Singer PATTY SMYTH Says She Was First Choice To Replace DAVID LEE ROTH In VAN HALEN
February 18, 2014When VAN HALEN parted with frontman David Lee Roth in 1985, his eventual replacement, Sammy Hagar, was not the band's first choice to fill Roth's shoes. According to The Pulse Of Radio, guitarist Eddie Van Halen asked Patty Smyth of the group SCANDAL to join the band first, which Smyth has now recounted in a new interview with Delaware Online.
She recalled, "They had asked me not to talk about it in interviews at the time, because they didn't want Sammy Hagar to feel like he was the second choice. It was a long time ago; I never bring it up, but people do ask me about it and there's no reason to deny it."
Smyth said that Eddie's request for her to join was "dead serious," adding, "We talked about it repeatedly. I had several problems with it. I had just gotten pregnant with my daughter; I didn't want to move to California, plus those guys were partying very hard at that time."
SCANDAL, which had several hits in the '80s, broke up soon after and Smyth went on to record as a solo act. But she said she had no regrets about passing up the VAN HALEN offer.
Smyth said, "In retrospect, I would have loved to have played with Eddie and the guys. I haven't always made all of the right decisions from a career perspective, but things worked out in the end."
VAN HALEN eventually recruited Hagar, who sang on four studio albums between 1986 and 1995 before he quit the group in 1996. Hagar rejoined for a 2004 tour but left again after that, paving the way for the current reunion with Roth, which began in 2007 with a world tour.
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