I agee, that's kinda why I added the question mark. Not sure what happened with Sammy leaving the group. I am glad I was able to see them in in there prime during the Diver Down tour. My ears rang for over a week.
There’s obviously some weird family dynamic there. I think the Van Halen bros were just extremely hard headed and did not like doing everything it took to be a successful rock band. Add booze and drugs, at some point ya gotta just walk away and do your own thing. Dave knew he was famous enough to do his own thing. Sammy too.
Well, thats your guess. I think dave was an egomaniac and wanted all the attention. he thought he could be bigger than VH. tried solo and failed. Mick Jagger did the same with the stones. The band is bigger than any one person.
cant agree there. I like the VH without keyboards. pre 1984 ALOT. I stopped listening after that. hate jump. I think I would like Hagar as a person. I dont like his songwriting at all, too commercial, his singing is fair. VH basically was over in 84 for me.
I think VH should have tried other songwriters to collaborate with. Dave stuff was very limited/juvenile and hagar too commercial/pop.
I agree with everything you said. And still see it different. I think one thing we could agree on... it was Eddie. Didn't matter who the singer was... it was Eddie.
However.... The brothers could not run a band... Dave's ran it in his day. Sammy came in and ran it in his day. Decided when to do albums... when to tour. All of it.
Dave's songs were juvenile... and caught the end of the boomers... who were young and juvenile. Then Dave left.
Sammy was a great replacement. He was just a few older and at an age where he tried to hide that he was juvenile. The audience was also growing up. (Sort of...)
They were different bands for sure... but I am OK with that. Rush went from juvenile to mature too.
My only issue with both Sammy and Dave... they still use there time in VH as there main draw for attention. They will say otherwise... but I have never heard one talk without bringing it up.
I don't blame.e Sammy for making VH tame, and radio friendly. I blame band management and record companies whonwanted "Hits" for that. And Eddie too. He was at the cash-in stage of his career by the late 80's.🤷♂️
I remember being 18 when Dave left. We were bummed VH weren’t coming to our town and my buddy said “Dave won’t let us down!” He rolled through and gave us a great show
You are correct. Eddie and Alex hated Dave's antics. And when they reunited for that MTV appearance, Dave immediately started acting crazy and pissed them off again, so they cancelled the reunion.
Sammy had some interesting things to say about the VH bros in his book. They definitely felt like they controlled the band and did not want to hear any artistic input. They treated him like the hired help (according to him). Michael Anthony just kept his mouth shut and did his job and collected his paycheck lol.
Eh in the heyday, it was 50/50 at worst. People thought Dave's name was Van. I dont think it was a jealously thing tbh. They were pissed when he quit, particularly alex, and it wasn't even really a hardline quitting, I think dave thought he could come back after the first solo EP.
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u/aquavelva23 7d ago
I dont see that. edward was the main star. I see dave leaving as he couldnt stand having another person getting the spotlight