https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/patty-smyth-why-i-declined-invitation-to-join-van-halen/
When VAN HALEN parted with frontman David Lee Roth in 1985, his eventual replacement, Sammy Hagar, was not the band's first choice to fill Roth's shoes. Guitarist Eddie Van Halen asked Patty Smyth of the group SCANDAL to join the band first, which Smyth has now recounted in a new interview with Stereogum.
She recalled: "They were heavy drinkers. I don't drink. I never saw myself living in L.A. I was, like, 'I'm from New York. We don't move to L.A.'
"It's all semantics because if [Eddie] had said to me, 'Let's make a record,' then I would have said yes to that. But joining the band — to me then, 'Oh god, they fight all the time, him and his brother, and I don't want to get into a volatile situation.' And I was probably heavily hormoned out because I was eight months pregnant, so there was a state of mind that I was in of how I need to take care of myself. But I regretted turning him down. For a long time, I regretted it. When you start to have regrets, I was, like, 'Oh, man. I would've made so much money.'"
Asked if she thinks her prior negative experience in a group dynamic might have given her pause to join another way more publicly rambunctious band, she said: "Yeah, that definitely has something to do with it. I'm sure. And also just the fact that it was, like, 'I'm going to have to move to L.A.' I should have just had the conversation [with Eddie]. It was such a weird conversation. But if he had said to me, 'Look, just come out for a few months and make a record. Have the baby, come out and let's make a record.' That to me would've been more doable.
"And I never said anything about it for years. I got a call from Ed, and he was, like, 'Look, I'm not saying that I asked you to join because I don't want Sammy Hagar to look like [he was] second choice,' and I was, like, 'Okay.' So I never spoke about it after that. I'm, like, all right I don't need to tell people. If someone asked me, I didn't lie but I didn't really talk about it that much."
SCANDAL, which had several hits in the '80s, broke up soon after and Smyth went on to record as a solo act.
VAN HALEN eventually recruited Hagar, who sang on four studio albums between 1986 and 1995 before he quit the group in 1996. Hagar rejoined for a 2004 tour but left again after that, paving the way for the current reunion with Roth, which began in 2007 with a world tour.
Smyth will release a new album, "It's About Time", on October 9 via BMG. It is Smyth's first set of new material in 28 years, following her self-titled 1992 effort, which featured the Grammy-nominated Don Henley duet "Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough".
Former JOURNEY singer Steve Perry has revealed to Rolling Stone in a new interview that he was invited by Eddie Van Halen for a jam session in 1985 after David Lee Roth left VAN HALEN.
"Man, at some level within me I felt so honored because I was in awe of Eddie's natural talent," Steve said. "He was just born with it. I wanted so badly to do that. We talked about how cool that could be musically. This was before Sammy [Hagar]. The next day, and in the weeks to come, I thought, 'I don't know that I should do that. If it goes creatively to what I know it can go to…' Whatever I could bring to that, I know it would be something I'd really love doing."
He continued: "My only problem I had with it was the thought, 'I don't know that I could be the guy to go out and represent the David Lee Roth years with my voice. I don't know if I want to be that guy.' I think representing their legacy up to that point would have been something vocally that I don't think I was really suited to doing. It's a different kind of singing. David had something vocally that I would say was in kinship with Louis Prima. Later on, he did 'Just A Gigolo' and sounded more like Louis Prima. He was a real character."
VAN HALEN was the support act for JOURNEY on Perry's first tour with the band in 1978.
Hagar replaced Roth in VAN HALEN in 1985 and recorded four studio albums with the band — "5150", "OU812", "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" and "Balance" — all of which topped the U.S. chart.
Steve's first solo album in more than two decades, "Traces", was released in October 2018 via Fantasy Records (a division of Concord Records/UMG).
Perry reunited with JOURNEY for the first time in years as they were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in April 2017. The iconic singer appeared onstage with his former bandmates as they each gave speeches, but did not perform with the group later in the event.
During an October 7 appearance on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach confirmed that there was "a little talk" of him joining VAN HALEN shortly after Sammy Hagar departed in 1996.
"[SKID ROW manager] Doc McGhee had me up at the office, and Ray Daniels was managing [VAN HALEN] at the time, and Ray and Doc were talking. But they didn't want [VAN HALEN guitarist] Eddie [Van Halen] to smoke weed. And I go, 'That's funny,' because I was smoking weed with Ray Danniels. I go, 'So you can [smoke weed] but I can't. What the fuck? The lead singer of VAN HALEN can't smoke pot? What?' But that was a discussion.
"I was summoned into Doc's office, and there was talk about it," he reiterated. "At the time, they were looking for a singer. But I didn't get to audition. I don't think Doc was into me leaving SKID ROW either; there was something about that."
In 1999, when the news came that VAN HALEN had parted company with Gary Cherone and was again in the market for a new lead singer, rumors once again abounded, and Bach's name was thrown in the mix. At the time, Bach shot down the chatter, telling MTV News: "The thing is, man, there's only one singer for VAN HALEN, and that's David Lee Roth, and if they've got no use for him, what possible use could they have for me? If they don't like him, they definitely won't like me."
He continued: "I mean, when they're looking for singers and they pick Gary Cherone, they're thinking in ways that we're not. I mean, I love Gary. He's a really nice guy, but you can't be a really nice guy and be the lead singer of VAN HALEN. It just doesn't go together. You got to kick some ass, man, and he does kick ass in his Gary Cherone way. But David Lee Roth was doing kicks off of the drum riser and flying 40 feet in the air. It's a tough act to follow. I can't do that, but I can sing the Sammy Hagar stuff and the David Lee Roth stuff. I'm not bragging, I'm stating a fact."
Eddie died on October 6 at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California. His wife, Janie, was by his side, along with his son, Wolfgang, and Alex, Eddie's brother and VAN HALEN
Everyone has a plan, till you get punched in the face,
