SAMMY HAGAR: DAVE LEE ROTH Is An Asshole!

The following item appeared in today's edition of the New York Post:

Sammy Hagar, finished with fellow VAN HALEN frontman David Lee Roth, is dissing Diamond Dave's oversize ego, deteriorating singing voice and vanishing hairline.

Hagar and Roth had been co-headlining this summer's laboriously titled "Sammy Hagar and David Lee Roth Tour 2002: Song for Song, the Heavyweight Champs of Rock and Roll." But after butting heads with Roth non-stop since they began touring in May, Hagar vows never to work with him again.

"The guy is a [bleep]hole," Hagar told PAGE SIX. "He will never go on tour with me again. He's gonna have to draw a crowd on his own."

Hagar and Roth, who were fired from VAN HALEN in 1996 and 1985 respectively, had traded insults for years before declaring a truce for the tour. But Hagar says that Roth's prima donna antics have ruined their relationship.

"He's not a man of his word," Hagar fumes. "Dave came to me because no one wanted to book him by himself, because he's such a flake and he has such a bad reputation. But I just can't work with him anymore."

While Hagar admits that Roth's set of VAN HALEN classics is a crowd-pleaser, he ridicules Roth's decline from swaggering rock god to middle-age nostalgia act. "His voice is not too good. You sit there and go, 'I just saw a guy who was half the singer and half the performer he used to be, who spray-paints his hair on before he goes on stage and still acts like he's in VAN HALEN in 1982!' . . . It's a joke to me, it's like Liberace or something."

One of mop-topped Hagar's favorite targets is Roth's thinning locks. "We were all on the same plane to go to a show in Dallas, and Dave's hair was brown underneath his hat," Hagar tattles. "The night of the show it was raving platinum. I'd hate to be there when he puts that thing on."

Hagar says that he and Roth were supposed to finish their tour Sept. 2 at Jones Beach, but Roth vetoed it. "He said, 'I don't like the venue.' He wanted to play at Madison Square Garden and he wanted to close. He wasn't going to do it, so we canceled the show."

But while New Yorkers won't see Hagar and Roth sharing the same stage, a solo Hagar is playing a free concert Aug. 29 at Irving Plaza. Since it falls close to the one-year anniversary of Sept. 11, half the tickets will be distributed to Port Authority cops and 9/11 rescue workers.

Despite his dislike of Roth, Hagar says the tour was a hit with VAN HALEN fans. "It was always a great audience and it was a great rock and roll show," he said. "If it wasn't for that, I would have put him back in nightclubs were he belongs."

Roth did not return calls for comment.