"We needed time off from each other after our last tour," explains Hagar, "because there was a lot of personal stuff we had to take care of. Eddie needed hip replacement surgery. Al needed his back worked on. And I was going to have a baby. We had just finished the most extensive tour Van Halen had ever undertaken, performing 138 shows across three continents during an eight-month period of time. We needed to regroup and retool ourselves before we hooked up again for a new album.
"It didn't happen. Instead, a string of broken promises ensued that saw Eddie and Alex going straight into the studio to work on music for a film soundtrack, and I was conned into working on it while I juggled my schedule to be with my wife, who was about to give birth to our first child. The situation turned into a nightmare."
Instead of entering hospitals, Van Halen entered the studio to work on two new songs their management committed them to write for the motion picture Twister. And once that project got underway, talk of a an Halen best of package suddenly began gathering steam. Hagar, already on edge because of the band's commitment toTwister, was driven to take a stand by the serious talk about a greatest hits package.
"Our manager, Ray Danniels, had promised me that after we finished the Twister project, that was it," insists Hagar. "I told him point blank that we needed a break from each other, that the brothers were supposed to takecare of their physical ailments, that my wife was pregnant. We were all at wits' end. Eddie was walking aroundwith a cane on painkillers because his hip hurt so badly; Alex had a neck brace on. He has to see a chiropractor on a weekly basis, and a massage therapist comes over to his house every day to rub down his head and neck just so he can get out of bed."
A corrosive combination of the tensions and, says Hagar, deceit surrounding Twister and the Best Of package began weaving its way into the very fabric that held Van Halen together, slowly fraying their relationship to thepoint where Hagar would be forced to make a series of professional decisions he thought he'd never have to face.
On June 27, 1996, he issued a press release announcing his decision to step down as the frontman of one of the most enduring and popular rock and roll bands in the world.
"We needed time off from each other after our last tour," explains Hagar, "because there was a lot of personal stuff we had to take care of. Eddie needed hip replacement surgery. Al needed his back worked on. And I was going to have a baby. We had just finished the most extensive tour Van Halen had ever undertaken, performing 138 shows across three continents during an eight-month period of time. We needed to regroup and retool ourselves before we hooked up again for a new album.
"It didn't happen. Instead, a string of broken promises ensued that saw Eddie and Alex going straight into the studio to work on music for a film soundtrack, and I was conned into working on it while I juggled my schedule to be with my wife, who was about to give birth to our first child. The situation turned into a nightmare."
Instead of entering hospitals, Van Halen entered the studio to work on two new songs their management committed them to write for the motion picture Twister. And once that project got underway, talk of a an Halen best of package suddenly began gathering steam. Hagar, already on edge because of the band's commitment toTwister, was driven to take a stand by the serious talk about a greatest hits package.
"Our manager, Ray Danniels, had promised me that after we finished the Twister project, that was it," insists Hagar. "I told him point blank that we needed a break from each other, that the brothers were supposed to takecare of their physical ailments, that my wife was pregnant. We were all at wits' end. Eddie was walking aroundwith a cane on painkillers because his hip hurt so badly; Alex had a neck brace on. He has to see a chiropractor on a weekly basis, and a massage therapist comes over to his house every day to rub down his head and neck just so he can get out of bed."
A corrosive combination of the tensions and, says Hagar, deceit surrounding Twister and the Best Of package began weaving its way into the very fabric that held Van Halen together, slowly fraying their relationship to thepoint where Hagar would be forced to make a series of professional decisions he thought he'd never have to face.
On June 27, 1996, he issued a press release announcing his decision to step down as the frontman of one of the most enduring and popular rock and roll bands in the world.