Here's an excerpt from a few years back when Sammy's book was originally supposed to come out. Don't know if this is included in the book now. With the new album coming out, and plans for an extensive tour starting to unfold, some sort of agreement with Danniels had to be reached. During one conversation with Ray, Hagar mentioned the unfair treatment Michael Anthony had been receiving from the Van Halen brothers. The bass player, he felt, at least deserved an equal percentage of the stage money they earned from their nightly road performances. "Michael Anthony stands there on stage every night," insisted Hagar, "and works as hard as me, or anybody else out there. I thought it was chicken shit that he didn't get his fair share of the stage money. Well, Ray Danniels, to get his vote, went to Mike and said, 'I will get you your equal percentage of the touring money.' You want to know why he told him that? Because he knew I'd vote him in as manager. Ray went in and made the deal with the brothers to get Mikey his stage money, although he still didn't get anything from merchandising, the records or publishing. Mike got conned and made a deal with the devil himself, though he didn't have to do it that way. A long time ago, he could have come clean if he would have just stood up for his rights. But I'm not here to ridicule Mikey. He did what he felt he had to". Rest is here,long read but some good info on the background workings of VH. http://www.guitars101.com...22489.html | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
heaven help me, I skimmed almost that entire article. It took the better part of an hour! Not a short read.
And it was all pretty ugly. It was nearly 100% about money and ego trips, and hardly at all about the lame music they made together without realizing how lame it was. Sammy seems like an alright guy, but he gets knocked down a few pegs for the way he stiffed his wife of 23 years, even though she would've done anything to make it work. I guess that's between them.
I'm not sure heunderstands what van halen was about before he joined. He's maybe the only guy who could write 'Three Lock Box', but will never understand that Hot For Teacher is a million times cooler than Where Eagles Fly. | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |