Total dick-move by the Van Halen brothers and Roth. It's my opinion Mike's background singing made Roth sound better. Don't get me wrong: Eddie's my guitar-hero but geez! The way Mike was treated...
He walked around on stage tapping root notes no one could hear anyway while advertising Jack Daniels. Eddie could sing harmony too. Honestly you could have hung a bass on a manikin and no one would notice or care if EVH & DLR were on tstage
The VH bros achieved every dream they could think of. And they ended up being bitter resentful jerks. I said it before, if your last name wasn’t Van Halen. They had a problem with you.
Totally agree! Ed and Alex were notorious spenders. As the years have gone on, I have less and less reason not to believe Monk, Roth, Hagar and others when it comes to Ed and Al. According to Hagar, Alex was near broke, Ed was near broke after divorces. There is a story that Alex needed money really bad after a divorce that he called Roth, Roth saw the shape EVH was in and said "No, and that Ed needs serious help." Alex then calls Hagar, they go out on tour while Ed is completely out of his mind so Alex can get money! Look at that time and tell me that even among the brothers there was a "screw him, not my problem". Same with Ed doing all the instruments on the abysmal disaster that was VHIII. Alex is drowning himself in alcoholism and Ed wants to record an album. The disfunction has always been in the band Van Halen but it's true root was always Alex, and especially Edward.
@@RichardGutierrezRGI don’t know what Al’s financial situation was at that time but I wouldn’t take Hagar’s word for anything. I doubt Ed was ever broke. Al stopped drinking in 1986 when his dad passed. Hagar’s book is full of provable lies about record sales and concert attendance.
@@stevemineer2857Alex probably just fell off the wagon a few times. But mostly quit drinking. He would have to mostly be quit from drinking to be able to play the drums like he did as it's physical, coordination etc..... Alex was probably broke in a sense he could see the end was near unless he had more coming in than going out. Alex probably didn't have gear money like Eddie. Divorce lawyer could track income and album sales and Alex was probably screwed. As rich as Sammy is...didn't he lay off his ex wife with the one last album he did for Geffen? Was it called unlocked box or something?
Wow. I’d heard of the stories about Mike, but that was quite something…..I didn’t know all the details, and although I get the creative “wants” by other members…Mike’s harmonies and stage presence were vital to their success. No matter who sang! Man that’s rough.
Yes, but Mike was the perfect foundation for Edward and the band. Ed was a notorious liar. Ed needed any excuse he could find to get rid of anyone that told him the right way to do something. Ed saw Mike with a fancy car, then decided Mike didn't contribute to writing. No matter what Mike would have come up with would have been wrong. Ed wanted Sheehan to be the bass player, Billy would have been amazing but he would have put Eddie in his tippy toes with his virtuosity! Ed would have been lost (though he always was anyway). Mike is a GREAT rock bassist, he did not deserve the treatment he received. If Al weren't Al Van Halen, he'd been out on his ass too. Ed cut everyone out that was a peer or authority figure: Valerie (his wife), Dave, Mike, Sammy, Ted Templeman, Donn Landee, Mo Ostin, Noel Monk, guitar techs, guitar manufacturers, etc. But think about how much money Dave, Ed, and Alex stood to gain from Mike at the time? VH made a dollar an album. For arguments sake, 1984 at that time may have sold say 3 million, so 3 mil split between 4 guys, Noel, Dave, Ed, and Alex=$750,000 before taxes, so maybe about $350 to $400 thousand after IRS and State taxes. That's how much was at the time being fought for. Yes, it's more with the rate of inflation and another 7 or 8 million sold after the fact but for an extra $400k you are screwing a person that was with you since the beginning, moving through life as an equal, a member who played every show (clubs, opening, headlining) and you just take his shares? With that logic, Roth should have made a share as a lyricist, writing the melodies, a co-writer and as a producer since he had to EDIT all of Ed's jams and tapes into what we hear now.
I read an article that Mike didn’t care about the money. He was already rich. He said he just wanted to play with the band. Whatever it took. That wasn’t very nice. Making MA a paid employee. He got a salary for 2004 tour. I didn’t know they fired their manager that renogotiated their contract and made them instant millionaires. Nothing lasts forever I guess. I’ve dated a few girls that I thought were going to be my wives . Later on to just find out I was flavor of the month or months. Lol.
Nice video. Van Halen had many immediately noticeable qualities in their music. Obviously the guitar, Dave’s front man style, Alex’s signature drum sound. However, imo the backing vocal harmonies by Michael Anthony were every bit as big a part of their sound and imo success as the others. In an earlier interview with Eddie, in 78’ he spoke highly about Michael’s bass guitar playing. Happy Michael has found a home playing with Sammy.
The good ole US festival. I remember leaving my TV on day and night while that thing ran for days. I was 16 that summer and it was a great time to be a kid.
Sammy Hagar said he was shocked at how bad the contract Van Halen had when he joined the band. He almost balked at signing until they redid the entire thing.
@@whatarefriends4 He does but on this one I tend to believe him. Joining Van Halen wasn't as easy a decision as it appeared to fans. Van was BIG, Really BIG by the time Sammy came into the picture. !984 had placed Van Halen at the top f the HEAP only to see Dave leave a figurative 5 minutes later. I have no doubt that Sam wanted to join immediately (who wouldn't?) but money is always a huge piece too. Joining a band so desperately in need of a HIGH PROFILE vocalist to replace what many call out as an "irreplicable" Diamond Dave gave Sammy Hagar real leverage. (they need him more than he needed them) His own band and solo work wasn't nearly as BIG TIME as Van Halen but it was a solo act where he called all the shots and set every agenda on his terms. His band members worked for small fractions of the total take of each Sammy Hagar recording and tours to support them. In joining Van Halen he was giving up all that control over things and he would no longer be the guy who takes ALL THE MONEY and then pays people. He would be in a band of equals where everything was gonna require him to be willing to compromise and bend to the will of the band as group and the money could easily have come up WAY SHORT had things not worked as spectacularly well as it did. Sam had enough clout to ask for a "full share" equal to what Eddie and Alex got but he was no longer the primary bread winner in a BAND vs what he had with his solo career. To make this work out he absolutely had a big incentive to get Van Halen a better deal than they'd had. I doubt he'd have included it in his book if it hadn't been as big of an issue as he writes about. I've never heard Ed or Alex dispute this part of the book and the story of what it took to get to Sam's time within the band. Leaving a lucrative solo career and letting the people he had been working with successfully behind couldn't have been a decision he took lightly. You may not care for Sam in Van Halen but you should at least respect the idea of the guy as one of the more financially astute people in Rock. There aren't a whole lot of those. They are greatly out numbered by some dumb asses who can either play an instrument or sing with access to BIG CASH as a fringe benefit and yet so many never really understand how it all works. Small wonder so many leave this world with not a whole lot to show for it vs what you might otherwise have expected. Best quote I ever heard on that part of it came from Gene Simmons of KISS. He suggested most Rock stars he's met are only qualified for work that might include the question, "Would you like fries with that?" The content of this video suggested the Van Halen Brothers probably meet that description.
It's true! I've met the guy who did it. He lives out here in the midwest by me. He actually also ran fiber optics thru both Eddie and Alex's house and 5150 studio's for free as well. Eddie paid him with a purple and natural finished Ernie Ball Music Man EVH's and a Peavey 5150 full stack. I bought an amp off this guy via Craigslist, and when I went to his house to buy the amp, I saw the guitars and full stack behind a glass display. He told me the story, and I was like "no way!"
@williamdillard8330 Right! He said he originally wired up Alex's house and kicked the talk with Alex about their heritage. The person who did the wiring has the same heritage as them, and his parents came over on the same boat as the Van Halens. He said Alex told Eddie because they were big on their Dutch/ Indonesian roots. Eddie invited him to 5150 studios, and they talked for a bit before Eddie told him he had a job for him. He said Eddie was gonna pay him cash, but he told him he would do the job for one of his new guitars, and they shook on it. He left his address and phone number with Eddie, and about a month later, he said his wife woke him up and told him two guy's are at the front door asking for you. He said he went to the door, and there was Eddie and his security guard. The security guard was holding two guitar cases with the Music Mans Eddie gave him. He said about a few weeks later, he came home, and there were three big boxes sitting in the living room that got delivered while he was at work (5150 full stack). He started laughing, and he told me his wife was pissed b/c they didn't have any space in their apartment for that amp at the time 🤣
They got ripped off at first but once Monk became their manager he renegotiated the Van Halen contact. By 2015 both Alex and Eddie had approximately $90 million each.
“Celebrity net worth” sites make up a number out of thin air. They don’t have any way to know what anyone has in their bank accounts, in the brokerage accounts, in commodities, in funds or real estate etc.
VH lost millions on the US festival high paying performance. According to Roth and Eddie, they had in contract that they had to produce a documentarty video of the show, and so paid huge amounts to film crew, editing, and then iverdubiing their concert. In additon, they famously had a tent coty built with full catering for their day long partying with couple hundred friends and crew prior to their evening show.
that was part of the Contract he signed. There's a audio of Ed talking about Michael A. and it's not good. saying he doesn't really contribute to the band.
publishing and writing are different - not sure how, but they are mikey still had a writing credit on every cd i have - and the records, although some of records were made before 1984 dlr wanted more money, so they did cut mikey out of the song writing credits around 1998 or even later. the contract for dlr's albums was not as lucrative as the contract they had for sammy's, so they then cut mikey from the song writing credits to give dlr more money. most likely the money went from quarters to thirds, so both avh and evh made more too
Well, I saw VH in 1984 in Detroit for the MTV Lost Weekend Concert (that one!) I will tell you this, if you saw how many semi trucks they had for that tour? Even Stevie Wonder could’ve told ya, ain’t no way in hell these guys were gonna make any money. I’m not shocked at all. So yes Mikey was a sacrificial lamb. That production was HUGE!!!!
'Celebrity net worth' sites just make up a number out of thin air and don't reflect the true financial situation of a celebrity accurately. They don’t have any way to know what anyone has in their bank accounts, in the brokerage accounts, in commodities, in funds or real estate etc. We can't trust those figures.
Eddie may have been the wealthiest original member of the band. Sammy Hagar is far and away the wealthiest of all the members that worked in the band. Over his much longer career he made a significant sum but even so, his big WIN happened when he sold his Tequila company. This entire video needs a lot more info to be complete. The story of the band with Dave alone leaves out a lot of the band's history. Sammy Hagar brought the bands most high profile and professional manager, Ed Leffler, to the band. It was after Leffler's death that things went down hill in a hurry for Van Halen. I know it may seem crazy to thing of a manager like Monk at 20%, a full share, along side and equal to each band member. Yet, when looking at Van Halen in the absence of a GOOD manager........it gets easier to understand why the right manager is well worth the $$$ he earns for a band this messed up on the business end of things. Van Halen did very well with Dave out front and Monk as manager. They made even more with Sam and Leffler.......yet things went off the rails completely after firing Monk and then again with untimely death of Leffler. Van Halen got very lucky after Monk was fired and Dave had left. A new front man worked out and he brough great management when they needed it desperately. After Leffler died and Sammy was gone.....their luck had run out. First they fell victim to a bad manager in Ray Daniels and by the time they figured out that mistake Ed's own addictions were in the way. The band would get back together with Dave for a few years before Eddie's death but ultimately the band's glory years were long gone by the time that happened. It'd still be interesting to know though who managed 'em in those final years too. They sold out some good sized venues and they should have made good money on those shows. Management during this period should also be included.
Go read Steve Rosen’s book tone chasers. Eddie talks about his frustrations with Mike a lot and did everything in his power to ultimately not do what they did by cutting him out of royalties.
Take anything Eddie has ever said with a very healthy dose of skepticism. I honestly don't think Eddie knew who the hell Eddie was. We're finally getting to a time where close family and friends are finally speaking out about Ed and his temper (outside of drugs) and his actual drug addiction and personal problems (mental illness, psychological issues, anxiety, insecurity).
Record Companies hinder hurt and gouge/suck blood from musicians; fact fact fact. Better off recording pressing and selling units at an artists concert/venue than the traditional route.
All I know on this one is when Van Halen open for Ted he watched a sound check of theirs and when they finished he went out on the stage and asked to plug into Eddie's rig thinking he was going to get the Van Halen sound but when he played through Eddie's gear he still sounded like Ted. Ted was surprised but proves a lot of tone is in the fingers.
@@RichardGutierrezRG By 1978 Nugent was on the downside of his career song wise so I'm sure VH blew him off the stage just like they did earlier in 78 with Journey and later in 78 with Sabbath and in 1981 with the Stones in Orlando. There was NO band in the world 1978-1983 that could hang with Van Halen....except maybe THE WHO in 77-78. Would have loved to see those two bands go at it in back to back sets....
Proselytizing your religion under the comment thread section of a video about the business and financial affairs of a rock band that began in the 1970s is cringeworthy and embarrassing.
It could be the name of a new drug for ED. Side effects were minow and included sore throat and rash at injection site. Get the results every man should enjoy. It's time to roll with payola. Talk to your health care provide.
The term payola is a combination of "pay" and "-ola", the latter of which is a suffix of product names common in the early 20th century, such as Pianola, Victrola, Amberola, Crayola, Rock-Ola, Shinola, or brands such as the radio equipment manufacturer Motorola.