5. VAN HALEN

David Lee Roth left the band in 1985 due to tension with guitarist
Eddie Van Halen. After the band was turned down by its first choice for
a replacement (Patty Smyth, lead singer of Scandal), Van Halen settled
on Sammy Hagar. After producing four albums with the band (all of which
reached No. 1 on the Billboard pop music charts), Hagar left the band
in 1996. Gary Cherone (formerly of the band Extreme) was next to
enlist. He produced one album with the band (1998's "Van Halen III")
and left "amicably" in 1999. Hagar reunited with the band for a tour in
2004. Earlier this week, the band announced a summer 2007 tour that may
include Roth as lead singer.

- Chicago Sun-Times (November 8, 2006)

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/music/poprock/127996,CST-FTR-chains08a.art...

"After the band was turned down by its first choice for a replacement
(Patty Smyth, lead singer of Scandal), Van Halen settled on Sammy
Hagar."

Heh. Sammy Hagar was their second choice after a woman. I guess when
they realized no females wanted to join the band, they decided to
"settle on" a male who happened to sound like a female.

FWIW, "settle on" typically refers to a choice you make after you
realize that you can't get what you really wanted, so you choose
something else based on the idea that it is at least better than
nothing.

:)

About what year were they considering Sass Jordan?

Was it after DLR left or after Sammy was booted?

McQ

mcquestion5000@yahoo.com wrote:

In '96 after Hagar was kicked out.

T.B.

"TB" socall.rr.com> wrote in message
news:4js4h.28055$8C4.27734@tornado.socal.rr.com...

She's got a great raspy voice. Probably not right for VH though.

Supposedly VH also wanted Jimmy Barnes, the guy who did the song for "Lost
Boys" with INXS. Might have been 1985 though, I can't remember.

blahblahblah wrote:

She does have a pretty good voice... for a female rock vocalist. I
don't know if I'm sexist (I guess I am, in this case), but most female
rock vocalists don't appeal to me. I like Tina Turner, Ann WIlson and
some Joan Jett, and that's about it. Sass Jordan is familiar to me
because I'm Canadian, and I can hear something in her voice that I
like.

Still, it'd make songs like Hot For Teacher a bit awkward. I'd buy a
one off performance of her singing for VH, though.

This I pretty much remember as being post 1984 DLR quitting, before Sam
joined. I also remember that song well. He might have worked.

Imagine how different the VH landscape (fan-wise) would look today if
Barnes had taken Sam's slot.

McQ