SAMMY HAGAR (CHICKENFOOT, ex-VAN HALEN, MONTROSE) is currently in Toronto celebrating Canadian Music Week and promoting his new book, RED: My Uncensored Life In Rock. During his celebrity interview held at the Royal York Hotel, he was asked by host Tommy Nast who is the best guitarist he's ever played with. His answer is below:

During the Hagar celebrity interview, Hagar revealed the title of Chickenfoot's forthcoming second album – Chickenfoot IV.

Sammy told a capacity crowd in the Ballroom at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto: “We’ve got 11 songs written and recorded. I’ve done seven vocal tracks and it’s fantastic! Hopefully it’ll be out by the end of the year, but it’s hard to say when ‘cause we don’t have a record deal. We’re not looking for one. We had a one-off deal with Best Buy and Redline Records which was a fantastic thing, I gotta tell ya. There ain’t many record companies out there anymore and if there is, they don’t do much for you. They put the record out and if it sells, great. If it don’t, you’re fucked. It’s a strange world. The record industry’s pretty much in the toilet right now. We don’t care. We’re just finishing this record. Then we’ve got to make a record deal."

"But we have the album cover done," Hagar added. "We’ve already got a video – we shot everything in 3D, the album cover’s in 3D. It’s awesome. I’m going to get in trouble with my brothers in the ‘Foot for saying this, but I’m giving this out – our second record we’re calling Chickenfoot IV (Four). That’s how silly we are! It’s a working title but I guarantee it will stick. We just laughed, ‘What are we going to call the second record? Well, Chickenfoot II (Two).’ And we’re going, ‘We can’t call it Chickenfoot II, that’s too obvious.’ And pretty soon (drummer) Chad Smith, I’m sure was the guy, he’s going, ‘Let’s call it Chickenfoot IV.’ And we all cracked up and said, ‘Right on, that’s it.’ And we haven’t talked about it since. That’s what it’s going to be called. The dreaded second album – we’re going to avoid that.”

(Interview transcription plus photo by Aaron Small)