Sammy Hagar believes Van Halen tried to “bury” material from his tenure fronting the band, but he also believes music from that era is “never gonna die.”
“It seems like since Van Halen did the [David Lee] Roth reunion that they tried to really bury the Van Hagar era,” Hagar tells UCR. “They wouldn’t remaster it, they wouldn’t allow it to be in movies. They wouldn’t allow it to be licensed for video games and commercials.”
Hagar understands the band’s motive - to a point. “They pushed everything from the Roth era, because they were doing that reunion. Understood,” he explains. Still, he can’t help but feel like some of his work with the band was slighted. “It’s such great material. All number-one albums. You know, 50 million records.”
These days, Hagar regularly mixes material from his Van Halen tenure into live sets with his band the Circle. “I don’t care how proud I am of my own stuff, I can’t ignore that,” he notes. “That’s the biggest peak of my career. But I don’t exploit it too much.”
He points out that Van Hagar material consistently gets a strong response from his fans, regardless of which song he performs.