Van Halen alumni Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony have reflected on one of Van Halen’s more unlikely shows, when they played during a blizzard.
On the road in 1995 to support their 10th studio album, Balance which would prove to be Hagar’s fifth and final record with the band, their stop in Denver provided less than hospitable conditions. But, as the old adage goes, the show must go on, and Eddie Van Halen and company plowed through the storm to deliver an exhaustive 21-song set — even if that meant to resorting to every cold-conquering measure they could think of.
“It looked like we were playing for 18,000 snowmen,” Hagar says of the show at the Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre. The date was September 20, making for a decidedly unseasonal cold snap.
“Eddie ended up playing half the show with gloves with the fingertips cut out, if you could imagine,” he continues. “We had giant heaters onstage — you name it, we did the whole show. The craziest thing ever."
The clip shared shows the band performing “Poundcake,” a song released four years earlier on For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. The tune famously features a Makita 6012HD power drill in its intro and guitar solo after Eddie Van Halen heard a technician using it in the studio, and loved its engine-like quality. Paul Gilbert, of course, had taped guitar picks to a power drill for "Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy" that same year.
"Poundcake" was the penultimate song of the night and was executed under a maelstrom of snow.
After thanking the crowd for sticking through the extreme conditions, Hagar said, “The promoter and our management asked if we wanted to cancel the show. We said, ‘Fuck no, man.’ If you can do it, we can do it.”
“The place was packed and everybody looked like a Q-tip out there,” bass guitarist Anthony recalls, 30 years on. “It was no big deal for the audience!”
Eight inches of snow had fallen that day. Power lines had been downed, and millions of trees were said to be damaged, but the band played on.
The following year, tensions between Hagar and EVH came to a head, with the singer departing from the group. Original vocalist David Lee Roth returned to the fold for a brief reunion before turning to Extreme singer Gary Cherone for their next album, Van Halen III.
Speaking to Jeremy White about his three-year stint in the band in 2023, Cherone said he believes he added something different to the mix.
“As far as Eddie, I think our writing partnership was different than the other guys, in the sense that I would show him a lyric. It was the first time he would write to a lyric,” he had said.
“It was something that me and [Extreme guitarist] Nuno [Bettencourt] did forever. But that was something new for [Ed], which inspired him in different directions.
“I think with the Sammy era... they knew who they were. With me coming into the fold, we were discovering who we were.”
It looked like we were playing for 18,000 snowmen
Sammy Hagar
Hagar has since taken aim at his predecessor, Roth, stating that EVH was a better songwriter for his presence in the group, as he had far fewer limitations.
Earlier this year, the singer finally released the track he claimed he wrote with Eddie Van Halen in a dream. He also stated that EVH was more interested in the cello than the guitar before he died.
Eddie's son, Wolfgang, has been keeping his dad's legacy alive by recording with his infamous Frankenstein Strat, a guitar that has recently been the subject of a free-to-air documentary charting Eddie's love for modding.
