Rock legend Sammy Hagar is featured in a new intervierw with the Cincinnati Enquirer, where he discusses his work ethic, his role in early hard rock music with help from MTV, and the writing process for his new album. An excerpt is available below.
Q: You have one of the more interesting and inspirational life stories of anyone I've interviewed – rags to riches type fairy tale stuff. Looking back, can you sum up the keys to your success?
Hagar: "I got rich and famous through hard f***ing work. I don't know if I'm the most talented guy in the world. I don't know if I'm the smartest guy in the world. But I know I'll outwork anybody to get what I want. I wasn't going to accept anything but success. I failed many times in the early days. Finally, Geffen signed me to a huge record deal. And John Kalodner said, now go write me 28 or 30 great songs. I said, you're f***ing crazy. And I went to work. And then joining Van Halen – my name all of a sudden really meant something in the households.
And then I started Cabo Wabo and all of a sudden my tequila was bigger than my career. Millions and millions of people see my face and drink my products and go into my restaurants, and I think that is like having a hit record. None of it was planned. I just had my nose to the grindstone. But it doesn't mean anything to me to make it. It's not like, OK, I can quit now. Now I can do exactly what I want to do. And what I want to do is play music and help people."
Read the complete interview here.
Sammy Hagar & The Circle will release their new album, Crazy Times, via UMe on CD/Digital on September 30, and on vinyl on October 28. A music video for the title track can be viewed below. Stream the single here.
"This song is basically about how I feel coming out the other side of everything we've all gone through together the last couple years. These are some crazy times." - Sammy Hagar
Sammy and the band recorded the new album with producer Dave Cobb at Nashville's historic RCA Studio A, showing a whole new side of The Circle.
Says Hagar: "Working with Dave Cobb for the first time was enlightening. We went into the studio to record in the fall of 2021, when the world was starting to come out of the pandemic bubble we’d all been living in. The lyrics for ‘Crazy Times’ just came from that new freedom we were feeling, the freedom felt unbelievable, but a little uncertain, too. We had to ask ourselves ‘what are we doing here and what do we want?’
“Going back in the studio, creating and being with the music is just what felt natural. And it was just so different from any record I've ever made. There was joy in the hard work, catharsis and the camaraderie we’d craved. It was like those two years of not being able to do very much fell away and we really all came together and let it out in the music and lyrics. We were able to express what we all felt."
Crazy Times is a follow-up to their debut, Space Between, a multi-category #1 Billboard charting album. The new album will include 10 songs, nine of which Hagar wrote or co-wrote, along with a notable cover, “Pump It Up,” a 1978 song by Elvis Costello and the Attractions. The song “Crazy Times” was written by the whole band along with Dave Cobb and recorded live.
Sammy explains: “Before I stepped into the studio with Dave, he’d told me he wanted the best of my career on this record, and he wasn't going to let me get out of that studio until I gave it to him. So, I said, ‘If you expect that from me, at my age, as many records as I've made, you're going to have to push me,’ and he said no problem. Obviously, I dug down and just tried to write good strong songs, great lyrics, great melodies and not worry so much about the arrangements because he had that covered. And he pushed and squeezed every one of us. We went in the studio with seven songs and came out with 10. We ended up cowriting three songs with Dave Cobb and the band—including the new track, Crazy Times.”
Pre-order the new album here.
Tracklisting:
"Intro: The Beginning Of The End"
"Slow Drain"
"Feed Your Head"
"Pump It Up"
"Be Still"
"You Get What You Pay For"
"Crazy Times"
"Funky Feng Shui"
"Father Time"
"Childhoods End"
"2120" (bonus track)
"Father Time" - Acoustic Demo (bonus track)
"Crazy Times" video:
"Funky Feng Shui" video:
