Ronnie Montrose considered David Lee Roth as a replacement for Sammy Hagar in 1975

[unchainedguitars]

Man, Gloria Gaynor was robbed at that 1979 Grammy Awards show!

[Nick AVH fan]

It was also rumored that Bill Aucoin put his feet up on the desk, smirked at the band, and said:
Come see me in thirty years, when there's a third Van Halen on bass...

You sure it wasn't clarinet?

[nobrowncandie10]

It turns out that at first, Ted Templeman, who also produced Montrose's first two records with Sammy Hagar, wanted to sign just Eddie Van Halen, not the rest of the band, and replace David Lee Roth with Sammy Hagar.

But, just like Roth, who had stayed loyal to Van Halen in early 1975; Eddie remained loyal and insisted on keeping the Van Halen band together.

This is all according to Kiss manager Bill Aucoin.



So it would appear that Van Halen nearly recorded the first record with Sammy Hagar, while David Lee Roth nearly sang for Montrose.

It is widely accepted that the David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar rock opera started in the summer of 1985; well all the evidence gathered here so far points to it starting over ten years earlier in 1974/5.

This is the story I have always heard that Templeman said Montrose just fired Hagar you should call him and get rid of Roth.

[DLR 1973]

This is the story I have always heard that Templeman said Montrose just fired Hagar you should call him and get rid of Roth.

Put yourself in Ted Templeman's shoes. In 1978 he was powerful at Warner Brothers for basically making good decisions and surrounding himself with talented people.

I can understand why he considered taking Eddie Van Halen out of the band and teaming him with already proven musicians and an established singer. It probably seemed like a no-brainer to Ted.

I listened to Montrose's first album again today and I can see why Eddie rated it so highly. There's not a weak song on it. To give Sammy his due, he wrote and co -wrote quite a few of the tracks and nailed them.

[DLR 1973]

It makes me wonder, seeing that in Van Halen, Eddie is the source of the music they write, maybe the Van Hagar records are weaker than the Roth records due to Eddie's writing at the time. Maybe Eddie is and was the problem, and not Sammy.

I guess that point is hard to argue with, especially as it was all recorded at Eddie's home studio, 5150.

I remember reading in one of Dave's interviews from 1986 where he said the music Eddie was writing in 1985 sounded morose to Dave's ears. It was another reason why he left; that and because 'Mr Fingers couldn't get out of bed'.

[1234over]

It makes me wonder, seeing that in Van Halen, Eddie is the source of the music they write, maybe the Van Hagar records are weaker than the Roth records due to Eddie's writing at the time. Maybe Eddie is and was the problem, and not Sammy.

Yeah, Eddie was dragging Sammy dowwwn! LOL!

[unchainedguitars]

Yeah, Eddie was dragging Sammy dowwwn! LOL!

I know, man.

It's like Sammy hit the lottery, and VH saved him from being another relic of the 80's.

[VAiN]

I remember reading in one of Dave's interviews from 1986 where he said the music Eddie was writing in 1985 sounded morose to Dave's ears. It was another reason why he left; that and because 'Mr Fingers couldn't get out of bed'.

That song is pretty lame.. terrible vocal aside, it's not a very exciting VH song.. You can hear the burnout - complete with VH III style ending.

[rawkinrobbievh1]

That song is pretty lame.. terrible vocal aside, it's not a very exciting VH song.. You can hear the burnout - complete with VH III style ending.

i always wished that music could've/would've been used as a track with Dave on vocals !!

the riff is classic Eddie , IMO .
i liked hearing it it it's various incarnations (here , Stompin' 8H and Dirty Water Dog) , but i think DLR would have owned this one ...

[DLR 1973]

David Lee Roth Turns 58 Today: 10 Crazy Facts About the Van Halen Icon!



Happy birthday, David Lee Roth! Today (Oct. 10), Diamond Dave turns an amazingly young 58.

To celebrate, Noisecreep thought it would be fun to count down some crazy and interesting facts about the Van Halen frontman. Cake is optional, frosting is not.

1. Did you know... that Dave is the one who suggested the name Van Halen to brothers Alex and Eddie? Van Halen was previously called Mammoth.

2. Did you know... that Dave worked as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) in New York in the early 2000s? Back in 2004, Roth told People magazine that being an EMT was a "perfect job."

3. Did you know... that Dave went on extreme sport-type expeditions to pleaces like the Amazon and Nepal during the '80s with a group of fellow adventurers that called itself the "Jungle Studs."

4. Did you know that... Dave ran the New York City Marathon with a finish time of 6:04:43, which pretty much means he was signing autographs all along the 26.2 mile route.

5. Did you know that... back in 2003, Dave stopped an intruder at his home... with a shotgun. Dave talked with the San Francisco Chronicle about the incident, explaining... "Some character comes crawling over what is truthfully a 15-foot-high wall... He ran half the length of a football field around the corner, and when I finally quietly confronted him from the window, he started babbling in three versions of Martian and takes off running and yelling. One of the beauties of a shotgun is that you don't actually have to aim it at most people if you rack that thing as hard as you can a couple of times. Just like on television, I made him put his hands up behind his head and lie down in the sprinkler system. I went and called the cops. I was a little jumpy."

6. Did you know that... Dave actually developed the Diamond Dave persona in his very first band, the Red Ball Jets? It was then that he learned how to hop around on stage and pose for the camera.

7. Did you know that... Van Halen has been very profitable for Dave? According to the website Celebrity Net Worth, Dave's fortune is at least $40 million large. A big hunk of that likely came from the 2007 Van Halen reunion tours, which netted some $93 million bucks. All those mega selling albums don't hurt, either.

8. Did you know that... Dave once insured his sperm for a million bucks? Well, not so much the sperm, but the unwanted pregnancy associated with said swimmers. In the event Dave knocked up a groupie, his insurance policy would kick in and pay him a million bucks. That money would then go to cover the child support. Naturally, Lloyds of London held the policy. Romantic!

9. Did you know that... Dave was the victim of identity theft? Not in the steal-your-mail-and-credit-card-number way, but in the crazy imposter way. Back in 2008, a story circulated that Dave nearly died while in Ontario because of an allergic reaction to nuts. Turns out, the real Dave has no nut allergies and later Ontario police confirmed a David Lee Roth imposter was running around town, posing as the flamboyant singer. True to form, our beloved Dave says the only thing he's allergic to is "criticism."

10. Finally... some die hard Van Halen fans/historians swear that way back in 1975, David Lee Roth was considered as a replacement for Sammy Hagar in Montrose. If Roth had joined Montrose, the course of American arena rock would have been altered forever.

http://www.noisecreep.com/2012/10/10...roth-birthday/