“I found myself mulling over dumping the singer for a stronger vocalist, like Montrose’s lead singer, Sammy Hagar. I thought, Hell, he might be the perfect singer for Van Halen.” The “singer” referenced above was David Lee Roth, and the quote came from Van Halen’s famed producer Ted Templeman.
According to UltimateClassicRock.com, Templeman wasn’t sold on Roth as Van Halen’s lead singer, “Every time I heard him get pitchy or completely miss a note, I worried that the public was going to be turned off by this band because of his limitations.”
Ultimately, Templeman refrained from calling his good friend Sammy Hagar, and after reading the lyrics to ‘Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love’ and watching Roth perform the song with the band, he realized that maybe everything would be alright. And, as it turns out, he was right in more than a few ways. Roth worked out just fine as Van Halen’s lead singer, but so did Sammy Hagar.
Here’s a look at the song that cemented David Lee Roth as Van Halen’s frontman, and sidetracked Sammy Hagar’s Van Halen career for a few years, ‘Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love’!
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