Music Enthusiast Magazine
Sammy Hagar currently stands front and center with his new band The Circle, which regularly heads out onstage and performs a set highlighted by selections from The Red Rocker’s career with Montrose, Van Halen and his solo career. However, Hagar says his former band members are trying to change that.
It was during a recent conversation with Eddie Trunk that Hagar delivered his shocking claim, and he proceeded to explain that he feels that it’s only because of himself and bassist Michael Anthony that the songs from his era of Van Halen are kept alive.
“I feel obligated, because listen — we sold 40 million, 47 million records, whatever it was together. We had all those Number Ones. Those are great songs,” Hagar explained.
“‘Right Now.’ ‘When It’s Love.’ ‘Finish What Ya Started.’ … These are great songs that need to be played for the people that supported it during the era, and it actually irritates me when those guys try to act like it never happened.”
As he has pointed out on multiple occasions, Van Halen has not performed selections from the Hagar era live since original lead vocalist David Lee Roth returned to the fold back in 2007.
It was then that Hagar went on to reveal that the founding namesake of Van Halen were trying to prevent him from playing Van Hagar songs in his own live shows.
“Eddie and Alex Van Halen are trying to stop me from even being able to play those songs,” he says. “They have had attorneys and people say ‘No, he can’t play them.’ Sometimes you need permission to play something, like on TV and stuff, and they say no. They’ll actually fight legally to try and stop me, and I’m going crazy.”
This situation has reportedly led Hagar to much frustration, and he adds that he’s not going to step away from this problem. “I’ve hired an attorney and I’m gonna fight these guys to the end,” he insists.
“Those are my songs! I wrote every lyric and every frickin’ melody on every one of those songs, and for those guys to say I can’t sing my own songs … oh my God, I’m going crazy.”
Considering these claims from Sammy Hagar are true, this may come as the result of The Circle’s recently released live effort, ‘At Your Service,’ which features seven Van Hagar songs and was released a few months after Van Halen put out their own concert album, ‘Tokyo Dome Live in Concert.’
Sammy Hagar currently stands front and center with his new band The Circle, which regularly heads out onstage and performs a set highlighted by selections from The Red Rocker’s career with Montrose, Van Halen and his solo career. However, Hagar says his former band members are trying to change that.
It was during a recent conversation with Eddie Trunk that Hagar delivered his shocking claim, and he proceeded to explain that he feels that it’s only because of himself and bassist Michael Anthony that the songs from his era of Van Halen are kept alive.
“I feel obligated, because listen — we sold 40 million, 47 million records, whatever it was together. We had all those Number Ones. Those are great songs,” Hagar explained.
“‘Right Now.’ ‘When It’s Love.’ ‘Finish What Ya Started.’ … These are great songs that need to be played for the people that supported it during the era, and it actually irritates me when those guys try to act like it never happened.”
As he has pointed out on multiple occasions, Van Halen has not performed selections from the Hagar era live since original lead vocalist David Lee Roth returned to the fold back in 2007.
It was then that Hagar went on to reveal that the founding namesake of Van Halen were trying to prevent him from playing Van Hagar songs in his own live shows.
“Eddie and Alex Van Halen are trying to stop me from even being able to play those songs,” he says. “They have had attorneys and people say ‘No, he can’t play them.’ Sometimes you need permission to play something, like on TV and stuff, and they say no. They’ll actually fight legally to try and stop me, and I’m going crazy.”
This situation has reportedly led Hagar to much frustration, and he adds that he’s not going to step away from this problem. “I’ve hired an attorney and I’m gonna fight these guys to the end,” he insists.
“Those are my songs! I wrote every lyric and every frickin’ melody on every one of those songs, and for those guys to say I can’t sing my own songs … oh my God, I’m going crazy.”
Considering these claims from Sammy Hagar are true, this may come as the result of The Circle’s recently released live effort, ‘At Your Service,’ which features seven Van Hagar songs and was released a few months after Van Halen put out their own concert album, ‘Tokyo Dome Live in Concert.’
