July 8, 1996 - Days after he found out he was no longer the frontman for Van Halen, Sammy Hagar was in the mood to talk. We were in the mood to let him. [Editor's note: Van Halen manager Ray Danniels and members of the band were contacted for comment and response to this interview. They had not responded by presstime.]

What's the reaction been so far?

SH: I started getting faxes of what was posted on-line. Out of the first 40 posts, 39 people were extremely pissed off about this, saying it was the end of Van Halen. It's like the fans feel like I do. It's not cool. There's no reason to have done anything like this right now. I feel .really disappointed over any friendship I had in this band.

What was their motivation?

SH: I don't know what their motivation was. I didn't want to do a Greatest Hits package; I wanted to start doing a real record in June. We had meetiongs about it, and then they said "OK, we'll start the record isn September." They put it off and acted like I was the one who wasn't available. Every time they put it off I was like, "Great. See you. I've got a brand new baby, and I'm going to raise my child until it's time to go to work." And all this time there was some big scheme going because they were trying to work a deal out with David.

What about the less-than-expected impact of the "Twister" soundtrack? Were there any problems with that project?

SH: Airplay-wise, Twister was great. But I don't expect our fans to run out and buy a soundtrack with other stuff on it that they don't like. That's why I was against doing that soundtrack as well. I'm going, "Why do we want to give this crap to our fans?" Our fans are the most loyal in the business. They come to every concert, they buy every album in droves. My complaint to the management-the new management, Alex's brother-in-law--was "Don't come in here after we've been together 11 years and try to take advantage of our fans." Somehow, he got to Ed and Al, and don't ask me man, but it's like...it's just ludicrous. We don't need a greatest hits record. We don't need a song in a movie soundtrack to sell. To put a song in the movie or for Eddie to write some songs for the score, that's great, but we don't need it for sale. I think that's trying to abuse our fans, and I've been an advocate of that consciousness since [former manager] Ed Leffler died.

So this is a result of Ray Danniels assuming management of the band?

SH: This would never have happened if Ed Leffler were still managing us. Because he thought like I did. The whole band thought that way. Somehow, everything got turned around.

Do you think this was a pre meditated move?

SH: Obviously, he's a pre meditated guy, and I think a lot of this was pre meditated. I think he's been talking about this for a long time. Now, I'm talking to people who work for us, and have worked for us, and they're saying, "Oh yeah. In the middle of the last tour, I kept hearing Roth's name being thrown around." I also heard things like, "Maybe we'll do a Roth reunion and Sammy can go back to being a solo artist, and then we can all come back together." Well, I'm not interested in that. I've been stabbed in the back. The word I like to use is bamboozled. It's just really wierd.

Are there lawyers involved? Are you satisfied with the terms of the settlement?

SH: There are no terms. There is no settlement. It's a very simple thing. What money there is that's mine will come to me. I don't want to sue anybody. But I am curious about some things. I have a very good contract that Ed Leffler made for me within this band. I was a solo artist when I joined the band. I had a record deal with Geffen. I had a whole life in music. When I joined this band, a lot of that legally had to be worked out. So, I've got this incredible solo deal with Warners that I haven't been able to do, because the band didn't want me to do anything. But, I was fine with that. Just being in the band was a full time job. Again, Ray Danniels is negotiating a new deal for Van Halen over at Warner Bros. He told me right before all this happened, "They don't want any solo records from you; they don't want any solo deals. That's out. They only want a band contract." I'm thinking, that's pretty wierd. It's like they were going to change my whole contract and I was OK with that. Thank God it didn't get done before this thing blew up. So, I do need an attorney to look at my legal options-what I can and can't do. For God's sake, I'm not going to quit the business all of a sudden.

So, you're not looking for a confrontation?

SH: No. that's the only thing I would fight for. They can have the name Van Halen; that's not my name. They can have the whole crew. They can certainly have the manager. I'm not trying to sue for anything. Eddie and I wrote every song we've ever done with Van Halen since I've been in the band, and I would expect to recieve my end of the songwriting and my end of any ongoing record catalog. that's all i care about. I don't want anything from this band. I'm not like that.

Did you have any notion that this would happen?

SH: Well, i never felt THIS would happen, but I was told around the first of the year by Ray, that Ed and Al were thinking I didn't want to be in the band anymore.. I'm asking, "Why do they feel that?" and Ray said,"Well, you know, you just haven't been around." I said, "Wait a minute, my wife just had a baby."

You thought they agreed to take a break?

SH: At the end of the last tour, I said "OK you guys, my wife's pregnant. We're going to have the baby in April. I need a couple of months with that baby so she knows who her daddy is. Then, let's get back in the studio in June." Everybody said,"Great, we're burnt." But the second I split and went back home, settled in and started buying cribs and shit, I get the call that they want to do a couple of songs for a movie. I was like, "C'mon you guys, my wife's gonna have the baby anyday now." I did it anyway. Reluctantly. And they were griping and it did get kind of tense. I was like, "Look man, I said we should start the record in June and everybody originally agreed to that."

How'd they react?

SH: They said, "Well now we want to do the record in September.""Great." I said. "We have even more time; what's the hurry?" Well, there was a hurry because they wanted to get some extra songs out of me to put on the greatest hits package, which I didn't want to do.

Why not?

SH: Not because I didn't want to got to work, but because I didn't want a hits package to precede a new album. I thought the live album was a greatest hits package live, and it was our weakest album we ever had. I just felt that it was not the way to go. Our fans obviously don't want it. So let's give them a new record. That's what I wanted to do. I wanted ediie to come up to my house, because I had a new baby and I didn't want to travel with the baby. I wanted him to come to my house and write like we used to. We always mixed it up. We'd write together at his place or my place. I just wanted to do things the way we used to do. For some reason, no one else was willing. It was a strange thing. Eddie wasn't playing me new songs. I was like, "Lemme hear what you got." And he'd play me one pice of something and say it wasn't finished.

How did you react?

SH: I told Ray Danniels, "I don't know what's up, but there's some bullshit going on in this band and it ain't working." I don't see how we can do a new record under these circumstances because Eddie doesn't want to work with me right now." They told me they were going to get somebody else to write the lyrics for the second song in "Twister." I told them if they were going to get someone else to write lyrics, they were going to get them to sing it too. There was no reason for this. It was like all these Anti-Sammy things. They kept pushing me out. I felt wierd about it, I didn't know what was going on.

Then what happened?

SH: I tried to make an effort by going down and resinging "Between Us Two" the new song for the greatest hits package. That was a big effort on my part because I didn't want a greatest hits record and I didn't want to redo that song because I thought it was great the way it was. But I redid it. I wrote some new lyrics and Re-sang it. I left there thinking. "This is great, I can't wait to hear it." The next word I got was "We weren't happy with that. We just went and got Dave back and we're going to do some songs with him and, if it works, you can go off and be a solo artist again for awhile." It was kinda as I suspected, so I went, "OK See Ya!"

Not a way to be treated by friends?

SH: It was not cool. It was done very, very deviously. Even on the whole tour, I considered these three guys some of my best friends and it's really, really wierd. I was definately willing to stay in the band and keep everything together. They're the ones who made this decision to bring Roth in and basically give me the boot. It's a wierd, wierd, wierd scenario.

And Van Halen with David Lee Roth again?

SH: A joke. When I say that, I mean a joke only because what they did before was fucking great. Van Halen was a great band before I joined it. It was two different animals. There's 11 years and a lot of new songs that Eddie and I wrote together when I was in this band. For David to come back now, it's a whole different thing. When I came and replaced Dave, I could sing the old songs-we didn't do that many, but we had that option. Now they have to leave 11 years of music out. So they're going to be a nostalgia act. They're playing 15 year old material. There's nothing wrong with it, but Van Halen's become so much more than that now.

Do you think David will attempt to sing a Sammy Hagar song?

SH: I certainly don't. They couldn't even find the key where it will work. It's just two different voices. I don't think he'd feel comfortable and I don't think the fans would feel comfortable. I'm not saying that Van Halen's going to bomb. I know there's an audience out there for them. They're one of the greatest bands in the world. These guys are great musicians...no matter what they did, it would be good. It's just a wierd, wierd move. It would make more sense to me to get a new singer that could sing everybody's stuff if they don't want to work with Sammy Hagar anymore. But, with the Van Hagar era, it's going to be very difficult to say "OK, we're going to erase that now and go with Dave." You tell me how that is. That's a joke. That's making Van Halen like all these other bands that try to get back together. It'a an oldies act all of a sudden. It's a classic rock act. I think we were more than that. I think it's a retro move. I don't get it. I just don't understand. I'm just very disappointed. I think Van Halen was the greatest in the world. I thought there was us and U2 and only a couple of other bands from that era out there.

What's next for you professionally?

SH: Now, I'm hungry. I was loving it when they said they weren't going to make an album until September. I set about grabbing the new baby and going off to the islands to just write lyrics and be leisurely. But now shit, it jolted me so much, I'm ready to jump in there. But I'm not going to do it real quick. I'm going to think about it. I'm gonna call all my friends that jam with me on New Year's Eve and my birthday at Cabo Wabo every year and I'm going to ask them what their schedules are. I want to write songs with different people. I want to put something together. I don't know if I want to be a band or if I want to be solo. I have to let this digest first and figure out what the hell happened.

Let the dust settle?

SH: I don't want to just do something stupid like try to compete with Van Halen. They're great. There's no competing with a band like that. I just want to be happy and make great, great music and hopefully go out and do something great for the fans. They're the ones who got hurt in this. I would like to make it up to the Van Hagar fans. The only way I can call them that is because Van Halen is Van Halen. There are David Lee Roth fans out there and I'm not putting him down in the least little bit, but for the Van Hagar fans...hopefully I can make a record they'll love.

(Many thanks to Paul Marshall who typed this up.)