Today In Rock: March 17th, 1998 – Van Halen Falters
On this day… “Van Halen III,” the only Van Halen album with singer Gary Cherone and the last with bassist Michael Anthony drops. It’s also the only album in the Van Halen catalog not to go platinum – it’s close with over 800,000 units moved.
The band’s eleventh studio album was their first studio effort in three years following “Balance” (1995).
Anthony only appeared on three songs while the remaining bass parts were played by Eddie Van Halen with the guitarist also handling drums because his brother, Alex, was dealing with personal problems. Later, Anthony said he considered “Van Halen III” more an Eddie Van Halen solo project than a collective band effort.
Vocalist Sammy Hagar left Van Halen in 1996. He was briefly replaced by original frontman David Lee Roth. When that didn’t pan out the band recruited Cherone.
It was a rough ride for the former Extreme (“More Than Words”) singer.
“I would have preferred to tour with them (Van Halen) and then put out a record,” Cherone later told radio station KNAC. “It would have been a better idea to establish myself first and then hit the studio with the band… There were some great ideas and some little gems but it was not a great record. I had fun but at times it was like being a stranger in a strange land.”
Seen as a commercial disappointment compounded by the album’s lukewarm reception (from critics and fans) work halted on a follow-up album with Cherone leaving shortly thereafter.
There would be fourteen-year gap before “A Different Kind Of Truth,” Van Halen’s ’12 comeback album with Roth, arrived.
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