Sammy Hagar recalled his struggle with 1995 Van Halen hit “Don’t Tell Me (What Love Can Do)” – but revealed he was ready to sing it again, despite the emotions that came with it.
Marking the 30th anniversary of the single’s release, he remembered it as a challenge to perform, and added that he’d encountered disagreements with his bandmates over its tone.
“Singing this song was always difficult,” Hagar said via social media. “I wrote the lyrics about Kurt Cobain’s death. I wanted the chorus to say, ‘I wanna tell you what love can do,’ but [producer] Bruce Fairbank, Ed and Al [Van Halen] wanted to make it more dark and negative.”
READ MORE: The Day Sammy Hagar Split From Van Halen
He continued: “Technically it’s a brutal song to sing. I painted myself in a corner.” Regardless, he insisted: “[W]e will be doing it at the residency in Vegas. I’m going to add it to the show.”
“Don’t Tell Me (What Love Can Do)” was one of four singles from Balance – Hagar’s last album with Van Halen. It reached the top spot of the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart following its launch on Jan. 9, 1995, remaining there for three weeks. The band performed it 58 times during that year’s tour.
Van Halen Song is Loaded with Negativity, Pain for Sammy Hagar
In 2020, when Hagar’s band The Circle released a lockdown cover of the song, Hagar commented: “When I heard that Kurt Cobain had taken his own life, the first thing I thought of was, ‘I wish I were there and could have tried to save him.’”
Recalling that the song was assembled as his relationship with the Van Halen brothers was beginning to disintegrate, he said: “It added a lot of emotion, negativity and pain in the original vocal performance, which surfaced the second I started singing this song for the first time since 1995.”
Watch Van Halen Perform ‘Don’t Tell Me (What Love Can Do)’
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Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso
