Mitch Malloy

Mitch Malloy was briefly the lead vocalist for hard rock band Van Halen. Like all of the band's lead vocalists his tenure with the band was an unusual one. Invited to join the band after Sammy Hagar left in 1996, he accepted the position and performed with the band a few times. They recorded demos of Malloy singing along to classic Van Halen songs.

However, the band decided to appear on MTV's Music Video Awards 1996 with former vocalist David Lee Roth (who performed with Van Halen from 1974-1985 and had just recorded two new songs with the band for a compilation album but was not a member of the band despite him believing he was). At this time the public was unaware of Malloy's involvement with the band.

Malloy was unaware of the MTV appearance until the last minute and felt that in light of this, the band were making it impossible for any singer to be popular with Van Halen again other than David Lee Roth. He immediately called Michael Anthony and said he felt it was a mistake, but the appearance went ahead.

Malloy then sent a letter to the Van Halen management explaining his views and making his exit from the band final. None of the recordings from his tenure with the band ever got a public release, though in interviews Malloy has suggested he still has copies of them.

References

See also

• Van Halen
• Bio

External links

• Mitch Malloy MySpace page