Ah, the media nastiness - or ticket-sale hype - continues to flail about the egos of Van Halen's two mega-vocalists as the band preps for its upcoming tour with original frontperson David Lee Roth.
Recently, Roth took a jab at Hagar, stating that Van Halen would not be performing any tunes from the Hagar era on the tour. The main reasons, according to Roth, were a "credibility issue" about his singing Sammy's songs, and the fact the Hagar tenure in the band delivered less than half the sales of his own reign.
"Why would you bring that into the proceedings?" asked Roth. "This hamburger don't need no helper."
But the statistics don't necessary reveal a totally nuclear Diamond Dave smack down of the Red Rocker.
Here are a few things to consider:
[1] Roth absolutely wins the Van Halen commerce battle with 57 million sales worldwide to Hagar's 27 million worldwide sales. However, it took seven albums for Roth to reach that number (Van Halen in 1978, Van Halen II in 1979, Women and Children First in 1980, Fair Warning in 1981, Diver Down in 1982, 1984 in 1984, and A Different Kind of Truth in 2012), while Hagar hit his mark with four albums (5150 in 1986, OU812 in 1988, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge in 1991, and Balance in 1995).
[2] Of those four Hagar albums, all four hit a peak on the U.S. charts of #1. The highest-charting Roth-led Van Halen album was a #2, and it took until 1984 to snatch that. (He repeated the deuce in 2012 with A Different Kind of Truth.)
[3] Roth's highest-selling Van Halen albums were Van Halen (17 million) and 1984 (17 million). Hagar's topper was 5150 (11 million).
[4] If you take Roth's 57 millions sales and divide it by the seven albums it took to get there, his "per album sales average" is 8.14 million. Do the same for Hagar — divide his 27 million sales by four albums — and you get a "per album sales average" of 6.75 million.
[5] For the heck of it, let's multiply Hagar's "per album sales average" by the seven Van Halen albums fronted by Roth. That puts Hagar at 47.25 million sales to Roth's 57 million. Still a solid win for Roth, but no nuclear winter.
So what we have are two thrilling lead vocalists that helped Van Halen sell a ton of albums. Fans can debate the rest.
That said, if Hagar ever gets frustrated with Roth's media daggers, he can take solace in the fact that his net worth is estimated at $120 million, while Diamond Dave has to make do with $40 million. And that discrepancy IS a smack down.
And here's another little comparison test for funzies:
"Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" with Sammy
"Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" with Dave
“Eddie told us that he copied that style from listening to us. He was a big fan of the band and came to see us play regularly.” Rick Derringer recalls a young Eddie Van Halen and performing with Johnny Winter
“They said, 'You've got to do it,' but I'm so glad they did. It became my biggest song.” The guitarist behind a power-pop gem almost let his hit single pass him by
