David Lee Roth - Why Van Halen is Different with Sammy Hagar | Joe Rogan

Are some bands like West Side Story, where you can continually revitalize the production Right, with different actors. With different actors. Okay. A whole lot of Shakespeare going on. Yeah. Okay. But you have to kind of replicate the initial sound, or do you? Well- Because I'm sure all of Beethoven's early orchestras are dead. Dead in fried chicken. Well, let me speak just because I don't think you can say this, because this is a part of my youth. Van Halen was a part of my youth. I mean, we used to drew the Van Halen logo on our notebooks in high school, along with the rolling stones, like the mouth and, you know, all the kiss logo. When it switched over to Sammy Hagar, it became a different thing. It was a different thing. It was a whole different pivot. I mean, it wasn't a bad thing. No, no. But it was a different thing. All of Sam's lyrics contain love. Yes. Okay. Why can't this be love? And I ain't talking about love. We'll be right back with more fighting after this. Van Halen, come on. Oh, it was a different time. Who do I jog with? I don't. I run. Who's my running partner? Yeah. Running with the devil. Hello. Okay. You want to keep going? Yeah. Keep going. Should I jump? Should I jump? Jump. Might as well jump. Thank you. See ya! Yeah. I mean, come on. Yeah, no. It's a... questions and love are a great... classically, that's Sinatra. Yeah. Okay. But I'm not well-adjusted. Nobody in my job ever was much less kept it this long. And I faced it, embraced it, like a Brazilian song. Yeah. You follow? Put a choke on it. No, it's all right there in the lyrics. Yeah. Even using what are considered classic music parlor tricks, taking a very sad lyric and positioning it against a very happy piece of music. The music is romping. It's a heavy metal rumble. Doop doop doop doop. Doop doop doop. And the lyric is, she's crying. Yeah. Jamie's crying. You didn't notice that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's... there's a sense of larceny. There's chaos to it. In the lyric. There's a sense of... it's music for after midnight when we're all guilty, Joe. Yeah. Whereas... and again, nothing wrong with the Sammy Hagar thing, but it moved into a mall crowd. It was a different sort of a vibe. It was a good vibe for a lot of folks, but it was a different vibe. I mean, I don't have anything against Sammy Hagar. I think he's wonderful. I always loved that song, Can't Drive 55. He's got some great shit, but I never will listen to the Van Halen with Van Hagar. I just didn't listen to it. To me, it was like, it was the end of an era for me. It's two different folks. Yes. I wanted to be the art project, not just wear one. Yeah. So by placing everything we've discussed, if you think of it as cross training, that's a great rationale. Yeah. Why'd you do that? And then you did this? Why? It's cross training. It's going to re-inform your sound. It's going to re-inform the way you... Who you are. Your stage craft. How you even walk out on stage. Yeah. Your choice of what to wear. Yeah. You follow? And your sense of humor especially. Well, that's a great way to look at what you were talking about with the West Side Story analogy, because it kind of went on, but it kind of didn't. It's like if you took West Side Story and then you changed the story. You can't change the story, but you can change the voices. Yeah. But it would be a different story. Like the Van Halen story became a different story. All right. Here, I'll venture this. One of my favorite freeze dried bands in history is Toto. Why freeze dried? Well, all freeze dried coffee looks the same. And it's great. I've been camping and man, there's nothing better than just a cup of fresh freeze dried in the wrongest places. That's some context. It's the best thing you could ever hear. That Africa song is a good song. It's an amazing song. No, that's Smithsonian level. Yes. Song. Yes. Okay, Rosanna and so forth. Toto's amazing. Any of the fellas could walk up to me and I wouldn't recognize them. No. You know I said... I would not recognize them. There I would say is the greatest genius in all of music in that regard, Steve Miller. Nobody knows who the fuck Steve Miller is. Steve Miller. Yeah, but I mean he had some jamming songs. Everybody knows those songs. And if you even start to play... And everybody goes, getting ready to sing. Yeah, Jungle Love. I mean, goddamn, he had some jams. But that guy could go anywhere. And then there are artists where you just can't replace it. Right? Yes. Stewart. Right. Are you a blue one of the best vocals in history of any genre? All together. Oh, yeah. That's a no-wait division thing. And yeah, one of the all-time greats, the Ali is probably Rod Stewart. Yeah. Okay. His songs, you can have other people sing them, but it becomes something other. Now Journey, I would recognize the guitar player, but that's just because I listened to that part of the band. Okay. My favorite part of the orchestra is the gong. I just want to clarify that. But Steve Perry, who sang for Journey, okay, was not so much a personality as an eloquent sound. Yes. All right. So it's a universal sound. And if you even get close to it, it is part of every prom, every wedding, every going in and coming out party. Okay. If you're going into the army, that's the last song the band's going to play. You're coming out of jail. Your girlfriend's going to play it while you throw your bag to the side and run. You've seen the movie. Yes. Okay. Even Tony Soprano. We're not sure what happened, but it happened to Journey. Yes. True. That's right. Right. Okay. That's very significant. You can't play a David Lee Roth song and still worry about Tony Soprano. Right. That's true. Half of your mind is going to go, wait a minute. The Long Ranger just walked into the same diner that Tony is. It's why I have no acting career.