SAMMY HAGAR Says VAN HALEN's Reunion With DAVE LEE ROTH Is 'The Right Thing'

Jeff Kerby of KNAC.COM recently conducted an interview with Sammy Hagar. An excerpt from the chat follows:

KNAC.COM: How cool is it for you to know though that if you ever were to find yourself in another position where you were in a band or a project of any kind, that you could just walk away whenever you wanted to and be alright? Doesn't that give you a lot of freedom within your mind?

Hagar: "Absolutely. The awesome thing about being a solo artist over being in a band like LED ZEPPELIN or VAN HALEN is that when you go messing around with the members of the band, people ain't buying. It's like the ROLLING STONES — you've got to see Keith and Mick up there and Charlie or whatever, but when you're a solo artist like Peter Gabriel or Sammy Hagar or Sting, people expect you to go out and do some different things every now and then. It's pretty cool.

KNAC.COM: Do you think that VAN HALEN just got too lucky when you replaced David Lee Roth? Do you think they deluded themselves into thinking they could just trot anyone up there and have the same type of success?

Hagar: "I don't know, when you say VAN HALEN here, what you're really talking about is Eddie. Alex sticks by him because that's his brother, and I love Alex for it. I would never try to come between those guys. Those guys are brothers, and they are the end of a line in a way. Their parents have passed, and it's tough. Mine have too, but I've got other brothers and sisters and uncles, but they are pretty alone. They are very close, and I think that's awesome, but I think it's Eddie that makes those kinds of decisions. In the old days, it wasn't like Eddie was going, 'It's my band this is what I want!' When I was in the band it was our band, and everyone did what they wanted. For the good of VAN HALEN, I wasn't looking to be a solo artist, and Eddie wasn't looking to control everything. Instead, everyone did whatever they wanted to do in that band and it worked. When it stopped working, it broke up. Since then, it's like Eddie says, 'This is my band,' and it is, so he can do whatever he wants, but I think if they wouldn't have got Dave back, they would have been in trouble. The only thing I can say that may sound like sour grapes is that without Dave or myself, VAN HALEN isn't going to be the big, mighty arena act, and that's all there is to it. If he wants to go out there and just be an instrumentalist and just get whatever singer he feels like, he's gonna be down here doing what I'm doing playing theaters in most cities and be lucky if he's selling them out. For him to keep rolling with the mighty VAN HALEN, he needs either Dave or myself. They've been trying to get with Dave since they threw me out in '95. Then, they hadn't done anything until I came back. Now, they have Dave again, and I wish them the best because I think it's their only hope. It's the right thing."

Read the entire interview at KNAC.COM.