Sammy Hagar: Living the Dream
Sam 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 before launching a successful solo career, scoring a hit in 1984 with “I Can’t Drive 55”. He enjoyed further commercial success when he replaced David Lee Roth as the lead vocalist of Van Halen in 1985, but left in 1996. He returned to the band from 2003 to 2005.
In 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. Also a businessman, Hagar founded the Cabo Wabo tequila brand and restaurant chain, as well as Sammy’s Beach Bar rum. His current musical projects include being the lead singer of Chickenfoot and Sammy Hagar and the Circle. Hagar also is the host of Rock & Roll Road Trip with Sammy Hagar on AXS TV. Hagar grew up in Salinas, California, and was named after his maternal grandfather, Sam Roy Baio. Hagar’s family worked in the lettuce fields and he lived with his parents and three siblings in a labor camp until moving south to Fontana, California. There, his father Bobby had landed a job at the Kaiser Steel Mill, working in the open hearth. Bobby Hagar was an alcoholic boxer who held a record for being knocked down 20 times in a single fight. Friends said he was “mentally damaged” upon returning home from fighting in World War II.”My father was the town drunk,” said Hagar, who described his father as “a complete alcoholic and madman” who was abusive towards his wife and children. Hagar’s mother would occasionally take the children to a nearby orange grove to sleep in the car when their father became too violent. The Hagar family moved frequently, as Bobby had a habit of spending the rent money on alcohol; Hagar recalls living in nine different homes in Fontana while growing up. When Hagar was ten years old, his mother Gladys took the children and left Bobby for good. Growing up, Hagar would pick fruit, deliver newspapers, and mow lawns to earn money.
He excelled academically and discovered music while in high school, teaching himself to play guitar on a $40 instrument purchased from a Sears catalog. He fronted his first band, the Fabulous Castilles, when he was 14 years old. At age 17, Hagar went to San Bernardino and snuck in to see the 1964 US debut of the Rolling Stones at the Swing Auditorium. He also regularly attended concerts by surf guitarist Dick Dale at the Riverside National Guard Armory. By the late 1970s, Hagar was enjoying moderate success as a solo artist on Capitol Records under the tutelage of A&R man Carter, with such albums as Nine on a Ten Scale and hits such as “Red”, which would build his persona and style, leading to his nickname as “the Red Rocker”. Hagar had become a headlining act in many parts of the United States and Europe. In 1987, Hagar had his first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks with “Give to Live” from I Never Said Goodbye, released after which he soon joined Van Halen and the rest is history.
