Don Dokken’s Opinion On David Lee Roth Is The Exact Opposite Of Sammy Hagar’s

Dokken lead singer Don Dokken opened up about former Van Halen lead singer David Lee Roth during a recent interview with Full in Bloom and revealed that he liked the singer from the first moment he met him, way before he rose to fame as the legendary frontman we all know, on the contrary of Sammy Hagar who doesn’t necessarily like Roth.

For those of you who may not know, the two former Van Halen vocalists have an ongoing dispute for years which either resurfaces through interviews, social media posts, or other musicians’ statements. The dispute probably doesn’t end due to their different and dominant personalities as well as the musical competition between David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar since they kept being compared to each other throughout their tenure with Van Halen.

While both sides have been pretty much passive-aggressive towards each other over the years, not directly stating anything mean or controversial about one another, Sammy Hagar recently made the headlines after opening up about his feelings towards David Lee Roth as he made bold comments about Diamond Dave’s personality.

It’s an obvious fact that Sammy Hagar doesn’t like David Lee Roth but it was quite surprising to hear the Circle frontman’s statement which implied Roth is a fraud who’s pretending to be somebody else all the time both on stage and in his personal life. According to Hagar who used vulgar language during the interview, David Lee Roth always has a plan for his image and acts according to that plan which is thought and designed beforehand.

A portion of Sammy Hagar’s statement follows:

“Well, the first thing I’d say is I look at him and I think, ‘Wow. He’s a strange person. He’s a strange character…’ He’s not what he’s saying he is – he’s pretending. He’s totally bullshit. Everything he does is thought up and it’s an image. It’s nothing to do with who he is – he’s not exposing who and what he is. And I know this for a fact.

I knew that the first time I saw him. I said, ‘This guy, he’s putting on an image, putting on a show.’ He goes back home and goes in his house, and he’s a whole different guy, nothing to do with that guy. He’s not honest about his image and his performance. That’s what I see when I see him – that’s how I feel. But I tried to be friends.”

During a recent interview, Don Dokken looked back at the time when his band toured with Van Halen and revealed his opinions on lead singer David Lee Roth. Despite Sammy Hagar’s long rant about what an awful person Roth is, Dokken actually praised the former Van Halen singer, stating that he has known Roth since 1979 and he hasn’t changed a bit after all these years and has remained a charming person with his flamboyant persona.

During his appearance on Full in Bloom, Dokken said:

“What I remember about David Lee is that David Lee was famous before he was famous. His persona was like that from day one. Very animated, the ringleader and the circus leader, the guy with the tigers – that’s the way he was. He’s very flamboyant, and I remember – that was like 1979, and then exactly 10 or nine years later, I’m playing with Van Halen with Dokken on Monsters of Rock tour.

So, Eddie and I used to sit up late at night because by then he had Wolfgang and I had my son Tyler, and we smoked and we drank on the stairwells because we couldn’t be in the room with the kids. And we’d just sit up and talk guitars and amps, and, ‘How the hell did we get from Whiskey to here?’ – stadiums.”

Apparently, Sammy Hagar and Don Dokken had two totally different impressions of David Lee Roth after the time they have spent together which isn’t surprising considering the fact that Roth has an unusual personality that can come off wrong to many people, especially considering how Hagar and Roth have been competing as the two iconic frontmen of Van Halen.