Sammy Hagar joins Dave Cobb on Southern Accents Radio on Apple Music Country to discuss working together on Crazy Times - Sammy Hagar And The Circle’s brand new album. Hagar also discusses influences like Humble Pie's Steve Marriott, Rod Stewart, and The Who's Pete Townshend and reminisces on his days with Van Halen, writing "Finish What Ya Started" with Eddie Van Halen, his first band Montrose, and more.
In the following excerpt, courtesy of Southern Accents Radio with Dave Cobb on Apple Music Country, Sammy discusses writing Van Halen’s “Finish What Ya Started” with Eddie Van Halen. The song is featured on Van Halen's 1988 album, OU812.
Dave Cobb: "Let’s talk about, obviously huge to me, Van Halen, we can't ignore Van Halen. I'm going to say this on record. My first country riff I ever remember hearing was 'Finish What Ya Started' by Van Halen. That's the very first country chicken picking riff I ever heard, and I learned it on guitar. Little did I know I'd be living in Nashville all these years later going down a rabbit hole learning everything about it. But that was the spark, that one song. Talk about writing that song."
Sammy Hagar: "Eddie was such a great guitar player. He was just such a great musician. You listen to his keyboard work too. His left hand man spunky in a pocket, but his guitar playing was the same way. His right and left, both his hands were brilliant. Where a lot of guys are right hand, you're a right hand player, Vic's a right hand player, Townshend's a right hand player. Some of these guys don't even need their right hand. They're just fricking riffing. Well, Eddie's got them both. I had the idea for this song. I said, 'Let's write a song like 'Magic Bus' with acoustic guitars but real rhythmical.' Eddie comes over, cigarette, bottle of tequila. I couldn't let him in my house because he was smoking, always. Late at night we sat on my front porch with two guitars in Malibu where he lived next door. I'm going, 'Come on.' I was singing "Come on, baby finish what you started." I was playing the riff like an octave in E like... He goes... I went, 'Oh holy.' It was like, so not what I was thinking. It was so left field. I just said, 'Wow.' When we went and recorded that, we put two mics in the room. You'll love this. It's stereo. We just put the instruments in the room. I was on a microphone in the control room and him and Al, we had stereo mics up in the room. That was basically it on that song."
Listen to the full episode this Saturday, October 1 at 4 PM PST or anytime on-demand at Apple.com.
Sammy Hagar & The Circle have released their new album, Crazy Times, via UMe on CD/Digital. The album will be available on vinyl on October 28. Order the 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)
"Funky Feng Shui" video:
"Crazy Times" video:
"Pump It Up" video:
(Photo - Leah Steiger)
