Guitarist Stevie Salas recently reflected on receiving separate business offers from two legendary musicians. He shared his experiences on Guitar World.
Salas discussed how both Sammy Hagar and David Lee Roth approached him with collaboration opportunities. Neither ultimately worked out. When Hagar called, the guitarist was flown to San Francisco and stayed at Hagar’s house to write together. Creative differences emerged over the album’s direction.
“With Hagar, I was a Montrose fanatic, so when he called me, he flew me to San Francisco, picked me up himself in his Porsche, and I stayed at his house,” Salas explained. “We started to write together, and I wanted to write a Montrose album, and he wanted to write an album more like the Eagles – and I hate the Eagles. No disrespect, but I didn’t like the Eagles, so that didn’t work for me.”
The situation with David Lee Roth proved equally unconventional. Salas recalled the unexpected nature of Roth’s call. He also described the unusual direction the legendary musician wanted to pursue.
“I was a Van Halen nut, but when Roth called me, I was vacuuming, and I thought when he called, somebody was taking the piss,” Salas said. “But it was him. I turned the vacuum cleaner off, and was like, ‘Oh, shit…'”
Ultimately, Salas decided against working with Roth. He cited concerns about the musician’s vision and existing commitments.
“Roth talked to me for about an hour, but he kind of sounded like he was out of his mind. He was talking about making a blues album, like B.B. King, and I’m thinking, ‘What am I doing?’ I had a recording contract, and I was like, ‘Shit…’ and didn’t like where Dave was going. I didn’t like the ‘Skyscraper’ album, and I just didn’t think it was what I wanted to do.”
While both David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar, the two most iconic frontmen associated with Van Halen, sought out Salas for collaboration, his decision to decline these offers reflects his selective approach to his career. His extensive and accomplished career has developed independent of sustained collaborations with either Van Halen frontman or the band itself.
Salas has built a remarkably prolific career spanning work on over 70 albums with major artists. These include George Clinton, Rod Stewart, Mick Jagger, and Justin Timberlake, according to Stevie Salas’s official biography. This extensive résumé demonstrates that Salas has never lacked for high-profile opportunities. It has allowed him to be selective about which projects align with his artistic vision.
Beyond his session work, Salas has established himself as a touring and recording artist in his own right. He toured as lead guitarist with Rod Stewart and contributed to various high-profile projects throughout his career, as noted by Guitar World. His solo records, such as Colorcode and Back from the Living, achieved particular success in Japan and Europe. This established him as a respected artist beyond his session work.
The brief interaction with Sammy Hagar exemplifies Salas’s commitment to artistic integrity. While Salas did accept and play briefly with Hagar, he did not pursue a sustained collaboration further, according to Wikipedia. Their musical visions fundamentally differed. Hagar wanted to create an album in the style of the Eagles, while Salas, a Montrose fan, was not interested in that direction. This decision to walk away from opportunities that don’t align with his artistic goals has been a defining characteristic of his career trajectory.
Salas’s story serves as a reminder that artistic compatibility and creative vision matter more than star power or prestige. Even when legendary musicians come calling, his decision to turn down both Roth and Hagar ultimately allowed him to pursue projects that better reflected his musical sensibilities. His diverse, accomplished career has spanned multiple decades in the music industry.
