What’s going on my fellow rock n’ rollers
now one of the biggest debates between the
fans of van halen is which era of the band
is better the van hagar or david lee roth
era. Well fans were shocked in the summer
of 2002 when the two former singers of Van
Halen would join forces for a co-headlining
tour called Song for song the heavy weight
champs of rock n’ roll tour. Now By this
point in time both singers were on the outs
with Eddie and Alex Van Halen so the tour
would make sense. Roth would leave the band
in 1985 following the massive success of their
1984 album, while Sammy Hagar would join the
group shortly after and leave the group in
1996. Following Hagar’s departure. Roth
would come back temporarily to record a few
songs for a best of collection but a full
scale reunion wouldn’t happen as the band
would bring in Gary Cherone in 1998 to record
the highly panned Van Halen 3 album and tour
with the group. Now Hagar would reflected
on the co-headlining tour in his 2011 autobiography
Red My Uncensored Life in Rock Saying I was
open to all sorts of crazy ideas. Hagar would
reveal it was himself and new manager Irving
Azoff who came up with the idea for the joint
tour as he put it just to piss off van halen
and get the fans worked up.
Now it wasn’t the first time Hagar proposed
the idea to David Lee Roth who rejected an
offer in 1997. At the press conference announcing
the tour Roth would say the time was wrong,
but now the time is right, it’s completely
unpredictable. Now even the press conference
to announce the tour showed just how different
both frontmen were. Taking place at the Sky
Bar in Los Angeles Hagar came dressed in red
pants and a cabo wabo branded t-shirt while
Roth wore all black and was joined by several
playboy playmates as well as a dwarf who was
dressed like andy warhol. Now despite their
physical differences and demeanor, Roth highlighted
their similarities saying “Sam and I are
like fraternity brothers who have went through
the same shitty hazing. There’s a rivalry
between us so the audience gets the absolute
best out of both of us. You have to think
of it as two title fights with no undercard.
This is a co-headining tour here. We’ll
flip a coin and the winner will headline the
opening night and then we’ll flip flop he’d
say.” Now the pair would also appear on
Howard Stern’s radio show in May of 2002
to promote the tour and that is where the
first coin flip took place. Roth would win
the first toss and would close the opening
date in Ohi.o Now when it came time to the
setlist Roth leaned more heavily towards van
Halen songs and one solo song Yankee Rose
while Hagar would provide a broader range
of songs including a good mixture of his Van
Halen years and solo tracks. Hagar would also
bring up his good friend former Van Halen
bassist Michael Anthony on stage to join him
for a few dates. And When the tour hit Boston,
former Van Halen singer Gary Cheron also came
on the stage to sing a few songs.
Now one of the most highly anticipated events
during the tour sadly never happened. It was
expected at some point that Hagar would join
Roth each other on stage and to do a duet
together but sadly nothing ever materialized.
Now In his book Hagar would recall “Right
at the start he rejected my suggestion that
we sing a few songs together and make it a
friendly thing and he envisioned something
more along the lines of WWF Smackdown he’d
conclude.’
Now towards the end of the tour both singers
finally grew tired of each other and started
to trade insults in the media. Hagar would
tell the new york post page six section a
month before the tour ended “He’s not
a man of his word referring to Dave. Dave
came to me because no one wanted to book him
by himself cause he’s such a flake and he
has got such a bad reputation. But I just
can’t work with him anymore.”Hagar would
go on to say “his voice is not too good.
I just saw a guy who is half the singer and
half performer he used to be who spray paints
his hair on or before he goes on stage and
still acts like he’s in van halen in1982.
It’s a joke to me it’s like liberace to
me he’d conclude . It even got to the point
where both singers couldn’t even be in the
same room together and Hagar even accused
Roth of cancelling one of the shows scheduled
in early september in long island claiming
that Roth would only play Madison Square Garden
and he wanted to headline even though Hagar
was scheduled to close the show. Hagar recalled
in his book:
“The sam and dave tour was a huge financial
success, but a personal disaster.” Now the
final two dates of the tour scheduled for
buffalo and syracuse would be cancelled because
Hagar would fall ill. But Also around this
time both singers would appear at the MTV
video music awards in a pretty tense co-presentation
where they gave an award for best rock video.
I’ll tell you who their here to see Sam
they are here to see the front bumper of American
popular culture as it’s happening. I didn’t
quite understand that , but i think what dave
really means. It’s really good to see him
after 55 shows.It’s really good to see you
where you been all summer. I’ve been on
the celebrity death match tour. So. Let’s
go. Best rock video. This is the best rock
video in fact in our day. What is your favourite
linkin park song sam? I don’t know any linkin
park songs. What do we do where is the teleprompter?
Ok Nominees for the best rock. Now Take a
look Now at the end of the tour Hagar would
talk with Guitar World where he would claim
he would never ever again tour with David
Lee Roth saying boy i hate to ever say i’m
sorry i did something, so I can’t say I’m
sorry i did it. i certainly wouldn’t do
it again. Let’s put it like that he’d
say. Now Hagar would rejoin van halen briefly
in 2004 to record three songs for a greatest
hits package and do an 80 date summer tour
that ended in disaster and by 2007 Roth would
return to Van Halen with Eddie’s son wolfgang
playing bass meaning that former bassist Michael
Anthony was no longer in the group. And the
band would finally release their first new
album with singer David Lee Roth in 28 years
with 2012’s A different kind of truth And
The last time Van Halen hit the road was in
2015 for a 40+ date tour
. But Guitarist Eddie Van Halen has been quietly
battling cancer for the past several years
it’s been reported and Roth has made it
clear that Van Halen is likely done due to
Eddie’s health issues. so that does it for
today’s video guys. Thanks for watching.
Did you guys go see the 2002 summer tour.
Let me know what your thoughts were if you
went to the tour.. If you have suggestions
for future videos let me know in the comments
below. Don’t forget to hit the like button
and subscribe. Take care.
