A live record is all about the audience. When I record in concert, I make sure they have audience mics all over the place.
A string of broken promises ensued that saw Eddie and Alex going straight into the studio to work on music for a film soundtrack, and I was conned into working on it.
All he cares about is going out there with his Jack Daniels bottle. Nothing has changed. That's kind of sad. If David was doing better than he used to be, then that would be different. But it was a joke and he made it that way.
Dave was great in Van Halen. No question about it. He was one of the best at being Mr. Rock Star. But it's sickening to see a guy still trying to be that with a wig on 20 years later.
Every year on your birthday, you get a chance to start new.
Everything I've learned, felt and experienced with Van Halen is solid within me. There is no longer a hang-up with it.
Everything that Eddie has said about me is the total opposite of what really happened. Eddie says I wanted to be a solo artist. No, Eddie wanted to be a solo artist.
I didn't think I'd be around 30 years later.
I don't like dragging kids, young kids especially, through the darkness because I believe in positive. Yin and yang, black or white. I'm an up guy.
I don't want to talk about negative, dark things. The only thing I've got against stuff like Marilyn Manson is, they make unbelievable videos and unbelievable images.
I had a solo career before Van Halen. My fan base filtered through Van Halen with me and came right on out the other side with me.
I had written lyrics to a song called The Silent Extreme, which Alex later renamed Humans Being.
I looked at Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and the boys up there thinking, I want to be that.
I see couples fighting about the stupidest things. You just have to rise above everything.
I think all the bad blood started when Geffen released a greatest hits package of my solo stuff.
I wasn't writing the music. Ed would write a piece of music. I'd listen to it and come up with a melody and then we would arrange it. We'd put it together and I would write lyrics to my melodies.
I would like to enlighten people.
I'm John Lee Hooker in the sense that he was a blues man and he played blues his whole life. I'm a rock guy and I'm going to play rock music my whole life.
I'm not just a blind party person. I have a good time because I believe in it and I think it's healthy to have fun in life.
I'm still raising kids myself, so I don't feel like a grandpa.
I've been drinking tequila for a long time now, and it's never been about drinking to get drunk. I don't do that. I never drink tequila during the day, and I don't drive at night.
I've never done a box set, and Eddie's full of it if he says otherwise.
I've never met or spoken to David Lee Roth, yet it's rather ironic that even he's saying Eddie's lying about things. I'm saying he's not telling the truth, yet Eddie insists that the two of us are lying! You be the judge.
If I would go up on a high note, Eddie would want a low one. That's how petty the situation had become.
If I would have ever dreamed that I wouldn't be in Van Halen anymore and was going to have resume my solo career again, I would have never contributed anything towards my own greatest hits package.
If they called me up, I would puke.
If you don't ever stop singing, your voice stays in shape. It's like the marathon runner. You've got to run, run, run to stay in shape.
In Van Halen there were moments, like in some of the ballads, I put my heart and soul into those records. Those lyrics when I sang 'em, I gave myself goosebumps.
It's a good thing I don't read everything Eddie says, or I'd be up in arms and not enjoying my life.
It's hard to say this about a guy like Eddie Van Halen, one of the greatest guitar players who ever lived, but he's really limited to a style and they're locked into it.
It's not easy being in a band for 11 years, a band of that caliber, and then striking out on your own completely.
My family took precedence over Eddie's demands. I may have pulled a prick move by not showing up when Eddie told me to, but I had very good reasons. Nobody gives me an ultimatum. I'm not the type of guy you do that to.
My only commitment to Geffen was a week's worth of press in New York, plus a week in Los Angeles,and that would end my involvement.
Our manager had promised me that after we finished the Twister project, that was it. I told him point blank that we needed a break from each other.
Overall, we had about 50 meetings where the brothers would say that I couldn't do any solo records, I couldn't write for other people, I couldn't do this and I couldn't do that. These guys were trying to nail my feet to the ground.
Sometimes you're afraid to fall in love with a chick, but she sucks you in anyway.
The reason I didn't fly over from Maui at their beck and call is my wife was about to have a baby at any time. Those guys knew that. These guys would not compromise and meet me halfway.
The reason my voice is sounding more passionate is because I'm singing directly from the heart.
To stay a great singer or guitar player, you've got to do it 24/7. That's what I do.
We needed time off from each other after our last tour because there was a lot of personal stuff we had to take care of. Eddie needed hip replacement surgery. Al needed his back worked on. And I was going to have a baby.
We were all at wits' end. Eddie was walking around with a cane on painkillers because his hip hurt so badly; Alex had a neck brace on. A massage therapist comes to his house every day just so he can get out of bed.
When Eddie and Alex got wind of what was going down with my greatest hits record, they called my attorney. They thought something was up.
When I left Van Halen, I went in the studio and made a CD called Marching to Mars with all studio musicians. I did it immediately. With the disappointment riding on my shoulders of the breakup of the band.
When they brought Roth back into the picture, obviously I didn't go along with that too well.
When we were on the road, I found out that my greatest hits album went Gold. They freaked out. Things really came to a head when we started arguing about a Van Halen greatest hits package.
Sammy is right handed.
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