Sammy Hagar
Sammy Hagar
Samuel Roy "Sammy" Hagar, also known as The Red Rocker, is an American rock vocalist, guitarist, songwriter, musician and entrepreneur. Hagar came to prominence in the 1970s with the hard rock band Montrose. He afterwards launched a successful solo career, scoring an enduring hit in 1984 with "I Can't Drive 55". He enjoyed huge commercial success when he replaced David Lee Roth as the lead singer of Van Halen in 1985, but left the band in 1996. He returned to...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionRock Singer
Date of Birth13 October 1947
CitySalinas, CA
CountryUnited States of America
It's hard to say this about a guy like Eddie Van Halen, one of the greatest guitar players who ever lived, but he's really limited to a style and they're locked into it.
I can be singing about cat food and I'll make you think that I mean it.
I would like to enlighten people.
Yes, I'm looking at you, looking at me, looking at you, looking at me, looking back at you.
Yeah, yeah, I've been Beatled, I've been Rolling Stoned.
I was loud and electric at night, got all shook up with Elvis.
I didn't think I'd be around 30 years later
I wish I would have known Kurt Cobain. I would have been the first guy there to get him help, doing anything I could have. I just felt like the people around him kind of let him down.
I looked at Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and the boys up there thinking, I want to be that.
The reason I didn't fly over from Maui at their beck and call is my wife was about to have a baby at any time. Those guys knew that. These guys would not compromise and meet me halfway.
The good thing about breaking up is that you have nothing else to lose.
And for him [Kurt Cobain] to do that [suicide] - I didn't like that. I thought that was just wrong. It just sent a bad message to a troubled generation.
We needed time off from each other after our last tour because there was a lot of personal stuff we had to take care of. Eddie needed hip replacement surgery. Al needed his back worked on. And I was going to have a baby.
When we were on the road, I found out that my greatest hits album went Gold. They freaked out. Things really came to a head when we started arguing about a Van Halen greatest hits package.