A Conversation with Sammy Hagar – HuffPost 8.26.13

Mike Ragogna: How are you doing, Red Rocker?

Sammy Hagar: I’m doing great! I’m just getting ready to rehearse and start my whole campaign that goes through until probably November.

MR: And you’re going to be supporting the new Sammy Hagar & Friends release, right?

SH: Yeah. And it’s like these shows I’m going to do. I’m going to do TV, you name it. Photo sessions… my least favorite thing on the planet.

MR: Are some friends going to be joining you on the tour?

SH: Well, hopefully. When you have the kind of friends I have on the CD, it’s pretty damn eclectic. These guys are probably either touring or out of the country touring or on vacation or doing something. I’m not sure who’s going to be around when I’m around, but I’m taking a lot of the people out on certain shows, like in Saint Louis and San Francisco, I’m bringing Denny Carmassi and Bill Church–the Montrose guys–and in San Francisco, a guy that’s not even on the record, Dave Meniketti from Y&T is going to play the Montrose stuff with us, and Michael Anthony is coming out for most of the tour to do the Van Hagar-era stuff. I’ve got some people I’m bringing around with me, but if I hit Detroit and Kid Rock’s around, hey hey hey! If I hit Nashville, I’m sure Ronnie Dunn will be there…

MR: Well, with an album titled Sammy Hagar & Friends, and given how many musical friends you have, how did you know who to ask to join you on the record?

SH: You know what? That’s a damn good question, Mike, I’ve got to tell you, because it started from what I do in Cabo every year, my birthday bash, and I’ve had every friggin’ human being in the music industry was down there and played with me over the years. So to have that big well of talent and artists and then try to get them all on ten songs is like, “Whoa!” I have so many of friends that went, “Aw, man, why didn’t you ask me to do it?” I really tried to go with two things: What was right for the song, like Nancy Wilson; she was the right harmony for that. She’s a real great harmony singer. Ann’s such a great lead singer, Nancy always is usually defined to doing the background vocals, which are brilliant on Heart stuff. She’s amazing and a great lead singer herself. So she was a first choice. “Mickey Hart, he’s right for the drum part on this because he has such an eclectic drum collection of Arabian drums, African, Tahitian drums, you name it, he’s got them,” so I knew he was the guy. It was just kind of like that. I knew who was right for the song. Kid Rock, “Knockdown Dragout”… I needed an edgy guy, a guy that’s got an attitude, a guy that’s a little harder-edged than the country boys. It’s just like that. “Toby, hey, it’s perfect for ‘Margaritaville’!” We’ve been drunk on tequila and Cabo Wabo so many times and walked up on stage and played probably more than Jimmy does in his own places. There were a lot of people who said, “Oh, God, I’d love to do it but…” I called Chad Kroeger from Nickelback to help me out on one song and he goes, “Dude I hope you’re not in a hurry, I’m producing Avril Lavigne’s record, I’m writing with her, and I’m doing a world tour.” It was just really about who could and who couldn’t.

MR: Sammy, as far as the tracklist, how did you choose these covers? I know Bob Seger’s “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” was recommended by your wife.

SH: Yeah, and I’m a Seger guy. We were on Capitol Records together all those years and then I did shows with him even back in the old days. I remember with Montrose, we played outside Detroit…Ann Arbor or something. It was an outdoor thing. I didn’t even know who he was and he blew my mind because he sounded the way I wanted to sing. He sounded like an old blues guy already and I was a young kid. My voice was trying to sound like that. But just picking the right songs, like I said, that meant something to me or this group of people, like when we did “Going Down” with Neal Schon and Mikey and Chad. All of us had jammed “Going Down” at the Cabo Wabo or even at concerts when they’d come and sit in. For me, it might be the number one song I jam with people. That and “Rock Candy,” because that’s what everyone wants to play. They’re like, “I know ‘Going Down,’ let’s play it.” To put that on the record was just like, “Yeah, this is about my friends getting together. This is what we do.” So the idea of that was that. “Personal Jesus,” there’s no reason other than it’s a cool, badass song and it’s a cool, badass riff. I heard it on the way to the studio and we all agreed, “Let’s try it.” I think it’s killer. It might be my favorite cover I’ve ever done.

MR: Yeah, and though one wouldn’t exactly think of Sammy Hagar covering Depeche Mode, it’s a smooth ride, the way it turned out.

SH: Yeah, I know it isn’t the obvious, but if you listen to that riff–it’s played on a synthesizer–you could play that riff on a banjo and it sounds badass. [hums riff] It’s a mean blues riff and they did it so electronic and it was still heavy. To me, it was badass. I hadn’t heard that song in years and when I got in the car and I was driving to the studio the other day, I heard it and I said, “Wow, let’s do that!” That’s a good place to be. I’ve got to tell you, Mike. That’s what I’m most proud of on this record; it’s fearless. Bring it!

MR: Yeah, YOU’RE fearless. By the way, what guitar are you playing these days?

SH: I’m still a Les Paul through a Blackstar/Marshall stack. You can’t take it away from me. I can’t help it. I’m a Gibson guy. Other than my acoustic work–I play a lot of acoustic guitars on this record–my only other thing was a Strat. On “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” I played a strat, and that was John Cuniberti’s idea. He said, “Why don’t you get that kind of sound for this?” and I’m going, “Gee, I haven’t played a Strat since 1977,” but I pulled one of my old strats out and it sounded great; it made me play different. I’ve never played a solo like that. That does not sound like a traditional Sammy Hagar solo.

MR: Will you be playing more Strat in the future?

SH: No, I don’t think so. To me, playing a Strat’s a wrestling match. I love the way they sound, but I just can’t play them. [laughs] Maybe I’ll put a Les Paul neck on a strat.

MR: [laughs]

SH: I’ll bolt my damn Les Paul neck onto the Strat.

MR: Hey, let’s talk about the songs on the album. “Winding Down” has a pretty cool topic, and you’ve got Taj Mahal on it…

SH: I don’t know if the media has tuned into this or if I’m just getting hip to it, but it seems like it’s all tragic. Everything is tragic, everything is trying to incorporate fear into people, and people are doing all the craziest s**t–going into a school and blowing away all these kids. Anybody that could do that, I just can’t imagine why people could be that sick. So it repulsed me. One morning, I got up and my wife had the news on. I don’t watch the news, but all of a sudden, I watched it and I’m sitting there drinking coffee and a guy kills everybody in a classroom, and they’ve got the guys that blew up the people in Boston, and then the Chinese dude who says it’s okay to bomb America or something. I saw all that in one day and I was just driven to my guitar. I don’t usually do protest songs, I don’t make statements except for “I Can’t Drive Fifty Five,” which, honest to God, is a protest song. That’s the kind of protest song I write. But to get political and all that, it just repulsed me; I got furious, almost, and I had to speak out. My guitar was already tuned to an open G tuning, which is so bluesy you can’t play anything but the blues on it, so I just started playing that riff and it came out in five minutes. It wrote itself. That was the quickest writing on the album I did, and I didn’t change a damn thing. I went to the studio that day and recorded it like that except I added another verse later for Taj. I wanted him to do some answers in there. It’s a weird thing. To me, it made me want to get out the ol’ Neil Young “I’m moving to the country ’cause it’s time to go.” I felt like, “You know what, I just want to get out of this fricking whole mess here.” The world’s revving up and I’m winding down. I’m over it. I don’t even want to know about it. That’s where I’m at in my head.

MR: Wow. You have a Chickenfoot connection happening on “Going Down.”

SH: Yeah, that was the first idea that I wanted Joe, Chad, Mike and myself to do live in the studio, and Joe was gone, he was in Europe. So I got Neal to do it. I’d already gotten Joe to play on “Knockdown Dragout,” so I just said, “Okay, that’s cool, I’ll just get Neal Schon to do it” because I needed to get Neal Schon on the record, too. He’s one of my old, dear friends and we’ve played together so much. It’s just such a classic jam tune. Chickenfoot, the original, before Joe. Chad, Mike and myself down in Cabo for five years played that song every time we were there, and we were there at least five or six times a year and played two or three night each time, so we probably played “Going Down” forty times a year. Then the first time Joe joined us in Las Vegas, what did we play? “Going Down.” And then we played Led Zeppelin “Rock And Roll” and then we played “Dear Mr. Fantasy” by Traffic, which I’ve never played again. I’d never, ever played it before. But “Going Down” was always that song, so to play Sammy Hagar And Friends, to put that CD together and have those combinations of people on there and say, “Well what are you going to do, write a new song or cover something?” I’d say, “Let’s do ‘Going Down.’ What would we do in Cabo? We’d play ‘Going Down.’ Let’s go play ‘Going Down.'” That was the reason.

MR: Nice. And there is another nod to your past with “Bad Motor Scooter” that was from these sessions.

SH: “Bad Motor Scooter” is on the extra downloads and all that. That’s such a wonderful rendition of that song. Having Denny come on and sing with Bill Church and myself, you’ve got three of the original members and it was the first song I ever wrote in my life. The first song I ever wrote in my life was “Bad Motor Scooter.” Can you believe that s**t?

MR: [laughs] Awesome

SH: And then after Ronnie’s death, we did that tribute for his family to raise some money and Joe played. It was just so magic having Bill Church and Denny play on that thing, and it didn’t have any purpose. There it is, I own this track. For a year now, it’s been sitting on ice and I thought, “The world’s got to hear this.” There were only sixteen-hundred people or whatever it was that the Avalon Ballroom holds, so that’s all the people that got to hear. But I wanted the world to hear that because that was a magical night between the four of us playing that Montrose stuff. It might have served it better than it’s ever been served.

MR: Sammy, there are so many phases of your career, and yet whenever Sammy Hagar comes up to the mic or plays, it’s Sammy Hagar, even when it’s Van Halen or whatever the configuration. It’s like you can’t water down the personality that comes out in the voice or the guitar.

SH: Well, this is a good question. Nobody’s ever asked me this, but I have a theory. When I was first starting and I was trying to sing and play like other people and I was trying to learn other people’s songs, I could never learn them. I could never sound like anybody, you know? I had a problem with it. I’d be in a bar band and I’d be playing a Rolling Stones song trying to sound like Mick and I couldn’t! I just wasn’t good at learning other people’s songs and styles, so I always had my thing by accident. It’s almost like I felt I wasn’t very smart musically, I didn’t have any musical training, so I couldn’t learn those riffs the way they played them. I ended up playing them in my own style. It turned out to be a blessing in the long run because I kind of developed my style even when I was trying to play other people. So I’ve seen bands, like my band at the Cabo Wabo, Cabo Uno. I walk in, go up to my dressing room and the doors are closed and I don’t know whether it’s music being played over the PA or whether it’s the band. I’m sitting there and I find out it’s the band and I go, “Holy shit, they sound exactly like the record!” Well, that’s a curse. I figured this out now. In the old days, I was always trying, but now, today, I’m going, “I was a very lucky guy there, I just kind of happened to have my own stamp,” and I certainly refuse to bend too much, that’s when I got kicked out of bands all the time. But I’ve got to do my own thing. I’m not good at being produced, I’m not good at being directed. Some producers, I bump heads with them because they’re trying to get me to do things, and I go, “I don’t want to do that, I can’t do that, that sounds horrible to me!” So I’m just one of those guys. That’s my secret: I’m kind of hardheaded and limited. I’m limited to myself.

MR: Sammy, what do you think of the state of rock these days?

SH: I don’t know. It’s interesting. Thank God I already made it. I don’t see a guy with my style and the way I went about it doing too well today. My way of making it, I think, is dead and gone but I still believe that if you want to be a musician… If you want to be a pop star, it’s different. You’ve got to go get on TV or something. But if you want to be a band, a rocker, a guy that can play music and jam with other people and be a real musician, then you’ve just got to go play as much as you can in front of as many people as you can any time, anywhere and live and breathe it. Put your head down and keep on swinging. One of my favorite new young bands is Rival Sons. Their last thing was called “Keep On Swinging,” and he’s the same guy who wrote that song “Not Going Down” on my record. He’s got that attitude. A young guy from Fontana, my hometown, he wrote a song called “Keep On Swinging” and he wrote “Not Going Down.” That’s the attitude you’ve got to have today. If you’re going to go out and do what I did, you’d better have your f**king head down and just be swinging. To try to outsmart the system and find a way to do it but then still be a musician, you’ve got to play music, you know? I don’t know if it’s going to get you anywhere. You’ll get somewhere. I don’t know if it’s going to get you rich and famous by doing that, but you’ll get somewhere. People will start noticing you. That’s just my advice, whether you asked for it or not. That’s what I think of the industry right now, it’s tough, but keep your head down and keep f**king swinging. Kick, bite, everything. Cheat.

MR: [laughs] Cheat?

SH: [laughs] If you have to!

MR: I usually ask for advice for new artists, but I think you just gave it.

SH: [laughs] Yeah.

MR: It must have been a nice moment for you on the album to have “Father Sun” and to also have your kid Aaron on there with you.

SH: Yeah, that was a last-minute thought because I didn’t have a duet planned for that song, and if I did, I thought about a female because of the verses. It’s kind of romantic. I love that song, by the way. It was so personal. I went on vacation with my family to Tahiti. I didn’t have a guitar, nothing, and I heard that wonderful French Polynesian music, which was just killer, so I bought those instruments, I played them on this song, I had other guys come in and play those instruments on that song to try to really capture that vibe and I thought, “This could be a good duet with a girl.” The first person I thought about was Grace Potter because she’s really cool. She’s awesome and I thought about her but she was on tour, so I couldn’t get it done, and she was supposed to come to Berkeley and San Francisco. That’s the window we had, and I’m going, “My record’s done.” Long story short, I said, “I’m going to have Aaron.” At first, I called it “Waiting On The Sun,” because that’s what I was doing every day over there–time change, wake up at four or five o’clock in the morning, and go, “S**t, when’s the sun coming up?” Kids are going, “What are we going to do, daddy?” “Well, we’ve got to wait until the sun comes up, you know?” We were waiting on the sun all the damn time…and then I thought about how powerful the sun is, how it has that power where it drives you out. It pulls you out of your house and it pulls you out into ocean and onto the beach. I love that song, but when I renamed it “Father Sun,” I thought, “What a twist, I’ll get Aaron to do it.” It was a spontaneous thought. I was asked about Mumford & Sons and The Lumineers and all that. Well, I wrote this in December ’12 with that kick drum of mine because that’s what they were doing in Tahiti. Every night at this little resort I was at in Taha’a–a little tiny island with about sixty people on it–every night these guys would come and play at our resort, and they had a lady with a stick and a tom-tom. She’d go “Boom, boom, boom,” just like what I put on there with a kick drum, and I did the same thing on “Winding Down,” which is an old blues thing. Then I come home and I hear these songs and I go, “That’s it! That’s exactly what I want!” I love those bands. I love that traditional, earthy… it’s world beat when you think about it. It can be in the Ozarks, it can be in Louisiana, it can be in Chicago or it could be in Africa or it could be in Tahiti. There it was, you know? Just someone hitting the downbeat. “One, Two, Three, Four,” four on the floor, man, AC/DC kills it electrically, but when you do it acoustically, it’s badass, too. So that was the influence of that song, and Aaron sang on it and did all the “Whoops” and all that because he’d already been listening to all that music and I hadn’t really heard it. My seventeen-year old daughter played me “Ho Hey” by The Lumineers. When I played her “Father Sun,” she said, “Oh, that’s sounds like The Lumineers.” She played me it and I went, “Wow, I love that.” That’s one of my favorite records. It’s just exactly what I was trying to do at that time.

MR: Now the song you had for the NFL was “Knockdown Dragout.”

SH: Yeah, that’s an ass-kicking tune. That’s a jingle…that is a rock fricking jingle. It’s two minutes and twenty seconds, it’s the shortest song, it’s so high energy, you don’t even have time to take a breath when that sucker comes on. Like I said, I had to get Kid Rock to do that. I needed an edgy guy. I’m not going to ask Toby Keith to sing on it, or Kenny Chesney. He’s my missing guy who didn’t get to sing on this record. We were planning to do “Eagles Fly.” I was going to do an anthology record first with a new song from each era and then I was going to redo “Eagles Fly” with him because it’s his favorite song, and then that got blown up because I decided to do the whole CD instead of the greatest hits record. I was going to ask Kenny to sing “Knockdown Dragout,” but Kid Rock, I asked him to do it and he did it the next day. I love that guy, he’s high-energy, hard working, he’s the real deal and he’s such an eclectic rocker, he belongs as one of my “Friends.” Kid Rock is definitely a buddy, he’s like me. He’s pretty fearless. He can rap, he’ll do country, he don’t care. “What do you want to call me? What do you want to say? You’re not going to tell me I’m limited!”

MR: Nice. Obviously this begs for a Sammy Hagar & Friends 2.

SH: Or a tour! That’s what I really want to do. For my birthday bash on October thirteenth, we’re trying to get a live TV broadcast around the world from Cabo on my birthday and I want to get as many people as possible to come down and do the songs with me. It’ll be a great way to take the whole damn thing out there. Maybe next year. If the record’s big enough, I’ll get it done. If it’s like every other classic rocker that puts a record out and it just kind of comes and goes, then maybe it won’t warrant it. But I want a number one record, I want a Grammy award, I want everything! I’ve still got the fire up my ass so far that you can’t even believe it. You think, “Why does this guy keep doing this?” because I love this s**t, man. It’s awesome. Can you dig it?

MR: I can dig it. Sammy Hagar two years from now. What happened?

SH: Who knows. I’ve got my head down and I’m swinging the whole time. I ain’t looking up, so every now and then, I bump into something. “Oh, that’s cool,” and I start doing that. So I would love to do some more with Chickenfoot, I would love to write another book, a lifestyle-cookbook-party, how to get together with people in your backyard and in the kitchen and my eclectic drinks and stuff that I make. I’m a real connoisseur of all kinds of stuff and I’d like to put a book together like that to show people how I like to live. I would like to have a TV show, but not featuring me…I’m crazy! I don’t know. In the next two years, I’ll take whichever one pops in, gets in front of me and I say, “Okay I’ll do that one now.” I’ll do anything, like you said. I’m fearless.

Transcribed by Galen Hawthorne