I'll be DVR'ing that one, thanks for the heads up.

Montrose was the first band I ever saw at an arena. They were opening for Spooky Tooth and Humble Pie. I thought, wow, are all opening acts this good! Rock the Nation, Rock Candy, they were good.

Followed Sammy ever since.

I caught it last night on my DVR. It's a long Dan Rather interview, 90 minutes.

If you get AXS, you need to see this. Sammy REALLY opens up about just about everything you can imagine: His horribly poor childhood, his abusive Father who was also a great boxer, all kinds of detail about the Van Halen days including why they broke up, sex backstage with multiple groupies DURING shows, his opinion of David Lee Roth. Also the disastrous 2004 reunion tour and how completely out of his mind Eddie Van Halen was, to the point that Sammy tried to quit after 40 shows of an 80 show tour. His Manager talked him out of it by detailing how much $$$ he'd be out if he broke his contract.

I never realized that Sammy is obscenely rich. His music career is of course part of that, but he's a very successful entrepreneur as well. And he does decadent things, like owning something like 17 Ferraris. At one point he takes Rather for a spin in his top of the line Ferrari, a car that only the richest of the rich could afford. But what will really win you over is what else he does with his wealth. Things like flying a little girl from Hawaii to the mainland because she needs a kidney transplant. Paying for her parents accommodations for three months so they can be with her. Then going to see her when she's better and being overcome with joy regarding what he was able to do. And that is just a sliver of his charity work.

Sammy is an amazing guy, and looking at him it's really, really hard to believe that he is 68 years old. He looks maybe 42, and a very healthy 42. Great segment on AXS!

[Edited on 2/27/2016 by robslob]

Watched it, very cool....

I caught this episode the other evening and really enjoyed it. What I found most interesting were his comments about the death of Ed Lefler who was both his and later Van Halen's manager and how, typical of the music business, the void that was left with his passing opened the door to some not so good scrambling by managers, business people, etc. to basically get the prize that was being a manager of one of the biggest bands at that time. It basically destroyed the band from within.

Also, he seemed really proud of some of the not so typical business decisions Van Halen mach II did with regard to not making videos early on and making Warner Brothers eventually pay for those they did produce after "5150." If was pretty shrewd at the time.

One thing I took away from the VH and EVH discussion is despite what we read and hear in the press, Sammy seems sincerely happy that EVH is in a better place these days. I think that despite the 2004 debacle, Sammy still has a soft spot for the guy. So much so, that I wouldn't be surprised if they do one more go around given Wolf Van Halen is about to release a solo album, which could open the door to the return of both Michael Anthony and Sammy. A VERY long shot for sure, but if enough money is offered, and some heartfelt apologies made, it could happen.

I thought it was a great interview, if you've read his book it's nothing that new. However, it was an enjoyable hour and half. Sammy seems like a great guy who has worked hard and it has paid over a few million times over.

I found it odd that it seemed like Dan Rather was trying to pry Sammy into being negative about DLR as I think he asked him 3 times about his thoughts on him. While I love the Roth era of VH more than the Hagar era (mainly due to the music being better, and produced better) Sammy is dead on about Roth being just a showman. Everything Roth does on stage is pre-planned and choreographed. If he said/did it tonight, he'll do it at the some points in the show tomorrow. Still a great show though.

I do have to say that Sammy's ego/faulty memory got in the way at least at one point. His solo career wasn't equal to Van Halen before he joined the band. In my opinion it wasn't close. He had had his biggest album (VOA) and biggest MTV video (I Can't Drive 55) at the same time they had 1984, but they weren't in the same league. He's off there. He's also off when he will drop that Van Hagar sold more albums than the original version of the band, but he's said that from time to time. However, he is correct that Van Hagar had all of VH's # 1 albums.

Ed Leffler's death was a bit part of the break up of that version of the band. I believe at the time Alex was married to Ray Danniels' sister. Danniels managed Rush and I think that was the only band he had ever managed, but the band agreed to sign him. With Leffler, Sammy had someone he trusted handling everything. Sammy didn't trust Danniels and thought he was ripping them off which helped cause a split in the band as Danniels apparently pandered to Eddie. Hagar has referred to Danniels as "the crook that ruined Van Halen" on a few occasions. Van Halen would later fire him and I think had to sue him over money issues.

If I remember correctly the big fall out came after the Balance tour was over they were supposed to have time off, Sammy went to his home in Hawaii where his new wife was about to have their first child. However, Danniels and Eddie had agreed to do a couple of songs for the Twister soundtrack and a huge argument came up about Sammy having to fly back to L.A. while his wife was pregnant to record the vocals for "Human's Being". At some point Eddie said "you've always been a solo artist, why don't you go back to being one" while at the time behind his back DLR had already been contacted about doing the two bonus cuts for "Best Of Vol. 1"

Sammy's book covers that and the horrible details of the 2004 reunion tour in great detail.

[Edited on 2/28/2016 by WarEagleRK]

Regarding Hagar's comparison to Van Halen just prior to his joining, on some level I think he might be right. By that I mean its been mentioned repeatedly by EVH and AVH, even DLR that they, like many young artists, had a VERY shitty deal with Warner Brothers prior to and even after the huge success of "1984." They were still not making big coin and it wasn't until Hagar joined and Ed Lefler took the business reigns that VH started to really cash in on their success.

Not only did the original VH have a shitty recording contract and abysmal royalty rate, but they were also ripped off by their first manager and weren't paid some of their performance fees. I seem to recall Roth discussing this in his book from many years ago.

To be clear, I'm not suggesting record sales and concert attendance were necessarily equal or better for Hagar in 1983, 84, vis a vis Van Halen, but from a pure profit situation, Hagar may have been far more profitable than "corporation Van Halen" at that time.

That wasn't how Sammy was angling it though. He was saying he was selling the same number of concert tickets and as big as them. Which just isn't true.

However, in his book he does reference that until he and Leffler came in and changed the band's deal with WB that they were getting ripped off to a huge degree.

That wasn't how Sammy was angling it though. He was saying he was selling the same number of concert tickets and as big as them. Which just isn't true.

However, in his book he does reference that until he and Leffler came in and changed the band's deal with WB that they were getting ripped off to a huge degree.

You're right....And Hagar has been ripped for years for making some grandiose claims about his popularity/success in comparison to the original Van Halen. Die hard VH fans of the original line-up often call his shit on such claims and for good reason for as you stated, the numbers don't support what he often says about his time in VH.

Personally I'm a bigger fan of the original band, but certainly enjoyed some of the material recorded and performed with Hagar. In fact I've seen "Van Hagar" twice in my life but never have seen Van Halen with Roth. And both shows I saw were fantastic. The first in 1989 at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, NY and the second in 1991 in Albany, NY with Alice in Chains opening...Both were great shows and very entertaining.

Ah, those were the days....I was in my late teens and early twenties, still in college, having a ball, banging lots of chicks, and not a care in the world... 😛

The Roth era by far is my favorite. I'd love for someone to go in and remix and remaster the Hagar albums and I'd probably like the material much more than I do.

I'm too young to have seen VH with Roth the first time around. I did see them with Hagar 5 times and with Cherone once.

I had 3rd row tickets to see them with Roth in Knoxville 3 or 4 years ago and that was one of the shows that was cancelled and not rescheduled.

[Edited on 2/29/2016 by WarEagleRK]

Just kept saying to myself, "he's 68, he's sixty-eight!!?".

DLR's new song is pretty interesting.

http://www.vhnd.com/2016/02/29/david-lee-roth-on-second-thought/