Former Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar has explained why he refused to have the band play on the same bill as AC/DC, citing the Australian group’s ability to dominate any show they appeared on. Hagar shared his thoughts in comments posted via Bon Scott YouTube.
Hagar discussed his long history with AC/DC, starting from when he first heard them on the radio and later seeing them perform. He also recalled a specific show where AC/DC opened for his former band and stole the attention of the crowd before the main act took the stage.
“I heard AC/DC on the radio before I ever knew any of the guys, and I just remember hearing ‘Problem Child’,” Hagar said. “And I just… That song, I just loved that song. I just thought it was just the coolest song. It was just so edgy and just the way he sang. I became an AC/DC fan instantly.”
Hagar then described his early musical career and the circumstances that led him to see AC/DC perform live. “I just left a band called Montrose, which was this early ’70s metal, hard rock band,” he explained. “And when I went solo, [Montrose leader] Ronnie Montrose went and did an instrumental thing. He broke up the hard rock band — we were like the American Led Zeppelin-type band — and he went out with the instrumental thing with a song called ‘Town Without Pity’, played on guitar, no singers, and AC/DC opened up for him in our hometown of San Jose, California.”
“And I went to see AC/DC. Ronnie had fired me, so I was just trying to start a new band,” Hagar continued. “And so this must have been, like, ’75, ’76 at the latest. And it was AC/DC’s first time over here, I think, and they opened for Ronnie, and they killed it. I’m just going, ‘Oh, my God’.”
Hagar went on to describe what happened during that show in detail. “I went to see AC/DC, and, of course, I was talking to Ronnie, but Angus [Young, AC/DC guitarist] got on Bon’s back, and he went through the audience,” he said. “I mean, they just ruined it [for Ronnie]. It was a small place, about 2,000 people, and Ronnie was getting ready to go on. I said, ‘Ronnie, you want me to come out and sing ‘Bad Motor Scooter’ or ‘Rock Candy’ or something with you? ‘Cause, dude, you’re gonna have a hard time.’ And he just… It was horrible. I had to leave in the middle of his show. It was embarrassing.”
According to Hagar, AC/DC’s impact on the shows they opened for was consistent throughout their career. “AC/DC did that to everyone. Anytime they opened for someone, you were in trouble,” he said. “Later on in Van Halen, when everybody had already made it in big time, we used to get offered festivals with AC/DC, and they did it one time before I was in the band in Europe. And we always said, ‘No, no, no. We don’t even wanna be on a show with AC/DC. I’ll pay money to go see AC/DC, but we don’t wanna be before them. We don’t wanna be after them.'”
Hagar’s refusal to share a stage with AC/DC came years later when Van Halen had already achieved major success, but his early experience at the Montrose show had made a lasting impression.
Hagar’s account of AC/DC’s opening act reputation connects to a larger pattern that defined the band’s early years in America. AC/DC played their first U.S. show on July 27, 1977 at Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, with Bon Scott on vocals and Angus Young in his schoolboy outfit. From that point forward, Angus Young and the band built a reputation as a must-see opening act, and Young became known for a theatrical approach that involved going into the crowd, walking on people’s hands as far as his guitar cord would allow.
Hagar left Montrose in 1975, which aligns with his recollection of seeing AC/DC open for Ronnie Montrose around 1975 or 1976 during the band’s early time in the United States. Years later, Hagar joined Van Halen in 1986 after Eddie Van Halen admired his work with Montrose. The band had spent considerable time finding a replacement for the previous singer David Lee Roth before Eddie was referred to Hagar by a mechanic working on Eddie’s Lamborghini in July 1985.
With Hagar as their singer, Van Halen released their first number-one album on the Billboard 200 chart with “5150” in 1986, which became certified six-times platinum by the RIAA. The group released four U.S. number-one albums during Hagar’s time in the band before his departure in 1996. By the time Van Halen had achieved this level of success, Hagar had already decided that sharing a bill with AC/DC was not worth the risk.
