Sammy Hagar autobiography due in 2011

June 28, 2010 57 Comments

More Details About Sammy Hagar Autobiography Surface

It Books, HarperCollins, to release in 2011

HarperCollins imprint ItBooks will release Sammy Hagar’sautobiography in 2011. Hagar will provide readers with those behind-the-scenes stories from his multi-platinum career, things that you always wanted to know, but had no way of knowing, until now, including his rise as a solo artist and his eleven years with Van Halen, after the controversial departure of original lead vocalist David Lee Roth. During Hagar’s time with Van Halen, the band released four consecutive No. 1 albums. From worldwide stadium concerts tours to private jets, Hagar enjoyed the trappings of fame and success with Van Halen until he was, as he puts it, “unceremoniously fired.” Hagar later thrived as a solo act, leading his band, the Cabo Wabos, before returning triumphantly to Van Halen for an historic reunion tour after which he set off on his own once again. So if you want to know any and every thing about the Hag, this book will expose it all.

“I’ve been writing this book my whole life,” said Hagar in a statement. “It’s time to put it between two covers.”

Filed Under: Sammy Hagar

Kayser Sozay

This should stir up a hornets nest. I can’t wait.
Rick Pride

I can’t wait to read it. I love Sammy!!!!!
RA 8 1 2

Love to hear the VH stuff. Ed must be shitting in his pants! LOL. Just kidding. Should be an interesting read, although, Sammy has always been pretty out spoken, doubt we will read anything we have not read or heard before.
Greg

This is going to be a hell of an entertaining read. Cannot wait to hear all of the dirt!
dlrevhsh

man sammy is such a busy guy he doesnt stop.
D.O.A.

Kayser, you’re right. I’m expecting quite the love fest from this post!
Nat

I highly doubt there’s going to be any dirt in this that hasn’t already been slung. It might save the guys that run this site some work though – they can just repost old updates with the “he said / he said” stuff.
Snoova

I hope it’s better written then the write up above… His band the Cabo Wabo’s???
Snoova

I need to be clear I wasn’t knocking Sam with my last post… Just making fun of whoever wrote the bit about it above.

Snoova
Dooley

I’ll pass on the book. At this point, CF recordings and live shows are what counts. An occaisional Waborita while waiting for a plane in Vegas. That’s what matters. Everything else is fluff.
Red Rockin’ Weirdo

Hmmm, a Sammy Hagar autobiography? Shouldn’t be that long a read — here’s a quick summary:

– Grew up wanting to be a boxer but didnt like getting hit
– Started singing about the color red
– Saw a UFO in 1968 and aliens downloaded lyrics into brain
– Wrote a song about the speed limit
– Joined Van Halen because Eddie and I had same auto mechanic Claudio
– Spent 11 yrs. in Van Halen turning them into Journey Part Two
– Wrote a song about poundcake
– Opened a bar in Mexico
– Got fired from VH because I wanted to be a solo act
– Formed the Waboritas and wrote a song about tequila
– Toured with Diamond Lee Roth — hate him too
– Rejoined VH in 2004 for failed reunion tour – hate Eddie again
– Sold tequila company
– Joined supergroup Chickenfoot and played House of Blues gigs
– Still hate Eddie Van Halen

Well, there it is folks…..the entire life of the Red Rocker wrapped up nice and tight!
SCAR

I’ll sum it up for you folks out there in Rock N Roll land, as a young Red Rocker to be, the young red one said, “fuck it, give me some tequila and lets rock this fucking joint!!!!!” The rest is Rock N Roll history ….and he ain’t done yet!!! Long live The Red Rocker and the Foot!!!! Lets burn one!!!!!
Jones

Red Rockin Weirdo: Sounds like you’re the one doin all the hating. Not Sammy.

Gee, just another Van Roth fan slinging turd.
5150Clown

This should be an interesting read. I wonder how much new things we will learn about the brothers. It will be great to contrast this against Dave’s experience with the brothers to see if the brothers indeed are the “EVIL TWINS!”.

One things for sure, any books from people that have anything to do with Van Halen are a sure sell since the only thing that’s happening with the band is dirt.
Little Dreamer

Maybe he can plug the book on Lopez Tonight!
T.O. Mike

Well, a book rehashing all the bad blood stories will make it a 99% chance that Van Hagar will never play together again!
Dano29

I thought he was fired because he didn’t want to work.

Since 1996 –
Van Halen: 1 CD, 2 Greatest Hits CD’s and 3 Tours
Sammy Hagar: 6 CD’s, 1 Live CD, 1 New Band w/ CD, about 12 years of nonstop touring and now a book

This guy never stops.
Shawn

Did the writer really refer to Sammy as “The Hag”? Just checking?
Michael

yeah, agree, the lead was poorly written…the Hag? the “Cabo Wabo’s”?
jeff adams

Red Rockin’ Weirdo, thats funny shit.

There’s a book out right now, Van Halen “A Visual History” 1978-1984. No mud sling’in, just down right respect from other top musicians that know where they came from and where they were going. From Dave’s dads basement to backyard parties to sold out arenas. Thats a fact. VH, 1976 to 1984, best band ever.
dlrevhsh

red rockin weirdo keep the stupid comments to yourself we dont wanna hear it! if you dont like sam thats fine but we all know he did alot better then dave in life. Sam didnt have to resort to being a midnight paramedic or radio show host. Dont get me wrong i like dave better then sammy in van halen but dont go around saying sam didnt do enough to write an autobiography.
http://www.gemproductionsinc.com kapp

I am looking forward to hearing some backstage stories. I am sure he has some real good stories about his time in Van Halen. I am looking forward to hearing about the reunuion tour drama!!
D L R

Does Sammy ever spend time with his wife and kids???????
jim

Should be a good autobiography.

Too bad we can’t get accurate stories about van halen from a neutral point of view without taking sides or favorites. You have to take everything with a grain of salt. Sammy is great at making himself appear as a good guy who does nothing wrong and who relates to the regular guys/fans. You have to respect everybody’s stories but the VH brothers are a unique duo. You can’t discount their side of the story as well.
Pat

I always expect the best from these rock and roll autobiographies but am always sadly disappointed. I realize it’s not an autobiography, but Hammer of the Gods is still one of the great reads. It actually got me interested in Zeppelin when the book was released. If you haven’t read Hammer, do yourselves a favor and read it. Also, while you’re reading the book, put some Physical Graffiti on in the background.
Pat

To DLR: I agree, when do any of these guys spend time with their families? This goes for politicians,actors,sports figures,tv personalities,etc. Maybe that’s what makes some of their relationships work? I know some of these guys don’t see their families for months on end. Some military generals see their significant others maybe 30 days a year.
vnhalen8

i can’t wait to read this one! Hell, i wanna hear the VH behind the scenes shit. Sammy hasn’t spent 40 straight years of being hammered…so I’d trust his memory over EVH any day.
Red Rockin’ Weirdo

Sorry if some of you in here don’t share my view on Hagar. He seems rather average to me in every way possible, and I don’t see how a lengthy autobiography is going to make him any more interesting to anyone. I will probably only read it to find out more dirt on Eddie about the 1996 breakup.

The main source of my disdain for him comes from his 11 year effort as lead singer of Van Hagar to discredit David Lee Roth every chance he got. He actually tried to make VH fans forget there was ever a Diamond Dave — always holding up “Dave who?” banners on the 1986 tour, not singing many Roth songs in concert, or fighting hard to prevent “Best Of Vol. 1″ from being released because he knew VH fans would prefer the Roth-era music over Van Hagar. Sammy had a huge insecurity complex about Dave because he always knew the VH fans would prefer Roth-era over time. This ate at him on the inside and made him bitter.

Besides, Sammy is not a very creative artist. All his songs (either solo or with VH) are quite mediocre in quality, and some of his lyrics are downright moronic — “Only time will tell if we stand the test of time” and “She butters my biscuit, cherries on my banana, cream in my coffee”. I think he always wanted to be a businessman first and an artist second. If you think about it, he actually stole Jimmy Buffett’s tropical beach bum persona for the last 20 years and used this image to promote his cantinas and tequila business.
http://www.danwilhite.com Dan

yeah…I’ll buy it! Should be entertaining.
mjc

Poorly written intro.Lookin forward to it.Sam has some good business&marketing types on his side.It’s obvious there’s nobody with marketing skills to be found anywhere in the vh camp,a 16 year can think up t-shirts&shoes.
Jay Krieger

I really don’t think he’ll spend that many pages on Van Halen at all, let alone sling mud. This is suppose to be HIS life story, not necessarily a Van Halen tell all.
Maybe, maybe not. I’ll pick it up regardless.
http://vhnd.com 51yr old fan

hey red-rockin wierdo, why don’t you write a book seems like you know everything. let it go. he replaced dave and thats all there is to it and now he is out making music and dave isn’t. has cool as dave was he was also the butt of alot of jokes over the years and he had done nothing except the reunion tour which i think he compromised on a lot of things he would not have 20 or 30 years ago.
Travis

it will probably be a hell of a lot better than ” crazy from the heat ” sorry DLR fans but that “book” was a huge disappointment, 2 chapters on DLR’s diet?, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
that book should have been a lot better , maybe it was the author, I can’t remember if Dave wrote it or if it was co-written, but it wasn’t good.
Herb

@ Weirdo et al: if “being average” can propel someone to an undeniably successful 40 year career, giving them opportunities to do what they want, whenever they want, earn more money than their grandkids, grandkids can spend, then I’d like to aspire to be “average” too.

Then, I can go and ruin a great rock band single handedly, be the only one to ever write a sophomoric lyric, and be a jealous hateful ass.

You’re a clown. Go away.
Red Rockin’ Weirdo

@ Herb — You see what I mean? You Van Hagar fans are all the same. Every time I blast the guy for being un-original and un-creative, you sheep always come back with “Yeah, but Sammy made so much money from his tequila and cantinas!”

I’ve always admired David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen because they are truly talented musicians and superior performers who didn’t have to rip anyone off to become rock gods and set the planet on fire. They broke the mold and set the gold standard, and everyone wanted to be like them.

Sammy Hagar has none of those qualities and is only good at stealing other people’s ideas (like Jimmy Buffett’s beach bum image) for his own profit. Please go read the lyrics to “Up for Breakfast” or “Spanked” and then tell me that Hagar is anything but a very average artist…..I dare you.
D.O.A.

Un-original, un-creative, stealing anything he’s ever done from someone else. To think that achiveing his status from doing nothing on his own, is truly mesmorizing. Adding to the remarkablility is that nobody saw through this charade while putting together a 40 year music career, highlighted by being handpicked by EVH to sing in his band.

Geez, I didn’t even stop to think about the tequilla business in my first post, so thanks for pointing that out too. I wonder who he stole that business model from?

You’re right about the Jimmy Buffett reference too. Nobody besides Jimmy has ever wanted to live a life on the beach. Sam’s got to be the only other one that’s ever donned a pair of flip flops.

I’m throwing out all my beachwear today, lest I be judged as a copy too.
Snoova

Weirdo…

You apparently hear what you want to hear…

Herb said nothing about tequila or cantinas??? I think the point was that regardless of how much you are 100% absolutely positive that Hagar sucks. The man has been successful and is still producing music.

Despite whether you like the music or not… Despite whether you have your “reasons” why the music is “average”… Hagar has an audience and he did sell albums while in Van Halen following DLR vacating his post.

Lyrics… really? You want to go there? Sure Hagar has some average lyrics. I’ll admit it. So does Roth. So do a lot of artists out there. “Jump”??? Wow, Roth must have really sweated over those lyrics. But for every weak lyric Roth OR Hagar throw out, they have several more good ones. It’s a rock band for crying out loud. If you want depth… listen to VH III. If you are looking for real depth, listen to Dream Theater. (honestly, being a listener of all eras of VH I always thought “Spanked” lyrically sounded like something that would have come from the Roth era, so it’s funny you picked that song)

I like the guy, but Roth is NOT a “superior performer”.

Sammy steals ideas and Roth never ripped anyone off? How many cover songs does Roth have with and without Van Halen?
john

Never ceases to amaze me the senseless bashing of either Van Halen era that goes on on this site. 95% of the people I know love both eras of Van Halen. The other 5% are either hung up on the glory days or can’t forgive Dave for walking out originally. Everyone relax, get off your computers,grab some beer and go outside and crank the VH. It’s only rock n roll for crying out load. Just listen and enjoy!
dlrevhsh

weirdo…

you say the main reason you dont like sammy is cause he tryed to make all the fans forget about dave… but its ok for dave/van halen to do the same thing now? not mentioning anything about sammy on their website or anywhere.They have all the roth albulm pictures up on the website but no sammy not a single sammy song on the tour or on guitar hero game. At least samm would sing 2 or 3 roth songs everynight.

About lyrics, sure sammy has some pretty stupid lyrics i can agree with that but sammy also has alot of songs that have amazing lyrics and that have alot of meaning ,roth doesnt but thats not roths style.
They are both totally differnt types of singers everyone should just stop arquing about who is better personaly i think they are both great musicians and they each brought there own style to van halen. i like them both equally as musicians but i think roth suits van halen better but you dont see me talkin bad about hagar
Red Rockin’ Weirdo

Dave was a 1000 times more creative than Hagar. Listen to the lyrics for “Secrets” and you can interpret that song a million different ways and it always puts a smile on your face. Meanwhile, Sammy is coming up with brilliant stuff like — “All you bad, bad boys. Make a mind blow!
All you bad, bad boys, dial 1-900-SPANKED” Sounds like a high school kid with bad acne wrote that shit.
Cam Winston

not singing many Roth songs in concert

Maybe Roth could sing some Van Hagar songs in concert?

Oh, wait….he physically can’t.

I’ve always admired David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen because they are truly talented musicians and superior performers who didn’t have to rip anyone off

Interestingly enough, I was listening to the Vandellas rendition of “Dancing in the streets” while I read that part.

Here’s the part where I say “I love Van Halen”, any version. God, I love the Roth-heads, still stuck in the early 80′s.
sammyvanroth

red rockin weirdo, your comments are moronic….if you could take an idea and turn it into profit you would do the same thing f#@! nut! you say sam tried to make vh fans forget about dave. well explain exactly how he did that? you are just upset because van hagar was a success and it hurt your feelings due to your man-crush on dave. i love dave too, just not the same way you do bro.
dlrevhsh

red rocking wierdo

stop refering to spanked that song actually has pretty good lyrics its not just about bad boys getting spanked it actually means something. listen to the lyrics to jump there not that good. Like i said they both have different styles of music you cant compare…
Dooley

Weirdo:

Secrets is great, I’ll grant you that. But “I’ll wait till your love comes down” and “she had a drink in her hand she had her toes in the sand…” Blechhh!!!

You can cherry pick good and bad lyrics both from Sam and Dave. Most people here get that. You don’t.
jeff adams

Personally I think “Red Rock’in Weirdo” has all of you right in the palm of his hand just like Dave did w/ 20,000 people every night from 1977 to 1984. He’s got you all worked up. I have to say he was kinda funny while do’in it. Now you can all jump my ass.
Listen Sam was great w/ Montrose and his solo stuff, but Dave, Ed, Mike, and Al are the real VH. Don’t get pissed, I LIKE SAM.
http://www.vhnd.com Pat G.

Looking forward to that book. It will be cool to get Sam’s side on all of the dirt that went on during the end of his first run with VH and then the reunion tour in 2004, to hear all of his stories on how Ed was fucked up the entire tour, now we will get both sides. Whether they are true or not is open to interpretation by the reader.
Mike

Red Rockin’ Weirdo, if you pick any artist, and I mean any artist and shoot them down for lyrical content of a few songs in a catalog you’re not paying attention to how a song is written. DLR didn’t exactly have the most inspiring lyrics of all time either. Lyrics are only one part of what Sammy ever brought to VH, he also pushed the melodies together. Look in every interview ever done when Eddie would still talk in public and you’ll find that EVH himself admits that songs aren’t done until whoever the vocalist is puts the whole piece together.
You can’t knock somebodies talent sheerly because you’re not a fan of his music. For a very “average” artist, he’s been widely respected in the music community and has something very few artists have…longevity. Enjoy your opinion, but lets face it…comments are for cheerleaders, not for haters. Move along, and wait for a new DLR album.
mark

They are both great bands. Did you ntic I said bands, wo different era’s with great players. period get over your self!
T.O. Mike

No one should use the “Sammy tried to make fans forget about the Dave era” excuse when slamming Sammy. The band was starting from scratch with a new singer, they all did it. Plus look what the VH brothers have done to Mike Anthony now.
The Booger Man

I’m a Fan, Unconditionally. I know it and The Big Man Upstairs Know’s It. Rock and Roll.