Sammy Hagar Reveals How He Multiplied David Lee Roth’s Earnings

In 2002, the two Van Halen singers David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar teamed up for a double-header tour dubbed Song for Song, the Heavyweight Champs of Rock and Roll, that was popularly known as the “Sam and Dave” tour.

The series of shows drew a lot of negative stories that happened backstage between the two rockers, but recently in an episode of the Steve-O’s Wild Ride Podcast, Hagar shared that Roth’s earnings multiplied by a factor of six because of the tour. He explained:

“[H]e wasn’t selling out [but] I was selling out arenas. I was selling out amphitheaters.

“Dave, he had that sort of a big album, one kind of a big album, but he didn’t have a solo career. He was playing small places. So when he came in with me, he was making, like, $25,000 a night, I was making $150,000 a night, and they said, ‘Oh, you guys are gonna make the same money. Dave gets to make 150.’ I said, ‘He ain’t fucking made 150 in his life except in Van Halen!’ But I said, ‘I’ve gotta do this.’ So I bent over backwards. And he still always tried to fuck with the rules.”

The Red Rocker noted that he’d been enjoying a successful solo career at that time. When discussing more about Roth, he said:

“He’s not a fun guy. He doesn’t play well with others. I’m not sure what his problem is.

“He just always is about, ‘How can I make this guy look bad?’ And not just me – in life. He’s a chest-beating motherfucker. And God bless him, ’cause the early stuff is frickin’ great. … [I thought] he’d be a fun guy to know. But he ain’t like that – he ain’t like his persona.”

When talking about Diamond Dave’s most recent performances, he mentioned that the singer “doesn’t care about singing. If he did, he’d take care of his voice or he’d take voice lessons and get warmed up and do something. … The guy sang so bad last time he was doing shows, it was embarrassing.”

Stream the full podcast below.