The battle is still a' brewin' between former Van Halen frontmen Sammy "Red Rocker" Hagar and "Diamond" David Lee Roth, with the latest salvo fired from Camp Cabo while talking music and much more with Steve-O on his Wild Ride! podcast.
LISTEN NOW: Wild Ride! with Steve-O: Sammy Hagar
Getting into the famous rivalry between former Van Halen singers Roth and Hagar, the latter revealed to Steve-O his thoughts about the duo's shared duties fronting the band while touring in 2002. "At that time [DLR] didn’t have a solo career, really. I mean, he did, but he wasn’t selling out," says Hagar. "I was selling out arenas. I was selling out amphitheaters as Sammy Hagar with the WABOS. And I had a solo career."
Evoking Rock royalty Hagar adds, "Ask [The Rolling Stones'] Mick Jagger, ask [Led Zeppelin's] Robert Plant: You can be the biggest band in the world and you can’t necessarily have a solo career. But I had a solo career. So when I joined the big band, I went back to my solo career, I’m good. I still sell a lot of tickets. Dave, he had that sort of a big album, one kind of a big album, but he didn’t have a solo career."
"When he came in with me," Sammy continues, "he was making, like, 25 grand a night, I was making 150 grand a night, and they said, 'Oh, you guys are gonna make the same money. Dave gets to make 150.' I said, 'He ain’t f***ing made 150 in his life except in Van Halen.' But I said, 'I’ve gotta do this,' so I bent over backwards, and he still always tried to f*** with the rules. He’s not a fun guy. He doesn’t play well with others. I’m not sure what his problem is… He just always is about, 'How can I make this guy look bad?' And not just me, in life. He’s a chest-beating motherf***er. And God bless him because the early stuff is frickin’ great. I’ve tried to say... he’d be a fun guy to know, but he ain’t like that. He ain’t like his persona. When you get around him, he ain’t that guy. He’s some other cat."
"He’s a showman. Hey, listen, I’m a showman too. But that’s his gig. He doesn’t care about singing. If he did, he’d take care of his voice or he’d take voice lessons and get warmed up and do something. ‘Cuz the guy sang so bad last time he was doing shows, it was embarrassing... But he’s a showman. Everything’s show, show, show... And he doesn’t care about his voice, which drives me nuts, man. I care more about my voice than I do my d***. If my d*** didn’t work a couple of times, I’d be okay with it — I’d be bummed out. But if my voice f***s up onstage, I’m f***ing bummed, man."
Listen to the full conversation with Steve-O and Sammy Hagar above for more inside baseball on Van Halen, and listen to more from comedian and Jackass star Steve-O on his hilarious and honest Wild Ride! podcast.
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