SAMMY HAGAR WAS MARCHING TO MARS AFTER GETTING BOOTED OUT OF VAN HALEN

https://youtu.be/NxqF-GyzR_g?si=tApcAU3FEQzIp75O


On the odd occasion both before and after his mid 80's to mid 90's tenure with VAN HALEN, veteran rocker SAMMY HAGAR touched the lofty heights of hard rock royalty as a solo artist, previously I have written about a number of his songs and a couple of albums before his 1985 entry into VAN HALEN after DAVID LEE ROTH was given the flick (the first time).

But I have never touched on any of his recordings post 1996 besides his most recent re-invention as lead singer of the awesome supergroup like CHICKENFOOT, a band which has just as much in common with LED ZEPPELIN as the party rock and heavy rock guitar he made his own during his time in 70's hard rock pioneering outfit MONTROSE, as a solo artist, and to a lesser extent, in VAN HALEN.

After everything both on a personal and musical direction level unravelled between him and the Van Halen brothers following the patchy VH album BALANCE in 1996, Hagar must have felt like David Lee Roth felt in 1985, left for dead but only too eager to outdo VAN HALEN with a comeback solo album like Roth done in 1986 with his album EAT 'EM AND SMILE, which despite selling a lot less copies was a much more genuinely Van Halen sounding album than the first VH album with Hagar 5150.

Hagar was fired up after his 1996 dismissal from VH, and his first post VH effort MARCHING TO MARS wasn't a half bad effort, much less workmanlike and song based structured than Hagar's style in VAN HALEN, a songwriting trait often used by music critics to make comparisons between David Lee Roth and him. In particular, the title track has a really original and sci-fi guitar riff which swings a mean loop.