Former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar and original bassist Michael Anthony says that is was Eddie Van Halen who insisted on the use of keyboards during the Hagar era of the band.
Hagar and Anthony were asked about heavy use of keyboards during an interview on SiriusXM's Trunk Nation. Sammy said, "Finally I get my soapbox here.
"Everyone blamed me for the freakin' keyboard playing on the 'Van Hagar' era, starting with 5150. On OU812, we went very keyboard-oriented. I didn't do any of that. That's what Eddie did. Eddie wanted to do that. He liked playing keyboards, and he was freakin' good at it, and he wrote these beautiful songs like 'When It's Love' and stuff like that, and 'Why Can't This Be Love', it's such a cool lick."
Michael Anthony added, "Once Ed really got into the keyboard thing, he barely picked up his guitar for a long time, I remember. He was just playing keyboards all the time."
Sammy continued, "So it wasn't like I was sitting here saying, 'Hey, man. Let's do some more keyboards'. I'm sitting here saying, 'What have you got, Ed?' And he goes, 'I've got this.' And I'm going, 'Wow, that's great. I could sing to it,' 'cause I could sing to any damn thing. So I'd start singing. Ed would go, 'Oh, man, this is so cool.'
"And, of course, Valerie [Bertinelli, Eddie's ex-wife] would come in and validate it. When she heard 'Love Walks In', she just went, 'Oh my God.' And Eddie's going, 'Oh, man. My wife's happy, so I'm happy.' And I'm going, 'Well, I'm happy.' And we had success and all that.
"But, I kind of always got blamed for the keyboard songs and it was not me whatsoever. I'm a damn guitar player. Every time I would pick up, you know, like for 'Finish What Ya Started' or something like that, when I would instigate a song, it was a guitar song, 'cause I don't play keyboards.
"So it wasn't me. I just went along with what we had, and if it wouldn't have been good, I wouldn't have went along with it. I would have said, 'This sucks.' But it didn't." Check out the interview clip below:
Sammy Hagar Going Vegas With Sammy's Island At The Palms
Wolfgang Van Halen Takes High Road Over David Lee Roth Attack
Wolfgang Van Halen Forced To Change Mammoth WVH Tour Dates
Sammy Hagar And Michael Anthony Look Back At Van Halen's 'For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge'
Live: Heart and Cheap Trick Rock Tampa
On the Blue: New Horizons Cruise Days 4 & 5: Starship Lands on the Pearl, Alan Parsons Takes It Home
Kandace Springs - Run Your Race
On the Blue: New Horizons Cruise Day 1: Marbin Gets the Fun Started
Slipknot Announce Knotfest Iowa Lineup
Serj Tankian Shares Teaser For New Single 'A.F. Day'
Kaleo Announce North American Payback Tour
Shallow Side Recruit Elias Soriano For 'Filters'
Kings Of Thrash Announce Anarchy in the UK Tour
William Shatner Announces New Project With Animated 'Elephants And Termites' Lyric Video
Rush In The Studio For 'Grace Under Pressure' 40th Anniversary
Singled Out: Holly Lerski's Nepenthe