After Van Halen parted ways with David Lee Roth in the mid ‘80s, Sammy Hagar stepped in to fill the void. The Californian singer doesn’t look at it like he merely steadied the ship, though – the comically unflappable Hagar is of the opinion that he dramatically improved Eddie Van Halen’s group.
“I had more experience under my belt when I joined Van Halen in 1985 than they had,” he told Classic Rock, which is true because Hagar had already made waves as the frontman in Montrose in the mid-70s, but perhaps overlooks the fact that his moment appeared to have passed at that point – his joining the group all being down to Eddie Van Halen’s car mechanic for recommending they audition him. Anyway, sorry for interrupting Sammy, you carry on: “They’d been together for seven years making records. I had been around for ten years before that.”
