There's nothing like a good fight between classic rock stars. Axl Rose and Vince Neil. David Lee Roth and Van Hagar. Axl Rose and Slash. Gene Simmons and Ace Frehley. Axl Rose and most everybody he's played with. And while some of the fueds and fighting were patched up and even comical at times, some actually spanned quite a few years and fueled press, which fuels--you guessed it--album and song sales.
Certainly one of the great feuds of all time, which raged on for a good fifteen years on and off was the back-and-forth war of words (and album sales) between original Van Halen frontman, David Lee Roth, and the band with second singer, Sammy Hagar. History says Hagar and Roth were never great friends even when Van Halen and Montrose were occasionally playing the same bill together, but when Hagar stepped into Diamond Dave's shoes in 1986, a flame-war took off that filled the pages of every great rock magazine for at least half the 80s and then on and off to today.
When it looked like Roth might be back in the fold in 1996 after the band sacked Sammy Hagar, the flames only grew higher after an unfortunate MTV Music Award appearance with a typically hyperactive Roth and an increasingly grumpy Eddie Van Halen. Another war of words ensued, Roth was clearly out, and Extreme frontman, Gary Cherone stepped in after supersinger, Mitch Malloy bowed out after the Roth fiasco.
Amazingly both singers shared a double-bill through a lengthy Van Halen absence during the early 2000s. No one was surprised when this melted down, though both performers finished out the dates of the comically-dubbed 'Sans Halen' tour. As of 2004, Hagar rejoined the group, but a clearly unhealthy Eddie Van Halen made the situation untenable (I was in the fifth row in Spokane and could clearly see something was not going well). So by 2007, Roth was back in, and--as of this writing--still seems to be making things work with the group, though all parties admit there always has been tension and always will be.
Currently the band continues to tour intermittently after releasing the fantastic-sounding A Different Kind of Truth album. Their 2012 earnings surpassed the $54 million dollar mark and fans all around the world were standing in line to see the classic rock quartet back in action. Unfortunately, Eddie Van Halen's health problems caused a series of dates to be cancelled, but the band has since made a splash-down in Japan and everyone looks comparatively happy and healthy once again.
By Michael Pickett
Certainly one of the great feuds of all time, which raged on for a good fifteen years on and off was the back-and-forth war of words (and album sales) between original Van Halen frontman, David Lee Roth, and the band with second singer, Sammy Hagar. History says Hagar and Roth were never great friends even when Van Halen and Montrose were occasionally playing the same bill together, but when Hagar stepped into Diamond Dave's shoes in 1986, a flame-war took off that filled the pages of every great rock magazine for at least half the 80s and then on and off to today.
When it looked like Roth might be back in the fold in 1996 after the band sacked Sammy Hagar, the flames only grew higher after an unfortunate MTV Music Award appearance with a typically hyperactive Roth and an increasingly grumpy Eddie Van Halen. Another war of words ensued, Roth was clearly out, and Extreme frontman, Gary Cherone stepped in after supersinger, Mitch Malloy bowed out after the Roth fiasco.
Amazingly both singers shared a double-bill through a lengthy Van Halen absence during the early 2000s. No one was surprised when this melted down, though both performers finished out the dates of the comically-dubbed 'Sans Halen' tour. As of 2004, Hagar rejoined the group, but a clearly unhealthy Eddie Van Halen made the situation untenable (I was in the fifth row in Spokane and could clearly see something was not going well). So by 2007, Roth was back in, and--as of this writing--still seems to be making things work with the group, though all parties admit there always has been tension and always will be.
Currently the band continues to tour intermittently after releasing the fantastic-sounding A Different Kind of Truth album. Their 2012 earnings surpassed the $54 million dollar mark and fans all around the world were standing in line to see the classic rock quartet back in action. Unfortunately, Eddie Van Halen's health problems caused a series of dates to be cancelled, but the band has since made a splash-down in Japan and everyone looks comparatively happy and healthy once again.
By Michael Pickett
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