Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience on Thursday, and he had some funny criticism of his replacement Sammy Hagar. Alternative Nation transcribed his comments.
When discussing bands that changed singers, Roth said, “This solicits an interesting subject, are some bands like West Side Story where you can revitalize the production with different actors, but you have to kind of replicate the original sound, or do you?”
Rogan mentioned that the singers being replaced issue obviously is a personal one for Roth, after Sammy Hagar replaced him in Van Halen in 1985.
Roth quipped, “All of Sam’s lyrics contained love. Why can’t this be love? I ain’t talkin’ about love. We’ll be back with more fighting after this. (Laughs) Come on, who do I jog with? I don’t. Who is my running partner? (Maniacally laughs)”
Rogan said, “Yeah, Runnin’ With The Devil.”
Roth later said, “Questions in love are great, classically, that’s [Frank] Sinatra, but I’m not well adjusted. Nobody in my job ever was, much well kept it this long, and I faced it and embraced it, like a Brazilian storm, you follow? It’s all right there in the lyrics, even using classic lyric parlor tricks, like taking a very sad lyric and positioning it against a happy piece of music. This music is romping, it’s heavy metal, and the lyric is she’s crying.”
Rogan said, “Jamie’s Crying.”
Roth responded, “You didn’t notice that? There’s a sense of larceny in the lyric. It’s music for after midnight when we’re all guilty Joe.”
Rogan then said, “There’s nothing wrong with the Sammy Hagar thing, but it moved into a mall crowd, it was a different sort of vibe. It was a good vibe for a lot of folks, but it was a different vibe. I don’t have anything against Sammy Hagar, I think he’s wonderful, I always loved that song Can’t Drive 55, he’s got some great shit. But I never listened to Van Halen with Van Hagar, it was an end of an era for me.”
Roth said about himself and Hagar, “It was two different folks. I wanted to be the art project, not just wear one.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5ZFKYtHdsM
