SAMMY HAGAR Happy To Let VAN HALEN Remain In The Past

Lynch

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Love Sammy, love Van Halen/Hagar, but seeing the thread title, i had to laugh. It should be this:

SAMMY HAGAR Happy To Let VAN HALEN Remain In The Past (for now)


:heheh:
 

Lynch

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Ronnie Montrose had gained a reputation based on his work with Edgar Winter and Van Morrison. Then, Hagar joined another band named after the guitarist (this time a lesser band with a far less talented guitarist).

Are you referring to VH in the second half of this comment?

if so, I'd have to ask what kind of meds you are taking to say that Eddie is "far less talented" than Ronnie. :wtf:
 

Big Ears

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In answer to the first question, 'Yes'. To the second, only antihistamines.

This is on the VH site, dated 16th May 2012

Ronnie Montrose on meeting Eddie Van Halen:

“The first tour I did with Van Halen, the bill was Journey, Ronnie Montrose, and Van Halen was opening. I was doing my instrumental music on that tour. Van Halen was a young, loud, and brash band, and I liked them. Eddie came up to me backstage at sound check and he called me Mr. Montrose. He shyly shook my hand and said, “Mr. Montrose, I’m Edward Van Halen, and I’m a big fan. We told Ted Templeman to get the Montrose sound when we did our record.” He also told me they used to play “Dancin’ Feet” from one of the Montrose albums at their yard parties in Pasadena.

“I really enjoyed Eddie’s playing. What made Eddie special was his youthful irreverence for the rules. That’s what impressed me. He’d developed his own style. I think Eddie started out on drums first, and there’s a very percussive nature about the way he plays. He plays very metered and percussive, and he’s very fluid in that style.”
 

Big Ears

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Sammy Hagar said this to Rolling Stone, following Ronnie Montrose's death:

"The first time Eddie Van Halen and I met, it was around 1977. We were on a stadium show with Boston, Black Sabbath, myself, Van Halen. He came to my dressing room, and said, "I'm a Montrose freak, I love the band!" And Ted Templeman told me, when he signed Van Halen, they were called something else, and he wanted to name them after the guitar player. He said on the first Van Halen record, he took the first Montrose record in there and said, "Boom. We're going to have eight great songs, they're going to be this long, they're going to be this tempo." And pretty much patterned the whole thing after it – right down to saying, "Why don't you guys get Sammy Hagar to sing in this band? He's been thrown out of Montrose." That's a true story!

Eddie had a totally new twist on the whole guitar style thing, but as far as the chording goes – not his soloing as much as the chording – yeah, he took some of that big open chord thing [from Montrose]. The big open A, the big open D, the big open E. Everything as open as you could make it, to make it as heavy as possible with one guitar. And that was pretty much Ronnie's style, too. And of course the fire, too – Van Halen came out with all that fire, which is Ronnie. Ronnie was full of fire, man."

Elsewhere in the article, Hagar says the first Montrose album was the best thing he ever did. This is a link: Sammy Hagar Remembers Ronnie Montrose | Music News | Rolling Stone
 

LG

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^^Montrose's debut is an ESSENTIAL in anyone's hard rock music collection, one of the best debuts ever. I'd agree with Sammy about it being the best thing he's ever been part of.
 

Big Ears

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You're welcome. I thought Sammy Hagar's interview with Rolling Stone was more revealing than the blabbermouth one, perhaps because of the circumstances. He praised Ronnie Montrose, but was not completely uncritical. Ironically Montrose were to reform, but Ronnie decided he couldn't continue any longer.
 

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