Sammy Hagar certainly gets his due as a singer, frontman, band leader, songwriter and, of course, liquor and restaurant entrepreneur. That he’s also a solid guitar player is often lost in the mix.
That, however, could have something to do with those who have stood beside him throughout his 54-year recording career.
The Red Rocker came to prominence in 1973 as the frontman for Montrose, collaborating with Ronnie Montrose over the course of two albums — Montrose and Paper Money — and favorites such as “Bad Motor Scooter” and “Rock the Nation.”
After Montrose changed the lineup in 1975, Hagar embarked on a solo career and scored his own batch of hits (“There’s Only One Way to Rock,” “I Can’t Drive 55” and more). He also teamed with Journey’s Neal Schon in 1983 for the short-lived supergroup HSAS, which released the live album Through the Fire in 1984.
The following year, Hagar performed with Eddie Van Halen at the first Farm Aid concert, then went on to spend 11 years with Van Halen, recording four number one albums with the band following the departure of David Lee Roth. (Hagar would return for one more tour in 2004 and record three new songs for The Best of Both Worlds compilation.)
He worked with Schon again and, later, Joe Satriani in the side project Planet Us. Satriani would also join Hagar in another supergroup, Chickenfoot, and later become part of Hagar’s Best of All Worlds Band in 2024. In between, Hagar brought Vic Johnson into his bands the Waboritas and the Circle.
That’s a lot of electric six-string firepower to be attached to in one career, and Hagar does not take those associations for granted. He loves to talk about his good fortune, too — which he did with us via Zoom from Maui as he prepares for a new run of Best of All Worlds dates beginning June 13 in St. Louis. Here he tells us about four guitar greats he’s played with who aren’t Eddie Van Halen (we’ll leave that discussion for another day).
Ronnie Montrose
“Ronnie was on fire. That’s the way he played — like it’s burning. He wasn’t that fast. He wasn’t a shredder. He played well, and he played really fiery.
“I learned how to play guitar from Ronnie. I learned more from Ronnie than Eddie as a guitarist. I still play more like Ronnie Montrose today. He really inspired my guitar playing.
“When he got into his Town Without Pity era, he started playing more like what Joe Satriani plays — with that sound and that vocal style. He probably would’ve gotten even better; he just had some real head problems. I’ve never seen a guy like that. He fired everybody. The second you had one smidgen of success with him, he broke up the band.
“Montrose — we were about to explode. We were gonna be the American Led Zeppelin, and he couldn’t take it. I don’t know what it was. He was afraid of success. He’d sit there in the studio holding his face like, ‘Oh God, what are we gonna do?’ I’m like, ‘Fuck, let’s jam! Let’s make some music.’
“He was so tormented, man. I don’t know why; I think it must’ve been some far-out childhood thing that happened to him. I mean, come on — the guy shot himself in the head. It’s horrible. [Montrose died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on March 3, 2012.]
“That broke my heart when he did that. It made me think, Could somebody have helped him? What happened here? How do you let some guy do that? I wasn’t around, but if I’d been around and knew he was in that kind of condition, I would’ve put this guy in a hospital or taken him under my wing. I would’ve helped.”
Neal Schon
“Neal’s been my friend forever. Before Journey broke, we were buddies. We used to play shows together, and he would always come jam with me when I’d play Winterland [in San Francisco]. Neal just walks around with a fuckin’ guitar around his neck. He takes it off to shower, and that’s probably it. He probably fucks with a guitar around his neck. He’s just always playing.
“He’s a great, melodic player. He uses the whole neck and makes it look like a toy. I can tell a Neal Schon solo instantly because he plays a really cool, melodic lick, and then he goes [scats] — just spills out all these crazy, whacked-out notes. I don’t know if any of them are real notes, but if you’re not hitting bad notes, it doesn’t matter.
“I could say, ‘Let’s write a song, Neal,’ and he’ll write a song in five minutes. Him and Joe Satriani — they’re so frickin’ prolific, it’s scary. And it’s ’cause he’s got the guitar on all the time, so he’ll think, ‘Here’s what I was playing a couple minutes ago. This could be a song.’ That’s Neal.”
Vic Johnson
“I call him Vic ‘Right Hand’ Johnson all the time. He’s got a right hand like The Edge, like Pete Townshend. He can shred — his left hand’s great — but his right hand, man, he kicks off a groove and you don’t need to hear the drums. He puts it right in the pocket.
“He was never in a band till he got in my band, and he was kind of a sideman. Earlier on, if he’d had a superstar singer — a Sammy Hagar, a David Lee Roth or a Robert Plant or somebody — Vic would’ve been much more famous as a guitar player.
“Vic’s got the biggest, fattest sound. When I pick up his guitar, his strings are really fat — big ol’ fat strings. I can’t play ’em. I can’t bend ’em, but he’s got those big, ol’ strong hands, and he gets a lot of tone out of there.
“Joe [Satriani], Neal Schon — Eddie, when he heard Vic play — they all go, ‘Yeah, he’s got a cool tone.’ Vic’s pretty much a simple Ronnie Montrose-style guitar player like me, but he’s got the baddest tone of all of us.”
Joe Satriani
“Joe’s got the same thing Jeff Beck had, and that’s that he can make the guitar sing. He’s got the tone and the touch — his vibrato and the way he uses his whammy bar — like Jeff Beck. Songs like ‘Summer Song’ or ‘Surfing With the Alien’ sound like there’s a singer in the band.
“He’s one of the few instrumentalists who can carry it to where you can tolerate it. When I go see an instrumentalist, by about the third song I’m going, ‘Well, when’s the singer coming out?’ ’Cause I’m getting bored. But Joe will play the next tune and you’re like, ‘Wow, that’s a cool melody!’ In my head, it’s like he’s singing it.
“I think Joe could be one of the best guitar players on the planet right now. Look — he taught Steve Vai how to play, so Steve will never be better than him. He taught Kirk Hammett how to play, so Kirk will never be better than him. ’Cause you can’t outdo the teacher.
“Joe knows exactly what Eddie was playing; that’s why I love having him in this band. He studied it. He watched live tapes, he saw him live, he listens to the records and knows exactly what Eddie was doing. That’s the difference between him and some kid in a music store playing ‘Eruption’ exactly like Eddie. Joe knows what he’s doing, and he knows what Eddie was doing, and that’s different from simply emulating somebody.
“He’s a genius, honest to God. I’m not joking about his intelligence. He’s super smart. When you interview him, his answers are so thoughtful and so deep. I love the guy.
“Lemme say one bad thing about him so you don’t think I’m kissing his ass too much: He plays too fuckin’ loud. And he doesn’t need to play that loud ’cause he has in-ears. But he’s used to not having a singer, so he thinks, ‘I gotta be the loudest thing.’ [laughs] We’re still working that out.”
