Melodicrock.com spoke to rock legend SAMMY HAGAR (VAN HALEN?) this week about a number of topics. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

On the legacy of Van Halen: "No question about it. My era…Dave era….all of it together it….you can't get much more rock n roll history than that. It's a shame that it is not functional anymore....I think Eddie is as innovative as Jimmy or anyone else and together we wrote some of the greatest songs in rock history and with Dave they wrote some of the greatest songs in rock history."

And on his relationship with Eddie Van Halen (Van Halen guitarist): "It's not any fun to be around Eddie, he's not a fun guy to be around. He's just really angry and I don't know why. He doesn't want to share the spotlight…he doesn't want to share the creativity anymore. He doesn't want to be a band; he wants to be a solo artist....You know, on that Gary Cherone (EXTREME) trip, he played drums on a few songs. C'mon! Fucking do a solo album! Not this when you have a drummer like Alex Van Halen. And he sang lead on a song. My God! Am I gonna let this guy sing? That'd be like me saying 'Eddie, I'm going to play lead guitar on that song instead of you.'"

On PLANET US: "Yeah, that could have been a great band, but as you well knew, I couldn't come out and say it at the time, but the Van Halen reunion was coming up and I couldn't have three bands! I didn't want to take these guys down that road and then leave them high and dry."

On JOURNEY: "They got big because they were so fucking good. They made such great songs. It wasn't because they were hit makers…they created those hits through just great musicianship and great songwriting. Neal (Schon - guitar) has never gotten his due and probably never will, but he's an awesome guitar player....Jeff's a great singer…Jeff's the real deal. Jeff's himself…he sings like Jeff Scott Soto. He doesn't sing like somebody else..."

On MONTROSE: "To say I'm going to put Montrose back together and go out and do a major album and major tour – I can't do that. It was a great band…really really a great band. But I'm just so different from that now."

And finally...on Michael Anthony (Van Halen bassist): "So I forced Mike into the band and by doing that, they were really really not cool to Mike. And Mike is the greatest fucking guy on the planet...he's one of the greatest bass players on the planet… one of the greatest background vocalists on the planet and he's valuable."

The entire Sammy Hagar interview can be read here.