Sammy Hagar Shares Who He Thinks Is The Leader Of Van Halen

Sammy Hagar recently stated that behind the scenes at Van Halen there was a real leader. Hagar revealed the identity of Van Halen’s real boss during an interview with Growth TV.

The main singer or frontman of a rock band is typically viewed as the leader of the group, but it isn’t the case for the group. “In Van Halen, if you want to get into what happened, there were a lot of drugs and alcohol in that band. I drink and I had my share of playing around with drugs. I was getting a divorce; I had a new wife. You know, some of them were getting divorced [laughs]. It was just a time that got dysfunctional. Ed Leffler, our fearless leader or manager, had died, and he ran that band.”

He then continued to explain why Leffler was the true leader. “Eddie [Van Halen] wasn’t the leader, I wasn’t the leader. I was a leader when I said, ‘Which time do you guys want to come tomorrow?’ ‘Hey, I can’t be there at two o’clock.’ ‘Why don’t we get together at two o’clock?’ ‘Okay, okay.’ I was that kind of a leader, but not like Ed Leffler. [Leffler would say] ‘You guys need a record; I need it about June 5. You guys need to get it today. You go shopping; you got to get some good clothes. We’ll bring some guys here. The record is coming out. You got to do the video.’ I mean, he ran the freaking band, and we loved it.”

When Leffler died, it marked the downfall of the group as well, seemingly losing one of the study foundations that kept the band going. “So when he died, [there was] nobody to run the band,” Hagar said.