Slammin’ Sammy: Resilient Hagar no longer on the outs

Kirk Baird

Friday, May 17, 2002 | 10:21 a.m.

Who: Sammy Hagar and the Wabaritas.

When: 8 p.m. today and Saturday.

Where: The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel.

Admission: $45.50.

Information: 693-5000.

Say what you want about Sammy Hagar, but there is no doubt he is a survivor.

In 1975 his first group, Montrose, halted when the band's guitarist and namesake, Ronnie Montrose, quit the band.

And in 1996 there was his infamous firing from Van Halen a band he had performed with for 11 years at the hands of the Van Halen brothers, Eddie and Alex.

"I get myself thrown out of every situation," Hagar joked recently from his home near San Francisco. "I get thrown out of bars, I get thrown out of bands. What the (expletive) is wrong with me?"

Actually, nothing, insists Hagar, who performs tonight and Saturday at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel. (The hotel-casino has commissioned gaming chips bearing Hagar's image in honor of the show.)

"I don't make enemies," Hagar said. "The only enemies I've got in former bands are Eddie and Alex Van Halen, and it's just because it never came back around yet and we've never had a chance to button back up. I don't really care because those guys stabbed me. Even Ronnie Montrose and I see each other."

To further prove his point, the former Van Halen frontman is teaming with another Van Halen-ex, David Lee Roth, for the "Sam and Dave Show" concert tour, which kicks off this month in Ohio.

Considering the animosity the two singers had for each other when Hagar was tagged as Roth's replacement (Roth was ejected from the band in 1985), it is little wonder in previous interviews Hagar joked that this coupling was a sign there was hope for peace in the Middle East.

However, as Hagar pointed out, the tour is not a done deal. And the truce between Roth and Hagar is tenuous, at best.

"(Roth has) his own dressing room and his own entourage and I've got my own dressing room and entourage. Dave's going in a bus, I've got a plane. We are going far away from each other. I'm going at 36,000 feet and he's going at sea level. And if he decides to go at 36,000 feet, then I will go at sea level. I don't want to be in the air with him, nor on the ground with him," Hagar half-joked.

"We are two different creatures cut from two different molds. The only common bond we have is we've both been in Van Halen and sold 100 million records between us, and we've got a lot of great songs to play and sing, and we've both been (screwed) by those guys."

But if he and Roth do pull off the tour ...

"It's a big statement, isn't it? If we go out there and pull these 22 shows off, I think that says a lot: What's wrong with these guys (from Van Halen)? Wake up fellows, come on (and) join the party.' Maybe next summer that's the way it'll be."

Since Hagar was already scheduled to play Las Vegas before he and Roth announced their joint tour, Hagar said Las Vegas is not on the schedule for the first series of concert dates.

But, if the two men make it through the first leg of shows, there is a chance the "Sam and Dave Show" will make its way to Las Vegas.

"Until we get through the first one, we can't predict," he said. "We don't want to get ahead of ourselves, do we?"

As to what the Van Halen brothers think of all this, Hagar got a taste of their animosity through his friend and Van Halen bassist, Michael Anthony.

Anthony was staying with Hagar when the "Sam and Dave Show" was announced, and Anthony's voice mail was filled with messages from the Van Halen brothers, who were none too pleased about the upcoming tour.

"He won't play them for me, but Mikey got a lot of voice messages from them," Hagar said. "I don't want to hear them, you know. There's one side of me that always wants to know what they're thinking and doing. But my smarter side says, 'Don't go there or you'll just keep carrying it with you.'

"I'm really good at letting things roll off my back. I don't carry a lot of luggage in my life. And one of the smart ways to do it is don't pay attention. Because the second you pay attention, you're hooked back in and you're dragging that ball and chain around."

Not that Hagar has the time to worry what others are saying about him.

In addition to the upcoming "Sam and Dave Show," the Red Rocker, as he is known for his fondness of crimson, has the Las Vegas shows, as well as running his restaurant/nightclub -- Cabo Wabo Cantina in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico -- and tequila business -- Cabo Wabo Tequila.

Then there is the music. Hagar has his own band, The Waboritas, which he formed shortly after his stint with Van Halen, and a side project, Planet Us, involving Anthony, and Journey guitarist Neil Schon and drummer Deen Castronovo.

Hagar is recording a new album with the Waborita's, due sometime late this year or early next, and he and the other members of Planet Us are working on material for the band's debut album, also scheduled for release in late fall or early winter.

At 54, Hagar is certainly at the age where he can sit back and appreciate what he has worked for over the years. But his work ethic is too strong, he said, the result of an alcoholic father who failed to provide for his family: a wife, four sons (including Hagar) and a daughter.

"My mom would take the whole family and we'd go to fruit orchards and pick fruit all day to make some money to be able to eat half the time, my dad was such a (screw)-up," Hagar said. "Believe me, I don't take anything for granted.

"Quite honestly, I think my childhood is what drives me, otherwise there would be no reason for me to continue at the pace I go. But I'm so driven because when I look back, (I think) I will never go back there. It drives me way beyond what I need to do."

Having had a difficult childhood helps put his career in place, he said.

"You can look at the breakup in Van Halen as being down, but it wasn't down at all. I just said, 'Oh, OK, this isn't happening anymore.' And I immediately auditioned people, found other band members, started writing and went in and made a record and started over again," Hagar said. "And here I sit. That's just the way Sammy Hagar does it."

As in survive.