY time? Because their sound keeps changing. I think it’s getting worse, but it’s just a matter of taste. They’re doing something right.

I agree with Maelstrom too. I hate when bands try to get political. It totally killed the last Megadeth record for me. Just too preachy when I just want to rock.

Say something funny, SCAR. I’ve gotten too serious. AHHH>
Joe

Mike Post ruined VHIII. He wasn’t qualified to produce any major label act, let alone VH. He (and Ed) had a talented Gary over-sing everything.

The tour had energy, was tight, and allowed M.A. to come front and center for the first time. I really enjoyed them live.

This story actually sums up the tour very well IMHO.
Jason

I like Van Halen III. I have a concert on DVD filmed in Australia from that tour with Gary…… Great Show !!

I did get a concert t-shirt, here on VHND Website for my VH collection !!
Bo-Sox

I thought Van Halen 3 was awful, plain and simple. I am actually amazed that it has a following after reading the previous posts. I sometimes think you just have to remove yourself from being a “Huge VH fan” to be objective in regards to this album. I am from Boston and wanted Cherone to be succesful, the album is uncomfortable. That said, I will say that the concerts were decent, they got better as the tour progressed and it was cool to hear vintage VH tunes (lacking in the Hagar years). Cherone did DLR songs much better than Hagar. I am not a huge Hagar fan but do not dislike him, that said Cherone could not belt out Hagar as well as he did the DLR songs. Looking back I wish they did the album with Sebastian Bach, he is a good singer and more in the vein of DLR. His bad boy element would have been interesting. I think Eddie does his best work when is is not in total control, I am sure Sebastian Bach would have made him a bit on edge.
Keith

My all time favorite VH album. Yes, really. Put on a good set of headphones and crank it. Plus Ed is on record that this was his happiest time and favorite singer . Know your facts pals.