Below is a transcript of the Sammy Hagar Interview that appeared on MTV's Week In Rock on October 25, 1996. The pictures were contributed by Tom Welch.

Sammy Hagar: Truthfully, I was kicked out of this band. I was forced out of this band, would be the politest way I could say it. And that 's the facts.

Kurt Loder: This week, Van Halen part two- Sammy Speaks....

AVH: If he cared so much about the fans, then why did he quit?

EVH: Yeah.

SH: Alex doesn't know what happened. He wasn't there that morning on the phone with Ed. Whatever Ed told him is their business, but I'm sorry, these guys are lying.

KL: High winds and occasional thunderbolts continue to prevail over Van Halen land this week. Last week, you may remember, Eddie and Alex Van Halen emerged from the ongoing ruckus to deny they ever considered re-hiring original frontman David Lee Roth to replace the departed Sammy Hagar, and to deny they'd fired Hagar, whose work ethic they impugned in passing. No further word from the Roth camp, but last weekend Chris Connelly listened as Hagar weighed in with his side of the tale, and here it is.

EVH: He put out a press release saying I quit. A week later he says I kicked him out. Now you sticking with both stories Sam? I'll take a lie detector test.

SH: Good, time to take one.

Chris Connelly: So what happened?

SH: Exactly when? This has been going on a long time. Well, the truth of the matter, the first thing that happened was that, I was called by Eddie on Father's Day morning. Eddie just goes, you really frustrate me, you never do anything I ask you to do. And I'm like, yeah I do. There really wasn't ever a problem like this in our eleven years of creativity. And he said but you never do what I ask you to do, and I got so frustrated, I went and got Roth, and we've been working with him and it's working out great. And he goes..you've always been a solo artist, you might as well go back to being a solo artist-quote, unquote. Exactly that. And I went wow. I was floored. I just looked at my wife, I went like this you know.

CC: Hagar says he might have left Van Halen anyway. After criticism from the band of his lyrics and on-stage demeanor, as well as it's decision to release a greatest hits record.

SH: I probably would have quit by the end of this year. I betcha, if we wouldn't have done a record. And with the greatest hits record, they would have wanted to go out and tour and press off the greatest hits record. I would have said I'm not doing that. I won't tour on a greatest hits record, that's like basically saying, we're over. Wasted. Biggest waste of time in the world. Strictly money.

CC: People say that you had an objection to the greatest hits record because you were jealous in some way of Roth's legacy. You didn't want to remind the audience that he had been in the band before. Is that true?

SH: Come on. Why is a greatest hits record, all of a sudden, going to remind people that Roth was in the band. Roth reminds people everyday that he was in the band. There's no question, Roth will never go away, he has never gone away. It has nothing to do with that.

AVH: He claims that, or he apologized to his fans for all this stuff...

EVH: A little section of...like this for the fans. We're a band.

AVH: Wait, wait, wait...if he cares so much about the fans, why did he quit?

SH: Alex doesn't know what happened. He wasn't there that morning on the phone with Ed. Whatever Ed told him is their business, but I'm sorry, these guys are lying. I didn't quit this band. I told you exactly, word for word, what happened. You can interpret it any way you want. I think Ed forgets what he told me. He was plastered when he called me at nine o'clock in the morning. I was trying to leave that out, but he was plastered.

CC: That allegation was an explosive one, given Eddie's decision to sober up in 1994. In a vigorous denial, band manager Ray Daniels, says that during that call to Sammy, Eddie was sober as sober can be, and has been sober for may months, unquote. But Sammy says Eddie has fallen off the wagon before.

SH: The last show in Japan, on this last tour. He was wasted and he played horrible. Like embarrassingly horrible. Ed hasn't been sober in two years. Anyone that tells you different is lying.

CC: Daniels calls Hagar's accusation, quote, a cheap shot by a guy who will be known as the worst sour grapes character in the history of rock and roll.

SH: I felt like I had lost some friends out of this deal. And I really, really have. I'm a survivor man, cause I'm over it. I'm fine with it now. I'm making a new record, I'm just gonna get on with it. I still love these guys, we made the best music that I'll probably I'll ever make in my entire life. You know, and I'm proud of it, I have nothing bad to say about it, but I hate the way it ended. You could take all my clothes, everything I've got, throw me out in the desert and I will come back...fully dressed with a brand new car. That sounds like something Roth would say, doesn't it. Beat you Dave, to that one.

KL: In a new statement, Van Halen manager Ray Daniels says the band ever had any intention of touring behind it's greatest hits album. This was supposed to buy us a year off, Daniels told MTV News, adding that, quote, Sammy was all too happy to take the money. As for Hagar's story of Eddie Van Halen being drunk in Japan, Daniels now says that Eddie was straight, but that, quote, if he had a slip, that's probably when it was, because that was the end of the tour. Daniels also charged that, quote, Sammy was totally uncooperative and unsupportive of Ed's efforts to stay sober. He insisted on alcohol in the dressing room and would toast him on stage.