Van Halen News Desk
Thursday 27 June 1996
The rumors that began circulating Tuesday that David Lee Roth has rejoined Van Halen were
confirmed by the group's management yesterday. Sammy Hagar has left Van Halen after
fronting the group for 11 years. And the remaining members of the group and Roth are currently
in the studio recording a new song that will appear on a Van Halen greatest hits album. A
press release from Hagar's publicist said that the singer has "regretfully" split from the band
due to "creative differences."
Since leaving Van Halen, Roth's solo career has been marginal.
Meanwhile, Van Halen had the biggest success of it's lengthy career with Hagar handling lead
vocals and rhythm guitar chores. Still, if Roth permanently returns to the group, a proposed
1997 world tour could bring the group an unprecedented payday. At Warner Bros., the label
that Van Halen record for, the departure of Hagar was apparently a complete surprise to
company executives. They called a meeting with Van Halen management for late Wed.
afternoon, and a press statement is expected today.
Friday 28 June 1996
Hagar's Past Littered With Greatest Hits Albums
Addicted To Noise staff writer Gil Kaufman reports: We promise this will be
our last mention of this (until, of course, we mention it again), but the "Sammy out, David Lee
in" story just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. We learned today in the L. A. Times that
Hagar was as surprised as anyone to learn from Eddie Van Halen that he was being handed
his walking papers. Hagar said he balked at changing a lyric in a new song. "We bumped
heads and the next thing I knew, Eddie calls and David Lee Roth is back." Hagar also told
the Times, that he had fought against the release of a Van Halen greatest hits album. "We're
not a greatest-hits kind of band," he said. "We do not need to rely on the past...." Even
though record companies sometimes release greatest hits packages without an artist's
involvement, we can't help but note the irony here. Sammy Hagar has not one, not two, but
count 'em, three greatest hits collections in his checkered past. There's Rematch, (1982)
which chronicles his fairly hitless years with Capitol, then comes another nearly-identical
album from Capitol called The Best of Sammy Hagar (1992), and finally, Unboxed (1994)
which chronicles his Geffen years with hits like "I Can't Drive 55," "Three Lock Box," and
"Give to Live."