How Sammy Hagar found himself with the Rolling Stones

Today the American rocker Sammy Hagar turns 77. In his long career, which began in the early Seventies, in addition to his solo experience, he played in several bands and engaged in a thousand collaborations. Among the bands can be mentioned Montrose, HSAS, Los Tres Gusanos, Waboritas And Chickenfoot. However, Hagar gained her moment of greatest fame for having replaced the singer behind the microphone Van Halen David Lee Roth in 1985 when he left the band Eddie Van Halen.

In 2020 the singer and guitarist was a guest on the microphone of Uncle Joe Benson on the frequencies of Ultimate Classic Rock Nights, among other speeches, he recalled his first experience at a rock concert. He definitely started off on the right foot, in fact he managed to get into the band’s first American live show Rolling Stones way back in 1964.

The English band’s show took place at the Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino, California, on June 5, at an event promoted by radio station KMEN. That was the English band’s first concert in the United States, as part of the ‘1964 First US Tour’.

Hagar says with amusement and a hint of nostalgia: “We had no money, I had never heard of a rock concert. A friend of mine had a car and said, ‘Let’s go!’. We were standing there by the back door. Suddenly a school bus pulls up – a little old fancy school bus – and out come the Rolling Stones and (DJ) George Babcock. (…) We entered with them, right behind them. Directly with the Stones, directly backstage! And that was the first real concert I saw.”

As reported by Ultimate Classic Rock, other reports relating to that evening report that, instead, it was the KMEN DJ, Brian Lord, who accompanied Jagger and Richards’ band. It doesn’t matter, what is certain is that that concert paved the way for the conquest of the United States by the Rolling Stones.

In another part of the interview Sammy Hagar he also recounted the experience of buying his first record: “I think I bought the Elvis Presley album with “A Big Hunk o’ Love” and “All Shook Up” and another song. I bought the damn thing EP, I was delivering newspapers, I stopped and bought it, and I didn’t have a record player!”