Sammy Hagar And The Circle can be seen performing an abbreviated cover of Van Halen’s 1995 track, “Don’t Tell Me (What Love Can Do)”, in the latest installment of the band’s Lockdown Sessions series.
The tune was the lead single from the band’s tenth studio record, “Balance”, which topped the US Billboard 200 and went on to sell more than 3 million copies in the country.
“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 saved him,” says Hagar. “The original title for these lyrics were ‘I want to show you what love can do,’ but because it was such a dark horrible thing I just couldn’t shine a light on it. So I changed the final line to ‘Don’t tell me what love can do.’
“P.S. It was also the time of the breaking up of Van Halen, our last album and tour so 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.”
The rocker ended his decade-long, four-album run with Van Halen following the completion of a nine-month tour in support of “Balance”; he would return again for an ill-fated reunion tour in 2004.
Hagar and The Circle cancelled a planned three-month summer US tour due to the global health crisis as part of a trek in support of their debut studio record, “Space Between”; they’ll return to live action next month for a benefit show at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland, OH.
See also:
Sammy Hagar to play first pandemic-era concert
Sammy Hagar joins members of The Doobie Brothers and Fleetwood Mac for Traffic classic
Sammy Hagar performs Van Halen classic in new Lockdown Sessions video
Sammy Hagar performs Little Richard tribute
Search Sammy Hagar at hennemusic
