SAMMY HAGAR Says VAN HALEN's New Live Album Features 'Some Pretty Rough Vocals' From DAVID LEE ROTH

Former VAN HALEN singer Sammy Hagar says that the band's new live album, "Tokyo Dome In Concert", contains "some pretty rough vocals" from David Lee Roth.

Released last week, "Tokyo Dome In Concert" is VAN HALEN's first live album with Roth and it reportedly features no vocal overdubs.

Speaking to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Hagar offered his first comments on the new CD from his former band. He said: "I'm trying to tread lightly on the whole thing. Every time they do something, I'm like, 'Oh my god, can these guys do anything worse to their reputation and to the level of the music of the band?'"

"They've got some pretty rough vocals," Hagar said of Roth.

He added: "I try to stay away from criticism, but here I am, already starting this interview with it. It's impossible. It's impossible to stay away from. Standing back, I'm just going, 'What the [expletive] are these guys thinking?'"

Hagar, who took over the singing chores in VAN HALEN after David Lee Roth left the band, is widely considered the better singer of the two. However, Hagar never managed to dazzle the crowd quite like Roth did. After an 11-year-run with the band, Hagar was fired or he quit (depending on whom you ask).

"The difference between Dave and I in that band, besides all the other million things, is that he can't sing any of the 'Van Hagar'-era songs, "Sammy told The Boston Phoenix in a 2012 interview. "Maybe he could do 'Finish What Ya Started', possibly — so that makes it kind of weird for [Alex and Eddie], I think, to take 11 years out of that thing."

VAN HALEN guitarist Eddie Van Halen explained to The Washington Times in a new interview that recording a live album these days is a world apart from what it entailed back in the 1970s and 1980s. "In the old days, to make a live record, you had to have a mobile truck following you everywhere and all the B.S. that comes along with it," he said. "Not to mention the money it costs. Nowadays, we've got a Pro Tools rig out by the console, and we just let it run every night."

He continued: "When it came to doing a live record, none of us wanted to sit there and listen to 200 shows to pick the best one. So we left it up to Dave… Dave said, 'How about Tokyo Dome?' We said, 'Fine.' The bonus of that show was we didn't have an opening act. So we played much longer. It's about a two-hour show."