SAMMY HAGAR Thinks His Book Will Light Fire Under VAN HALEN

According to The Pulse Of Radio, former VAN HALEN singer Sammy Hagar thinks his newly-released autobiography, which spills a lot of dirt about his days with the band, will get them riled up enough to make a great record with original frontman David Lee Roth. The group is currently in the studio with Roth for the first time since 1983, but Hagar told MTV Hive, "I heard it's not going so good. This is what I've heard through the grapevine, that they've already fired one producer and Ed [Van Halen] and Dave supposedly can't be in the same room together. If they can't be in the same room together, how can they make a record? I think I'm doing VAN HALEN a favor with my book. It may put a fire under their asses to swallow some pride and make another record for the fans."

Hagar's last album with VAN HALEN was 1996's "Balance", but he says that his relationship with Eddie was already crumbling at the time. "Ed needs somebody to make decisions and a leader, you know," he said. "He's not a natural born leader kind of guy. And his brother [drummer Alex Van Halen] was always the leader before or Roth was the leader before, and when Roth left, his brother and him bumped heads so much, when I walked in it was like, 'Well, what does Sam wanna do?' you know. So it became kind of like, yeah, I was making all the decisions, so then on 'Balance' all of a sudden he didn't like my decisions and it was like really weird."

Hagar and Roth actually toured together some years back, when neither man was involved with VAN HALEN, but Hagar shared his opinion of his VAN HALEN predecessor, saying, "Straight up? He's not a friendly guy. He's not a nice guy at all. And he's no freakin' fun. Here's a guy who makes an image out of being a party animal, getting the babes and having a good time. But on tour, you knock on his dressing room door and he won't come out . . . He is not the guy that I expected him to be. He's just an act. Or maybe he just didn't like me. Maybe I'm too much fun for him. Or maybe I sing too well and it scares him."

Hagar's book, "Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock", arrived in stores last week. Hagar repeats in the book his claim that he was once abducted by aliens.

He has recently started recording the second album from CHICKENFOOT, the supergroup which also features ex-VAN HALEN bassist Michael Anthony, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS drummer Chad Smith, and guitarist Joe Satriani.

VAN HALEN reunited with Roth in 2007 for a massively successful world tour, and announced in January that they were entering the studio to record the first album with Roth on the mic since 1984.