Sammy Hagar tells how he was forced to leave Van Halen

The exit of Sammy Hagar of Van Halen, in 1996, represented one of the most traumatic breakups in rock history. For years, the singer openly criticized his former colleagues, especially his brothers Eddie (guitar) and Alex Van Halen (battery). The short and controversial meeting between 2003 and 2004, with Eddie clearly affected by drug addiction, only worsened the relationship.

While the partnership in the 21st century seemed destined to fail, the initial bond, which lasted since 1985 and had yielded successful albums such as 5150 (1986) and For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991), did not present so many cracks. The last album on the call was Van Hagar, Balance (1995), had more than 3 million copies sold in the United States alone and had the hit “Can’t Stop Lovin’ You”, which reached the American top 30 and had good international repercussion — to the point of being quite successful in Brazil .

Still, they broke through. In a 2022 interview with Rolling StoneHagar shared his perspective on the departure, told to him over the phone.

“It was Father’s Day, 9 am on a Sunday. Eddie told me I was out. The phone rings and I’m lying there with my newborn baby [Kama, sua terceira filha e primeira com a atual esposa, Kari]. He said, ‘You know, you’ve always wanted to be a solo artist, so go ahead and be one. Let’s get Dave (David Lee Roth, previous vocalist) back into the band.’ And when he said that, I jumped out of bed like I had seen a ghost.”

Sammy, in fact, had already felt strange with his colleagues months before for being in Hawaii, with his wife. Kari pregnant at the time, while the musicians demanded that he return to Los Angeles with the aim of finishing a song — “Humans Being”, released on the film’s soundtrack Twister (via Igor Miranda website). The vocalist didn’t like the situation at all, as the agreement was that the period would be used for rest. Even Eddie Van Halen would take advantage of the period to have surgery.

Interestingly, Hagar claims that no one told him he was fired. The message was delivered in a different way.

“It wasn’t like he said, ‘You’re fired.’ He just said, ‘You’re leaving the band. You’re leaving the band. We’re moving on without you.’ Whatever. It wasn’t my decision at all.”

The biggest mistake of Van Halen’s career

Still in the interview, Sammy Hagar said that firing him and calling Gary Cherone instead it represented the biggest mistake of Van Halen’s career. The vocalist of Extreme he remained in the group only at the end of the 1990s, recording the criticized album Van Halen III and carrying out a publicity tour.

“I have complete sympathy for Gary. He’s such a cool and talented guy. But he was so wrong at that stage of the band. He might have been able to replace Dave [em 1985], the band still had breath. When Cherone arrived, this type of music, even the mighty Van Halen was at a low ebb because of grunge. There was no positive press, there was no spotlight on MTV, we didn’t even get played on the radio. It was a bad time for Gary. Whether it worked or not, it was just a bad time to make this decision. That was the biggest mistake the band ever made, I think.”