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"Five Questions With Sammy Hagar"
By: Chelsea J. Carter
Los Angeles Times (October 18, 2000)
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SANTA ANA, Calif.--First he was the Red Rocker. Then he
became Van Hagar.
Now rocker Sammy Hagar is "just Sammy."
After nearly two decades of a successful solo career
interrupted by a hit-making decade fronting the rock band Van
Halen, Hagar is changing his image again with new music.
"Ten 13" -as in Hagar's Oct. 13 birthday -arrives in stores
Oct. 24.
"It's kind of like a birthday celebration. Every year on your
birthday, you get a chance to start new. This album is
something new. Something fresh. It's a rebirth," said Hagar,
53. "I've taken all the knowledge and all the experience and
I've rolled it into a ball and I've moved forward with it."
Hagar, whose solo hits include "Your Love Is Driving Me
Crazy" and "I Can't Drive 55," has made a career of party rock
anthems. In the 1970s as the lead singer for Montrose and
then a decade later as the singer for Van Halen, his vocals
helped catapult album after album onto the charts.
Does Van Halen influence the new album?
"It is part of who and what I am today. That experience
really has a lot to do with what I'm doing today. Although it's
not influenced by Van Halen, in a sense it really is because
everything I've learned, felt and experienced with Van Halen is
solid within me. There is no longer a hang-up with it," he
said.
Do fans buy that?
"To them, I'm just Sammy. I had a solo career before Van
Halen. My fan base filtered through Van Halen with me and
came right on out the other side with me."
1. Why do you call "Ten 13" a rebirth?
SH: It was hard going back to being a solo artist. It took
two records, I think ... to get to where I am now. Now, I've just
taken what Van Halen had to offer, the influence, the good,
the positive, and I think kind of reinvented myself. It's not easy
being in a band for 11 years, a band of that caliber, and then
striking out on your own completely. It takes awhile to
discover who and what you really are.
2. How is it different from your previous solo efforts?
SH: When I left Van Halen, I went in the studio and
made a CD called 'Marching to Mars' with all studio
musicians. I did it immediately. With the disappointment
riding on my shoulders of the breakup of the band, I felt just
driven to go right into the studio. I made a very self-indulgent
record. ... Then I went right back in the studio and made 'Red
Voodoo,' which was very much like our live concerts. It really
wasn't a piece of art, in my opinion, as much as it was a
celebration of us just playing music.
3. Is the new album fun party music or serious reflection?
SH: Both. I started out with 'Shaka Doobie,' which is the
morning after 'Mas Tequila,' my last hit single from 'Red
Voodoo.' 'Mas Tequila' is about drinking tequila and partying
yourself stupid. How do you follow that? How do you carry on?
So what I did was write a song about the next morning. You
know, you wake up and everybody hates you. You hate
yourself. Your wife has no mercy on you. She's looking at you,
saying, 'I don't feel sorry for you.' You just feel terrible.
The song 'Serious JuJu,' it's about the bad conditions,
ecologically and economically facing the planet. JuJu is a
healing juice a witch doctor uses. I thought I would write
about the problems and the need for solutions rather than
trying to make it a serious protest song. ... I'm not just a blind
party person. I have a good time because I believe in it and I
think it's healthy to have fun in life. But I also have concerns.
4. Why do compare yourself to blues great John Lee
Hooker?
SH: I'm John Lee Hooker in the sense that he was a
blues man and he played blues his whole life. I'm a rock guy
and I'm going to play rock music my whole life. ... Here's a guy
who's 88, still playing. When I'm 88 doing the shows in Mill
Valley (Calif.) at the Sweetwater, I want people to say,
'Sammy's like John Lee Hooker, he played his whole life.'
5. What's it like to be a grandfather?
SH: I have 4 -year-old daughter and my wife is
pregnant. We're going to have another baby in April. ... I'm still
raising kids myself, so I don't feel like a grandpa. ... I figure if
there's one thing I'm going to be my whole life besides a
singer-guitar player-songwriter, it's going to be a father. I can
see myself at 75 years old playing football if we have a son.
I'm going to have to.
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Interview © 2000 Los Angeles Times
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