Van Halen---The debate to end it all.

This seems like a good place to point out that Sammy Hagar is 63 years old (born 10/13/1947) ... as in, he's older than Robert Plant (born 8/20/48), Ozzy Osbourne (12/3/48) and Gene Simmons (8/25/49) and only two years younger than Eric Clapton (3/30/45) and five years younger than Paul McCartney (6/18/42).

That blew my mind when I first realized it.

 

Dave is a rock star and a showman. Hagar just sucks. Doesn't get it and never will.

I saw one Cherone show on MTV once upon a time ago. He was not terrible.

 

Why do these things stick on my head?

Greatest Van of all-time.

Anyway, if any of the other Vans have a laser of death like the Super Van did, lemme know.

 

It's .... not .... even ... close.

Hagar was OK, particularly at first, but Dave had it goin' on.

 

Another great "Van":

 

"Dude, that's my skull!"

 

No love for Montrose?

 

I have the 8 track:

 

Hagar has been the lead singer for two bands named after someone else, which pretty much says it all ...

That said, he did sell Cabo Wabo tequila for $100 million, so he's not a total moron.

 

Why even list Cherone as a possibility? And I think you knew Roth would be winning this from the start.

 

OK, I'll be the bad guy here. "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" is a GREAT album. GREAT. Perhaps some of my fondness is for the memories--it reminds me of backseats, as Shoeless Joe might put it--but the 1-2 punch of "Poundcake" and "Runaround" is the last gasp of the album rock era. GREAT ALBUM.

And "5150" is no slouch either. Some great, great driving tunes on that album.

Roth is an epic showman, but he and Van Halen put out some filler. And with Roth as lead singer, VH would have peaked in 1986--just as Roth did. Hagar lent the band some maturity (and it's pretty obvious, given the output of each party since the breakup, who was the responsible one in the Hagar-Van Halen troika) and depth Roth couldn't hope to approximate on his best/worst day. VH was the biggest band in rock in the late '80s and early '90s b/c of Hagar.

That said, the final Hagar album, "Balance," was some kind of suck.