How Did Van Halen Break Up?

Even the Millennials and maybe even Gen Zers have heard of the legendary 80s rock bands, Rolling Stones, Poison, Kiss…Van Halen. How could anyone not? Van Halen will go down in history as one of the best rock ’n’ roll bands ever; they were a legend. And yet, they were so young when they broke up – just a little over 11 years old at the time one of the members, David Lee Roth, had left.

That was certainly a sad day, leaving everyone questioning why on earth would they decide to do that? The money was great, the fans were great and I even bet the girls were great. The life of the rock star was incredible. So what happened? What monstrosity could have occurred in the middle of their fame and fortune?

How Van Halen Broke Up

Van Halen was formed in 1974, consisting of Eddie Van Halen, his brother, drummer Alex Van Halen, vocalist David Lee Roth and bassist/vocalist Michael Anthony, playing for 11 years with multiple albums that sold over 10 million copies in the U.S. alone.

Van Halen broke up after David Lee Roth announced on April 1st, 1985, April Fool’s Day, that he would leave to pursue a solo career.

As you can imagine, the crowd was shocked. As to why he would do such a thing, here’s what he told Billboard in January 1985, “Since my very first days in with the band 11 years ago, I have always had the feeling that one day I would wake up in a cold hotel, all the rooms would be empty and I would be stuck by a phone with a busy signal. From the first day. Nothing has changed.”

Why David Lee Roth Left Van Halen

What does he mean by that exactly? While he didn’t specifically explain, my interpretation is that he didn’t feel fulfilled playing with the band. In fact, I think he felt lonely (“all the rooms would be empty”) and was waiting on an opportunity to come to him for 11 years but never did (“I would be stuck by a phone with a busy signal). If that were the case, it takes a lot of bravery and motivation to leave something that big, pursue your own dream and start something completely new. Feels like a leap of faith, but he had to do it for a chance at happiness.

But there was more to it than that. Throughout the previous year, David Lee Roth didn’t exactly get along well with the rest of the members. They argued a lot in the studio, on tour and disputed the future of the band in David’s mansion after their 1984 world tour. Eddie suggested that since things were difficult during the world tours, they would scale down the shows a bit. But David strongly disagreed, feeling they would be “ripping off” the fans.

There was also the issue that David wanted to start an acting career, with the movie Crazy From the Heat being his first. He also offered Eddie Van Halen to score the movie, but he declined, still feeling betrayed by his fellow bandmate.

That was the final straw for David as he declared, “I can’t work with you guys anymore. I want to do my movie. Maybe when I’m done, we’ll get back together.”

Well Eddie and the others certainly didn’t want to wait around, so they started looking for a replacement. They also fired their manager, Noel Monk, in April 1985, despite David’s failed attempts to keep him.

The summer of 1985 was a big mess for the band as Rolling Stone explained on July 4th that “Van Halen is on permanent hold. Eddie, who’s rumored to be scouting around for a new lead singer, is writing songs with Patty Smyth and planning to collaborate with Pete Townsend. As for David Lee Roth, he intends to purse an acting career full time and is developing his own movie.”

Sammy Hagar Replaces Roth as Lead Vocalist

Unfortunately for David, the movie never happened as CBS Productions backed out in March of 1986. But the band was still feeling bitter towards him as they released their first album, 5150, with a new singer, Sammy Hagar. The album still hit the top of the charts as Eddie explained to People Magazine that even though they sounded great together, things got so bad behind the scenes that he wanted to leave. Perhaps too many years together brought too much tension amongst the pair that they just had to go their separate ways.

From 1985 to 1996, Van Halen released OU812 in 1988, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge in 1991, and Balance in 1995, all of which became multi-platinum albums and topped the charts in the U.S.

Bandmates Coming and Going

In 1986, Sammy Hagar left just before the band released their greatest hits collection, Best Of – Volume I and was replaced by Gary Cherone. With Gary, the band released their lowest-performing album Van Halen III in 1998 before leaving in 1999.

The band was then put on hold for four years until Hagar re-joined in 2003 for a world tour in 2004 and released their greatest hits collection The Best of Both Worlds. Then Hagar left again in 2006 and was replaced by Roth before the Van Halen brothers kicked out their bassist Michael Anthony to replace him with Eddie’s son, Wolfgang.

From 2006 to 2012, the band remained stable and released their last studio album A Different Kind of Truth, which was highly successful as well as the first one to feature Roth in 28 years and only one to feature Wolfgang.

Death of Eddie Van Halen

Sadly on October 20th, 2020 Eddie Van Halen died from cancer (not COVID), which was diagnosed in 2001. One month later, Wolfgang confirmed that after his death, Van Halen was officially done.

Accolades

• In 2007, Van Halen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• In March 2019, Van Halen is 20th on the RIAA list of best-selling artists in the United States.
• Van Halen sold 56 million albums in the States and over 80 million worldwide, which made them one of the best-selling groups of all time.
• Van Halen charted 12 number-one hits on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart.
• Van Halen was ranked seventh on VH1’s list of top 100 Hard Rock artists of all time.
• Van Halen is one of only five rock bands with two studio albums to sell over 10 million copies in the U.S.

What Do You Think of Van Halen?

What was your first impression of Van Halen? Did you like them with David Lee Roth or Sammy Hagar more? What was your favorite album? What did you think of Wolfgang joining?

For me, 1984 was by far their best album with David Lee Roth. I also thought it was honorable for Wolfgang to join and follow in his father’s footsteps. But I do think Wolfgang should continue with rock, if not full-time, then part-time as a tribute to his father and legendary rock star Eddie Van Halen.