Crossover Episode: The Van Halen Showdown, Roth vs Hagar, with Musings of an ADD Mind Podcast
Transcript and Show Notes
Music Rewind host Stephen Epley was the moderator of the ultimate Rock & Roll Debate: Roth vs Hagar - The Van Halen Showdown
This debate was organized and originally hosted on the Musings of an ADD Mind Podcast with host Jack Robertson.
Please support Jack and his amazing show here: Show Page: https://www.podpage.com/musings-of-an-add-mind/ Instagram: @musingsofanaddmind
https://bit.ly/Roth_v_Hagar_Debate
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Transcript as follows:
Participant #1:
Hello and welcome to season two of Music Rewind, a podcast where we love to tell the stories behind our favorite albums. I'm your host, Steve Epley, and in each episode, I will invite a guest on to tell us about their favorite music album, how they discovered it, and what makes it special to them. Hey there, listeners. A few months ago, I had the opportunity to collaborate with Jack Robertson of the Musings of an Add Mind podcast. You might remember Jack from our episode covering the soft bulletin by The Flaming Lips. Well, Jack asked me to moderate a debate. And not just any debate. The greatest rock and roll question there is roth versus Hagar the Ultimate Van Halen Showdown. Enjoy the episode here and then check out Jack's musings on Add Mine. Wherever you listen to great podcasts,
Participant #1:
Jack, here is Musings of an Add Mind. When my kids finally convinced me to start a podcast, I had no idea as to where to begin. When I discovered Anchor, I knew that I had found the solution. Anchor is the easiest way to start and make a podcast. It's everything you need, all for free. Anchor will give you the tools to record and edit your podcast from either your phone or computer. And when you're done, Anchor will distribute your podcast for you to spotify or Apple podcast, as well as a plethora of other podcast apps. And you can make money from your Anchor podcast with no minimum listenership, did I mention that it's free? So if you too want to start a podcast, you can go to your App Store and download the free Anchor app or go to Anchor FM to get started. Welcome to the musings of an add mind podcast. This is your host, Jack, and I have the ad d Mine. Finally, after five and a half months of talking about it, the Van Halen Lead Singer Showdown is occurring. Now, depending on how this goes, my wife is on the opposite team than I am. I might be sleeping on the couch tonight if, as I suspect, Team Hagar is going to destroy Team Roth. So there is that. But I'm very happy to announce that this is being done with Steven Epley, who's the host of Music Rewind podcast, where people come on and talk about their favorite albums. It is an excellent podcast. I highly recommend it, especially if you like music. And if you don't like music, you should listen to it to find out some damn fine albums. So there's that. The way this is going to work. We have the teams. There are five categories. Steven is going to be our moderator and we each are going to get he'll ask the questions. The person can have up to three minutes per question to make their case. He's going to assign points. At the end, we know the first three questions that are going to be asked. But then there's the last two, we have no idea Steven is going to fill us in on or ask us those. So we got to be sharp and on our toes. But I can't tell you the first questions are going to be who is better at not being able to drive 55 miles an hour? The next question is who has the better natural red curly hair? And the third one is who was probably the better gymnast when they were younger? Anyway, those aren't actually the real questions, but he's going to assign points and then if there's a tie at the end, we're going to have to break down. Which is a better Van Halen song with love in it? David Lee Roth talking about love or Sammy Hagars? Why can't this be love? And then one member from the team will get to make the case in case of a tie. And then just for the hell of it afterwards, we're going to talk about who's the better basis, michael Anthony or Wolfgang Ben Halen. So with that being said, I'm going to hand it over to Steven and he's, I guess, going to start moderating this bad boy. So she's all yours. Okay, everyone, gentlemen, lady. The legendary 57 guidebook competitive Debate Rules, Techniques and Decor by George McCoy McGrath. Musgrave will not be followed. Instead, I expect a rowdy, unruly and chaotic debate that is befitting the subject matter. Each team will have three minutes to plead their case per category, earning a point total of one to five per category. And after five categories, highest point total wins. Any questions? No, I'm good. All right. David Lee Roth versus Sammy Hagar. The Great showed up. Question one goes to the David Lee Roth team, which chronologically, I think is the best starting point. I agree. Which frontman had the best stage presence? Team Roth. Go. Would you like me or go first? Heather? Go for it. Brandon. I mean, this is a gimme. It is. This is the category, that's all david Lee Roth. I mean, sure, like if you're seeing Van Halen and you're like 65 years old and you don't want to have a good time or get out of your seat, you want to just stay seated, maybe just listen to some Ronnie Milsapp on the way up to the show. Sure. Samuel Hagar is probably your guy. He's just going to stand there and sing the songs. Maybe you're into Sinatra if you like the Pruners, but if you want like, a badass Joe or somebody jumping up and doing the splits and touching his toes and you're throwing his underwear out to the women because they're throwing his panties at him, this is David Lee Rods. If we're talking about stage presence and, like, showmanship, I mean, come on, this is a gimme. Slam duck. I feel silly even having to argue this. I feel like this is just being automatic. Five points to David Lee Roth and zero to Sammy Hagar. I mean, come on. That was interesting. I do think Larry, though, can actually talk to seeing Ronnie Millsapp live.
Participant #1:
They will bring Ronnie into this. You guys still have a minute and a half left. Okay, do you want to answer this? I agree, it's a no brainer. He does freaking gymnastics, and that's near and dear to my heart. But, yeah, he dresses all flashy and cool. It's completely nostalgic. First of all, that's how we were introduced to Van Halen, is this dude getting out there, jumping around and literally tension. He's a cheerleader antigenous. I mean, it's just freaking cool. There's no doubt about it. And yeah, Brandon is right. If you want to just sit there and listen to a dude scene, then, yeah, Sammy, I guess. But first, frontman Go, there's no question. He just captured a question for you. Yeah. Do you guys think that the reunited David Lee Roth light up. Took that down a notch at all? I mean, it took it down a notch, but it's still about nine notches higher than Sammy Hagar in his prime. Okay, so Eminem had a disk track with she and Gun Kelly, right? He said, I'd rather be 80 year old me than 20 year old you. That's like, I'd rather watch 80 year old David Lee Roth than 20 year old Sammy Hagar. Absolutely. I was wondering how long Machine Gun Kelly would enter the conversation. Nice try to stay relevant, Brandon. That's good. Yeah. Well, to paraphrase Dan Ackroyd from the 1970s, saturday Night Live brandon, you ignorant slut, sammy Hagar is clearly the better front man. Sammy Hagar is the only person singing a song that caused my wife's eardrums to burst at a concert that hasn't happened to other lead singers. And having seen Mr. Samuel Hagar live multiple times, he doesn't just stand there all prone and unable to move, like, say, Brandon's wife when he comes out of the shower naked. And she's scared. So that was a low blow. I apologize, Brandon. Brandon likes low blows when he comes out of the shower naked. Yeah, I think I add some points to Jack's argument. I actually like that. But Sammy does not just stand there doing nothing. Now, does he leave around like a gymnast with bees in his pants? No, he doesn't do that. He's more cultured, more refined, more for the intellectual Van Halen listener. What? That's all I can come up with. I'm going to interject, though, real quick. Hang on. We still got time. Okay, now you're right. You do. I got a timer going. I could stop. All right. Put a pen and there you go. It was not Sammy who was responsible for my blown eardrum. That would have been Eddie Van Halen, I believe. Sammy. Wow. Jackson just straight up lies in his arc. Sammy was singing? No, it was when Eddie Van Halen was doing his riff all by him. So his little solo over there, remember? And he tripped over the amp and he fell on his butt and didn't miss a beat. You were drunk off your butt when we would no.
Participant #1:
Yes. 15 years old, she was trash drunk because she had to do something to have a good time at the same age.
Participant #1:
Okay, that's all I had to say. I'm just saying it had nothing to say. Larry. All right, Larry, what do you have in there? All right, so start mine off with a question. Has anyone ever seen David Lee or off live? Okay. I have. So that tells me everything I need to know. First of all, being a lead singer, a band front man, whatever you want to say, doesn't require you to be excellent at gymnastics. I go to a lot of concerts. And commanding the stage, having a presence as you stalk that bitch the way Sammy Hagar did, when I saw him, it was phenomenal. Now, yeah, David Lee Roth, he can jump a mile in the air. Super. Well, I suppose that's some value if you want to see a guy do the splits. I don't want to know him like that. There's really no dude I want to know like that. I'd rather just have someone come rock my ass off like I experienced when I saw Sammy Hagar, it wasn't the same. Both of them put on a decent enough show, but only one of them really had an encore you wanted. It was Sammy Hagar. And they were playing all their Van Halen stuff. Yeah, they were without Sammy. Or I'm sorry, without Eddie. But Michael Anthony was playing with one guy out there. He was playing with Sammy Hagar, and he was enjoying the hell out of it. That, to me, says everything about someone leading a band, the people who want to be around them. In the case of David Lewis, I could see I have this vision in my mind if we were in a band together, I saw that guy coming my way, I'd probably be like, yeah, I got to come up with an excuse to get out of here, because he may have some flash, some pop on stage. It doesn't really translate to great songs. It doesn't translate to a great show in and of itself. He can whip a microphone, stand around, hit himself in the nose. That's cool. He did that. Jimmy Kimmel. That doesn't make him a great showman. That doesn't make him a great band leader. Sammy Hagar is the type of dude you want to sit down, have a beer with, enjoy life with them. You want to be in that band. You want to be on the front row enjoying every second of that and soaking it up. Not because some guys just kind of a douche you want to be there soaking up the hard rock, soaking up Sammy Hagar. That's true. That sounded a little bit dirty that I expected. Yeah. And I just want to say real quick, though. Larry and I have actually seen the greatest performance on stage, and that was the diamond cutter, Neil Diamond. He blows both of those guys away. You can laugh, but I am not bullshitting you. I will. I did not just out of my curiosity, having not seen Dan Halen at all live, unfortunately. How did Hagar handle the Roth tunes? Just irrelevant to the conversation. Just I'm curious. Yeah, he sang him just fine. He didn't sing him like, oh God, I gotta sing this old crap. He went in and sang everything, gave it all he had for each song. So yeah, he didn't look at it as a I can't sing this. This wasn't my stuff. He went and he sang all of the old stuff, which is more than the other guy does. I mean, are we really based on stage presence on who would rather have beer in a conversation? Exactly. I love having a beer and a conversation with Larry, but I don't want him leading Ban Haley when I go see him. No offense, Larry. No, you probably do. Take it back. That's actually true. I would actually pay good money to see later.
Participant #1:
Yeah. Okay. Question one. Question one is done. I got my score. Should we release these per category or do you want to wait till the end? Let's wait till the end. That way we don't know what we have to fight in favor of. David, you think it's 50 in favor of the douchebags? Okay.
Participant #1:
The guy can jump and do some kickety kicks. Roman Ship. Hello. It gets you in the kitchen.
Participant #1:
Question number two with a catalog that spans decades of hits across the board, which frontman brought more to the recording process as a songwriter? See, that would be goes to hegar first.
Participant #1:
Okay. So if you're basing it strictly on album cells, just quality of the songs. Okay. Quality of the songs. You got to go with Sammy Hagar. A, Sammy Hagar knows how to write a song. For one, he contributes to the music writing process, which David Lee Roth never did. That was always just Eddie. He also knows how to play an instrument, so they were able to have an additional guitar on songs when they needed them. Roth did play ice cream man, though.
Participant #1:
Andy also knows how to produce and do all of that other stuff. So clearly he was bringing more than just I'm showing up and singing what Eddie tells me to sing. Larry yeah. I mean, I obviously totally agree. I know this isn't about solo work. If you were to put the two against one another, it's not even close. It's clear one is a much better songwriter than the other. One is a much better artist than the other. But just looking at the Halen catalog yes. No one will dispute Van Halen. One was an amazing app. Absolutely. Was literally had nothing to do with David Lee Roth. That was all magic brought by Eddie Van Halen, as most of it was up until Hagar came in and brought us the tunes. The refinement, as Jack stated earlier, for a smarter rock group, a more refined, smart rock group, hay guards brought a lot more to Van Halen. There is no way right now would have ever been written and perfected, which is my favorite band. Hale, too, by the way. There's no way that would have ever worked with David Leroth. There's just not. Larry, that might be the smartest thing you've ever said in the history of me knowing you. I'm just a lot of really smart shit, but I think it's smart.
Participant #1:
Finish what you started as my second favorite Van Halen song. And Eddie and Sammy wrote that together? Just absolutely phenomenal. Even though it's an acoustic jam, right? I mean, that whole thing is just that's been one of my top songs forever right now I kind of fell in love with later on, honestly. But anyway, I don't see something that great coming out of David Lee Roth session. Yeah, I just don't. And so, for me, that's the big, like, my love affair with Sammy Hagar. It really revolves around his body of work there with Hayleyn and those songs he brought up, they were just better in my mind than the ones that they had with David Lee Raw. And after the Hagar song, pound Cake is the second greatest song about a females behind after the baby got back. I don't think David Lee Roth even knows about how to write a song about a woman's hindsight without just saying it outright, using that bit of intellect needed to make it sound like maybe he really is talking about cake. But no, it was not. So Brandon brought in Kelly. You brought in sir mix alarm. It's keeping things even here. Yeah. I like that he's giving the song Freddie for the subtlety. And yet it's not as good as Baby Got Back in all of its subtlety. It's the sheer audacity of Baby got back. First of all, you're forgetting about Rump shaker. You're getting about all about that bass. There are plenty of songs about women's back size that are better than Pound Cake. Give me a break. All right. Is it our turn? Yeah, go for it. For the record, none of those use a drill on the guitar. That does. Give it a little something extra. Okay, so Larry and Jack are using the words intellect and refinement. We're talking about freaking van. Hailing. Guys, this is a party band. This is a rock fun party band. Hagar made them just like another forgettable solid pop rock band. David Lee Roth brought the rock. Okay, listen, aretha Franklin was a much better singer and vocalist than Vince Neil. Can we all agree with that? Yes. Now, does anybody want her singing? Kickstart my heart. Yes. I, in fact, do. No, that would be amazing. Yeah, I would love to see that
Participant #1:
right now. And like, David Lee Roth couldn't sing that. All right, look, Samar teacher would have never worked with Sammy Hagar. When Sammy Hagar sings Hot for Teacher, I assume he means in a completely platonic, respectful way. Like the only after class activity he saw for is like math tutoring or something. Like when David Lee Ross said it, I believe he truly wants to get it on. Like Donkey Kong with his teacher. This is Van Halen we're talking about a party band. And David Lee Roth brings it. Look, Van Halen's biggest album of all time, 1984. That's David Lee Roth. The biggest song of all time. Jump. That's David Lee Roth. All the songs. If you go to karaoke, sucks. If you go to karaoke, if you go to some rock show, somebody it's going to be Jump Higher for Teacher, Panama, it's going to be all Running With the Devil. It's going to be all those David Lee Raw songs. Nobody gives a crap about those Agar songs. It's like, Go ahead, Heather. Sorry if I can talk. Yeah, I mean, you're pretty much nailing what I was thinking. Just to correct you, van Halen One sold more albums than 1984. So you were completely wrong. Oh, well both they Believe rock. I already acknowledged Van Halen one. Yeah, all right. That just further proves my point. Jack. Thank you. The top two Van Halen albums all the time are both David Lee Rock. That doesn't mean that it's better. There are plenty of movies that have sold another variable. Didn't the Hagar era have was it four straight no one albums? Yes, I believe you are correct. The only number one albums that Van Halen had and the other thing too. Why you're talking numbers? Yes, they sold more with David Lee Roth, but he had seven albums and Sammy Hagar only had five. So he had two more chances for average. I believe it still goes to David Lee Raw, but I can't back that up. I don't know. I'm not going to bath. That part I'll call BS because no one knows any different. That's right. I believe if you just take Van Halen and 1984 together, that pretty much does it, right? Well, yeah, but then you're forgetting all the covers and the rest of the albums. Oh, wait, they didn't actually write those. Sorry, I'm not supposed to take sides. I was fully prepared to talk about Van Halen too. I'm sorry. Diver down. Diver down. Nothing but cover songs and they all suck. You asked if you want to hear Reese or Franklin sing anything. Yeah, give me her singing anything. I don't need David Lee Ross singing and cover tunes you can't sing? Yeah. Would you rather aretha Franklin or Ben Snow? Seeing kickstart my heart with Motley crue. I'm not a big crew fan, so I'd rather hear Franklin. I was thinking about having it aretha Franklin style, not as the leader that is exactly right. Okay. All right, let's switch it. Welcome to the Jungle with Axelrose or welcome to the Jungle with Aretha Franklin or Luciano paparazzi. Both. Max Fingers. That would still be interesting with the Rita Franklin. Oh, my God. Whatever. Actually, I would rather hear Axl Rose don't get a twist. Yeah. We're talking about David Lee Roth who cannot sing, and Sammy Hagar, who can. But again, that goes back to my point.
Participant #1:
The category was about recording process as a songwriter. Yeah. David Lee Ross. Nowhere in the conversation. Come on, we're kidding ourselves. And while we're talking about alternate lead singers, Heather and I, before the podcast started, we're talking about Somewhere in the Multiverse of Madness is a Van Halen that after Sammy Hagar left, Patty labelle was the lead singer.
Participant #1:
I would like to see that. Yeah, I just want to put it all right. Category three is kind of a loaded question. Okay. Because it all depends on all depends on your point of view. So this should be an interesting one. Which area of the band had the most top hits? So this could vary from your point of view of what designates a hit, which chart. I do have numbers in front of me, so I'm just kind of curious on how this panel debates this house with Team Ross. You or me, Heather? Go for it. I'm looking up something. Again, this comes down to it when you're talking about vintage Van Halen. If I went out to the streets and I asked 100 people to tell me their favorite band Halen songs, like, we're talking at least 80% of people, 85% of people are going to say the words jump offer teacher, you really Got me Running with the devil. So this is love. I mean, it's going to all be David Lee Roth. Panama. Of course, nobody is going to mention the same Hagar stuff. The other 15% I left, that like Jack and Larry are two of them. Then the best of guys who don't know who Van Halen are are going to say Hagar to like everybody's going to say David Lee Roth. I mean, if we're talking about Van Halen's most iconic songs, the songs that have kind of stood the test of time, if you listen to classic rock radio, what's going to come up? It's going to be david Lee Ross staff. Yeah, and I think a lot of it goes to because, again, like I said earlier, that's how we were introduced to Van Halen. All of those things in the first 80s that sticks in your head when you grew up in the those are what I remember first. Those are the first things that I think about, just like what you were saying, Brandon. So to me, it's the first thing that people are going to think of, in my opinion, is going to be David La Ross. The 80s stuff, the early or mid 80s stuff. Team hagar. I'm sorry. They were just repeating the same stuff over and over, and I zoned out. I quit listening. You can only hear Brandon repeat the same thing so many times before you fall asleep.
Participant #1:
Yeah, okay. Jump was big and got played a lot on MTV, you know, but to sit there and act like people aren't going to mention Sammy Hagar song is just insane. Did you bang your head and have a concussion
Participant #1:
right here, right now? That song gets played in commercials all the time. You don't hear the David Lee Rot stuff getting played in commercials. And you know why? Because everybody knows if you want to sell some shit, you have to have Sammy Hagar. It's overplayed. Even his tequila was a top 20 hit, and now it's room because he's contractually obligated to never sell tequila again. Really? Yeah. When he sold the tequila, that was part of his deal. That's why I switched around. But, Larry, if you could I don't know if you were able to stay awake there in Brandon's Rant or not, if you'd like to mention something. Yeah. For me. Okay. I'm I think a little younger than others, so I would just say my first memories of Van Halen were post David Lee Roth. Okay. Yeah. You were a little bitty kid. Yeah. I would have been five when Hagar came around. Moving into six or something like that. You don't count. Yeah, but, I mean, I have an attachment to see the who. I love the old stuff, but it comes down to me. For me, top hits is kind of relative, and the big qualifier is, where was Eddie Van Halen at in the process? So I think his taste change and his entire artistic kind of inspiration direction he was going, I should say, was changing. I mean, I hate Jump to this day. I hated it the first time I ever heard it. Just for whatever reason, that's a no fly for me, that one doesn't work. But they started moving kind of that direction. And what I think now we're kind of reflecting back is that Hagar made that stuff better than where it was going. He left his fingerprints on the band by making it better than their last couple Van Halen albums with David Lee Roth. I thought 1984 was good, actually. In fact, I thought it was great. I thought Van Halen one was great, but Jump and the way you saw a lot of the myths that were filler material on a lot of those albums, the latter albums with David Lee Ross, they're not there with Hagar. So I can listen to the Hagar albums front and back without skipping anything. The entire quality of the album is better than most of the David Lee raw things. Now, again, that's relative to my perspective, because that's what I was raised on, and that's what I fell in love with. And still, what I like to this day. Van Ain was not in my top 20 bands, but if you give me one singer over the other preference, it's going to be Hagar every time. Those were my hits. Well, to piggyback on that. Jump was the biggest hit with David Lee Roth and he didn't like that song. He didn't want to record it with the synthesizers. The thing that it's known for, roth doesn't like it. Every gray band has their one over plate song that once you dive deeper into the catalog, you realize, man, that's mid tier. There's so many songs better, whether it's Your Sweet Home Alabama or pick any other overplayed song. I agree. Jump is overplayed. They have better songs, but Jump is the only number one hit moderate. Can I add one more point to this as a rebuttal? Yes, you can. I'd like to get back to the actual subject was hits, not like deep cuts and personal favorites. So since we're talking about hits, if you look at the spotify top five for Van Halen, which tracks the most played songs by people when they're listening to Van Halen? Number one, Jump. Number two, Panama. Number three running with the devil. Number four, Hopper Teacher. Number five. You really got me. That is a clean sweep. David Lee Roth. Thank you. We'll take our five points, ton of money to Joe Rogan. So what do they need to be clear, does spotify because I don't know. I'm old school. I listen to records. Does spotify count? Just spotify stuff that young people who are dumbasses would only consider. They have erie van Halen. Oh, young people. And Brandon. I mean, it's their audience, right? They're audience people. Is young people in Brandon. Are you able to unlock it so I can share my screen? I should be able to let me look down here. I'm undecided on this category. I was hoping to share something to generate some sort of deciding either way. Nice way of saying no one. That's a nice way of saying no one made a compelling argument yet. No, both are too compelling is the problem. All right, here you go. This is the hot 100 records here, singles. So if you look at number one, Roth top ten, SIGAR, top 20, Roth has more. Top 40, hagar has more. Top 100. Roth has more. So it's quite the versatile spread there. That is true. Fortunately, with that false news of Brandon, that fake news. Brandon is throwing it. Go ahead. I think that we're recording this podcast in 2022. These chart performance are important, but now we're looking at which ones did the test of time, which ones ended up being the most iconic and their five most iconic songs are all David Lee Raw. So if we were to rank all these chart performances, the top five would end up being David Lee Roth. Right. What are you putting ahead of right now? Just so we're clear, I mean, the people. Of the world are putting all those five songs that I listed right now on Spotify. It's not me. Let me tell you how many people it's exactly 587,000,000 people are putting Jump above right now. 249000000 Panama, 170000000. Running with the devil. 127000000 hot for teacher and 95 million. You really got me right now. It isn't charting, so I can't tell you how many listings it has. That is a lot of wrong opinions. So those people were talking about the hits from back when they were I'd say a little more relevant is what we're looking at here. And you're saying it's current because you're saying current with Spotify. It is a valid argument. It's a good point. I don't even know what Spotify is. Oh, my God. And I'm older, new. Okay, Brandon, can you look up the Neil Young top charts? You know what? I bet none of those dumbass have Steve. You wonder above any of this Van Halen stuff either. So that tells me everything I need to know. They sure shit don't have The Who and they don't have So. I don't want to know what these bumps think about music because you're an old part at heart. Everybody else is wrong. Yes. Okay, if you look at Stevie's and to make you feel better, Larry, Stevie does have more monthly listens than Van Halen does. He's got 16 million monthly listeners. His top songs are seinfeld delivered. I just called I love you superstition from once in my life. And Sir Duke. And I would say those are probably the most five most popular. Not best, but five most popular. Stevie songs. Most popular. Yes. I can't take this trip with you. I have my category three resolved. Okay. And before we get into my two categories, I want to tell Larry that I have a quadrophinia episode coming up in a couple of weeks, so you might enjoy that one. Oh, my God. Yes. It's over 2 hours long. It was a hell of a conversation. The album or the conversation? Okay, I got you. It's with the Boot super fans. So we dove. Indeed. Cool. All right, so now we get into my two questions. Here what era of the band produced the best music videos? And I'll throw this to Roth. This is not as easy as you said. Well, here's my thinking. Okay. The 80s, obviously. I remember the first day that MTV played. I remember when videos became a thing. You're old, whatever. You're older than me. But it was like I think August was right before school started. Summertime and my sister and I were like, Holy shit. We found that it was awesome. That's when videos became a thing. I'm automatically going to say Beverly Roth because again, it goes with the showmanship. They were awesome. They were, like, funny to watch. They were cool. Everybody sang along because, like Brandon said, they're the most popular songs. And I don't know, maybe I'm just nostalgic. But to me, that was the birth of videos. And so watching David Lee Ross, of course, yes, I'm going to go back to doing gymnastics and cheerleading and stuff like that, but also flassy. And that was so 80s. That dressing the way that he dressed and being a ninja on stage and stuff like that, which is freaking cool. How can you to me, it's blatant. It's obvious, Brandon. This is easy for me. It's David Lee Roth. And why? Because I can actually think of every single one of those videos and what they were like. I cannot think of a single Sami Hagar video. Videos weren't as popular. And I probably just didn't care to watch him because of the Sammy Hagar, but just for the simple fact that I, and I assume a lot of people listening and Van Halen fans, could actually tell you what the Jump video or all these videos looked like and felt like and how much fun they were. And again, I agree with Heather, when you're watching videos, you just want to be fun. I mean, you're watching three or four minutes, you just want to have a good time, have some good visuals, and that's David Lee Ross. I have no idea what any of those Sam Hagar videos are about. And I'm good with that. And see, I have to interject to be part of that, too. And I'm going to tell my little story. My sister and I were both gymnasts back in the day, and we liked to bring up Jump again, but every time the word Jump came up in the song, we would challenge each other to do a back hand screen. Tell you what, it wears the shit out of you. But we laughed so much and I'm going to associate that with that because we're watching a video and it's so energetic and it makes you just, like, want to go. And that's what it's all about. It's just being involved in singing along and it's fun. Team Hagar, what's a the only thing about 80s music videos that really needs to be said is the word spandex. Just because you have a fondness for looking at men in spandex doesn't mean that they're better videos, which incidentally how Jack snagged him. That is entirely true. It lifts and separates. Jack It lifts and separates. That is true. It is amazing what can happen when you have banana in your spandex.
Participant #1:
I will grant you that. There were some memorial videos from the 80s by Van Halen, but have you seen the California Girls video? Sort of plain and humdrum. They have a lot of women in bikinis and it was still kind of flagged. I'm just going to say right now that brings tears to you. No, it did. Did Jack just make our arguments for us? He's talking about, yeah, he did roll some bikinis. And that's supposed to be he's about to chime in. Is that irrelevant? But then he brought it back to right now. That's all he said? What about it? Yeah, well, he said despite the girls, it was still lame. Listen, I never had MTV. I'm from Piedmont, Oklahoma. Man we didn't have that as an option. And I did go over some friends houses who had the cable, and every now and again would cease. But we're talking like, strictly the latter day hailing, so probably not fair as far as that goes, but I remember seeing some of like, VH one classic stuff for the early hailing. It just always seemed cheesy to me. Odd. For Teacher, that video seems cheesy. California girls seem cheesy again and don't try to come in here, by the way, and try to improve something the Beach Boys did. Don't you dare. That's all I can say. So you don't want to talk David's bluegrass version of Junk then either? I can honestly say I've never heard that. Don't Google that one. I've got a question for the panel. It's kind of like you don't get to leave questions here. Yeah, you do. If a tree I'll allow it. Thank you. If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, did it actually make a sound? If Sammy Hagar let some Van Halen videos but nobody watched it, do they even matter? Exactly. Here's where I struggle with this. See, my two favorite videos, almost of all time are Hot for Teacher, and right now they're like dead even. They're two great bands and they're two phenomenal videos in two completely different ways. Very much so. That is true. So I got a question for you, Brandon. If a tree falls in the forest and his name is David Lee Roth is still terrible at singing.
Participant #1:
Irrelevant. Some people think cucumbers taste better. Pickled. I don't know. What? I don't know. Does the tree fall down in spandex while doing the splits? Hello. The tree falls down all the time because he's disabled. Now, if you see that dude move yeah, because he gave us his all back then. I think he gave us all because he was probably getting a lot of women's all, and you're probably right about that. Okay, here's a bonus question. Which lead singer Van Halen has had the most STDs? That's not is that the way you get all this going? No. I have enough research done on Gary Dancer. Do you want the leader of your rock band that you're into your party rock band, to be Abstinent? Right. Or do you want him to be Will Chamberlain? First of all, Sammy has like twelve kids. Nice. Sammy family, man. Yeah, I wouldn't call it family, necessarily. Like, eight of them are with his wife, who he's been married with for. Right. So that didn't make him a party dude. Doesn't mean that he's not getting a lot of poonanny. Oh, my God. That's not what he said. Can we move on to the final question? Please ask if you have to get us out of here. This one will hopefully make you think of something here to bring it out. Which era of the band produced the best single song lyric? Oh, my goodness. I need a second. Yeah. And the one that is not included because it is the best and cannot be beat is I don't feel tardy. It cannot be used. It cannot be beat. It's just kind of outside the argument. Give me 1 second. I got to pull something up. I just want to make sure I quote the lyrics. I think it's team ross turn. The first. Yeah, I'm thinking, man in this one. I really have no goddamn fred election. This is all personal preference. This is going to be entirely based on the lyrics you come up with in your personal argument. Okay. That's a lot of brain power at the moment. Hang on. You're going to have to edit a lot of this out. Yeah, I'm editing none of this out. Oh, my god. Just add in the jeopardy music and you're good. Yeah.
Participant #1:
We're all just thinking too much. Well, I'll go ahead and just so we don't have blank air space yeah. I'll just go ahead and throw this out there from the aforementioned excellent. Right now, miss the beat, you lose the rhythm and nothing falls into place only missed by a fraction slipped a little off your pace not only is that a perfect line about songs that's also life in general. Everything's going along fine you just zigged when you should have zagged and you slipped a little off your pace it's beautiful. Dave can't write that. I don't even know if dave knows how to write. Oh, my god. That was a good lyric. That's the video where they even say right now we should listen to the lyrics. Hey, okay. I do actually remember that little bit of the video. Whatever. I remember it was the right ross, do you have a lyric? Here's the deal. I've already admitted to the intellect and refinement of the agar era, but I see that as a negative when we're no, let me quantify the question here. It can be a fun lyric. It can be about being someone's ice cream. I'm cool with that. Right, okay. And that's where I'm going with it. Doesn't have to be profound. Yeah, exactly. That's where I'm going. Okay, so with that in mind, that van halen is supposed to be a fun rock band. I haven't looked anything up. I'm just going to say, when I'm listening for my fun rock band, I want to hear the words, I got it bad, got it bad, got it bad. I'm off for teacher. It's simple. Give me the good stuff. I like it. Larry, you got anything? I don't feel tardy, man. I don't. I've been sitting here trying to think, and I love right now, but I'm trying to think of a lyric outside of that. That go with how telling is it that nobody can come up with a good lyric from either era when the strength of Hagars was supposed to be the refinement and intellect. We're sitting here at a stalemate. Interesting. It's the pressure of having just had that thrown at you. Sometimes something happens and you just can't move forward. That's why it's good that this was an impromptu one. You guys had no time to prepare for this. Yeah. Do you guys hear me again? Yes. We got you now. Holy cow. Just kicked me right off. Anyway. I didn't come up with anything while I was on.
Participant #1:
Yeah, that was definitely a curveball that I don't think any of us saw coming. That was a good one. Stephen, you brought this podcast down to its knees. I'm still thinking like, tomorrow it's going to occur to me, I'll be at work going, dang it. Either right now is your tomorrow. Oh, God. It means everything.
Participant #1:
Yeah. Which is a good lyric. You all keep going to it right now. That's all you keep going to. Right? Apparently the Hagar era was right now. Apparently right now versus everything else. All I know is when we're done with this, I'm going to go in there to Heather and I'm going to say, let me get on. Let me get on. Let me get on some of that. Bake it up. Bake it up. Nice. You're going to say pound cake and I'm going to say, I so love my baby's pound cake.
Participant #1:
I was going to have my final question be what is the best album title? But nothing can be for Unlawful Carl Knowledge to me, so that's clever and graphic. All things all at once. I love that album type. I agree with you on that one. Ever side of the argument. I'm making that, but yeah. Was there some kind of acronym they were going for there? I don't know. Apparently it dates back to when someone got put in the stocks back in like puritan error or whatever. What was their charge? Well, they were putting there for four unlawful Carl knocks, that is. And Brandon tried to say that Sammy couldn't get down. Come on.
Participant #1:
All right. How about ain't talking about love? My love is rotten to the core. So there you go. I'm going to repeat the point as moderators. Taking points here that the biggest strength of Hagar's era was supposed to be intellect and refinement and yet they come up right now. What are you talking about? A single good lyric. I came up with two easily. Larry's currently in Durant, Oklahoma. So I understand that that might have affected him and he might just be having a hard time having all the parts of his brain tap into the old lyrics because he's in Durant, Oklahoma. The only thing being played there is Clint Black. So I think we're about to find out who won. It looks like a point that some maths is occurring. Yeah, thank God. Thank God. There's no algebra involved or geometry with this. It's just good old fashioned plus and addition. Oh, my gosh. Higgins is ringing the bell. Can you guys hear me again? Yes. Golly. Sorry, I keep getting locked up and everything. Well, the judge is calculating the points. Can I throw out a suggestion for our next debate? Sure. Stevie Wonder versus Ray Charles. It May and me and Larry's 30 year friendship, but I'd be willing to do that. No, I promise it will I will murder you. It was mentioned earlier. Can you bring Ronnie Millsapp into that mix? Blind piano player? Make it a trifecta. Yeah. Let's just say Ronnie would be my number two. You're going to have to stand before God one day in judgment and explain what you just said. I was going to suggest the Garth Brooks era or the Chris Gaines era. Clearly, Chris Gaines. Ouch. To me, that's about as close as David Leroth versus Sammy Hagar. Really? Yeah. I could see one was a clown, one was a serious arts. I could see where David Lee Roth would be. Chris Gaines. I could see how we would make that connection. I'm sorry, david, Lee Roth is the OG makeup. Yeah. Problem? All right, make up. Well, category guy by category. Okay. I'm sure there'll be some hurt feelings along the way. Category one, which was stage presence. Hagar gave a three. Okay. Roth gave him a five. Absolutely. Yeah. Sorry, I have to it's a given. It is now 40 for songwriter. Ross got a three. I'll take it. Hey, Gar got to give him a five. Yeah. You are tired. Top hits, fours across the board, equal arguments. You guys got kind of tied on that one. And Number Que, number four, best music video. Neither one of you swayed me either way from my favorites. So three is across the board. This is exciting. We're coming down to it. Nail fighter. Shit. Category five, best song lyrics for tea. We're off. Three cigar. Four. Damn.
Participant #1:
Whatever. You guys are the guy in the airplane and we're Mike Tyson. Barely. You barely eat barely. He takes one. If I won the Super Bowl barely, I'd still be a Super Bowl champion. It only takes one. Yeah. It's not like you beat us like a drum. Shut up. It was a great battle. It's a great debate. I think that everyone can agree they should have just changed their name to Van Aegar. Yes. That implies some preconceived bias from the don't start, Brandon. What does that have to do with it? You talk about the tender from a preconceived bias every day on the franchise. I'm just kidding.
Participant #1:
The real winner here is Gary Sharon because he still comes in third. What happened? I missed it? He said, the real winner is Gary Cherone. He is the honorary winner of this debate. Just so we're not speaking ill, of Gary. I pointed this out before we started the debate, at some point over text. When he signed on to Van Halen, he came to his audition wearing a T shirt that would have required the largest set of stones for any audition. True. Anyone ever showed up for he showed up wearing a T shirt that said, who the F is Eddie Van Halen. That's good. That is true. That is the one positive of the Van Cherone. He gets a five for T shirt game. Yes. That's definitely an honorable mention. To give Gary some credit here, say some kind words for him. The man has an amazing voice. He has an amazing stage presence. He walked into a pretty much impossible situation. There was no way to come out on task. They wanted him to be like David Lee Roth on stage, and they wanted to sound like Hagar, and they tried to force something that just wasn't it. I think that if they would have taken more time, wrote better songs, and let him sing like he's supposed to sing and not scream God awful nothingness, it would have had a better chance of succeeding. And Josephine is still a decent tune. Right. I stand by that. Yes. I can agree with that. God awful. Gary Cherone was put in an impossible situation, and they also completely dumbed down on that album, Michael Anthony, which is a lead into Jack's Ed. Question here. Who's a better bassist? Michael Anthony? Wolfgang Van Halen. On Van Halen three, not only did they turn down his bass, just overall, and I think Eddie actually played a lot of the bass on the album. That's right. I didn't hear his background vocals, which are essential to Van heel. Absolutely. They're one of the greatest vocal groups of all time because of their backing vocals. Absolutely. Yeah. So clearly, the winner is Michael Anthony. No. I don't know much about Wolfgang. You've never even heard of Wolfgang Van Halen. Let me tell you about Wolfgang Van Halen. He's the son of Eddie Van Halen. So what? Yeah. And Annie's Valley. Burton. Nelly's son. That's a double whammy. And he was playing with Van Halen when he was 15 years old. 15, okay. And he was conceived in a cocaine rage evening. Steve Winwood played with Spencer Davis when he was, like, 14. He was actually good. Who cares? He thought it was amazing. Wolf? Yeah, I did, actually. Yeah, but Wolfgang no, just stop. Tito Jackson played with Michael Jackson when he was five. That's a different podcast. Nevermind. His name was Wolfgang Van Halen. Name three names even better than that. Actually, I do. It's all about show and flash. Even Eddie knew. He named his kid Wilking Van Halen. He didn't name some refined intellectual name. No. The strong man guy. Magnus Von. Magnuson has a better name? What did you say? The Strong Man athlete. Dude. Magnus Von Magnusson. That's the better name. Look, there's only one anthony Michael worth knowing. And that's Anthony Michael Hall. Thank you. Thank you. You say his name right? Get out of here. Yeah, because I'm just stop. You have lost your marbles. I got to ask this, though. Does Wolfgang sing? Does he do with backup vocals in the same vein? No, I have no clue. I just learned about him earlier today on Google. He's actually mute. He only got the job because of his dad. If he came up this got that job. No, his dad. I'm going to teach him to play bass in case at some point something happens and I'll have a balance. That's the only reason he knocked up Valor. He's the Donny Junior of the group. All right?
Participant #1:
Yeah. Well, you want to know who else only got their job because of their dad? No. John Dutton. What? The Yellowstone reference? Yeah, it's a Yellowstone reference. It was the first nephotism I could think of. You're trying way too hard now and you just wanted to work in nepotism to try and make yourself sound really smart. I'm still trying to make up that one point. I'm hoping we get a reversal of the sand. At least his eye. He's rubbing his head. I think he's done an hour later. Brandon is going to have a song later. Oh, wait, wait. Nobody even remember. I don't even remember what song lyric beat ours. I know Larry didn't come up with one. He didn't have internet for ten minutes during that segment. And still somehow you all beat us. It should beat the lyric right now. We should listen to the lyrics. Bias. Bias. That's true. I'm just going to add real quick that I was usually laughing so hard at what Brandon just said that I had a hard time coming up with any sort of retort because I was too busy laughing. So there's that. But I'm glad we did this. This was a lot of fun. Most serious thing that has probably been discussed in the podcasting world in the last six months. Absolutely. And we're all still friends, right? I don't know. Larry and Brandon might not be talking. We're going to have to talk it out.
Participant #1:
Yeah, it had nothing to do with Van Halen, so it's not your fault yet. Oh, okay. Well, I will say he got the reference on the cucumber pickled thing. Brandon, thank you. Still with me, Jack? You don't have to sleep on the couch. I'll be nice. Well, yeah, it's too much trouble to move my CPAP, right? Exactly. Usually when you're mad at me, you go sleep on the couch. Brandon, I've got team down here and do Rand if you want to come down. AW. Pro love. I appreciate that. Let me make a mixtape of all my favorite David Lee Roth song.
Participant #1:
Nice. I don't think he has this David Lee Roth song. You're maybe thinking of Sammy Hagar song. Actually, he's thinking of Barry White. Honestly, I think Barry White over both Eddie Van Halen Well, this has been a load of the fun. Steven, would you like to plug the things that you have to plug real quick right now? Season three of music. Sorry. Right now, season two of Music Rewind is hitting the airwaves. I'll start recording season three in the near future. We've got Jack's episode on The Flaming Lips. The soft bulletin is out there for everyone to listen to. Some new episodes about Neil Young's live Rust and Commons B album. And next week will be Bruce Frankstin, Nebraska. Holy shit.
Participant #1:
Yeah. I'm sorry. I thought I was muted. You just said, like, all of Larry's favorite things. Did we just become best friends? I think we do. You just took my spot, buddy. I'm sorry. Start over. I'm really sorry. And after Nebraska, we have the quadrofinia episode. So season two is rolling along my podcast, where people come on and just we talk about a favorite album of theirs, and we just talk about the stories and memories behind it, and it's a lot of fun. Music Rewind, please check it out. Yes. Then, Brandon, would you like to plug your plug? Because when you talk about Thunder, your opinion is at least right on that one most of the time, unlike this topic. Yeah, I know much more about I'm much more educated on the Thunder than I am Sammy Hagar. Yeah, I write for Daily Thundercom. You can find me on Twitter at Brand or bar. And, yeah, I pretty much talk Thunder and NBA all the time. That's my lane. That's what I'm used to talking about on these podcasts. All right. Unless Larry asked me to go on his to talk about little Celine being on, that's about the only other time we get out. Son of a bitch. Now, Larry, I know you don't have any podcasts or radio things to plug, so would you like to give as somebody that's a safety married in the industrial world, would you like to give a work safety tip in its place? Yeah, I was trying to think of what it was Jerry Springer used to say when he signed off, take care of yourselves and each other. Nice. I like that. Yeah, that's what it was. Really? That's what it comes down to, right? It's just about caring for people, man. That's what safety is. That's why I get to carry out my mission every day. I want to care about people. There you go. And Heather, I know you also don't have any podcasts or anything like that, but would you like to plug that when you purchase gasoline? That when it says there's a $75 maximum, there's a hold on your credit card for a bit until that's done. Would you like to quickly explain that, or did I do a good enough job? For the most part, people just need to understand basic banking and how shit works on their credit card. There you go, go to skillshare and you can learn basic banking. That's how there's this advice if you have checks, you have money. That's how it works. Oh, yes. That's why I don't have checks, because I have no money.
Participant #1:
All right, well, this has been loads of fun. I really enjoyed it. Listening friends. I hope you guys had as much fun as we did and had as many laughs as we did. And with that, I'm going to sign off and we'll talk to you next time. Have a good one. Bye. Thank you. See you all later. Thank you for listening to using Ad d mind? If you enjoyed this podcast, or even if you didn't, please hit the subscribe or follow button.
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