SAMMY HAGAR Talks About Early VAN HALEN Days In New Video - "They Were Doing Great Before Me, But It Took A Giant Leap"
July 13, 2013, 10 years ago
San Diego Music TV spoke with legendary singer SAMMY HAGAR (CHICKENFOOT, ex-VAN HALEN, MONTROSE) about when he joined Van Halen in July 1985 and the band quickly was on top of the rock world with four multi-platinum, #1 Billboard charting albums: 5150, OU812, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, and Balance.
Here are a few excerpts from the chat:
Hagar on joining Van Halen: “They were doing great before me, but it took a giant leap. We had our first No. 1 album. Then we had a string of No. 1 albums. At the time, I was almost as big as them - and I might have been in some places. So, when it came together, it was like, whoop.”
Hagar versus Roth: "When we went out to do the first show (in Shreveport, Louisiana), the album (5150) hadn’t come out yet. They’d only heard the single. So, I was nervous walking out on stage, because we were going to play two old songs. So we're playing all new songs playing all new songs. I was, like, ‘I hope this works.’ So, that got in my head a little bit. And the lead-up to all that when our manager said the record wasn't going to go out in time. I said 'fuck you man, don't do this to me!' I was chewing my nails off. But we walked our on stage, and we just ripped it up. From that point on it was great. The album came out and it was #1 for five weeks. ”
