Wolfgang Van Halen, son of the late Van Halen icon Eddie Van Halen and frontman of Mammoth, recently weighed in on the long-running debate over who was the better Van Halen singer, Sammy Hagar or David Lee Roth, in comments shared on Instagram.
The remarks focused on why he tends to steer clear of picking sides in the argument, and what he believes the Sammy Hagar era specifically brought to his father’s songwriting.
“To delve into the exhausting argument of which singer is better. I’m kind of of the mind where there’s positives in everything,” Wolfgang Van Halen said. “And, you know, if you hate one side or the other, it’s like, hey, you know, the same guy wrote the stuff.”
“You can really find stuff to appreciate. And I really appreciate the melodic addition that Sammy added to the band with this music,” he continued.
“I think it allowed my dad to explore a more melodic style of songwriting. And there’s great stuff on here on ‘The Collection II’,” he added.
Wolfgang’s comments arrive as fresh context makes the Hagar era’s impact on the band’s catalog even clearer.
Sammy Hagar stepped into Van Halen’s lineup in 1985, taking over from David Lee Roth after Roth departed the band that same year. The transition came at a pivotal moment. Van Halen was fresh off the massive success of “1984” and the chart-topping single “Jump,” leaving big shoes to fill for any new frontman.
Hagar’s tenure proved commercially dominant. During his time with the band, from 1985 through 1996, Van Halen released four multi-platinum albums that each hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts. This cemented the “Van Hagar” era as one of the group’s most successful commercial periods.
That legacy is now being revisited through “The Collection II,” the box set Wolfgang referenced in his comments. The release spotlights the band’s Hagar-era material. It came out on October 6, 2023. The album debuted at No. 62 on the Billboard 200, marking Van Halen’s highest new chart entry since “Tokyo Dome Live in Concert.”
The box set’s release and chart performance underscore why Wolfgang continues to point fans back toward this stretch of the band’s discography. For him, the melodic sensibility Hagar brought to the songwriting remains a defining, and often underappreciated, chapter in his father’s musical evolution.
