Andy Greene of Rolling Stone spoke with Sammy Hagar (Montrose, Van Halen, Chickenfoot, The Circle) highlights from the interview appear below.
Earlier this week, Sammy Hagar announced plans to bring his Best of All Worlds show to Las Vegas next year for a residency at Dolby Live at Park MGM. Like last summer, he’ll be joined by bassist Michael Anthony, guitarist Joe Satriani, drummer Kenny Aronoff, and keyboardist Rai Thistlethwayte for a show that is heavy on Van Halen classics, but also makes room for Montrose tunes and selections from Hagar and Satriani’s solo careers.
“Every night the set list will be a little different,” Hagar told Rolling Stone. “I think the fans are going to go, ‘Oh, my God, he played that on Friday night? Oh, man, I should have went Friday!’ There’s going to be a lot of that kind of stuff, which gets people excited, and it keeps me excited. I hate doing the same set every night.”
Rolling Stone: Did the summer tour exceed your initial expectations?
Sammy Hagar: It exceeded it as far as business goes. I mean, we knew we were going to do good business because we came out of the box so strong. We sold 250,000 tickets the first day it went on sale. That was for 28 cities. Then they just kept selling; in some places we had 17,000 or 18,000 people.
But the biggest surprise was how well the people responded. From the bottom of my heart, I knew it would be good. I know the band was good, but these people…it felt just like the old days in Van Halen. I can honestly compare it to a Van Halen tour, the audience response and what we delivered and what it drew out of me. I really, really got into it.
Rolling Stone: How did it feel singing Jump and Panama for the first time in 20 years?
Sammy Hagar: Panama, I’ll sing that song every day of my life. It’s a great song. I love doing covers. In Cabo I do Led Zeppelin all the time. I do Cream, I do the Stones. I like to play my favorite songs, and Panama would have to be one of them.
Jump, to be honest with you, I enjoyed, because all the songs from my era are in so high of a register to sing. At the end of the show, to do Jump almost at the end after two hours and ten minutes on stage, it was like I get a vocal break. It’s a cool song, and that was for the fans, and we only did half of it. We didn’t do the full song. I felt good about doing that. I felt good for the fans.
Rolling Stone: Do you talk at all about doing more [David Lee Roth]-era songs in the set, or you thought that was enough?
Sammy Hagar: Oh, that’s enough, three, and that’s because we played so long. If we only played an hour and a half, I would just do one, and it would always be Panama. Well, maybe two, because I like when Mikey sings Ain’t Talkin’ ’bout Love. He’s singing it so good now…
Rolling Stone: It couldn’t have been easy for Kenny to parachute in last minute and learn all these songs.
Sammy Hagar: Yeah, and that’s why he is still in the band. That’s why we’re moving forward with him. There’s two reasons. Number one, he’s one of the greatest drummers on the planet. I think he’s been on more million-selling records than any musician in the world. And he did so well on this tour, and he plays with Joe on a full-time basis.
Keeping this Best of All Worlds band together is difficult when you got [former drummer]Jason [ Bonham] doing his thing, you got Joe doing his thing, you got Mike and I. We need our beach time and our taco nights, Taco Tuesdays and stuff. Trying to get it together, it really helps by having Kenny’s schedule be with Joe. If Joe’s available, Kenny’s available, and it’s not trying to put pieces together.
Kenny’s right here. We can rehearse any day of the week. And he blew my mind. I played with Kenny in Chickenfoot, and he blew my mind then too, because when we auditioned him, he learns every song…
Rolling Stone: You and Wolfgang Van Halen were both at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last month. Did you get the chance to catch up with him?
Sammy Hagar: Yeah. I walked into Ozzy’s dressing room because I wanted to say hi to Ozz and some of the guys and to Maynard [James Keenan]. Wolfie’s sitting there, and he just looked…We caught eyes and he just jumps up, and we just f-kin’ hugged and just got goosebumps on both of us.
It’s so funny. Every time I’ve ever run into him and we embrace, I get the goosebumps because I feel like it’s Eddie. I really feel he’s the closest thing to Eddie on this planet right now. He looks like him, when you look him in the eye. He does his gestures. He takes his finger and he pushes his hair out of his face like Eddie. He did that when I was talking to him. I said, “I can’t even look at you, Wolf. I’m getting teared up.” Yeah, I love him and what he’s doing.
Rolling Stone: I’m sure you read about Alex Van Halen’s book. He ends the narrative in 1984, doesn’t mention you, says the essence of Van Halen ended when Dave left, and seemed very reluctant to even say your name on the promotional tour.
Sammy Hagar: It’s sad. I haven’t read the whole book, but I’ve seen all the excerpts, and I heard some of the interviews. It breaks my heart, because if I think what Alex is going through, losing his brother, never played with anybody else in his life, and then his health… When I saw how rickety he is, I realized, “No wonder he’s not answering my call when I say, ‘Do you want to go out and play with us?’” He can’t…
…Why he left me out, I would like to hear him explain that someday, because I don’t get it completely. I know that he’s bitter about some things, whatever that is… It’s like, “If you don’t want that era, that even gives me more justification to say I own it then,” because no one else can do it, and he can’t do it even without me. It makes it easier for Mike and I. We’re sitting there going, “Okay, I guess we own this,” and we have the obligation to bring this to the fans to keep this music alive, keep it live and alive.
This music is too good to throw away…
Rolling Stone: Before he hurt his back, he was talking to Dave about a possible tour. According to him, the whole thing fell apart because Dave didn’t want to do a tribute to Ed in the middle of the set. Are you able to understand that at all?
Sammy Hagar: Yeah. Pure f–kin’ ego. “This show’s about me. What are you talking about?” That’s so wrong. I shied away from doing too much about Eddie on the Best of All Worlds Tour. It was an agreement between all of us, that we don’t want to look like we’re trying to suck vibes off of Eddie Van Halen’s death. I’m so careful about that. There’s haters out there that would misinterpret that, saying, “Oh, yeah, he’s out there making money off Eddie being dead.” No…
Rolling Stone: Tell me more about this new song you made with Joe. Will it be a standalone single?
Sammy Hagar: It’ll be a single, I guess. We’re working on it right now. Mike and I just finished the bass and the background vocals. I took a shot at a lead vocal, but I don’t know if it’s done yet. Joe’s got his parts done. Kenny played drums. I gotta tell you, it was emotional singing it, because the song, it’s about Eddie. That’s the best I can put it. It’s a thank you to him, and it’s a thank you to the fans, and it’s a thank you to that era.
Read the entire interview at Rolling Stone.