Sammy Hagar and the members of Van Halen have been exchanging barbs recently, and their feud has escalated this week after Hagar threw in his two cents about a Billboard interview.
Eddie Van Halen said in the interview that he had to teach his former bassist, Michael Anthony, how to play every note he ever contributed to their albums.
“Every note Mike ever played, I had to show him how to play. Before we’d go on tour, he’d come over with a video camera and I’d have to show him how to play all the parts…Mike’s voice is like a piccolo trumpet. But he’s not a singer. He just has a range from hell.”
Hagar said in a video last week that Van Halen’s comments are far from the truth and that a video camera never came into play for the entire duration of his time with the band.
“For Eddie to say he had to show him what to play and had to teach him all those songs, that is the biggest line of bullsh*t I’ve ever heard in my life. I was in that band for 11 years, and there was never a video camera involved with Eddie showing him what to play…F**k you, Eddie Van Halen, for saying that about Michael. You’re a liar,” Hagar said .
The band recently reunited with original lead singer David Lee Roth for a tour, and Hagar says they refuse to play any songs from his era and don’t even want him to play the songs. The bad blood between the former friends has boiled over, with Van Halen allegedly threatening legal action.
“We sold 47 million records, whatever it was. We had all those number ones. Those are great songs – “Right Now”, “When It’s Love”, “Finish What You Started”. They need to be played for the people that supported it during the era. If you want to know the truth, Eddie and Alex Van Halen are trying to stop me from being to even play those songs. They’ve had attorneys and people say, ‘No, he can’t play them,’” Sammy Hagar says .
Sammy said in the video that he was irritated that his former bandmates would go after Michael, who was never anything but nice and professional.
“Mikey was the most loyal guy in the band. He was the first guy there at rehearsal, the last guy to leave….He was a hundred percent dedicated; never did anything to hurt those guys. And they try to hurt him again, and again, and again,” Sammy Hagar said .
Photo courtesy Sammy Hagar