When I interviewed Sammy Hagar over the phone for an interview for HM Magazine back in 1996 or so, it was hot on the heels of his first post-VH solo album, Marching To Mars. I had an advance cassette that I had been wearing out. The lyrics were very introspective and spiritual in nature. There was even a song co-written with Brother Cane frontman Damon Johnson (“Salvation on Sand Hill,” a spooky little ditty about snake-handling Christian folks out in the boonies). In just a few short minutes of small talk, I knew Sammy was one of those down-to-earth guys. He had just had a baby girl (as had I), which he got to be a part of the birth process. We had that in common – along with the wonder of child-birth. I knew I had just made a new friend. I haven’t talked to him since, but he comes across as a good dude – the kind you might be able to pick up where you started the next time you talked.
In that interview there was one of those moments I hate as a journalist. I cringe when I see another person in the media approach an artist as a “fan-boy.” They’ll cite the year and the place where they saw such and such an artist, almost as if they expect the artist to remember: “Oh yeah! You were in the seventh row, wearing that Molly Hatchet shirt. Totally remember you, dude!” Nevertheless, I delved into that territory late in the interview, where I referenced seeing him on his Standing Hampton Tour in Austin, where he came out for an encore, introducing the last song as one from the “greatest rock band in the world!” and they launched into a quite rockin’ version of “Whole Lotta Love.” He replied with, “Maybe now I’d come out and say the same thing and then play “Dreams” (a Van Halen hit).
The interview was a good one. (It’s included in the book Rock Stars on God, if you’re interested). He was still coming off the hoopla surrounding his exit from Van Halen, dealing with a new addition to his family and the brand new solo album (of quite brilliant material). I was wondering if the rumor that I’d heard (that he chose God over Van Halen and left for that reason) and it was easy to interpret many of the lyrics as being from a Christian worldview. When we delved into Jesus and His claims to be “the Way, the Truth and the Life,” I recall he shied away from the conclusion that Jesus was the one and only exclusive way to Heaven. He ended the interview with a very memorable quote (for me). “What the hell you tryin’ to do, Doug – make me think?!”
There is a question in some circles that makes you choose a camp to side with. It’s the “Dave vs. Sammy” question. I have to admit, I’m a David Lee Roth guy. That first Van Halen album was so stinkin’ good. I mean, it changed the landscape of metal and hard rock at the time. So awesome. My first big rock concert had both of these artists there. It was with 78,000 people at Anaheim Stadium and the bill started off with Sammy Hagar, then Van Halen, then Black Sabbath and then Boston. Quite the show. My friends and I agreed that Sammy Hagar and Van Halen both stole the show. Sammy was then opening for Boston and Van Halen was opening for Black Sabbath (and consistently blowing them away). It was also Van Halen’s triumphant return to LA after making it big with that debut album and the year-long world tour that followed.
I’ve been a fan of Sammy Hagar solo. I think his work with Van Halen (at least the hits that I’ve heard, which are many) is very good. However, I was not really listening to or buying Van Halen albums after 1983. When I became reconciled with God in the summer of ’83, I limited my listening habits of “secular” music. This is a phenomenon that possibly only believers can relate to and/or understand. When you realize that you are forgiven and reconciled to your Father in Heaven, that relationship takes prominence and makes its influence known in several (if not all) areas of your life. I did not go crazy (like some), but I did prayerfully and carefully go through my music collection (400 or so albums) and get rid of (as in sell at used record shop – I wasn’t into burning, etc) over 300 albums. Some things remained in my collection that wouldn’t be in other believer’s collections, but it’s a personal thing and God interacts with us in a unique and personal way. I remember a friend of mine (a “Spirit-filled” friend) look at my cassette collection and specifically getting disturbed by my copy of Pink Floyd’s The Wall. I’m glad I wasn’t somehow cowered by another’s opinion about stuff like this. One person’s “poison” or “sin-tempting” influence might be another person’s innocuous art. My point in all of this rambling paragraph is that I didn’t care to follow Van Halen’s career after the summer of ’83. I didn’t go out and buy 1984, OU812 or For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. So, no disrespect to Sammy’s talent and songwriting input with VH, I just never became a fan. The hits, of course, are real good tunes. I love that first VH album with Diamond Dave singing, though (even though it’s mostly talking over a beat with the great Michael Anthony’s BGVs bringing up the rear in those catchy choruses. I’m sure Eddie and Alex might’ve sung in those wall-of-BGV’s, too, but his voice is probably the one that stands out the most. Tunes like “Jamie’s Cryin'” are just fantastic.
Oh, and before I forget, here is a link to the interview I did with Sammy that I referenced. It’s archived in the old HM website, so I had to dig around to find it.
Okay, back to the book. I really enjoyed this thing. It started off interesting, but did go a tad slow in the childhood years of Sammy. Poor guy was just that – a poor kid, son of an abusive, alcoholic man. I am blessed that I cannot relate to that kind of upbringing, but it was easy to relate to in the sense of my awareness of the culture of the US (especially Southern California) in the ’70s. He grew up in the ’60s, actually, but the places and geography (around Fontana, CA) were familiar.
It was interesting to hear that Jeff Nicholson was in his band. Jeff was the longtime bass player for Darrell Mansfield Band and most prominently known for starting the Christian t-shirt company Living Epistles. He was a charismatic speaker, who did his fair share of “rock talk” type seminars in churches in the ’80s. Sammy, God bless him, tells it like it is in his book and Jeff, unfortunately does get on the receiving end of some critical descriptions. It seems Jeff was opportunistic and had a strong ambition to get ahead in the music scene.
Sammy’s climb into the music scene, along with his young marriage and entry into parenthood was interesting to read about. Once he rolled into his adult years the story was pretty much a can’t-put-down kind of read. I was a fan of his early band Montrose, whose debut album sure stands the test of time. Turns out Ronnie Montrose isn’t too easy to work with. All the descriptions and stories are pretty one-sided (Sammy’s viewpoint) and there’s always two sides to every story, but Sammy’s tales ring with an authenticity in their matter-of-factness. He doesn’t go out of his way to vilify people. He’ll call them a cussword and be done with it. Without going into a treatise of the use of language and its proper/improper-ness in our culture, taken at face value it kind of adds a street-level judgment of the people around him (kind of a “sizing up” of character).
Since we’re on the topic of boundary-crossing, his tales of life don’t exactly follow the straight and narrow of a Christ-following young man. He sleeps around, but it’s interesting to see how he wrestled with his infidelity. He cared about his marriage. I wonder what his ex-wife thinks now that he’s “taken the cat out of the bad” and revealed some secrets of his life. She probably knew shortly after the divorce. While the book is somewhat of a “tell all,” it’s not real steamy or sensationalistic. The details are told (I assume) honestly and with a means to an end. He’s not bragging. He’s not necessarily repenting. He’s just telling his story (and for those in the Christian family that hope to see this human make peace with Jesus and enter into the kingdom, we don’t know exactly where he or anyone for that matter – stands at this specific point in time, but his story is not over yet … which is one of the beautiful things about this life).
I was impressed with not only his ambition and work ethic in the music business, but he invested wisely. From an early start-up that began with building a condo unit (I think it was) to a mountain bike retail business, he’s been quite successful. The story of the condo unit is fascinating. They built this thing and the city or county said they’d have to build a fire hydrant on the property. They said, “No, we’re going to install fire sprinklers in the ceiling.” This conflicted with the fire code regulations and they offered an idea/experiment, where they tested and proved the sprinklers’ effectiveness. They started a fire in a unit, called the fire department and turned on the sprinklers. The fire was out before the trucks arrived. This helped launch their fire sprinkler business, which became one of the largest around. Amazing.
His details regarding his ouster from Van Halen get pretty dark. His descriptions of the Van Halen brothers is sad and frightening. Without going all out, it really shows the destructive power of addiction in people’s lives. Man, talk about wasted! It’s a good definition of the word. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Van Halen brothers tried to sue Sammy over this book. The depiction of their personalities and actions are ugly.
Through it all, Sammy Hagar’s good-guy personality shines through the book. I’d love to hang with the dude again. It’s cool to see his admission that he believes in God. He says: “I definitely believe in God and, even if I didn’t, I believe that you should.”
I’m glad that a guy with his work ethic and peaceful attitudes is successful. He comes off as smart, savvy yet without pretense. Even though he’s rich beyond my perspective, his stories reveal someone that works as hard as ever without shortcuts and without taking advantage of others.
I am currently behind in my deadline and really should’ve been working all day today trying to sell ads for our July/August/September issue, instead I sat down and read this book.
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