Come home, Sammy! We missed you!

Eight years after a contentious departure/firing, Sammy Hagar has rejoined Van Halen for an upcoming tour and possible recording. I'm not sure how much, if any, interesting new stuff Van Halen can bring to the table (especially after that album with Gary Cherone -- yeeccchhh!), and I'm really not sure if Hagar's voice these days is capable of producing the kinds of high notes that the best songs from his Van Halen output require, but I always liked the Sammy Hagar phase of the band's history. (The David Lee Roth era was great, too; I tend to like both equally.)

I remember an interview with Hagar after his departure in 1998 in which he sadly noted that "I'll never make music again as good as I did with those guys", which seemed to me a refreshing bit of honesty, especially after David Lee Roth's "Who needs them? I'll be bigger than Jesus!" attitude after his original exit. I also thought it a good illustration of the idea that "Living well is the best revenge" when I saw Sammy on, of all things, an episode of Emeril Live! on the Food Network a few years later, in which he reported that since leaving the band he got a place in Mexico, on the beach, where he makes his own tequila.