Wolfgang Van Halen has shared some love for the Sammy Hagar era of Van Halen, while noting that he thinks Hagar's efforts with the legendary rock band aren't sufficiently respected.
Hagar joined the Halen crew in 1985, replacing original singer David Lee Roth. After leaving in 1996, the Red Rocker returned to the band from 2003 until 2005. During his time as frontman, Van Halen released four albums; 5150, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, Ou812 and Balance, all of which topped the US Billboard 200 chart.
During a recent conversation with Cameron Buchholtz of Rock 100.5's The Katt, Wolfgang spoke about the upcoming release of Van Halen's Live: Right Here, Right Now on vinyl for Record Store Day, and expressed his admiration for Hagar, as well as the material he released as part of the band.
"That era [of Van Halen] doesn't get any respect, I don't think," Wolfgang says. "And there's a lot of amazing songs and just obviously brilliant guitar playing on a lot of that — on all of that stuff — and I think people don't give it a chance 'cause they fall into that exhausting 'this singer is better' crap, when it's, like, just give it a chance. There's some really good stuff in there."
WVH previously spoke of his disapproval towards fan comparison between Hagar and Roth, after being asked to chose which singer he prefers between the two.
"They both kick ass," he noted in a 2020 tweet. "The war is dumb. Enjoy whatever you want and don't hate someone else if they don't like what you like. The same guy wrote the music too, so you're doing yourself a disservice for not at the VERY least checking the other side out."
Listen to the Rock 100.5 interview below:
