- 2 days ago
Sammy Hagar joins us for an Audacy Check In to talk about his new live album, ‘The Residency,’ and more!
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00:00we meet again sammy you know we wrapped about five months ago to the day back in april all about
00:08your new song encore thank you good night inspired by written by in your dream eddie van halen and
00:14then you were about to embark on the uh best of all worlds residency in vegas last time we we
00:20talked and now look there's another reason while i'm why i'm looking at you again the red rocker
00:25on my screen the album the residency yeah listen all i can say about this record is it's really
00:31live i mean how many times have you heard that from you know every group that's ever released a
00:36live album and probably about two percent of them are really all live and this is one of the two
00:41percent so there's maybe another one out there but uh the the idea of um a live record to me
00:49is trying to um you know take the songs someplace a little bit you know you don't want to destroy the
00:58arrangement where people say well i recognize this song but i forget what it is you know right you
01:03you know you take the essence and and after playing it for years you kind of take it somewhere and um we
01:09really did that and and that was the most satisfying thing of why i said i'm going to release a live album
01:16i'm not just going to release a live album of inferior versions of some of the biggest hits
01:22i've had in my life why would you do that well listen it's been done i know and that's why most
01:29people go in and do all kinds of overdubs and fix it and fix it until it sounds like more like the
01:34record well we didn't do that and um well dude when you've got a band like you have i mean you got
01:39joe you got mikey you've got kenny now and i watched some videos of the uh you said the first the last
01:45nine shows on your uh your residency run in sin city were some of the best shows that you've ever
01:49played when you've got a band like that you don't need to go back in and do overdubs
01:51no you really don't no i swear joe plays perfect every freaking night i mean he'll make a mistake
01:58here or there but i mean it's so minor it's it's almost like gee that almost sounded better than
02:03the original you know uh and and my having ray thistleweight on keyboards vocals and guitars and
02:10yeah and just about every other instrument he can play he's really a talented cat he he brings the
02:16vocals in so we didn't have to have any on tape we don't have any keyboards on tape it was really
02:20live music and we got to play songs like right now and and especially a song like love walks in
02:26without any tapes it allows you to play the song instead of playing to a track you know that's
02:32amazing yeah no it i just i'm in love with this record i've got three live records in my life that i
02:38i'm in love with number one jay giles full house nice humble pie live at the fillmore and frampton
02:45comes alive i mean the frampton comes alive those records when you sit down and crank them up which i
02:50still do today because i got goosebumps just talking about it they they they make you feel like you're
02:55there and this record the residency makes you makes me makes anyone feel like you're there and and
03:02so mission accomplished otherwise i wouldn't i wouldn't make a well yeah well you don't need to
03:08no you don't and summer nights is uh is out now that's the first song that you and eddie worked
03:14together in in the studio for 5150 the first one that you came up you know he had the guitar part
03:19you started doing the summer nights on my radio and it all just kind of fell together that was just
03:23kind of trajectory up from there right yeah that and good enough they had those are the first two
03:29songs we worked on and then when we played those for hours and we started just going off and just
03:34jamming on blues stuff and playing cream songs and led zeppelin songs and even the montrose tunes
03:39and stuff and just to feel each other out and see you know we all had the same kind of roots you know
03:44um that was the great thing about van halen i'm not not to change subjects here but was when i joined the
03:51band we all loved the same stuff so if you know if eddie kicked off a riff to a song
03:56by the stones or zeppelin or cream or whoever yeah i knew it too i guess i started thinking it
04:04and that's a big deal i mean you know you get and try to get in a band with some guys and go hey you
04:09know they yeah i don't know i don't know that one well you know well i don't know that one you know
04:13it's like you're kind of stuck there you know right speaking of your time uh at the beginning of
04:18van halen i saw you were at the uh ohana beach festival over the weekend at dana point
04:24yeah and then with eddie vedder and your boys in green day and everything uh there were a couple
04:29of artists that just played i was at farm aid 40 last weekend in minneapolis and lucas nelson
04:34was on that uh ohana gig and margo price i'm thinking of farm aid because back in 1985 i'm sure that
04:41gig rests very uh special in your heart that was the first time that you publicly jammed the first
04:48farm aid with eddie on stage in front of anybody yeah it was really really cool yeah
04:54uh but unfortunately not that many people other than what was in the stadium
04:58got to see us because i know yeah yeah you know the thing lives on on youtube man i mean i go back
05:03and i revisit that you're doing rock and roll and you're trading licks trade and just i i've got
05:09goosebumps now thinking of that just reliving that in my head i did you just gave them to me they're
05:14transposable transferable right you know that but earlier on when i did you know right before uh i
05:22saying i can't drive 55 before i introduced eddie you know we were live on national tv you know i
05:28think it was certainly national i don't know if it was worldwide it was live on radio nationally uh
05:34and and i said here's a song for your tractor pulling motherfuckers and played i can't drive 55
05:39and they pulled the plug so by the time i brought eddie out and the rest of the bands that came on
05:44after me they didn't get they didn't get the airplay they should have gotten what happened really
05:47yeah and i i you know i got i never got invited back and i'm dear friends with mellencamp and neil
05:53young and sure and even willie and and when i interviewed willie on my rock and roll road trip
05:58i said willie i saw that that was a great episode yeah i said willie why what you know why don't you
06:03guys invite me back you know and he goes well you know i don't know and i and i'm saying you know
06:08was it because of what i said about the you know are you tractor motherfuckers and he goes
06:13yeah you shouldn't have been talking about a tractor that way
06:16something like that i it was it was the most brilliant remark i've heard out of a a stoned guy
06:28because he was stoned right did you bring any uh any tequila with you on that tour bus or was it
06:35just willie was just flying high oh no willie was he had been smoking yeah yeah and he was drinking tea
06:41i'm not sure if it was weed tea what it was but i didn't i didn't partake in anything on that bus
06:46and i did bring him a bottle of santo tequila but i i i uh we didn't crack it i thought this guy's
06:52all right he don't need me
06:53that's awesome so you are setting up shop again last time we talked you were saying how touring
07:02wasn't really appealing to you uh anymore uh and that you would love to set up shop and uh do a
07:09residency and that's exactly what you got going on at the same venue that the residency live album
07:14is in vegas you know the residency is a is a retirement place for a guy like me and people at my age
07:22that that have a hard time doing satisfying myself on how good my show is you know the way i'm going to
07:29sing how much energy i have going out on stage how much desire i have to get out there on the stage
07:35you know you travel you fly for two or three hours you get in a car you drive an hour you check into
07:40a hotel you get your bags and load them next thing you know you ordered room service it didn't get
07:43there in time you got to head to the show for the sound check you know you don't get to eat right
07:47you come back to your room and it's either too hot or it's too cold you can't get it adjusted right
07:52you don't get a good night's sleep i could go on and on and on it people say oh yes amy you know
07:56you're complaining about being a rock star no no i've done it my whole life you've done it for decades
08:00now yeah don't get me wrong i've done this since 1972 yeah uh and when i got to vegas
08:06and they put me in this gorgeous suite oh i can get anything i want 24 hours at the drop of a hat
08:15any food anything uh it's it's just and you wake up the next day and you're still in the same place
08:22the next day you're still in the same place um and you feel good and by the time four o'clock comes
08:27around where normally you're just getting into town and you're going man i feel like crap i don't
08:31feel like playing four o'clock i'm going i'm bored shitless man i can't wait to hit the stage you
08:38know what i'm saying sure of course that's more bang for the buck for the for the fan for you know for
08:43the the concert goer right they get a better show for me anyways and i believe everybody and and so i
08:49just went man this is so much better i feel great i don't feel i'm not beat up uh and i can sing and
08:56we can rehearse uh we can we can on the day off you know we play like wednesday friday saturday so
09:01on thursday you can rehearse if you want it's your room it's your equipment's always set up it never
09:07comes down no one's traveling the crew's in a good mood you get there and the crew's like hey how you
09:12doing you know what what changes you want to make in the set tonight you know and normally you walk
09:16into and say hey we want to make a change like whoa whoa whoa man we're not set up for that it's like
09:21man i can't tell you that that's why i'm doing a perfect picture right now of your scenario it's
09:27i'm just i hope i don't uh paint myself out of into a corner to where uh everybody and their dog wants
09:34to do the residency and i can't uh you know find a hole to do it for me because it extends it's it's
09:40it's extending my my lifetime on stage and it really is i swear to you i would probably be
09:47rethinking about what you would call retirement i would never announce a farewell tour because
09:52that's just such a money grab and i'm not into doing that yeah and what if i don't want it to
09:56be you know what if i want to come back so i'll never say you know i'm never going to tour again
10:01i'll never say this is it but i will say that the residencies are allowing me to feel real good about
10:08next year playing you know these shows and whatever else i feel like doing i'll do it but right now
10:14i'm i'm just happy to do that and i think i could probably continue doing that till i'm 100
10:18dude i can't believe that your uh your birthday bash is right around the corner 78 that spins my
10:25head around i mean that i mean you're operating at the top of your level and look at you you look
10:29amazing you sound mind-blowing i feel good you know that's all that matters right it sure is man when
10:36i wake up in the morning i i go you know it's always this it's always a sound check you know
10:42in the morning it's like uh you know i lay there for a few minutes stretch around a little bit
10:47get up you know do some stretches maybe some calisthenics a little floor exercises and uh
10:53i'm going yeah i feel great i mean i can do anything i've ever done uh some things i don't want to do
11:01anymore like climb up trees and stuff i mean keith richards on us and falling exactly man i i worry
11:11about falling every now and then down the stairs or something we're not paying attention uh i'll give
11:17some older guys out there some warning the first thing you don't do is you don't walk downstairs
11:21looking at your cell phone okay you're walking downstairs you better be paying attention walking
11:25down the stairs you know but other than that uh dude i see people i see zombies everywhere
11:30everybody's got a freaking phone in their hand looking like a complete idiot you know what be
11:36in the moment put your phone away if you're walking walk pay attention to your surroundings yeah no i'm
11:42a firm believer in that you know you got to stay alive because you're right you get attached to that
11:46thing and pretty soon you're doing everything on it and not really experienced in real life and it
11:50goes with texting and emails and stuff too i mean every time somebody texts me you know i just call
11:57them right back i say hey dude old style right let's talk what do you want right what do you need
12:03yeah yeah it's so much quicker and easier and you don't say the wrong shit you know like when you
12:07have those uh auto auto word correct or whatever yes yeah and you sit there saying you know you
12:15fucking pissed me off no i said no no no i said i said i fucking have to take a piss
12:21you know it's just 11 shows next year in march and september at uh dolby live park mgm uh that is
12:31the exact venue where the residency album was done coming on the 10th and that is where motley
12:36is in the midst of doing their residency and i'm bringing this up for you know why
12:40big uh big big social media posts about sammy hagar tommy lee and chad from nickelback in the
12:49studio banging out a a new song a new project and and charlie from anthrax pantera fame could be
12:55involved in some capacity is that true well no we were all in this in a place at the same time i went
13:01i went to uh a studio with chad uh uh chad kruger he yeah he wrote a great great song and he said
13:09for the new nickelback you know he's got a bunch of great i mean this next nickelback record from
13:13what i heard oh my god this guy's an amazing machine dude he's amazing songwriter and an
13:18amazing singer i gotta tell you but he's his songwriting abilities are crazy so he said
13:22man i i wanted to channel you you know you're always writing all these really positive songs
13:27you know you know dreams and about you know making people feel good and and lifting their spirits up
13:32you know and he said you're like the king of that and he goes and i saw i'm gonna channel sammy
13:36and i'm gonna write you know a song like that so he writes this song and it's very uplifting it's
13:40really awesome and and he and he said so just for fun i sang it and i put ai your voice on it
13:50and he goes and you sing it so much different it blew my mind and he's going so would you sing on it
13:56and i'm going i listened to the ai version and i'm going did it sound like you why don't you just use
14:02that you know that guy's singing better than me oh come on and oh it was good it was so it had all
14:10my inflections you know and i would i'm not an ai guy at all me neither but this this impressed me
14:16not that i would use it but it impressed me but anyway long story short so so i went in to do it
14:20and uh yeah the guy from uh bantero was was there and it's a studio complex and and tommy comes pulling
14:28up and chad goes hey man maybe you want to play on on this song sammy just sang on and and and so
14:34so it was that off the cuff really to get him yeah you know yeah it's it's like i don't even know what's
14:39going to happen with this stuff but you know i probably shouldn't be talking about that much but
14:42it's not like a project i'm just going to sing a co-sing a song yeah on a on nickelback's next record
14:49and uh and tommy's you know he's always fun i've known tommy for 100 years forever yeah and so
14:54i just looked i said are somebody was there with a camera i said are you rolling uh it's a friend
14:59you know somebody that works for nickelback yeah i said are you rolling i said yeah and i just said
15:03what i said hey you know here we are you know well i guess you wonder what we're doing well so do we
15:09or whatever i said it was totally off the cuff really yeah and then he sent it to me he said this
15:15is pretty cool can we post it i said shit i posted it before them you know and uh and yeah it just
15:22blew up and it's it's you know got mystique but no there's not a yeah uh a project between all of
15:28us i would love it i mean the first thing i thought of was wow how cool would that be here we go you
15:32know two lead singers you know projects are always about a guitar player and a singer and a drummer and
15:37a bass player and maybe a keyboard player but um having two singers and two guitars would be great but
15:42but nickelback's got a new record they're working on and it's going to be amazing and and i'm honored to
15:47be a part of one song i can't wait to hear it me too
15:52before i let you go i i've got to ask you um i heard that you want to be friends with david lee
15:59roth and i love this i love this about you i love your positivity in the in the negative times that
16:04we're living in right now uh he said some really cool things about you on stage on one of his shows
16:10uh also talked about a dream that he had with eddie van halen you believed him and you're like you
16:15know what i think it would be amazing because the press has been trying to pit you guys against
16:20each other for the last 40 years since 85 i mean i know the 2002 tour didn't end so well but you said
16:28i think it would be amazing to hang out with this guy everybody around us would have probably more fun
16:32than we would but still assuming uh you know assuming david behaved himself yeah yeah we could
16:41it's not like it's my wish list or my bucket list you know it's just david is he's so unique
16:47and to me he's he's so over the top entertainer you know that i'd like to hang with him under the
16:56circumstances where we've let all this crap go because i've certainly let it go anybody that
17:01wants to compare us today is crazy if you want to compare our old stuff well you're just as crazy
17:06because it's ridiculous really it's great and we just both did the best we could at the time
17:10yeah now we're doing what we're doing and so let all that go and not try to be competitive with dave
17:16and he'd be i'm sure he'd be a fun hang for a while i mean i'm i'm sure it'd become a time ago what you
17:21want to what you were thinking what right but but um yeah i'm i'm serious about it and when he said
17:30those things about me about being a great singer and things like that and has you know it has a great
17:35catalog i'm going see he's now getting past it too because he's never ever complimented me on
17:41anything that i know of anyway that's great to hear too and it was and i thought that's very nice
17:45so if you're going to be nice if you want to be nice then i can be nice and i don't want to
17:49dig any ditches again you know i just so would never want to dig any holes and yeah and go down that
17:54it's just so stupid i i'm telling you the easiest way to put it is that if you want to compare
18:01dave and i now we are doing two different things he's doing his catalog i'm doing mine and guess
18:06what i'm doing some of his too because yeah i love you know panama and you know i love it and mike
18:12you know he can sing ain't talking about love as good as anybody so of course you know we throw a
18:16couple of those songs in the set just for the fans that's for the fans and for my enjoyment i don't
18:21care if it's a led zeppelin song an old van halen song rolling stone song you know i love cover tunes
18:26and and to me you know a song like panama is a cover tune yeah for me it's a cover tune
18:32and i got one of the original guys in my band so yeah it makes sense you know yeah i mean all
18:40those songs from your 40 plus year catalog are in this residency album coming out of the test
18:46yeah i think there's 20 some songs or something there's a few of them that didn't make it because
18:51we didn't have a good night of it where it didn't sound you know as good or better than
18:55are different enough to put on the record and that's that's the crest of it oh why didn't you
19:00put this song or that song i'm going listen if it would have been up to par i'd do it but all these
19:05other songs we didn't have to fix nothing man if if there was a a background vocal part a real
19:12dominant part you know uh that was off key a little bit we just took it from another night
19:18we didn't fix it we didn't go we didn't go yeah yeah we just comped it in you know for two two
19:26words like maybe like you know summer nights or something like that sure just move it in and we
19:32didn't have to do much of that trust me this is live you anybody was there they're gonna go wow
19:38yeah that's what i heard and they're gonna be like when they watch this they hear this new live album
19:42like a lot of times people hear a live album you go wow i was there i don't remember i remember them
19:49butchering that right right and all of a sudden i miss it this time i plan on making it either march
19:55or september of 26 man looking forward to that come on please it's a great venue you're the man
20:01i appreciate your time
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