No matter where you go in rock music, you can see and hear the influence of Van Halen. Their style of playing, the energy they were able to infuse into everything they wrote, and the unbelievable shredding guitar that Eddie Van Halen made famous are still frequently referenced by bands. But it wasn’t always smooth sailing for Van Halen.

Gene Simmons once said that Mick Jagger looked like a sixth grader next to David Lee Roth. He was essentially saying that Lee Roth, the band’s original singer, was the best frontman in the world by a long way. The energy he brought to the stage was second to none, and he was a great fit for Van Halen. It wasn’t meant to be with David Lee Roth, but Sammy Hagar eventually took over singing duties.

Sammy Hagar brought a great deal to the band. He wasn’t a David Lee Roth stand-in; instead, he brought a different feel to Van Halen and saw them progress to the next level. “What I brought to Van Halen was just who and what I am,” he said when discussing joining the band, “It was Sammy Hagar, who and I what I was at that moment, but very inspired by Eddie Van Halen’s musicianship… He inspired me to write songs… Goosebump songs.”

Eddie Van Halen was very happy to have Sammy Hagar as the frontman, too. As the band experimented more, their music became more progressive and exciting, leading to some of its most commercially successful music. “From the first second, Sammy could do anything I threw at him,” said Eddie, “It just opened up a whole new door. Finally, we felt like we were four people with a common vision. All of a sudden, everything felt comfortable.”

Unfortunately, Sammy Hagar’s time with the band wouldn’t last. In 1996, he left Van Halen after friction within the band became too much. He ended up joining again for a few tours, but they didn’t make music together afterwards. That isn’t to say that Van Halen stopped making music as a whole, though. In 2012, they released the album A Different Kind of Truth, which hasn’t gone down in history as the band’s best work.

It wasn’t that the album was bad, but Van Halen hadn’t released music for a long time, and this album felt like a lot of rehashed old ideas. It was difficult for fans to get on board with, and Sammy Hagar was particularly critical of the record.

“I don’t think the fans are going to be happy with it. I couldn’t care less if it’s the biggest album of the year; that wouldn’t be important to me. What is important to me is that, as artists, why would you do that?” He said, “They haven’t released an album since my last album in something like 1991 or ’92, and then they just go back. To me, it makes a strange statement, it kind of says, ‘We don’t have anything, we’re not a band anymore, we’re not creative’.”