The Tapes Archive

Marc Allan:  But you know, given your affection for UFOs, I thought you’d be in Roswell, New Mexico this week.

Sammy Hagar: Well, you know, if I didn’t have to play, I certainly would’ve. I’ve been following that on the internet, I’ve been following it in the newspapers, and, yeah, it’s pretty trippy, you know. I’m not sure all that stuff came down at Roswell. I’m becoming a little bit of a skeptical because there’s so many hoaxsters, and every time you turn around, somebody’s putting up some little shop there and selling this and selling that. When all that happens, it kinda turns me off, you know, really bad.

Marc Allan:  Let’s talk about the music. The thing about this album that I guess, I did not give it a good review, sorry. But the thing about this album that surprised me is you’re not that pissed off. I expected a really angry album from you, and this isn’t that angry.

Sammy Hagar: Well, you know what’s weird is that in my life, if there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that sometimes shocking change and something that you think is a, you know, really a horrible thing at the time, could turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to you. When this first came down, I was extremely pissed off for about two weeks. But as soon as I started writing and realizing that I had all the freedom in the world and I could write any kinda song I wanted, and I didn’t have to compromise anything, I got really happy. And so by the time I recorded this record, I was in heaven, man. I was just… I can’t tell you. I mean, I’m not angry anymore. I don’t know, what’s there to be angry about? It’s like, yo, I had 10 great years with Van Halen, 1 shitty year out of 10, which, hey, if you’ve ever been in a relationship for that long and it ends, you know, it could be even uglier that, you know? So I just feel like I’m so much more creative now, I have so much more freedom and nothing is better than being happy. And once, you know, you become happy, you realize nothing is worth taking your happiness away, and that last year was, that’s what happened. I was miserable, so I felt like it was a springboard. But the thing about this record that I think probably maybe you didn’t get, or maybe everyone else doesn’t get, is that, you know, I’ve changed a lot since Van Halen. 11 years in that band will change you. I’m a better singer, I’m a better guitar player, I’m a better songwriter, I’m a better performer, and I’m a better person. I’m a wiser person, and I’m 11 years older. So the only negatives I’ve ever heard about in reviews from this record have been that I’m not the old Sammy Hagar, right? The old Red Rocker, the return, everyone was expecting this little lightning bolt, you know? But I’ve changed. I ain’t the same person, and I’m proud of it. You know and I personally think this is much more palatable and just has more depth. My lyrics, my melody, my song structure. It’s just got a lot more depth than I’ve ever had, so I’m loving this record.

Marc Allan:  Okay, well, you’ve explained yourself well.

– Give it a second listen.

Marc Allan:  Okay.

Marc Allan:  All right. Now I’m looking up an old quote, ’cause we’ve talked a few times before, and you said to me about Van Halen, “These guys would have to cut my neck and throw me out of the band.”

Sammy Hagar: Well, they did it. They didn’t cut my neck. They stabbed me a couple times in the back and then threw me out.

Marc Allan:  Is the story correct that you wanted to do some new material and they just wanted to do greatest hits? Is that–

Sammy Hagar: Absolutely. When we ended the tour, my wife was pregnant. We went away over to Maui. We were taking Lamaze classes and getting ready for a wonderful natural childbirth that we had it all worked out in April. Eddie was supposed to get hip surgery, and Alex was supposed to get neck surgery. So instead, they opted to go in the studio. And I said, “Well, maybe you guys could put your surgeries off, but I can’t make my wife unpregnant.” So we start bickering. You know then, “Well, you can be here when Michael Anthony was on the road when his baby was born.” And I’m going, “Well, too fucking bad,” you know? This baby’s more important than a band or anything to me. The truth of the matter is, is Eddie and Alex weren’t on the road when their babies were born. So because I don’t live in L.A., it was difficult ’cause I kept traveling back and forth from Hawaii and spend three or four days with them, I’d take some music back to me, I’d write lyrics. So anyway, then all of a sudden they spring it on me that June 1st is not the start date, ’cause I kept saying, “What the fuck is the hurry here?” And they spring on me that June 1st is not the start date. We’re not gonna start the record ’til September, because we’re trying to get these two songs that were supposed to be for the “Twister” movie. We’re trying to get ’em done for the greatest hits record. And I’m going, “I am not interested in doing a greatest hits record. I think it’s the stupidest thing we could do.” And you know the new manager just totally sold this idea to Ed and Al, who had been dead… If you read other reviews in the past you’ll find that Eddie was dead against a greatest hits record. It was like the last thing he wanted to do. Why put out a greatest hits record? Every record we’ve ever made is still available, and it’s great and I’m going, amen, you know? So the old guy comes in, I mean the new manager comes in and wants a piece of the old material, but it was a money scam from the manager. And so he comes in, he’s the new guy on the block, Alex’s brother-in-law, no less, and he wants a piece of the old albums. And we’re saying… Oh, I’m saying, “What, are you crazy? You think you can just walk into this multimillion dollar situation for yourself and now you’re gonna want a bigger piece than anybody else?” Like I told him, I go, “I’ve been in band 11 years. I’ve never even asked for any of the old material.” You know the old Roth stuff, that I’ve been singing for years. I’m going, “That’s crazy, that’s theirs. And the ‘5150,’ you know, OU812 era? That’s ours, and you are from now on.” you know? So he actually put it together behind my back, got a piece of it from those guys and sold it to Warner Brothers, and got us this huge amount of money advance, because they’ve been wanting to do a great hits record for so long, and they just swallowed it. And I said, “I will not do it. I won’t make a new song for it,” and so they got Roth to do it. It’s that simple. And now this guy manages the whole thing, and he’s making… A new guy walks in and makes more money than Sammy Hagar or Eddie Van Halen from that band. Can you imagine this? He makes more money than either one of us.

Marc Allan:  You’re talking about this EXTREME guy, or, no, you’re talking about the brother-in-law?

Sammy Hagar: Yeah, the manager.

Marc Allan:  Yeah, wow.

Sammy Hagar: Who also managed EXTREME, and he connived his whole thing. Then the Roth thing blew up, and then he throws his own singer in there, who gets paid nothing, and now him and Eddie and Alex split all the money. And it’s like, it’s so greedy, because I’m telling you right now, but I’m an extremely rich human being from my whole career, right?

Marc Allan:  I would hope so, yeah.

Sammy Hagar: And so are those guys. And you don’t have to do something like this for cheap. So before this guy came in, I can tell you… You’ve seen Van Halen. We all had the same dream, we all had the same vision, and that was to become the greatest rock and roll band in the world. Stick together forever, outdo everybody, never sell out, never be cheap. And one new guy comes into the mix like that, and this is why I’m not in a band anymore, because I refuse to do it. And I swear, you can call me a liar, Eddie can say anything he wants. I’m telling you right now, it was all about greed and integrity.

Marc Allan:  Do you wish this didn’t happen in public?

Sammy Hagar: Yeah, except I want the fans to know what happened, because I don’t want ’em to think I did like Roth and just quit ’cause I thought I was hot shit and thought I could go out and just be a solo artist. That wasn’t my intention, I was pushed, no question about it. I didn’t jump. I was pushed ’cause I wouldn’t go along with the program. I kind of want the fans to know what happened, but I wish it wouldn’t be dragged back and forth through the mud, pulling me across first, and then I have to defend myself, you know? ‘Cause Eddie and those guys went out and they flat lied about what happened. And they drug me all through the mud, so then I gotta drag them guys back through it, and now they’re gonna go out again if they ever get a new record done, and they’ll go out again and drag me back through it. I’ll probably be out there two years from now saying, “Huh, defending myself again?” but I hope I won’t. But that’s the part I don’t like, the on and on and on. I think we all should have made one statement, and that should have been it.

Marc Allan:  I was surprised that you thanked them on this album too.

Sammy Hagar: Well, like I said, after–

Marc Allan:  I know you had the 10 good years and everything.

Sammy Hagar: Yeah, I got so happy. Have you ever fallen in love? Come on, Marc.

Marc Allan:  Yeah, well, I’ve been married for what, 13 1/2 years?

Sammy Hagar: Okay, but when you first fall in love, it’s like you get all this bubbly thing and you get all high, and you think everything’s okay. The shit that was bugging the hell outta you the week before, that you’re going, “Oh, that’s no big deal. Somebody just stole my car. Oh, so what? I’ll just get another one.” It’s kinda like that’s the way I was. And when I got out of Van Halen after I started really working on my records and feeling this wonderful freedom and so much inspiration and stuff, I got so happy that I did stupid things like thank ’em on my record. I couldn’t help it, man. I’m still feeling that way. Like fans, oh, God, they’re throwing up these horrible banners on stage. And me, I’m a banner guy. I hold them up and everything, and I’m going, “Oh, shoot.” They’re saying stuff like, “Fuck Van Halen.” And I’m going, “No, no, no, stop it.” I’m still having to… I’m having a good time out here. And the fans have been so supportive. This is the most… Here we go again, here’s why I’m also extremely happy, because I walk out on stage… Like, last night it was only 2,000 people out of 3,000. I mean, I thought I could sell out a 3,000 seater anywhere in the world in five minutes, right? There’s been two shows that have been what I called 3/4 business, you know? And I’m going, “Wow,” but the people are so… They’re just hardcore Sammy fans. It’s like my relatives are out there, man. It’s like my cousins, my sisters, and aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews. And it’s phenomenal. I’ve never, ever walked down on stage to such a response and left the stage after 2 1/2 hours to such a ovation in my life.

Marc Allan:  Yeah, now this is all starting to make sense to me, but I guess you know, I was like, the new or one of the latest “Rolling Stones” has something that starts off with “Sammy Hagar’s Pissed” or something like that, so I guess–

Sammy Hagar: Trying to make me pissed.

Marc Allan:  Yeah, “Rolling Stone.”

Sammy Hagar: You know some journalists, they’ll get a hold of me on this subject and they’ll get me going. And as I get going and I start digging into the manager, then I start getting a little angry and I start talking about kicking people’s ass and stuff. But truthfully, I’m not pissed. I’m disappointed is a much better word. I will be disappointed for the rest of my life about what Ed and Al let this guy do. That is big disappointment. You know these guys are my friends. We stood on stage, we were the best friends. We had a blast, and to tell the fans now, “Fuck that guy, fuck that guy,” I’m embarrassed to say that. ’cause I’m just like saying, “Man, I’m not gonna slap the fans around like that.” Say, “You dumbass people, you bought this shit,” you know? I mean, that’s kind of the way Eddie and Alex put it you know, a couple times. And I’m just going, “This is…” That part’s really disappointing. But other than that, nah, I’m pissed, man.

Marc Allan:  Now I always thought, I mean, I’ve known and watched you for a long time. And I mean, you’re the happiest man on Earth, I think.

Sammy Hagar: I am. 

Marc Allan:  You know, to see what happened. I mean, I remember when somebody told me that this was happening, and I said, no way, no way is Sammy leaving Van Halen. And of course you didn’t. You were forced out. But okay, so what do you think these guys are gonna sound like with, with Gary Cherone?

Sammy Hagar: The word is from inside camp, you see all those people that work for Van Halen, all those 35, 40 people are my friends as much as theirs. And I’ve stayed in contact with plenty of those people, because they’re true friends. I mean, we still have barbecues, they come to my birthday bash in Cabo and there so for then. And the word I got is that they’re trying to sound like they’re trying to make Gary sound like Sammy Hagar.

Marc Allan:  Well, good luck, but…

Sammy Hagar: I’m curious, they keep putting the songs in higher keys until he can barely sing ’em. So that he sounds strained and passionate, like the way I sing. And I mean, that may be the right thing though. I have no idea until I hear it myself, I’m not gonna pass judgment. ’cause Ed and Al are great musicians and they’re capable of doing something great at all times. I know one thing though, they lost their songwriter, because I was the songwriter in that band. Eddie Van Halen is a musician. He writes music, pieces of music, but there’s no melody, there is no lyric, and there is no song structure. It just like this big long piece of music. And I was always the guy that came in and said, okay, wait a minute, this sounds like a verse, Okay, let’s repeat that here and let’s put the chorus here, and then we need a bridge. And then, okay, Ed, you always need a guitar solo. So put that there the speech, you know, and then I would write a melody and I would write lyrics and make a song out of it. And that’s why they’ve been in the studio since January 1, 1996 and they still don’t have a record. It’s because they just… They don’t have a songwriter. And so they hired this Mike Post guy who’s the jingles writer for TV Themes.

Marc Allan:  He’s the guy who wrote Hill Street Blues theme and that?

Sammy Hagar: Yep.

Marc Allan:  Oh my God.

Sammy Hagar: Yep, they hired him to produce the record and to co-write on the songs. And so now… So Mike Post, I guess is the lyricist, who’s this 72 year old man, what he’s got to say to the younger generation, I have no idea. But that’s what’s going on. And that’s who they’ve been in there with for, since first of this year and…

Marc Allan:  Wow.

Sammy Hagar: I don’t know, they fired three producers trying to make this record already. So Glenn Ballard quit actually, and what’s his name? Bruce Fairburn got fired when he finally told ’em after they had 17… Eddie thought he had 17 songs. He goes, you don’t have one song, we need a song. And they fired him. So then they brought in Mike Post and they’ve been with him for six or seven months. And so we’ll see what happens. I have no idea, man. I hear rumors all the time about, Alex was in, Alex was out. And then, Gary Cherone in and Gary Cherone out. I hear all these rumors, but I try not to get too involved with it. ’cause it’s like kind of… It does intrigue me too much in that I’m kind of a sucker. I’m like a cat. The curiosity factor.

Marc Allan:  If it tanks, how will you feel? And if it’s really successful, how will you feel do you think?

Sammy Hagar: If it was bigger than what we did, I would be kind of like… I’d feel bad. My ego would be a little bit… Take a little blow. It’s kinda like what happened to David Lee Roth, isn’t it? If that happened to me as well, then I would have to say, Eddie Van Halen is the biggest star in the world, because that’s what would have to carry it. I expect it to go down a little bit, but if it really, really bombed, that would hurt me. I’d feel bad for them. And I would feel bad for the fans and I’d just… I’d just feel bad that something that great, here we go again. I’d be so disappointed that something as great as what we had, and it’s bulletproof is what Van Halen was. The Van Hagar era was bulletproof, man. We made it to grunge, we made it through all that shit. Nothing was fucking with us. We still sold out 4 or 5 million records and we still sold out concerts everywhere. So if they blew… If they ruined that, I would feel… You know, I’d feel bad. I think gee, what a waste. Someone should be hung by the balls for it.

Marc Allan:  Yeah, well and one more question about Van Halen. When Michael Anthony was taking a bass solo, you ever take a nap?

Sammy Hagar: It was too short. I wanted him to play longer.

Marc Allan:  It never seemed short when you were sitting in the audience, let me tell you.

Sammy Hagar: Well, that’s really weird. I know, but I feel bad for Mikey to see. He was the only guy in the band that’s innocent in all this. Mikey has never been a part of the band as far as sharing in the profits or in the creative side of it or anything. He’s always been the hired gun in the band, and just didn’t have an opinion. But yet he was the guy that I can tell you right now was more of a flag bearer for Van Halen than anyone in the band. Like, you know, he believed in it, he had the dream, but he was never allowed to come out and say anything. So I always fought for his bass solo. I always said, “Hey, Mikey’s one of us. If everybody’s gonna do a solo, then Mikey should do it.” To me, the drum solo was more boring than anything in the world, man. Alex’s drum solo was 25 minutes long sometimes. And that’s when I used to take a nap, man, because it’s just too long. I mean you know, a drum solo should be a short little thing, you know.

Marc Allan:  Right.

Sammy Hagar: A couple splash, a couple licks and get out of there. Plus Mikey was one of the Los Tres Gusanos brothers, So I can’t bad rap.

Marc Allan:  Tell me what that is. I don’t know what that is.

Sammy Hagar:  Los Tres Gusanos the three worms that we used. We played at the Cabo Wabo for my birthday bash every year.

Marc Allan:  Oh, okay, okay.

Sammy Hagar: It was him and I and David Louser who’s… David Lousers in my band now.

Marc Allan:  Okay.

Sammy Hagar: And so Los Tres Gusanos, you know, you can’t talk about one of your brother worms.

Marc Allan:  That’s, okay. Since you’ve convinced me to go back and re-listen to the record, what are the two or three songs that are absolutely the standouts.

Sammy Hagar: For me, you know, every song is great. And of course you’ve heard ”Little White Lies” so much.

Marc Allan:  Oh yeah.

Sammy Hagar: I love ”Little White Lies.” I think that’s really a unique song. But I think a song like “Who Has the Right” “Would You Do It For Free” “Both Sides Now” and “Amnesty Is Granted.” Honestly, I just think every song is fabulous. I mean, ”Kama” of course, to me is probably the most fantastic song I’ve ever written about my daughter, her name is Kama, which means love in Sanskrit. That song is pretty special, not just ’cause it’s about her, but because lyrically for love to mean… Kama to mean love in Sanskrit. And then if you listen to the words it’s a nice little twist. I think poetically and even just philosophically, it’s probably the greatest thing I’ve ever done. And of course “Marching To Mars” I think is a masterpiece. I mean, Mickey Hart put 96 tracks of percussion on that song. You’ll never even hear it. Every part on there except my guitar part and my bass. I play the bass and the guitar neck. All the rest of the parts are done by him on weird little instruments, like picking up a piece of steel and bashing against a wall.

Marc Allan:  Yeah, I thought that was an interesting combination of people. Did you know Mickey Hart beforehand?

Sammy Hagar: I met him on a plane going to Hawaii when this whole thing came down with the guys about two weeks later, I said, I’m getting the fuck outta town, ’cause everybody was bugging me about what happened, what happened, what happened. I didn’t wanna talk about it yet. ‘Cause I didn’t know quite what happened. He was on a plane with me and he’s the guy that convinced me to go right into the studio and start writing and everything. ‘Cause he was talking about when Jerry Garcia died, how he was lost for a few weeks. And he said, and as soon as he jumped back into the music, that’s when he found himself and knew that, you know, he was gonna be okay. But he said he was just totally lost. And I could imagine The Dead… He was in that family when he was 14 years old, you know they were like, they never stopped from then until now. So he was devastated. And so he really convinced me to just get right back into it and turn all that into positive and blah, blah, blah. He became a good friend.

Marc Allan:  So you took it right away and you just went out and did the record?

Sammy Hagar: Well, to be honest with you, he forced me. He was going to Maui as well. And so I live over there part-time. And so I gave him my phone number, he calls me up… I mean that night and says, ”What are you doing tomorrow?” And I said, well, just, I’m kicking back, that’s what I came here for. He comes over and he… I swear he stayed with me for two weeks. Him and his family. We just hung out 24 hours a day. And man, you know, the guy… So I don’t know if you know Mickey, but he’s–

Marc Allan:  Just a little bit, yeah.

Sammy Hagar: He’s the most intense, energetic person you’ll ever meet in your life. So he just kept forcing me to listen to music. Hey, have you heard this group, man, here, check this out. He’s into all these weird kinds of music and it’s real enlightening and very inspirational to hear something so different. You go, wow, that is cool. He got me all inspired and got me going. Next thing I knew, I was there for two weeks. I was gonna be there for the whole rest of the year. You know, I was just gonna wait till my baby was about a year old, and then I was gonna decide what I wanted to do. And man, two weeks later here, him and I are back on an airplane with the families coming back to his house now in Marin County where, I mainly live in Mill Valley, and him and I are in the studio every day just writing and jamming.

Marc Allan:  So what are the plans? How long are you out on the road and then what do you do?

Sammy Hagar: Well, I’m gonna work this record a long time, because number one, I’m so proud of it and I think I’ve really got to go out and reconnect with my fans. So I’m playing every little town that has a 3, 4,000 seat theater. That’s what I’m doing. I’m not looking to jump into arenas. I’m not looking to open for anyone, the U2 or anybody else. I’m looking for doing my thing uncompromised, total self-indulgence in every little town. So that takes forever. It ain’t like Van Halen where you just go, you play one town in each state practically. I’m playing every little town, so it’s gonna take a while. And I’m going to the far east in October and play in India places like that. And I’ve never done that before. And Van Halen was always too big to go over to those kind of places. And while I’m not too big, I’m happy to do it. I want to play… I wanna do worldwide. So it’s gonna probably be a couple years before I’ll start another record.

Marc Allan:  You know, you were talking earlier about, it’s about 2000 people, showing up at a 3000, but the competition in the summertime is just so unbelievable. I mean, there are so many shows out there. So, I mean, I don’t know if you’re feeling bad about the 2000.

Sammy Hagar: No I wasn’t, I was just surprised.

Marc Allan:  Yeah, but you know, I mean the people’s dollars are stretched so thin.

Sammy Hagar: Well, you know that’s the other thing I’m trying to do, is I’m doing a breakeven thing. I don’t need money. Money doesn’t motivate me anymore. You know, of course it did when I was poor, I mean, believe me and I was poor. But my concept here, what I’m gonna try to keep doing for the rest of my career is I’m always gonna try to do a great show. After being at Van Halen, you know, we spent millions of dollars on our productions and it was always like big, but to me it wasn’t utilized right. We never had the right people working it, and we never had the right people designing it. So that’s the only place I’m spending money, and then I’m giving the rest to the band and I’m trying to keep my ticket prices down really low. And so that if it’s just 3000 people is like, to me, that’s like wow, that’s a big crowd. This show should be the $75 ticket, because that’s what the show is. And when you’re playing for two and a half hours and given a production like this, this is a $75 ticket. But I ain’t… Like I said, I’m just not into that. If I ever go broke, you’ll see me trying to get back in Van Halen. That’s the way I look at it. It’s like, this is all about really just doing it,

Marc Allan:  After the Van Halen stuff happened, did you ever have a chance to talk to David Lee Roth? Did you ever want to talk to him?

Sammy Hagar: Yeah, I wanted to talk to him, because there was an ironic twist to this whole thing that is still the big mystery that Howard Stern… Him and I, when I was on Howard Stern about a month ago, or six weeks ago, whenever it was. Howard and I had a conversation off mic after the show about this, ’cause he’s buddies with Roth, right. And David Lee Roth claims that Gary Cherone was already chosen to be the lead singer in the band before he was asked to come back, right? Well, if you put your timeframe together, David Lee Roth had been in the studio with those guys, had been asked to come back in the band two weeks before I was told. So if this is correct, these guys were fucking me around two months ago, three months ago, I don’t know. You know what I mean? It’s like, as soon as the tour ended, I guess this new manager had this whole scheme planned and they tried out Gary Cherone. I was told they tried him out in February. I mean, I’m going February, I was in the studio for about four days with these guys in February, which we were arguing because, it was like I’m going, look, I gotta get back to my wife, she’s about to give birth. So if it’s that ugly, I want to know. But at the same time I’m going, God, I’m really let down man. These guys are shit. You know, what happened? I don’t know what happened to ’em. They flipped out. So I wanted to talk to David Lee Roth, as you could imagine, to find out truthfully, when they actually really contacted him. Because when I talked to Eddie, when I finally busted Eddie’s ass on it, he told me, ”Well, we’ve been working with Roth for a couple weeks and it’s been going great, and he at least does what we want to do, and we all get, you know, have the same idea here, you know, we’re gonna do a greatest hits record, do a nostalgia tour, whatever.” And then I’m going, yeah fuck you guys. But if that’s the truth. Now that is a bizarre twist. But Howard Stern, he’s a troublemaker. So, I don’t know, it’s a hard one to pin down, but I want to talk to Roth someday about it. But fuck it, you think I can trust David Lee Roth? You saw that clown on MTV, you want to trust a guy like that. I’m not sure what he would say. It’d be too… But I’d hate to think that these guys were that fucking thin. But who cares man?

Marc Allan:  Yeah, at this point. Okay, one other thing and I’ll let you go for another story I’ve been working on, I’m asking everybody I interview, if you were the overlord of pop music, what would be the first thing you would change?

Sammy Hagar: Oh, I would change the concept at Rock Radio. I would change the segregation of rock. I think it’s really hurt everything. When I was growing up, when FM radio first was coming around, you would hear a song by BB King. You’d hear a song by the Rolling Stones. You hear a song by Led Zeppelin, then you’d hear a song by Percy Sledge, “When a Man Loves a Woman” or “Otis Redding” or “Janice Joplin” it was rock radio. And it’s like all music was considered rock music, R&B and Blues and Rock and everything. I believe there’s jazz, there’s rock, there’s country and you know, classical and it can be segregated a little bit, but rock music itself has gotten so segregated that it’s just crazy. There’s stations that won’t play Sammy Hagar. And then there’s stations that’ll play Sammy Hagar that won’t play, some band like Tool or something. I don’t know. it’s like, come on man this is rock music. It’s like, you’re either a rock band or you’re not. And I would change that. I’d say if you’re gonna play rock music, you play it all. And I’d rather that they play mostly new music personally.

Marc Allan:  Yeah, I figure you already own it or you hate it, right.

Sammy Hagar: Exactly man. How many times do you want to hear “Stairway to Heaven” you know, it’s like, come on, I can play it for you right now, sing every lyric.

Marc Allan:  That’s right.

Sammy Hagar: I’ve heard it. So I’d rather they go a little heavier on… Giving some new bands a break.

Marc Allan:  Anything else going on with you? You wanna mention that we haven’t talked about.

Sammy Hagar: Cabo Wabo rules. It’s still the finest place in the world to play.

Marc Allan:  Yeah.

Sammy Hagar: No, I really don’t. You know, everything’s cool. I’m just… I’m excited.

Marc Allan:  Yeah. Well, I’m glad you’re happy. I appreciate you made music that you were pissed off with. I don’t know, it just would’ve been fun to hear you a little pissed off.

Sammy Hagar: Nah, shit Marc, you like the rest of them damn journalists. I should have known. Before I made this call, I should’ve known. But now you come to this show and you’ll see why I’m happy. You’ll be happy. When you leave the show, you are gonna be happier. You’re gonna just be going, shit man, I really feel good.

Marc Allan:  Yeah, well your enthusiasm is always infectious, so I have no problem. I have no doubt about that. You know, I mean I always enjoy watching you and talking to you and stuff. So anyway, I wish you good luck. I hope this works out. I hope you don’t have to live more of this stuff in the future, you know, that you can just go on and make your music and not have to answer the Van Halen questions anymore.

Sammy Hagar: Well, thanks, Marc I appreciate that, and I plan on that.

Marc Allan:  Okay, I’ll see you next… I’ll see you next week, Sam.

Sammy Hagar:  All right, bye-bye.

Marc Allan:  Take care.