Top 87 Quotes & Sayings by Sammy Hagar

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Sammy Hagar.
Last updated on September 18, 2024.
Sammy Hagar

Samuel Roy Hagar, also known as The Red Rocker, is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He rose to prominence in the early 1970s with the hard rock band Montrose and subsequently launched a successful solo career, scoring a hit in 1984 with "I Can't Drive 55". He enjoyed commercial success when he replaced David Lee Roth as the second lead vocalist of Van Halen in 1985, but left in 1996. He returned to the band from 2003 to 2005. On March 12, 2007, Hagar was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Van Halen. His musical style primarily consists of hard rock and heavy metal.

I don't want to talk about negative, dark things. The only thing I've got against stuff like Marilyn Manson is, they make unbelievable videos and unbelievable images.
When they brought Roth back into the picture, obviously I didn't go along with that too well.
Overall, we had about 50 meetings where the brothers would say that I couldn't do any solo records, I couldn't write for other people, I couldn't do this and I couldn't do that. These guys were trying to nail my feet to the ground.
I think all the bad blood started when Geffen released a greatest hits package of my solo stuff. — © Sammy Hagar
I think all the bad blood started when Geffen released a greatest hits package of my solo stuff.
Sometimes you're afraid to fall in love with a chick, but she sucks you in anyway.
I'm still raising kids myself, so I don't feel like a grandpa.
I didn't think I'd be around 30 years later.
I looked at Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and the boys up there thinking, I want to be that.
I had written lyrics to a song called The Silent Extreme, which Alex later renamed Humans Being.
Everything that Eddie has said about me is the total opposite of what really happened. Eddie says I wanted to be a solo artist. No, Eddie wanted to be a solo artist.
I've never done a box set, and Eddie's full of it if he says otherwise.
I've never met or spoken to David Lee Roth, yet it's rather ironic that even he's saying Eddie's lying about things. I'm saying he's not telling the truth, yet Eddie insists that the two of us are lying! You be the judge.
The reason my voice is sounding more passionate is because I'm singing directly from the heart.
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. — © Sammy Hagar
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.
I've been drinking tequila for a long time now, and it's never been about drinking to get drunk. I don't do that. I never drink tequila during the day, and I don't drive at night.
If I would go up on a high note, Eddie would want a low one. That's how petty the situation had become.
In Van Halen there were moments, like in some of the ballads, I put my heart and soul into those records. Those lyrics when I sang 'em, I gave myself goosebumps.
Dave was great in Van Halen. No question about it. He was one of the best at being Mr. Rock Star. But it's sickening to see a guy still trying to be that with a wig on 20 years later.
I would like to enlighten people.
I wasn't writing the music. Ed would write a piece of music. I'd listen to it and come up with a melody and then we would arrange it. We'd put it together and I would write lyrics to my melodies.
All he cares about is going out there with his Jack Daniels bottle. Nothing has changed. That's kind of sad. If David was doing better than he used to be, then that would be different. But it was a joke and he made it that way.
I see couples fighting about the stupidest things. You just have to rise above everything.
Every year on your birthday, you get a chance to start new.
When we were on the road, I found out that my greatest hits album went Gold. They freaked out. Things really came to a head when we started arguing about a Van Halen greatest hits package.
It's hard to say this about a guy like Eddie Van Halen, one of the greatest guitar players who ever lived, but he's really limited to a style and they're locked into it.
If you don't ever stop singing, your voice stays in shape. It's like the marathon runner. You've got to run, run, run to stay in shape.
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.
If I would have ever dreamed that I wouldn't be in Van Halen anymore and was going to have resume my solo career again, I would have never contributed anything towards my own greatest hits package.
We needed time off from each other after our last tour because there was a lot of personal stuff we had to take care of. Eddie needed hip replacement surgery. Al needed his back worked on. And I was going to have a baby.
It's a good thing I don't read everything Eddie says, or I'd be up in arms and not enjoying my life.
To stay a great singer or guitar player, you've got to do it 24/7. That's what I do.
The reason I didn't fly over from Maui at their beck and call is my wife was about to have a baby at any time. Those guys knew that. These guys would not compromise and meet me halfway.
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 just have a vision of something, and it seems to go a long way. One thought goes a long way.
When I did red, it was nine, and that was it for me. I said, "Here I am - nine is my number and red is my color, and I'm in business now."
There are a lot of people going around where an alien took over their body, and their soul will actually leave and be, like, in a sleep or in a near-death situation.
I would rather sing about my love affair or about a woman or to a woman than some guys any day.
Ted Templeman, the producer, and Donn Landee, the engineer, are the same team that signed Van Halen, when they were called Mammoth. Donn convinced them to change it to the last name of the guitar player and drummer.
I've always been kind of a speed demon. — © Sammy Hagar
I've always been kind of a speed demon.
That song ["Don't Tell Me"] didn't take us anywhere, and I know why now. It wasn't what Van Halen fans wanted. It showed the darkness of Van Halen, and basically the end of the band.
You just went up and started playing, the audience got into it, and it was just a great high experience. That's what I kind of invented with "Mas Tequila" in Cabo.
If you have a higher reason ... than just to make money... it will bring you longer fulfillment. And it won't feel like work.
I was kind of always attracted to red. I used to wear red socks a lot for some crazy reason.
I always liked a good love song and I dig being in love.
I was going through troubles with my marriage, and I was just trying to focus and center myself. I was already rich and famous. I've got to figure out where I want to go and just get this thing aimed. I wrote this song ["Right Now"] and I kept singing it every day .
When I woke up from that dream, brother, I was like, "Okay, I've got to know what that was, what happened." That was not an average dream. I've had some dreams in my days, but not like that. It was way too vivid. Looking back, the reason that dream makes more sense today than it did then is, we are in a digital world. Back then, it was an analog world. Everything was digital in the dream.
Yes, I'm looking at you, looking at me, looking at you, looking at me, looking back at you.
Write me up for 125, poster my face wanted dead or alive. Take my license all that jive, I can't drive 55.
I had been reading this book about Zen Koan philosophy, and it was talking about the right here and the right now, and how important it is, and I was really trying to get there in my life.
So many things can get you high, I'm gonna try them all just once before I die. — © Sammy Hagar
So many things can get you high, I'm gonna try them all just once before I die.
I feel it's such a tragic thing [Kurt Cobain's suicide]. Here is a guy, a young guy, that had everything in his hands. He could have had a great life. He had a wife, he had a child, he had a fantastic career. He was important to a generation. And for him to do that - I didn't like that. I thought that was just wrong.
I wish I would have known Kurt Cobain. I would have been the first guy there to get him help, doing anything I could have. I just felt like the people around him kind of let him down.
You could be in the gutter and fall in love with someone, and you feel great. That's my honest opinion. I've witnessed both sides of that fence and being in love is where it's at.
I'd say it ["I Can't Drive 55"] has probably been the most successful song I've ever been involved with, including any Van Halen songs.
I was really wanting to be a rock star. I was saying, "I am going to have a fancy car, I got to have fancy clothes, and I have got to play the whole role." Obviously, I meant business.
Stop looking out, start looking in. Be your own best friend. Stand up and say, hey, this is mine!
Those are the magical songwriting moments, when you have a partner that clicks like that. That's a dream come true, man.
I think love could have saved Kurt Cobain.
The good thing about breaking up is that you have nothing else to lose.
This is pop music. You've got a candidate for president of the United States using it, that's hitting the biggest audience you're ever going to hit in your entire friggin' life. And you don't want that? Bullshit. That's what you want. It's not even for success or fortune, it's because that's the power of the song.
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