Sammy Hagar talks "Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock"

Earlier this week, the Post-Dispatch published my story on Sammy Hagar and his new book, "Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock." Here's the full Q&A with lots of material that wouldn't fit in the PD piece.

Sammy called from Northern California, where he's currently at work on a new Chickenfoot album with bandmates Joe Satriani, Chad Smith and Michael Anthony.



Let’s start with an obvious question: Why do a book?
There’s a couple reasons, but it just felt like it was time. I felt like enough things have happened and so many things are happening so fast from this point in my life – in the last few years – you know, everything is really rolling in completely different directions. So rather than make the damn book a thousand pages, I thought I should get the first half out of the way while I can still remember it.

It’s not an easy decision. I’ve been turning this book down for 10 years or more. [Former St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer and editor] Dick Richmond and I wrote a book 20 years ago. But by the time the book was done, something really important and new would happen. And I go, “Oh, man, I gotta put this in the book.” Dick and I, when we finished the last book, called “The Long Road to Cabo,” within a year we had to write about six more chapters. And it just kept going. So I said, “Ah, it’s just not time.” I didn’t feel good about it. This book is really in my own voice, and I’ve never had time to do that – as if I do now. I wanted to write it in my own voice.

How did you work with your co-author, Joel Selvin?
We sat down for three months, three days a week, four hours a day, chapter by chapter. Joel would say, “Let’s talk about growing up.” And then he’d go back and write it, have it transcribed, we’d read it and say, “You know, there’s a lot missing here.” So he’d go, “What was your mom doing then,” or “What were your brothers and sisters doing? What was the chemistry in the family? What were you thinking about, how were you dressing?” He just dug in deep. And then we’d do another interview and get that done. Then it’d be, “Okay, let’s talk about your first music, and then let’s talk about Montrose.” It was just chronological. We went right along and went back, read it ourselves, did our own editing and our own additions to it. And it is really – it’s my story. Right straight from my mouth.

It’s a tough decision to say, okay, I’m gonna do it. You got one shot at an autobiography, and I say, if you don’t tell it all, the good and the bad…. The shit you don’t want anybody to know – you gotta put it in there. Your fans are gonna know. In an internet world, your fans know way too much about you to not be putting it in there or to be lying about it.

In terms of tell-all memoirs, you’re not breaking any records here. But there’s plenty of dirt in there on yourself and others. Did any of that stuff make you wince having to include it?
Yeah, a little bit. I was really more upset about the sex, drugs, and rock and roll stuff that was in there because of my nine and 14 year old daughters. I just said, hey, “Either I do it or I don’t.” I chose to do it, so I did it. My wife was going, “Oh my god, you’re not going to leave this in there, are you?” I said, “Yeah, I gotta do it. The fans are too hip.” And I don’t want ‘em to dog the book and I don’t want ‘em to dog me, saying I’m not honest. I’m probably the most candid, honest rocker on the planet and I want to keep that image alive. So I chose to write it, so I wrote it.

I know Joel just a little bit. Great guy, great writer.
He’s a classic wiseass, you know?

No. "Smartass." That’s the title of his other new book.
Yeah, “Smartass.” We’ve gone up and down in our relationship over the years. But he knew a lot about me because he’s from the same town and he’s followed my career as close as anyone. Not always as a fan, either. Joel always…he’s a critic and he loves to poke fun at people when they have success. Like, he liked me when I was struggling. And the second I had a big album, he turned on me. Well, when I got my record deal, he turned on me, for God’s sake. And then, when I joined Van Halen, that was it. It was like, “Uh-oh, Sammy’s too big for this town. He’s too big for his britches.” He took that attitude, I didn’t. So we went at it a couple times from reviews he would give me and things.

You gave out his phone number from the stage!
Yes I did, and I’d do it again. I’ll give yours out, Dan! But I kinda came back around with him. Joel’s the guy who provoked me to do this book. He got involved with Chickenfoot a little bit and became a real fan and supporter. He claims Chickenfoot is his favorite band in 20 years. As it should be! (laughs) We’re hometown boys. But he made it very easy. Joel, with his music history knowledge, kept it chronologically correct. And kept my dates correct. I remember everything that happened, I just don’t remember when. So I’d be going…I would have been in Montrose after I was in Van Halen if I’d have written the book myself.

It seems like you’ve worked with, more than your share of unpleasant guys over the years: Ronnie Montrose, David Lee Roth, even Eddie when he’s under the influence.
Yeah. Well, Eddie turned on me in the end. Eddie and I had a great relationship for nine years. And I mean great. You know, every band has their little quirks where somebody gets wasted and does something stupid, or you both get wasted together and do something even stupider. We got along like brothers forever. And all of a sudden, when Ed Leffler, our manager died – it’s in the book – they pulled in Alex’s brother in law for a manager and boy, those guys turned on me. And I think they were turned on me. It was like a bad trainer came in and said, “Sic ‘em! He’s your problem.”

But my personality is unique. I’m not going to shove the blame on everybody else and say they’re the bad guys. I’m not a bad guy by any means, but everyone else has problems and I don’t. I’m ambitious, go-gettin’, pushy…not to try to get my way, but if there’s one pause in a room where someone asks a question, “What are we gonna do?” If there’s a three second pause, I’m up, sleeves rolled up, I’m going forward: “Here’s what we’re doing.” I’m a real take-charge leader kind of guy, and I can’t help that. And that rubs some people wrong. Like Ronnie Montrose was the leader and he couldn’t handle that. And I didn’t even know it. I’m innocent. I’m just going forward with blinders up.

I love that Montrose album. I’m sure you hear that all the time.
Ronnie broke up one of the greatest American rock bands certainly of that era. He broke it up completely out of ego. I was completely devastated. I would have done anything to keep that band together. We never got to our Led Zeppelin IV, you know? We never got to our fourth album, which, in any great band, is always your greatest record, it seems like. We never got there. We never got past two. I don’t even think we got to two. We made two, but it was all over by then.

Another thing that strikes me about the book is that you’re incredibly frank about some of the…let’s say some of the fun you had. The groupie adventures. The tent under the stage and all that stuff.
Yeah. Well, that was such an era. It still goes on today and every rock band had their version of it. I just told you about how into it we were. We built the damn stage around it. (laughs) It’s funny. But the fact that I actually lived through that era is very special. A lot of people, they never saw that big, 15 trucks and 10 buses going down the highway. The big rock show is coming to town. Those were very, very special years that really ain’t around anymore. There’s a few bands that are doing it. But they’re mostly all country! But even country bands are going around with 15 buses. The technology’s changed so much you can do it with less people now and you can do it with less equipment. But the truth of the matter is, we had a big friggin’ rock show. And it was awesome. You pulled into town with that, the whole town was buzzin’. We owned the radio station, we owned the newspaper, the media. And we owned the arena where we were playing for two or three days. And that was a special era. And the girls linin’ up for you. Man, I ain’t braggin’ about it, I’m just saying, “You need to KNOW about this shit. These were some awesome times.” Not that I’m looking to go back to that or anything. It doesn’t interest me in my life where I am today. But when you’re a young, rich and famous rock star…brotha!

In the equation of sex and drugs and rock and roll, it seems like you come up a little short on the drugs. You aren’t or weren’t a big drug guy?
Not at all. Well, a little bit. Playin’, dabblin’…party fun. But no, it’s never been my thing. I don’t like being out of control. And I don’t like it when I see other people that are. I just want to get so far away from them. Like Eddie on the reunion tour. He was out control completely at all times. I couldn’t stand to be around the guy. It was so freaky to see a guy that’s that out of control. And it’s scary. For him, and for me and for everybody around us. It’s embarrassing. You’re going through an airport or a hotel lobby and it’s freezing outside, snowing, and the guy’s got no shirt and a bottle of wine. If he wasn’t in Van Halen, they’d have thrown him out. I’m not down with that. I’m not down with that at all. I like to treat people the way you want to be treated. That’s always been my motto. You get out there and get wasted, you end up doing shit that, you wake up the next morning and think, “Aw, fuck. Why did I do that?” I hate that. I hate that feeling bad. So I’ve stayed away from it. I’m just not that tempted by it.

You’re bad habits have not taken you down, at least not yet. But I think if one ever does, it’s going to be driving too fast. You really can't drive 55.
No, I cannot. And it will either be that, or it also could be I might work myself to death. I’m one of those guys that can’t stop. If an idea comes, I gotta do it. It’s not for fame or fortune. I haven’t done anything for fame and fortune since I joined Van Halen. And I didn’t join Van Halen for that reason. But back then, I was thinking, “Oh yeah, this’ll work, it’ll make money, it’ll be successful.” I just like doing things. All I want to do is win. I want it to be successful. Cause that way, everybody wins. You help people, you give people jobs and I give most of my restaurant businesses and things, I give 90% of that money away. All of the Beach Bar & Grill money. Cabo Wabo, I give a lot of that money away for helpin’ kids. It feels good to do those things, but I do drive myself nuts, because I’m always on a fast track and I haven’t ever slowed down. I’m afraid when I do, I’m not going to know how.

Yeah. But watch that car stuff, though.
No! I gotta get there quick, I got things to do! That’s what happens when a cop pulls me over. He’s going, “Do you know how fast you were going?” I go, “Yeah, 96 miles an hour.” He goes, “Wow, well thanks for being honest. What’s your hurry?” I go, “I’m late!” (laughs). Straight up, man.

And that works?
Yeah. 90% of the time. 99% of the time I get let go.

Speaking of fame and fortune, I think one of the most intriguing lines in the book is when you write that “it took fame and fortune for me to become myself.” What do mean by that?
Once you’ve read the first chapter, you pretty much know that I have some pretty humble beginnings. It wasn’t like we didn’t have much money. We didn’t have ANY money. Being really poor and a kid that really wanted to be somebody, I was a good lookin’ kid, I was a good athlete, I was a good dancer. This is before I started playing music. I’d go out and work and buy cool clothes. I was a little rock star growing up. But I was so poor and my house was so bad and we never owned a house. The house we rented was in a bad neighborhood and bad furniture and my dad was an alcoholic. So there was this thing where I didn’t want people to know about my family life, who I was or where I came from. I didn’t invite a person over to my house until I knew that guy was solid. Or else I started hanging around with guys who were like me. So I was always trying to hide behind my image. When I got into rock and roll, I thought, “I can dress nice, I can sing, I can perform my ass off. I can write songs. I’m going to get up there and I’m gonna pretend to be a rock star.” I didn’t even know what one was, except for David Bowie and Mick Jagger and the people I looked up to. So it seems like I was pretending for a long time and still hiding behind that little poor kid that didn’t want anybody to know anything about me.

Jumping way forward – it’s kind of why I wrote the book, too – I want my story told. I’ve got quite the story and a lot of people don’t know it. Even my hardcore fans don’t know a lot about me because I haven’t been very public about it. I think every time I got more and more fame and more fortune, to where I could say fuck it, I don’t have to care so much – it took a long time – but that’s when I started becoming myself. I started really performing better, I started singing better. All you can be in this business or as an artist of any kind, is yourself. That’s what makes you unique. If you’re anything like anyone else, you’re not unique. A true artist, a Van Morrison or John Lennon. I like to think of myself as one of those kinds of artists.

But that’s rare. Like in sports, when athletes get the big contract, it’s rare that they actually get better.
But that’s what you’re supposed to do. How many people, after their first big album, go downhill? I mean, how many people have had one big album and big hit and become a multimillion seller and headline arenas overnight and the next album, they’re done? I don’t even want to mention names. You can find ‘em all over. They’re a dime a dozen. I don’t know what it is that makes that happen to people, but I know what it is that makes me what I am. And I’m still rolling on it. I’m just becoming so lazy about being myself now that even when I go on TV, I don’t want to get dressed up. (laughs)

But people expect you to show up in shorts and flip flops.
Well, that’s me!

As you write, you “took the lifestyle to the stage.”
I really did, and it’s awesome. I’m finally pretty much totally myself. There may be still a little showbiz in me, a little tinge in the background that makes me always want to do a great show, that fires me up when I hit that stage, and kind of elevates everything automatically. That’s about as close as you can accuse me of being fake.

The saddest parts of the book involve your ex-wife and her nervous breakdown and the separation from your sons. Did writing the book help deal with those things at all?
No, I’d already dealt with those things. My kids are fine. My sons, when I told them I was writing the book and I said, “You know, one of the chapters is on your mom and I know she’s going to be upset.” ‘Cause she’s still not comfortable with her situation. She’s still got some problems. Not bad, but still, she’s nervous all the time, to be around people. I said, “This shit’s gonna kill your mom.” My youngest son said, “Well, pop, I don’t think mom can think any less of you.” (laughs hysterically). I thought it was one of the great statements. He goes, “You know, she knows everything. She’s heard it all. She’s not over it, but nothing’s gonna shock her.” My friends that have become friends with her over the years, and her friends that knew things that they wouldn’t tell her in the old days, everybody’s come clean with her.

You did a best-of album to pay for your divorce. It’s like Marvin Gaye’s “Here My Dear” minus the court order.
(laughs) It didn’t pay for the divorce, trust me. It just paid for the legal side of it.

He actually had to do that. The court said, “Your wife gets your next album.”
Wow.

It has the great line, “Someone tell me please/Why do I have to pay attorney fees.”
Ooh, I love Marvin Gaye. I’m going to have to dig that one up. I wouldn’t want to tell you all the ugly stuff. I told a lot of it in the book. But they attorneys wanted to do that. They wanted to go into my music room where I have hundreds of hours of cassettes and go through ‘em and log it all so that every album I would make after that, if one of those ideas was on that album, she’d get paid. So I just did a buyout. The lawyers are worse than the ex-wife, lemme tell ya.

You mention in the book that St. Louis is your number one market. How and when did it become apparent to you that you had something special here?
Okay, this is a great story. Wayne Meisenholder and David Burd were the promotion and marketing guys for Capitol Records, which was my label, in St. Louis, and KSHE was the biggest radio station, practically in the country. I had already gotten pretty big there – sold out the Arena a couple times. And they wanted to do a stadium show with me, Journey…I want to say Triumph, and I want to say Head East. [It was actually Shooting Star, April Wine and Judas Priest(DD)] Anyway, I did a show at Busch Stadium, co-headlining with Journey, and Journey didn’t want to close. So I did.

I came out on stage and played my song “Red,” which wasn’t even a hit at the time. As we were kicking it off, I said, “Let’s turn this whole fuckin’ place red.” And I mean, the whole stadium turned red. I got goose bumps on my body right now telling you this many years later. This is 78-79. [Actually, 1980] I mean, I still get goose bumps telling that story. We’re talking 40,000 people. They brought sheets, they brought shirts, they brought blankets, jackets, hats. Everything was red. When I said let’s turn this place red, it…turned…red. I almost fainted onstage. I got so exhilarated, my knees almost buckled. I just thought, “Man, I own this town.” And every time I came to that town, I gave it. I cared more about playing there every time after that. I always did. I care about everything. But if I can put out a little bit more, I would always try to do that in St. Louis. I would tell people, don’t book me anywhere in a big town the night before. Or give me two days off before St. Louis. I want that. I want that every time I go there. And I got that. Even today, it’s still there for me and I’m just really impressed by that. I should have put that in the book. It may be one of the musical highlights of my career. It might the one, as a solo artist. The one where I just went, “Holy shit.” It was the first stadium I ever headlined, too.

Was this the show with the car onstage?
No, this is way before that. That came later. But I drove the car into the back of the stadium, where everyone could see it. I had a Trans-Am. I had a song called “Trans Am.” That was kinda my hit then and I started the show with it. I came around and I spun donuts, tore the damn grass up. I had to pay like 17,000 or something out of my pay. Back then I probably didn’t make much more than that. And I had a Z-28 chasing me. I jumped out of the T-top in my red jumpsuit and the band was playing, and when I got there, I was so gassed, because I ran about a quarter mile at top speed, I probably didn’t take one breath of air and then walked out to 44,000 people. And I was just – whoof – and then I got my composure back, then two or three songs later busted into “Red” and then I lost it again. It was just one of the greatest shows ever in anybody’s life.

You’ve had so much success in recent years with the tequila and everything, but it was interesting to learn in the book that you were an entrepreneur early on. Trying out different things – mountain bikes, and of all things, sprinkler heads…
That was my brother-in-law’s idea. When I was living in Fontana, we didn’t own a house. I was poor and we used to move all the time. My mom would find a cheaper house or whatever – we moved around a lot. And we always moved to these really trashy houses. When my brother-in-law and I started building apartment complexes in Fontana – it was one of the first investments I made. My brother in law was a contractor and he was an electrician. He had a plumber working for him. So we built apartment buildings as an investment. We bought my old houses. That’s the first thing I did. I said, “I want to buy my old houses, and I want to tear ‘em down and either put a nice house there or put apartment buildings there.” And we did two or three places. The city where I lived, they didn’t have fire hydrants, ‘cause I lived in bad neighborhoods. So when we started building nice things, they said, “Oh, well, you gotta put a fire hydrant within so many feet of your house.” And I thought about this and I was pissed off about it. “Why are you guys hammering me? I’m a hometown boy doing good, coming back, investing my money in my hometown, and you’re crucifying me?”

So my brother-in-law said, “We can beat it with fire sprinklers.” They’re cheaper than putting a fire hydrant in. To put a fire hydrant in, we’d have to run a giant pipe all the way down to the next biggest pipe and do all this stuff. It was really expensive. So we put the fire sprinklers in and then everybody in town wanted to do that, so we started a business. It’s really all my brother-in-law. I just financed him and I own the companies. But for me, I thought that was a great idea. When I got hip to fire sprinklers – they save lives. By the time the fire truck came there and hooked up to that fire hydrant and got to the house, it was half burned down. But with the sprinklers, a little fire in an ashtray would be put out before anything happened. You know, you ruin your furniture and your rug, but that’s a far cry from the roof caving in.

That seems to be the difference between you and most other rockers. They just want to think about music. You’ve got other things on your mind.
Well, I like doing the music, too, of course. I’m one of those guys, I wake up writing a song. I go to bed writing a song. During the day I do all kinds of stuff, then I’ll go finish the song. I really mix it up. I get bored so quick that if I didn’t do more than one thing, I wouldn’t even finish an album if it wasn’t for having other things to do. So I’ll go do a little business or make a few business decisions, and then I get so bored with that, I’m going “God, I gotta get out of here.” And then I go right back into music. It’s a nice balance for me. I don’t know if that’s a Libra thing or what. I’ve usually got to have two things on the scales going at the same time.

Okay, a Libra thing. You talk in the book about being into numerology and UFOs and that stuff, too. You seem to be into a lot of, let’s say, alternative belief systems.
When something gives you goosebumps, like I said earlier about that experience in St. Louis…I live for things that make me feel like that. I just want to feel something and feel it hard and feel it good. The good with the bad. Those things make me feel something. And they inspire me. And when you get this big rush going through your body and something like that happens, some kind of psychic phenomena or something, and it really hits you, man, that’s a great feeling. It just lifts you up. I love that shit. I used to sit up at night with my telescope on the roof of my house in the ‘70s and I would sit up there and just look at the sky and look for shit. I used to sit there and meditate and say, “Come on! Come get my ass right now.”

I don’t really feel that way now. After you read all of the books, you find out there’s some bad guys out there, too. Or certainly some – you know, they don’t have any emotions, any love in their heart for us. Just kind of like robots that are doing a job. Pick you up, cut your ass out or something. (laughs)

You know, I’ve got humans doing enough probing. I don’t really need aliens doing that.
I guess they’re really rough, too! (laughs)

They don’t take you out to dinner first.
Or give you any drugs or nothin’. They just grab you and hypnotize you and start doing their thing. There’s definitely some experimental shit going on out there. You don’t want to get tied up in that.

It’s been reported lately that you would, under the right circumstances, reunite with Van Halen. What are those circumstances?
I would take a phone call tomorrow from Eddie. And I would talk to him, and if he’s totally cool, like straight and not wasted and didn’t have that same attitude he had about me. He wouldn’t even have to say I’m sorry. I don’t give a shit about that stuff. He’d just have to say, “Dude, I miss you, I really miss what we did together. Let’s get together and play some music.” You know, forget all that shit. That’s all he’d have to say. And if I heard it in his voice and he sounded sincere, I would say, “Well, let me finish this Chickenfoot record, because it’s the most important thing in my life right now.” ‘Cause I love this band and it’s what I’m doing right now. Chickenfoot IS Van Halen for me. It means what Van Halen meant. It’s a group of musicians that are friends that I love to play with that are fantastic musicians and we have an unbelievable chemistry. That’s the same thing that Van Halen was in the good days.

So anyway, I would go down, I would walk right in the studio with them, whatever they wanted to do – go out and have some tacos, have some margaritas. I don’t care. And walk into the studio, start making music and if everything felt cool, like it used to – it don’t have to feel like it did, because everyone changes. But if we grew up and it felt honest and warm and had the same fire, I’d do it in a second. They’re the greatest rock and roll band in the world. It’s the highlight of my musical career. To be maybe one of the biggest bands in the world during maybe the biggest era of rock – fuck! If we could even go near that again, who wouldn’t do that again? Or want to do it?

I’d be happy to, but I’m not asking to, and I’m not trying to get their attention by saying those things. I just have to answer honestly. But some guy asked me the odds between zero and a hundred of it happening. And I said, “Well, when this book comes out, it’s below zero. In about three or four years, a little water under the bridge, the odds start moving up. But I’m not begging for it, I don’t expect it. But at the same time, I don’t know what to expect. Life is weird. People just wake up one morning and say, “Man, I miss that and I want to have it.” You know, Alex would be there in a second. And of course, Mikey. But really, it’s all about Ed.