Sammy Hagar ripped fellow ex-Van Halen singer David Lee Roth in a new interview on Steve-O’s Wild Ride podcast.
“At that time [Roth] didn’t have a solo career, really. I mean, he did, but he wasn’t selling out. I was selling out arenas. I was selling out amphitheaters as Sammy Hagar with the Waboritas And I had a solo career.
Ask Mick Jagger. Ask Robert Plant. You can be the biggest band in the world and you can’t necessarily have a solo career,” he continued. “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. He was playing small places. So when he came in with me, 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 fucking 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 fuck 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 motherfucker. And God bless him, ’cause the early stuff is frickin’ great. I personally, I’ve tried to say… [I thought] 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. [Laughs]”
Hagar added, “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. ‘Cause the guy sang so bad last time he was doing shows, it was embarrassing… But he’s a showman.
“Everything’s show, show, show, show, 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 dick. If my dick didn’t work a couple of times, I’d be okay with it — I’d be bummed out — but if my voice fucks up onstage, I’m fucking bummed, man.”
