Sammy Hagar never listens to the older records that he’s made

Sammy Hagar never listens to the older records that he’s made

Former Van Halen and current The Circle lead vocalist Sammy Hagar was recently interviewed by Jim Harrington for The Mercury News.

Hagar was asked whether he ever goes back and listens to his old records to which he replied:

“I never do. Matter of fact, when I hear something come on the radio that is really old, I’ll go, “What is this?” I’ll recognize it and don’t even know it is me. My wife will constantly be sitting somewhere, at a concert or an event like a basketball game or a football game or something, and one of my songs will come on and she’ll go, “Hey, there you are.” And I’m going, “What? Where?” And I’ll listen, “What song is that?”

It’s so weird. It’s not like I don’t care. I just don’t have time to sit and take inventory. It’s like you said, I’m moving forward and I’ve got my nose to the grindstone. My sleeves are rolled up at all times. I am in 100 percent work mode from the second I wake up until I fall asleep. And I’m happy to do that.”

When asked whether he thinks of all the great talents that he’s had a chance to work with, Hagar stated:

“Yeah, I do once in a while. I was thinking about Ronnie (Montrose, who committed suicide in 2012) this morning, just one of those crazy things, like, “Damn. What a waste.”

Every now and then, I think about the experience that brought me where I am as I am trying to create something new. Sometimes, I will go back and think of Eddie (Van Halen) and the way we wrote a song. I will think, “Oh, I remember how we wrote that song — Eddie came up with that thing.” And then I get a vision that helps me write something. I will take the experience that I learned from Eddie.

I will take the experience I learned from Joe Satriani – the most prolific guy I’ve ever wrote with.”

With respect to Satriani, Hagar added: “We could walk right in there right now and, if I could write lyrics fast enough, we could write a record, because he’d have the music in 20 minutes. It just pours out of him – original stuff, not rip-off (expletive). He’s the most fluid guy I’ve ever worked with. Then I think about Ronnie – how we wrote. I do think about that. I think about how good these guys are. I’ve been really lucky to play with guys like that.”

You can read the rest of the interview with Sammy Hagar at The Mercury News.