Van Halen News Desk has posted a recap of Dave Navarro’s new interview with Eddie Trunk, where Navarro compared his tenure in Red Hot Chili Peppers to Gary Cherone’s time in Van Halen.
“I gotta be honest with you I love ‘1984’ and ‘Hot For Teacher’ is unbelievable, ‘House of Pain’ is unbelievable but I dipped out [after that],” said Navarro. “I don’t know a whole lot about Van Halen from, I would say from ‘Fair Warning’ on because ‘Diver Down’ was a bunch of scraps, it was a bunch of covers and I just wasn’t into that, then ‘1984’ came out…then ‘Jump’ came out and was like, ‘I’m just like so bummed out.’”
If Navarro was bummed out by ‘1984’ what could he possibly think of the Sammy Hagar era of the band?
“Did you listen to any of the Sammy Hagar Van Halen?” asked Trunk.
Navarro’s response to that question was quick and to the point, “No! Never! I like Sammy Hagar, I’m a Hagar fan, I performed with Hagar and he’s a cool dude and I respect all the guys in Van Halen but that combination I can’t get with, I just can’t do it,” said Navarro.
Navarro also had an interesting take on Van Halen’s short and poorly-received Gary Cherone era. He defended Cherone especially since he knows what it’s like to step into a highly successful band as an outsider. Navarro joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers for one studio album, 1995’s ‘One Hot Minute’, before being fired for “creative differences” in 1998.
“[I understand] the way that Chili Pepper fans can’t get into the band when I was in the band, it’s not the Chili Peppers to them,” said Navarro. “So I understand that dynamic. I’ve been on the inside. I’ve been the Gary Cherone of another band. I know what that’s like! [But] they got [Gary] in the band. He didn’t force his way in there. If you have someone to be mad at be mad at those guys not Gary. Someone offers you a gig and you take the gig why are you the guy that gets all the shit?”
