Surviving Eddie

[King Loudness]

All has changed trust me. He has been sober 2 years now and is just ripping on the guitar. He is a different guy now. I was around for the time in that article and it was a dark sad time. Thankfully it is gone.

We need to get Ed playing a Friedman Brown Eye as opposed to the 5150 III...

 

[mentoneman]

All has changed trust me. He has been sober 2 years now and is just ripping on the guitar. He is a different guy now. I was around for the time in that article and it was a dark sad time. Thankfully it is gone.

that's great news. i still believe he can put a killer album together and i'd love roth to be the singer on it.

what would be great is if hagar was asked to sing on one tune with roth, and they let mike anthony jam and sing on a couple as well.

just bury that hatchet and make it a feel good healing effort for all.

 

[Stramm8]

i was there that day. wow.

but i still think they could put one more good album together if eddie worked really hard.
but i won't be going to the tour regardless.

As fucked up as he was in this; he could still playe circles around me Obviously, you would expect a lot more out the guy. Like Dave said and based on some of the clips from NAMM and some recent pics, he looks and sounds pretty good. If he has cleaned up, it would be great if he would "own up" and make some ammends with some folks most importantly Mike Anthony. That said, I stand by my original statement - Sammy Hagar is a douche. Even though I believe everything he had to say about Ed and his behavior.

 

[joepete77]

Wow!! That looks like a great read. I dont doubt that sammy is telling the truth about what a mess ed was. That being said, Sammy is still just a suit pretending to be a rocker. If anything , I have even more respect for ed , especially after reading the part about him telling kenny chesney that he has to go take a shit, and telling that tool toby keith that he wears the cowboy hat only to hide his bald head!! Fucking classic, thats rocknroll . Figures sammy would hang with dildos like that. Great pic of sammy in his versace miami vice suit yet he speaks down about eddies jeans and boots. I hope eddie stays clean and doesnt completly waste away, he is truly a one of a kind talent. I would guess he had an opiate and a cocaine addiction along with being a severe alchoholic. Hope those days are behind him.

 

[BYTOR]

Eddie sounded awesome on that 1995 Pensacola Florida show DVD that I downloaded from the net.
Played his ass off and his original 5150 peavey and Musicman Evh guitar sounded great.
The Sammy era tunes they played on that tour are all great songs and I am sure Eddie is probably more proud of those tunes than many of his so called iconic ones.
I love original vintage Eddie, but I also love many Sammy era tunes and Ed showed growth as a guitarist during those years. The breakup with Hagar, and Eddies ego not being able to humble himself to make things good with Sammy so that they could still make records is what has messed up Eddie ever since. Eddie would much rather be doing a record with Sam than DLR. His ego and lack of the tools that one has to have to know how to let things go and to make things right is what the problem is. Sammy had/has a very successful and happy life outside of VH and ED can't/couldn't handle that.
Having said all of that I sure hope that he has some kick ass playing and good songs on this record. He is still the gold standard for me for hard rock guitar playing and tone.

 

[Ethn Hayabusa]

Bummer to read how bad Eddie had fallen. I hope he really has cleaned up. I also hope the surgery he had on his hands helps his playing.

I like Sammy a lot as a person, and I think he is a legendary singer, even if I don't like a lot of the tunes he sang on. I don't really think that Sammy's voice was necessarily the main reason their sound changed so much. I think Eddie just wrote like that (stuff like "Why Can't This Be Love", and Finish What Ya Started") all along, but had a lot of those song ideas rejected by Roth. After all, Roth didn't want to do "Jump" initially.

I admit I have a bias, since I really, really hate Roth's voice. As much as I love early Van Halen, I always wish Roth wasn't the singer.

5150, 1984 and Fair Warning are my favorites.

 

[Cornfordcrunch]

As a VH freak, this is heartbreaking to read. I guess I kind of figured when both Roth and Hagar said similar things about Ed's behavior it was probably true...but still sad to hear that he's been pretty much a cock for the last 15-20 years. He is the last one of my guitar hero's that I havent met and had the opportunity to hang out with and Im not sure I'd want to at this point for fear of him being a complete dick and ruining every shred of admiration I have for the guy.

As for the Roth/Hagar thing.....Roth era= hungry, fire fueled, amazing riffs and rhythm playing, not to mention tone. Hagar era=better songs(songs..not riffs) with real hooks, but boring(For the most part) and predictable as HELL!

 

[Pickup]

Hell the book is for sale in the VHstore. That in itself discredits the whole band imo. Greedy is the word for today.

 

[bsp01]

What a fucking pansy... writing a "tell-all" book. I love them all, VH, VHagar, Sammy, Dave, Ed, Alex and Mike, and it's sad to know they've had so many issues, but really, a book like that just reeks.

I just think things like that are best kept amongst the people who need to know. Family, friends (so-called), and people who are directly affected. Of course people will buy it to read it, people love dirt, but it's not really anything everyone needs to know the details of. Unless you're looking to free yourself from any blame.

Did Sammy think he was doing people a favor by playing that tour with EVH in that state? For him to have a leg to stand on, he should have canceled when he saw the way Eddie was.

Just pathetic.

 

[Sheik_Yerbouti]

Sammy just never could get over playing second-fiddle to Dave in VH. He could never come to grips with the fact that no matter how hard he tried, VH with Dave sold more records, made more money and would always be more in demand than anything he ever did.

Ed's definitely got some serious problems, but Sammy's ego is just as out-of-control.

 

[tweed]

All has changed trust me. He has been sober 2 years now and is just ripping on the guitar. He is a different guy now. I was around for the time in that article and it was a dark sad time. Thankfully it is gone.

That's pretty much what I've heard from more than one source. I would love another album to hit the shelves soon just like a lot of guitarists here, but that news in and of itself is great!

 

[OldSkoolNJ]

Sammy just never could get over playing second-fiddle to Dave in VH. He could never come to grips with the fact that no matter how hard he tried, VH with Dave sold more records, made more money and would always be more in demand than anything he ever did.

Ed's definitely got some serious problems, but Sammy's ego is just as out-of-control.

I dunno man every Van Halen album with Hagar on it went to #1 compared to Zero #1's with DLR

They also had more actual Hits with Hagar..

Not debating the actual sold numbers because with DLR they released 6 albums with an 8 year head start Compared to just 4 with Hagar.

 

[Schaf]

Sammy just never could get over playing second-fiddle to Dave in VH. He could never come to grips with the fact that no matter how hard he tried, VH with Dave sold more records, made more money and would always be more in demand than anything he ever did.

Ed's definitely got some serious problems, but Sammy's ego is just as out-of-control.

I really don't think Sammy has anything to be jealous about. He's very successful and not just music either. I've seen him before, during, and after Van Halen. I liked him in Van Halen. But, I liked DLR too. Just different.

Every Show I've went to when Sammy performed has always been a good one. Always put on a good fun show. But then again, I've been a fan since since the Montrose days.

Get on yo bad motor scooter and ride...............

Schaf

 

[MisterBulbous]

Sammy seems to be the type who wants to be recognized for having a party-time image and Eddie seems to enjoy partying without anybody caring about it. I can recall many shows and radio interviews where Sammy talked about his Tequilla business, his references to partying, etc. Hell, in concerts, he always told the crowd he was gonna "go back stage, kick back a few beers, and listen to the greatest guitarist in the world" (during ed's solo spot).

 

[luther910]

Like so many i was a big fan of Van Halen up to the album 1984, even though 5150 had it's moments. Doesn't matter that Diamond Dave had his vocal limitations, he was the perfect frontman! In the later years i think the signs of Eddies serious substance abuse has been all to clear, so the revelations in this book should probably not come as a surprise. Must admit that its a sad read though. I think that Eddies ability to play guitar may have been permanently damaged. His paranoia and way of treating his bandmates is probably also a result of personality changes from his substance abuse. Of course i would be happy to be proven wrong.

 

[mortega76]

Wow.... great read... thanks for posting.

 

[twenty4_7spy]

It is, um, sobering, to read what can happen to someone who fails to control their baser impulses. I have danced with the whole abuse thing, and as is common in people, I had to have something happen to me before I woke up and decided that it was better to live sober than die drunk. I am glad that Ed has apparently come to this conclusion as well, and I hope he continues to make music with the same level of intensity as he showed the world in his youth.

I think there is something common in creative geniuses of all types - they tend to live hard, and die young. The history of music is littered with such tragic characters. I am glad Ed will not be one of them.

Today I am listening to VHII for what must be the millionth time, and it sounds amazing to me. Just like the first time, I am astounded by his tone and virtuosity, by the way he plays with controlled abandon. In fact, his playing has me Jonesing for old Marshalls to play my new Charvel through, so my rekindled obsession with EVH is going to cost me big time.

Long Live EVH!!!

Matt

 

[reverymike]

It's a beautiful thing if he's managed to come out of that phase of his life and is once again 'back to the old EVH."

I trust Dave, and the other people who have said this, and I REALLY can't wait to hear the new music!!

 

[Sheik_Yerbouti]

Sammy just never could get over playing second-fiddle to Dave in VH. He could never come to grips with the fact that no matter how hard he tried, VH with Dave sold more records, made more money and would always be more in demand than anything he ever did.

Ed's definitely got some serious problems, but Sammy's ego is just as out-of-control.

I really don't think Sammy has anything to be jealous about. He's very successful and not just music either. I've seen him before, during, and after Van Halen. I liked him in Van Halen. But, I liked DLR too. Just different.

Every Show I've went to when Sammy performed has always been a good one. Always put on a good fun show. But then again, I've been a fan since since the Montrose days.

Get on yo bad motor scooter and ride...............

Schaf

Don't get me wrong, I LIKE Sammy, and I'm FAR from one of the "Dave-or-the-Grave" crowd. I've seen Sam several times over the years both with and without Van Halen and I've also seen VH many times with Dave, and their tightest musical performance as a band was BY FAR on the Balance tour with Sammy, IMO. Sammy is also easily a much better pure singer than Dave is, but for the overwhelming majority of us who came up listening to the classic Dave material, it's virtually impossible to top!

Sammy has always had an ego problem with Dave, though. He's made comments here and there since the day he joined the band about Dave, and they really had some problems towards the end of the Sam & Dave tour, and Sammy really does come off to me as not understanding why, in spite of his own success with Van Halen, MOST people prefer the band with Dave, and not being real happy about it.

But yeah, who wouldn't trade places with Sammy if they could? I'm guessing it doesn't exactly suck to be him these days, either!

 

[mixohoytian]

I'm pretty sure Eddie was on meth or some kind of upper...
not just alcohol

sounds terrible to deal with

hopefully he'll stay clean, cause he was great with Roth on the reunion tour