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 kind of a groovy record, ... It's almost a little retro. It's not '80s-type fist-in-the-air Sammy Hagar -- well, a couple of songs are always like that because that's where I came from -- but it's almost more '70s rock.
I've had my fill of "One Way To Rock" or "I Can't Drive 55." Those are guy songs to me, and I'm cool with that. But when you write a great love song and you start seeing that 50 percent of your audience is beautiful women, that's much more rewarding, than having a bunch of guys out there.
I always liked a good love song and, I dig being in love.
This is pop music. You've got a candidate for president of the United States using it, that's hitting the biggest audience you're ever going to hit in your entire friggin' life. And you don't want that? Bullshit. That's what you want. It's not even for success or fortune, it's because that's the power of the song.
"Love Walks In," it was the same thing. That song is about aliens, by the way.
I had more of a vocal range. If you wanted to play a keyboard song, like "Love Walks In," I can do it.
I'm a co-writer, publisher of that song ["Right Now" ], so for it to get accepted, we had to sign off on it. I signed off in a second. "You bet that anyone can use this. I don't care. You can use it for anything." If it is to inspire people in the positive sense.
That song ["Don't Tell Me"] didn't take us anywhere, and I know why now. It wasn't what Van Halen fans wanted. It showed the darkness of Van Halen, and basically the end of the band.
It took me a long time to put it to use in things, but the name of my publishing company is Nine Music, and "Red" became my theme song.
I've always been into writing love songs.
The downloads, the licensing, commercials, radio - it's made me more money than any song I've ever written, and it only went to No. 26. It wasn't a big hit at all. But it's a career song ["I Can't Drive 55"].
I was going through troubles with my marriage, and I was just trying to focus and center myself. I was already rich and famous. I've got to figure out where I want to go and just get this thing aimed. I wrote this song ["Right Now"] and I kept singing it every day .
I loved that song ["Don't Tell Me"], but man, it was dark. That song did nothing for Van Halen.
I had written lyrics to a song called The Silent Extreme, which Alex later renamed Humans Being.