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so what are we supposed to learn from this? i want to learn something from this, dont you? i mean is it ok with you that we see this guy show up and throw down with an Eruption on his first record, be surrounded by an excellent band, score the hot actress wife, and be so damn good that you can get away with not only playing with michael jackson but somehow even make that nutty guitar look cool? but the other truth is, the guy was a chain-smoking alkie for most of his adult life and warned us all of the impending doom when he put down the guitar for "Jump". unless you're jerry lee lewis you will never look cool tickling the ivories in the name of rock. that song was a cry for help and we just sang along like zombies. sure it's easy to blame the frat boys for buying up all those van hagar records that came right after, but even frat boys need music and id rather have them take ownership of that as opposed to anything decent. they're barely letting me have bob marley back. they can have all the OU812 that they want. people go a long way to see jim morrison's grave and they wonder what sorta music he woulda made if he had stuck around and i always say bad jazz and worse blues. people play hendrix and they wonder what sorta music he woulda made if he had stuck around and when i think about eddie van halen i think maybe hendrix woulda fizzled away too. and then i sober up. shakespeare had his share of tragedies and now we do too. here we had a guitar hero who had the finest king lear fool and pissed it all away on booze and marlboro's and withered away in the spotlight. it makes you wonder if history will continue to consider this man one of the finest rock guitarists ever; or, instead, the one who had the most talent and barely scratched the surface of his rock genius. the mickey mantle of heavy metal? perhaps. although i dont think that even on his drunkest day, the mick would have hired sammy hagar to play with him for Ten years. this
is the finest lesson of how the legal drugs are way more deadly. |
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