Van Halen Was A Culture Shock For Sammy

William Lee | 11-10-2019

Sammy Hagar suffered a bit of a culture shock the first time he teamed up with Van Halen, seeing the members of the group truly embrace the rock and roll lifestyle.

The former frontman was asked about what the first day with the band back in 1985 was like during a recent interview with Classic Rock. He responded, "Oh, I can tell you exactly what it was like. At that stage I had a good career going, I was wealthy, I was eating in the finest restaurants and wearing the finest f***ing clothes, I was driving Ferraris. I was becoming a little too sophisticated - it was killing my music. Whereas those guys were living a completely different lifestyle.

"Long story short, I walked in that room and these guys had cigarette butts and empty beer cans and whiskey bottles everywhere, multi-thousand-dollar guitars lying upside-down on the ground. And it stunk like sh*t because of the smoke.

"Eddie comes walking out with a pair of sunglasses, jeans with holes in them, just outta bed, cracking a beer and smoking a cigarette. Alex was still drunk. Mike hadn't even been home.

"They'd been up all night waiting for me. I'm looking at these guys, then I'm looking at myself in a suit, and I go: 'I look like a f***ing idiot. This is a real rock'n'roll band.'"