By Mitch Lafon

Six or seven years ago, I had been scheduled to interview Sammy Hagar by phone, but the call never came in and attempts to re-schedule were fruitless. It was always a little disappointing to me that Sammy was the interview that got away. I had assumed he'd be a great interview and a fun guy. On Sept 19th 2007, I opened my email and find that Sammy will be calling at 2:30PM sharp and I have a tightly controlled 15 minutes to chat with the Red Rocker. Below is the result of my conversation with a man who's enjoying his band, enjoying his music, seemingly un-bitter about his Van Hagar days... Simply put, Sammy is enjoying life to its fullest.

Mitch Lafon: Tell me about your new book Sammy Hagar & Friends -- Live Shots Captured By Duane Sycz 1988-2006.

Sammy Hagar: It's a picture book. Its 20 years of a photographer that has been following me around. We put together a nice little collection of shots with me and friends and different band members. It's just really an awesome coffee table book and I wrote notes for every single picture. It's pretty cool because it's got my first gut reaction when I saw pictures of me that I hadn't seen and I'm going "Oh, Lord!"

ML: Was it fun or scary?

SH: It was fun. I started the whole thing off by talking about fashion. Fashion is a funny thing. I've always tried to have fun with it, but I've never taken it too seriously. If you take it serious -- you find out in five years or so that that fashion is out and you look back and go 'Oh, my God! Look at that hairdo. Look at those pants. What was I thinking?' Even today, I try to wear the things that are fashionable with a sense of humor because I know some day it'll look stupid. I've been around long enough to see it happen too many times. So, I started the thing off by talking about fashion (on the first page) and how you should take it with grain of salt because it can turn around and bite you on the ass if you take it too serious and sure enough the next picture [of me] is OUCH!

ML: You've also got a new DVD -- Livin' It Up (Live in St. Louis) --

SH: It's a great great show. What I do now with my band and my show is an awesome organic party. Every night is different. You saw that show but had you seen the night before you would have went "Well, it's kinda the same show, but it's different." And the next night it's different again because I rely on the audience. I rely on the waitresses and their action. We get different waitresses in each town and when they come out to bring me something I see them for the first time and I have a reaction to that and the way they start acting. Sometimes they come out way professionally and they snub me. It can turn into -- you know -- the Rocky Horror Show. It just goes with whoever is in the audience, whoever the waitresses are and whoever is on stage with me; and the band chooses the songs based upon that. Some nights I'll go half way through the show and I'll look at my set list -- well, we have just a bunch of songs. It's not like in order and I'll go we better play 'this' song right here right now. 'This' song will take this show to another level. That's just the way I make music and I tour these days and it's out of sight. It's so unique that I don't see how anyone could do it any other way, but there are a lot of people that probably wouldn't know how to do it like this either. It's a special kind of thing and the DVD captured it all. If you see the Livin' It Up Live in St. Louis -- you'll see exactly what we do and like I said it may be different the next time you see us, but it'll be similar.

ML: But it is scary to not have a rehearsed show and simply go in there all 'loosy-goosy' and call audibles and go anywhere with it.

SH: It isn't to me, but it was a scary leap when I first did it. I got good training in the Cabo Wabo cantina. We'd play about 20 or 30 shows down there and we'd get away with murder. I'd go 'we don't charge money to get into this place, so if you're in here and we play --you're going to go for what we do! And if you don't like it... well, you know.' And it worked. I saw my fans writing letters and postings on my web site and it was like "I've seen Sammy 42 times in my life but I just saw the greatest show ever at the Cabo Wabo cantina on Tuesday." And I'm thinking, "I'm seeing too much of that. This is the way to do it." In 2001 I said to my band, "Here's what we're doing folks. We are going to do it Cabo Wabo style. We're never going to have a set list again"' and they said "Fine." They knew and we just went out and started doing it. If you're not in a great mood some night or something pisses you off and you go out there -- it's tougher because you've got to pull it out of yourself and you've got to get out of that funk and into the party. Sometimes the show don't happen for the 20 minutes it takes you to get going and those are the only times I can say it's hard, but when you're up for it and the audience is awesome, which they always are, my fans are always awesome...

ML: Agreed...

SH: So, it just works so much better than if you did a set list.

ML: Let me ask you about the Livin" It Up CD. I read a review that said that Sammy Hagar is the modern day Jimmy Buffet. Do you take that an insult or compliment? You're just having a good time, right?

SH: I think -- had Jimmy gone to Cabo when he got on that sailboat instead of the Keys, he'd be more like me and had I gone to the Keys instead of Cabo I'd be more like he is. Other than that, we're not really similar. We have similar lifestyles, but I'm coming from a different vibe. My music is different and everything. Jimmy found "it" before I did. He found a place where he went "This changes my life. This place is going to change my life. It's going to influence the way I look, what I drink, what I eat, the music I play and certainly the way I dress" and that's what happened to me in Cabo. You get down there and kick your shoes off and put on a pair of shorts and maybe a shirt and that's it. You go around like that for weeks at a time and when you get back home you go "What do you mean I've got to wear those Levi's? I can't put on Levi's and a pair of boots -- what are you? Are you nuts?" You just get spoiled rotten and it turns into... It changes you and when you find a place that does that to you -- it's very special.

ML: Sounds like in you're in a "happy place."

SH: Oh, fuck yeah man! (Laughs)

ML: In July, you released your new single "Open". When is more new music coming? When's the next album or are you even going to do albums anymore? With iTunes and downloads -- do you even need to make an album anymore?

SH: No, I don't. I don't need to do an album for any reason other than I'm in a creative mode and I think my fans deserve new music every now and then. Whether or not I put it together on an album and sell it to them... I don't think so. I've got seven new songs recorded and I want to release them one at a time. Just like I did with "Open." I didn't have any other songs written. I wrote "Open" and said "I like this song. I want to record it." So, I got my own studio and we went in and did it. I put it out with my own money. I spent $20,000 on that song of my own money and expect to get nothing back and it's ok with me. I like this and I've got a new song to play in concert, but the point is some of the radio stations are starting to give me "push back" because they're going "When are we going to see a new album because we don't normally play songs unless there's an album coming and we're promoting something." That's an old consciousness. That's the way it used to be because the record companies would come in and say "Start hyping the record. We'll pay you to play this song" or whatever they did. That's out and these guys have got to drop that consciousness and let me make a song and let me give it to them for free and if they would please play it, but if I start getting "push back " and "We're not going to play it unless you bring us an album" my idea will be foiled... FOILED! We can't have that.

ML: But there's iTunes.

SH: Even iTunes won't push it that well if they don't think an album's coming. They're in the record selling business as well.

ML: Is there a new single coming?

SH: I hope so. I think for my birthday in October, I'll release another song. It's going to be "2 4 3 6 5" or an unbelievable acoustic version of the Van Halen song "Dreams" -- we've really done it totally different and it's one of my favorite things I've ever done. Then I have another song called "On A Roll" and one called "When The Sun Don't Shine" -- which is a real lifestyle song that should have been on Livin" It Up. The other songs are rockers, so I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'll figure it out and today we're going into the studio and recording The Beastie Boys" "Fight For The Right To Party" and it's badass. If I have my way, every couple of months I'll release a new single and when I've got ten or twelve out there -- I'll put them on a CD and let you buy it. But for $10 or something; you know cheap not $39.95.

ML: What do you think of the current Van Halen reunion and Michael Anthony being snubbed?

SH: I think they're crazy for doing that. When I got to "reunion" with those guys in 2004, they wanted to throw Mikey out then and I said "Well, I won't do it without Michael Anthony" and I made sure Michael was still in the band and I guess Dave doesn't feel like that because he let them throw him out and I think that's a mistake. If Eddie wants to play with Wolfie, it's none of my business. He has the right to play with his son. I think that's awesome. I think it's cute. I think it's beautiful and Wolfie, I'm sure, is a good musician. He's Eddie's son and he's been around music all his life. He's a good kid, but Eddie should just do a solo record with him or something like that.

I just don't see doing the Van Halen reunion tour with Dave... They've been trying to do this since "95 when I left the first time and it's unfair to the fans. They're going to get away with it because it's finally Dave in the band again and I think without Dave they'd be doomed if Eddie, Wolfie and Alex tried to go out as Van Halen like they were going to do. That would be the biggest mistake... EVER! But with Dave coming back in they can pull anything off because people want to see that. Nobody has been able to see that since 1984 and that's a long time.

Having the run I had with the band -- I'm totally happy. I'm not interested in doing Van Halen. I love my band. We've been together 10 years. We're awesome and we're having more fun than I've ever had playing music in my life. We're not having the success I had with Van Halen, but no one has that success. That was the biggest band in the world. So, unless you're Van Halen, U2 or Led Zeppelin you have to be happy going out and playing 3000/4000 seaters and selling them out and having a fan base that love you. The only good news to them throwing Mikey out is that he gets to play with me. He's got his own band, The Mad Anthony Express. They play old Van Halen, ZZ Top... and it's really good. Then I joined his band playing guitar and we do some early Sammy stuff like "This Planet's on Fire" and "Rock N Roll Weekend" and then Vic Johnson comes out and takes the guitar from me and we do the Van Hagar era -- which you are NOT going to hear on this next Van Halen reunion tour -- believe me. Dave is not going to be singing my stuff. If he could, I still don't think he would. It's not his kind of style.

ML: Is that the one downer? That all that music you created...

SH: Is gone? No no, it's not shameful. We had 14 number one records. They're doing the Dave thing. This is Dave's trip. Dave has got to be the happiest guy on the planet. And the Dave era fans are probably happy too. I think that at the end of the night you're going to go, "I heard a bunch of great songs, but I wish I had heard 'Poundcake' or 'When It's Love' or 'Dreams' or 'Right Now.' You're going to miss those songs, but anyways, those are the songs we'll play with The Other Half, the Van Hagar era, that Mikey and I and Vic and my drummer play and we do a good job. When you hear my voice and Mike's singing together, Mike's bass guitar... All of that is original and when you hear that, it's going to sound a little more like the original than if Dave was trying to sing my songs, which wouldn't sound so good.

ML: Which is what you get on the Livin" It Up in St. Louis DVD.

SH: Exactly -- what you see there is what we're going to do and then we take a little break and my band comes out and we finish the show out. It's like a heck of a four-ring circus. It's pretty awesome and the fact that Mike is not in the band -- in a certain respect I can go "This is wrong" but in a selfish respect I can go "This is awesome."

ML: For the fans, it truly is the best of both worlds.

SH: Yeah -- B & B! That was the name of the last greatest hits record and last Van Halen reunion tour with me -- Best Of Both World's and I think this is clearly the best of both worlds.

ML: Time is up -- can I get one quote about your Birthday Bash?

SH: The Birthday Bash -- everyone says "Is this going to be something really special?" Yes, it will be because it is every year. It won't be any different than when I turned 40 or 50. Every year it gets better and better and bigger and bigger and I don't know how we're going to control it. It is on and I'm sure people are already sleeping on the sidewalks, so it's pretty special and I'm probably the luckiest man in the world to have these kinds of fans that come down there and go through what they go through to get in this little club and party with me for two weeks. It's always free. I want everybody to know that. I don't charge to get into the birthday bash since the first couple of years. We used to charge $10 and now we don't even do that. If you come all the way down there and spend all your hard earned money, sleep on that sidewalk, wait 48 hours to get in... BY GOD, I'm not going to charge you.

For the right here right now about Sammy visit: www.redrocker.com

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