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 highway journey noticed each vocalists acting on the identical stage. Billed as “Music for Music, the Heavyweight Champs of Rock and Roll,” it grew to become higher often called the “Sam and Dave” tour, nevertheless it additionally garnered a collection of adverse tales from backstage, with the vocalists failing to attach at a private degree.
In a latest episode of the Steve-O’s Wild Journey 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 nicely. “[H]e wasn’t promoting out [but] I used to be promoting out arenas. I used to be promoting out amphitheaters,” he defined.
“Dave, he had that form of an enormous album, one sort of an enormous album, however he did not have a solo profession. He was enjoying small locations. So when he got here in with me, he was making, like, $25,000 an evening, I used to be making $150,000 an evening, they usually mentioned, ‘Oh, you guys are gonna make the identical cash. Dave will get to make 150.’ I mentioned, ‘He ain’t fucking made 150 in his life besides in Van Halen!’ However I mentioned, ‘I’ve gotta do that.’ So I bent over backwards. And he nonetheless at all times tried to fuck with the principles.”
Hagar did not mince phrases when additional discussing Roth.
“He is not a enjoyable man. He would not play nicely with others. I am undecided what his downside is,” the Crimson Rocker declared. “He simply at all times is about, ‘How can I make this man look unhealthy?’ And never simply me – in life. He is a chest-beating motherfucker. And God bless him, ‘trigger the early stuff is frickin’ nice. … [I thought] he’d be a enjoyable man to know. However he ain’t like that – he ain’t like his persona.”
Whereas he went on to hail Diamond Dave’s showmanship, Hagar additionally argued that Roth “doesn’t care about singing. If he did, he’d handle his voice or he’d take voice classes and get warmed up and do one thing. … The man sang so unhealthy final time he was doing reveals, it was embarrassing.”
Watch Sammy Hagar’s Interview on ‘Steve-O’s Wild Journey Podcast’
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