Sammy Hagar - Leaving Van Halen
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Following is the uncut / unedited / but sometimes censored interview we did with Sammy Hagar — the man who went from solo artist to Van Halen frontman back to solo artist.
Let me say that I love this new album. I think you did a great job. I remember on the Standing Hampton tour, you used to come out for your encore and say, "We're gonna do a song by the greatest rock & roll band ever," and you'd launch into "Whole Lotta Love." And I think you captured the spirit of that band with "Little White Lie."
"I wouldn't see that connection, but yo u know, like, when you just do something, like in a second, it came so fast, I just did it, I didn't think about it, you know . . . I would imagine. You're probably right, if I took every element even. Probably on the next tour, when I go out, I'll say, ‘Yeah, I'll do a song by the greatest rock & roll band who ever lived,' and I'll bust into ‘Dreams' by Van Halen."
So, did you enjoy getting back into the solo thing in the studio, and having full control?
"Yeah, I really did. Being in a band for 11 years, it was great, first of all. You know, no complaints, no nothing. It just was a great movie with a bad ending. Everything was great until the end. Unfortunately, sometimes that happens. But with Van Halen there was always a compromise. I'd say, ‘I wanna paint that wall blue,' and Eddie would go, ‘I don't know, maybe red,' and Alex would go, ‘Naw, Black,' you know, and Mike would go, ‘I don't know, white,' and you end up with a brown wall. And that's what bands are about. That's what Zeppelin was about, that's what The Who was about. All those bands are like that. Otherwise, if there's a leader that gets his way all the time, then it's a solo artist. Then you've got John Fogerty. He's the same with Credence as he was solo. It's just no difference. So being a solo artist, you don't ever have to ask anybody. You've just gotta say, ‘This is what I want to do.' And there's a great, great freedom to that, and I'd forgotten how fast you can get things done, how fast you can move. For Van Halen, we used to take two months to decide what producer we were gonna use; three or four months sometimes. We couldn't even get started on a record. As a solo artist, you just say, ‘Hey, I wanna use this guy. He's available? Okay, when can he start? Tomorrow? Okay.' Everything happened so much quicker, and it makes everything real fresh and exciting. I'm lovin' it right now, I mean, the freedom is killing me, man. I'm just going, ‘Oh boy, this is a blast!' and probably five years from now, I'll be going, ‘Where's my band members, man?'"
I think the excitement is kind of contagious. It kind of came across on these songs.
"These songs are the freshest thing I've ever done in my whole career. I'm just telling you straight up, and they are fresh! I wrote the songs and recorded ‘em, and they were done. Nothing was pre-written, except ‘Amnesty is Granted,' which is an old song I wrote a couple years ago. And the other song was ‘Warmth of the Womb,' I had written about two months before the band split. I wrote it for Van Halen. But everything else, man, I just wrote as I was recording. I just went along . . . and then they're on MTV talking about me. And some guy yells at me, ‘Sammy, Sammy, hey, you gotta see the brothers on TV!' And so I come running out of the studio into the lounge, and there they are, man. And I'm going, ‘What? These guys are lying. That's not what happened. Aww, come on!' So I wrote ‘Little White Lie.' That's how fresh this record was. Everything that happened, I wrote about. My wife had a baby, I wrote a song. It was pretty special doing it that way."
My favorite Sammy Hagar album, what was it called, All Night Long? That live album that came out years ago.
"That had some energy man. I listened to that record just last year, and I couldn't believe it. I'm going, ‘This guy's jacked out of his brain!' A lot of energy on that record. That's a real live record, too, you know, there's no fixing up, no overdubs, no nothing."
That's a true live record, as it ran. I like this one even better than that. I'm real stoked on this album.
"Well, thank you very much. This album is pure Sammy Hagar. This should have the scratch and sniff on it, it smells like me, man! Right now, it's my favorite record I've ever made in my whole life, and that's a big statement, because 5150 and For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, those were great, great, great records. I would've never thought I could've outdone those, but in my heart, I did on this record."
What was it like playing with the guys in Montrose again, and some of the other players you worked with on this album.
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