Van Halen was larger than life.
They smiled, kicked, jumped and shredded their way into our souls from speakers through our ears. Eddie VanHalen changed the way guitar was played. He changed the musical instrument industry by inspiring guitar players to desire crazy guitar designs with whammy bars. Eddie also has a guitar called FrankenStein. It's a guitar they he has heavily modified. Most of him being seen in the early 80's is with this guitar, which sparked a mass exodus from Fender and Gibson vintage style guitars. This lowered the value of older guitars because nobody wanted them anymore. Eddie's playing was so big it changed everything in rock n roll.
His brother Alex was crazy on the drums. Combined with David Lee Roth's flamboyant acrobatics and entertaining demeanor, and you had one of the biggest rock bands of the 80's. Well, sadly, the first half of the '80's....
A complete SHOCK...
"Diamond" David Lee Roth left the band in 1985. This was HUGE news. People heard whispers of DLR wanting a solo career... but we never thought it would come. It was a shock to all of us fans. It seemed that life as we knew it was changing. I couldn't imagine a VanHalen without Diamond Dave! Their story was so cool. Alex and Eddie came to America poor. Their dad was a musician, and Alex & Eddie learned at early ages. The first version of VanHalen as we know it used to play weddings. Can you believe it? I thought that was hilarious when I heard that. How would you like to have VH play your wedding? I always admired bands that had brothers in them, because at this time, my brothers still had their band... Defiance.
They were a family being torn apart.
I have heard other stories about VanHalen, like how tight they were with roadies. It's popular to hear about the "crazy contracts and riders" rock bands force venues to sign with all of these ridiculous demands. David Lee Roth mentioned there was a perfectly good reason for all of it. Rock shows demand a lot of electricity, and a LOT of safety precautions. When a band travels to a new venue, a stage must be setup, and safety is always an issue. In the band contract, all of the safety precautions, energy requirements, etc. were clearly defined... along with crazy things in it (like a bowl of no brown M&M's in the dressing room for example). According to David Lee Roth, if there were (going on the analogy) a bowl of no brown M&M's in the dressing room, they were confident the venue read the entire contract, and the band could be confident all of the safety and energy needs for a good show were being met. I thought it was pretty clever...
A new band?
Sadly, with Diamond Dave gone, the future of VH was uncertain. Enter Sammy Hagar. I always loved his albums. His energy seemed to match DLR's, but Sammy could also shred on guitar almost as good Eddie! Word is, Sammy was tired of being a solo act, and auditioned with VH to be an additional guitar player. Their first song they auditioned, "Summer Nights" was played, and Sammy decided to sing it. At that moment, Sammy became the lead singer and part-time rhythm guitarist for VanHalen 2.0 or some would call ethem VanHagar.
News of this traveled. Not only could one not imagine VH without Dave, but now one could never imagine how much cooler VH will be with Sammy! This rollercoaster of emotions was settled with the bands first album with Sammy Hagar, entitled 5150. Eddie's secret recording studio was called 5150, which I believe is the California police code for "intoxicated." (Similarly, gangster rappers would commonly say 187, the police code for "murder," for example).
The Music
The album features some of the best tracks that I've heard VH do. Eddie, also plays keyboard like he normally does... and tracks on this album are amazing. Why Can't this Be Love, Dreams, Best of Both Worlds, Love Walks In, and 5150 were all huge hits.You can view the entire "Live Without a Net" Van Halen concert below in its entirety. It's one of the first concerts Sammy Hagar played with Van Halen. Warning: this it TOTAL arena rock. The energy is SUPER high... they are running all over the place and having a blast. The opening song is Sammy Hagar's I Can't Drive 55... and the place is going crazy. Michael Anthony's bass solo is complete with slamming a bottle of Jack Daniels while playing his Jack Daniels bass guitar. Rocks.
The Rivalry began.
David Lee Roth sparked a solo career. He found guitar virtuoso Steve Vai and a backing band to embark on a mission to "out-VanHalen" VanHalen. It was great for rock n roll because we effectively we seemingly had two VanHalens. It got ugly. VanHalen was doing most of the talking and bad-mouthing, leaving Diamond Dave to "scribbity-bop" prove them wrong. While Eddie and Alex didn't pull any punches, Sammy talked about how good it was to be in a band and how good VH was doing.It's reputed that Eddie has an ego. I've heard rumors that he likes to be the only guitar player in a room, and he wasn't always comfortable with Sammy on guitar because it took some spotlight off Eddie. Yet, I heard from Jerry Cantrell (of Alice in Chains) that when his large tour ever (with Van Halen) was finished, Cantrell came home to a garage full of musical equipment as a gift from Eddie. So I've heard both sides. I can imagine that Eddie has a button that could be pushed like everyone else.
Not "better," just different. We never forgot the old Van Halen.
Little did we know Diamond Dave would eventually come back, and bad blood would be in the future between Sammy and the guys... but for now, we can enjoy the newness of all the great music that is Van Hagar. David Lee Roth says it best in this MTV News Interview...Album Sales
5150 was so big, it was Billboard's #1 album of 1986. It had eight top 40 hits, and sold over 6 million albums in the United States... x6 platinum. In contrast, David Lee Roth's Eat 'Em and Smile album ended at #4 on Billboard's top 200 charts, with two top 40 hits. The previous year, David Le Roth released an EP featuring lounge style songs like California Girls with an album titled Crazy from the Heat... but Eat 'Em and Smile was his big return to Hard Rock...
