Sammy Hagar Quotations

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.

I see couples fighting about the stupidest things. You just have to rise above everything.

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.

Sometimes you're afraid to fall in love with a chick, but she sucks you in anyway.

Every year on your birthday, you get a chance to start new.

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.

I think all the bad blood started when Geffen released a greatest hits package of my solo stuff.

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 looked at Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and the boys up there thinking, I want to be that.

The reason my voice is sounding more passionate is because I'm singing directly from the heart.

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.

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.

It's a good thing I don't read everything Eddie says, or I'd be up in arms and not enjoying my life.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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'm still raising kids myself, so I don't feel like a grandpa

I've never done a box set, and Eddie's full of it if he says otherwise.

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 didn't think I'd be around 30 years later

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 had written lyrics to a song called The Silent Extreme, which Alex later renamed Humans Being.

When they brought Roth back into the picture, obviously I didn't go along with that too well.

If they called me up, I would puke.

He just was the most humble rock star I have ever met, besides having the best hands of any bass player in the history of rock and roll,

Our manager had promised me that after we finished the Twister project, that was it. I told him point blank that we needed a break from each other.

My only commitment to Geffen was a week's worth of press in New York, plus a week in Los Angeles,and that would end my involvement.

Valerie is a pretty strong woman. She's not intimidated.

When Eddie and Alex got wind of what was going down with my greatest hits record, they called my attorney. They thought something was up.

To stay a great singer or guitar player, you've got to do it 24/7. That's what I do.

It was a horrible way to end the whole thing, ... So, I just say, 'Man, that's it for me. I'm not playing with people like this.'

Seeing what kind of person Dave is, now I know why they have never been able to do the reunion with him because he is unreasonable, ... He's a complete nut. He is not an average bear. He's on the moon. He's unreasonable and he's shot.

It's kind of a groovy record, ... It's almost a little retro. It's not '80s-type fist-in-the-air Sammy Hagar -- well, a couple of songs are always like that because that's where I came from -- but it's almost more '70s rock.

It was just way too drawn out. I can't work like that.

I don't like dragging kids, young kids especially, through the darkness because I believe in positive. Yin and yang, black or white. I'm an up guy.

I've had my fill of "One Way To Rock" or "I Can't Drive 55." Those are guy songs to me, and I'm cool with that. But when you write a great love song and you start seeing that 50 percent of your audience is beautiful women, that's much more rewarding, than having a bunch of guys out there.

I'm the only choice to make a record. And that's the only way I would do it. We'd have to make some new music. The fans deserve it. Van Halen's got some of the best fans on the planet.

I always liked a good love song and, I dig being in love.

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.

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.

When I want to go be Chickenfoot, I go out and I'm the artist. It's all musical.

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.

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.

"Love Walks In," it was the same thing. That song is about aliens, by the way.

Those are the magical songwriting moments, when you have a partner that clicks like that. That's a dream come true, man.

I just have a vision of something, and it seems to go a long way. One thought goes a long way.

I had more of a vocal range. If you wanted to play a keyboard song, like "Love Walks In," I can do it.

I'm a co-writer, publisher of that song ["Right Now" ], so for it to get accepted, we had to sign off on it. I signed off in a second. "You bet that anyone can use this. I don't care. You can use it for anything." If it is to inspire people in the positive sense.

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.

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.

I really think that Van Halen has two choices if they want to continue. And maybe they don't want to continue, because they don't seem to do much

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.

It took me a long time to put it to use in things, but the name of my publishing company is Nine Music, and "Red" became my theme song.

Everybody has weird dreams, but a usual weird dream is, okay, so your mom's driving a car and she's a dog.

I've always been into writing love songs.

The downloads, the licensing, commercials, radio - it's made me more money than any song I've ever written, and it only went to No. 26. It wasn't a big hit at all. But it's a career song ["I Can't Drive 55"].

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.

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 had been in Africa for six weeks on a safari with my family. I said, "You know, I made a lot of money. I am getting kind of burned out. I really want to do something special." So I went on this extended trip to Egypt, Kenya, Sardinia - I really did it, man. I was coming home, and while I was gone, they changed the speed limit from 65 to 55.

I've always been kind of a speed demon.

I'm a songwriter. I've got ideas in the closet that just didn't work out with my band, that I think, "This is a great idea, it's just the wrong guys."

I would rather sing about my love affair or about a woman or to a woman than some guys any day.

I don't want to try to force anything, because I'm really happy with Chickenfoot; my new record with them is phenomenal.

I'm writing my biography. It's my business. This is what happened in my life, and I'm writing about it.

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 .

Ruth Montgomery had a book I was reading called Aliens Among Us. She was an automatic writer. She used to go into a trance, and she would just start typing information, and then she would come out of her trance and read it and go, "Wow," and that was just the way she wrote her books.

We always sold 4 or 5 million records no matter what we did.

While I was in Montrose, the publishing checks went into the band's coffers. This was our management's decision; we were just financing ourselves on the road.

I was kind of always attracted to red. I used to wear red socks a lot for some crazy reason.

If you have a higher reason ... than just to make money... it will bring you longer fulfillment. And it won't feel like work.

After I had my dream, I got into numerology. Like my buddy's name is Bill, and I would say, "B is a two, and each I is a nine, and the L's are fours. And that's eight." I would figure out everybody's numerological single-digit number.

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."

I loved that song ["Don't Tell Me"], but man, it was dark. That song did nothing for Van Halen.

I'd love to be abducted. I'd sit on my deck at home waiting all night long to be abducted. But that's never happened that I know of.

To stay a great singer or guitar player, you've got to do it 24/7. That's what I do.

I think love could have saved Kurt Cobain.

I can be singing about cat food and I'll make you think that I mean it.

I would like to enlighten people.

Yes, I'm looking at you, looking at me, looking at you, looking at me, looking back at you.

Yeah, yeah, I've been Beatled, I've been Rolling Stoned.

I was loud and electric at night, got all shook up with Elvis.

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.

The good thing about breaking up is that you have nothing else to lose.

And for him [Kurt Cobain] to do that [suicide] - I didn't like that. I thought that was just wrong. It just sent a bad message to a troubled generation.

"Rock Candy" was my first record. I had never been in a studio, so I was in shock and I had no idea if it was great or if it stunk. I was just putting in my heart and soul, and closing my eyes and keeping my fingers crossed. I gave it everything.

Write me up for 125, poster my face wanted dead or alive. Take my license all that jive, I can't drive 55.

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.

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.

Stop looking out, start looking in. Be your own best friend. Stand up and say, hey, this is mine!

So many things can get you high, I'm gonna try them all just once before I die.