Sammy Hagar Dismisses Feud With Van Halen's David Lee Roth

William Lee | 11-01-2019

Sammy Hagar says that there wasn't any animosity between him and Original Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth during their 2002 joint tour, remembering only "crazy moment" during the trek.

The former Van Halen singer recently sat down with Classic Rock and was asked about the coheadlining tour he did with Roth, specifically if it really got "fractious" or if that was played up for the public and Sammy responded, "It got totally played up. There wasn't any animosity. Well, there was one crazy moment in Raleigh, Carolina where Dave flipped out."

He then explained, "So, we were flip-flopping as headliners. When Dave opened he was much better off. I had Michael Anthony in my band, we played four or five Van Halen songs, I had my waitresses come out and bring us drinks during the show � half-naked. Dave did all his '83/84 stuff with the scarves and stuff. It was like a karaoke band compared to what we were doing. He'd be in a bad mood when he was headlining, cos you cannot follow us.

"So one night he's walking to the stage, all dressed up, and my drummer went: 'How's it going, ladies�' He meant to add '�and gentlemen', but it came out too late. Dave fucking flipped: 'Fuck you, you motherfucker.'

"His bodyguards started pushing people around. I come out of my dressing room, naked apart from a towel, like: "Damn, Dave, you need to settle down and have a good show, brother."

"So they ended up building a barricade between us. But yeah, it was overplayed. Dave and I don't hate each other. If we saw each other we'd hug and buy each other a drink. [Laughing] I don't know how long we'd hug for, but we'd hug."