Sammy Hagar sat down with People and opened up about retirement plans. The rocker doesn’t think he will retire soon, and even set a condition to do so in the future.
“I get insecure in between shows, in between tours, and I think, ‘Gee, do I still have it? Can I really still do all that?’ And I get out there, and it’s like it’s riding a bike or having sex,” he said.
“I’m going to retire when I can’t do this, when I can’t sing anymore,” Hagar admitted. “I’m not going to have people pay the kind of money that it costs to see these concerts these days and not deliver. So that’s where my retirement is. It’s in the hands of the higher being.”
Hagar was actually planning to retire until he received a call from the late Eddie Van Halen. While speaking to Fox News Digital, Hagar explained that he was ready to step back from his music career — until Eddie reached out.
“Then comes Van Halen when I was ready to retire. I hate to use that word because I swear it’s not in my DNA. But I was ready to say, ‘You know, I’m going to quit for a while. I’m going to stop. I’ve been touring my whole life,’” the rocker shared.
“This is 1985, you know. I just came off a major tour, platinum albums in a row, you know. I was rich and famous. So, I thought, ‘Why am I going to keep doing this?’ And then Eddie [Van Halen] calls. That was a defining moment.”
Before becoming Van Halen’s frontman, Hagar gained fame with the band Montrose in the 1970s and later had a successful solo career.
Hagar also shared that another defining moment in his career came in 1996 when he was ‘thrown out of Van Halen’ due to creative differences with Eddie. “I had to roll up my sleeves and go back to work,” he said. He also reflected on joining Montrose early in his career as another important moment.
Hagar rejoined Van Halen from 2003 to 2005 and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the band in 2007. Eddie Van Halen passed away in 2020.
