What Vince Neil Hated About Opening for Van Halen

Vince Neil revealed the downside to opening for Van Halen with Sammy Hagar during his ‘90s solo period.

The singer had split with Motley Crue after being accused of having lost interest in making music. In a recent interview with the Outsider podcast (video below), he was asked if it had been difficult to head out as a solo artist in 1992.

“No – it was great!” Neil said. “I opened for Van Halen, my first tour as a solo artist. … It was pretty cool.

“Except for, when you open up for Van Halen – because it was Sammy – it was like date night…you’d take your chick to go watch Van Halen. So I when I was onstage, no one had gotten there yet!”

READ MORE: Motley Crue’s Vince Neil Names His Five Favorite Albums of All Time

Neil suggested the frustration of not being a headline act contributed to his return to Crue in 1997. “When Motley went out, their tickets stopped selling; and I was doing pretty good, but I wasn’t selling out places – I was opening for guys,” the singer said.

“So their manager called me up and said, ‘We’d like to meet with you…’ It took a while for me to say ‘okay’ [but] I finally gave in and I went to the recording studio where they were making Generation Swine… and I dunno… it was bad for a while, because I didn’t wanna be there.”

Vince Neil Still Hates ‘Generation Swine’

He also repeated his feelings on Generation Swine, which had been set to be Crue’s second album with John Corabi, but was released with Neil’s vocals instead.

“I hated that record. I still hate that record,” he stated. “[There are] no good songs on it… I told ‘em, ‘This record sucks!’ [They said] ‘No. We love it. We love it.’”

Reflecting on the tensions that had led to the split in the first place – including the accusation that he preferred racing cars to being in a band – Neil argued: “And when we broke up I was the first guy to put out a top 10 single… so I did everything they said I couldn’t do.”