San Francisco Chronicle


LIVELY ARTS/NIGHTLIFE
Hagar's Life After Van Halen

Edited by Joel Selvin, Chronicle Pop Music Critic, Greg Heller, Aidin Vaziri

Doing his best to put the recent Van Halen minidrama behind him, Sammy Hagar has returned to the studio to record his first solo album since his ousting from the supergroup. Forced out of the band after its much-publicized reinstatement of ex-front man David Lee Roth, himself since replaced (see Eddie Van Halen interview, page 48), Hagar seems elated with his newfound freedom.

``I've never tried to make a record that was exactly what I wanted to do, that felt as mature as I was. I've never felt I could. It was more like, `This is what's going on today, this is what the kids are listening to.' Even in Van Halen. Well, I've grown up real fast over the last year.''

Recruiting an eclectic, somewhat curious mix of players, counting among them funk bass master Bootsy Collins, News anchorman Huey Lewis, ex-Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart and veteran producer Mike Clink (Guns N' Roses), Hagar has ensconced himself in Marin's Plant Studios to record an album he hopes will return him to the roots he'd forgotten.

``I was a blues singer. I was an R&B singer in a horn band, way before any of the metal. My roots are so different than what my image has been through my career. People are going to freak out when they hear this record.''

Hagar seems well into something of a psychedelic and spiritual renaissance, an inner calm he credits to Hart. ``Me and Mickey have become great friends over the last year,'' he said. ``He's the most intelligent musician I've ever known. His inspiration has put me in touch with myself again, with music again. Were doing the weirdest concept song you've ever heard in your life, called `Marching to Mars.' ''

Explaining the album's working title, ``Kama,'' Hagar offers further evidence of just how far behind him the Van Halen arena rock mind-set might be.

``It means `love' in Sanskrit. Being the original written language, Sanskrit is the most powerful language there is. I wanted to find a new way to say `love,' my favorite word.''

Hagar's elevated state might explain his prolific songwriting. He's finished 14 tracks and has another 14 ready to be laid down. Hoping for an April release, Hagar says he's negotiating with the Mercury, Virgin and Hollywood labels, though finances hardly seem paramount.

``I want the label I sign with to understand that this is not business, this is me. This is my heart and soul,'' Hagar said. ``I want to be marketed properly. I don't want my true fans taken advantage of.''

Hagar says unapologetically that he will continue to do Van Halen songs live. ``That's part of my history. I have every right to do so. If people think the band's all Eddie, they're crazy. When they hear the music without me, they'll know. I feel very sorry for Gary Cherone (ex-Extreme vocalist recently hired by Van Halen). I don't think he'll feel very comfortable standing onstage singing `Right Now' or `Can't Stop Loving You.' Those are Sammy Hagar songs and they will always be.''

By Greg Heller

Despite the fact that Sammy Hagar was lead singer of Van Halen for about as long as David Lee Roth was, some of the group's fans never stopped hoping for a reunion of the original lineup. But it came as a surprise when the band announced in June that it had fired Hagar and was working with Roth on new material for a fall greatest-hits album.

The two new songs from that reunion included on Van Halen's ``Best of Volume 1,'' which is due in stores Tuesday, won't disappoint those who are eagerly anticipating Roth's return. Both ``Can't Get This Stuff No More'' and ``Me Wise Magic'' are melodic rockers with searing guitar, and the charismatic Roth gives them more party-animal personality than the more technically able Hagar could have. Especially on ``Me Wise Magic,'' Roth and the band sound as if they haven't aged -- or changed much at all, for that matter -- since they parted ways in 1985.

The vitality of those tracks is the only surprise on this album, which begins with the Eddie Van Halen guitar instrumental ``Eruption'' and includes songs from every period in the band's 18-year recording history. Some of the material is lightweight -- even disposable -- but the collection also proves how consistent the band has been at writing catchy hard-rock songs with memorable hooks.

The two new tracks are certainly solid, but they stand up to Van Halen's best work mostly because Roth gives them the show-business spark lacking in much of the band's recent material. Unfortunately, Roth and Van Halen have ended their ``wait- and-see'' reunion acrimoniously, so, as he sings on one of the tracks, ``you can't get this stuff no more.''

Robert Levine