Sammy Hagar mentioned the double-header tour he staged with David Lee Roth in 2002 multiplied the unique Van Halen singer’s earnings by an element of six.
The street journey noticed each vocalists acting on the identical stage. Billed as “Song for Song, the Heavyweight Champs of Rock and Roll,” it turned higher often known as the “Sam and Dave” tour, nevertheless it additionally garnered a collection of detrimental tales from backstage, with the vocalists failing to attach at a private degree.
In a latest episode of the Steve-O’s Wild Ride Podcast (accessible beneath), Hagar mentioned that whereas he’d been having fun with a profitable solo profession on the flip of the century, Roth hadn’t been doing so properly. “[H]e wasn’t selling out [but] I was selling out arenas. I was selling out amphitheaters,” he defined.
“Dave, he had that sort of a big album, one kind of a big album, but he didn’t have a solo career. He was playing small places. So when he came in with me, he was making, like, $25,000 a night, I was making $150,000 a night, and they said, ‘Oh, you guys are gonna make the same money. Dave gets to make 150.’ I said, ‘He ain’t fucking made 150 in his life except in Van Halen!’ But I said, ‘I’ve gotta do this.’ So I bent over backwards. And he still always tried to fuck with the rules.”
Hagar did not mince phrases when additional discussing Roth.
“He’s not a fun guy. He doesn’t play well with others. I’m not sure what his problem is,” the Red Rocker declared. “He just always is about, ‘How can I make this guy look bad?’ And not just me – in life. He’s a chest-beating motherfucker. And God bless him, ’cause the early stuff is frickin’ great. … [I thought] he’d be a fun guy to know. But he ain’t like that – he ain’t like his persona.”
While he went on to hail Diamond Dave’s showmanship, Hagar additionally argued that Roth “doesn’t care about singing. If he did, he’d take care of his voice or he’d take voice lessons and get warmed up and do something. … The guy sang so bad last time he was doing shows, it was embarrassing.”
Watch Sammy Hagar’s Interview on ‘Steve-O’s Wild Ride Podcast’
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