Sammy Hagar Says 'Space Between' Is 'Where My Heart Is at Now'

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevebaltin/2019/08/23/video-premiere-sammy-hagar-and-the-circle-have-no-worries/

Aug 23, 2019, 10:00am
Video Premiere: Sammy Hagar And The Circle Have ‘No Worries’
Steve Baltin Senior Contributor
Arts
I write about music and the business of music.

“We’re so lucky to have been from that era where we sold 10s of millions of records and made gazillions of dollars and get yourself in a position where now it’s just art for me,” Sammy Hagar says of he and his Circle band mates — bassist Michael Anthony, drummer Jason Bonham and guitarist Vic Johnson.

Hagar isn’t trying to be boastful. He considers himself fortunate because having built up a sizable audience with songs like “I Can’t Drive 55,” “There’s Only One Way To Rock” and “Mas Tequila” and his multi-platinum success with Van Halen, Hagar has earned a creative freedom.

Take the video premiering here, “No Worries,” off the Circle Space Between album. Hagar explains below in our in-depth interview it is part of a feature-length film he created with Z.Z. Satriani, son of guitar icon Joe Satriani.

I spoke with Hagar about utilizing that artistic freedom, how he applies the ” No Worries” mantra to his own life, being happier as he gets older and his deep appreciation for Bruce Springsteen.

Steve Baltin: You learn some things by a certain age.

Sammy Hagar: Yes you do. I’ll be the first one to stand up and say, “Old age, if you’re healthy, is awesome.” I’m smarter, I get it, I can do more things. I’m not spinning wheels like when I was in my 40s. I was just trying, fame and fortune, that’s all I was just chasing as fast as I could, leaving all kinds of good stuff behind and missing all kinds of s**t, missing even my first kids growing up. My second runaround with my girls, 23 and 18 now, just left for college, I got to enjoy them so much more than my first son, who I enjoy more now. But growing up I was running and spinning wheels, so it’s really cool when you get older and get mellow I’m like, “Got it all, I’m all cool, starting to enjoy life a little bit, I’m happy.”

Hagar: It’s like a metaphor. In the album Space Between, I wrote a concept record about money, greed, enlightenment and truth. What happens is, in the songs, the guy lost everything. He was on top of the world, kicking ass, but he was an a**hole and greedy and it went to his head. Then he got bumped out of everything and it took that to have the enlightenment moment cause the enlightenment moment is when you are sitting there with nothing and you realize it’s not so bad. “This is better than when I was rich and powerful and all the hassles I had and f**king people and getting f**ked and all that stuff.” When you got nothing you’re just sitting there going., “Wow, I don’t have any worries.” I came from that place so I know that it does exist. It’s not where I am today, but it was important in my story. And the video cracks me up because we took a businessman and took his tie and put it around his head, he starts doing cartwheels down the street. I love it, I love enlightenment, that song to me is about that. You can really live that way if you can figure it out, but otherwise you gotta go through some s**t to get there. Most people start there, but they don’t realize it was a pretty good place to be, “No Worries.” It’s kind of my lifestyle now, but I didn’t have to go through all that to get it.

Baltin: It’s a very romantic notion to throw it all away and start over, especially in this day and age. Certainly there is a lot of that in the music business, which can make you crazy.

Hagar: To be honest with you, I think the business world is more brutally dangerous and treacherous than the music industry. There were so many crooks in the early days of record companies, lawyers and managers and record companies and all these people that stole your money and gave you bad deals. But, man, you start going out there and playing with the big boys in the investment world there ain’t nobody looking out for you. You’re on your own and you can make some big mistakes. To me it’s scarier. When you make a fortune in your life, which is going back to Space Between, it’s about this guy that made this fortune and then you start saying, “I want more.” And you start trying to figure out ways to get it to where you’re not realizing how you got it. When you’re an artist the way you got it was through creativity and being this wonderful life; rock and roll, you get to go out on tour and play and all these wonderful things happening for you. If you make it in that world that’s the good life. Then you say, “Well, I want more.” You can’t get anymore that way, maybe your career starts getting over, so you start looking at business and, whew, that’s dangerous. You can end up with one false move and you’re like, “Whoa, gone.” I haven’t, but I have seen it.

Baltin: But you are in a great place musically now where you have total freedom and can communicate directly with your fans.

Hagar: For the people that have made it and are in a position like myself and my band mates in the Circle we’re fine. We’re so lucky to have been from that era where we sold 10s of millions of records and made gazillions of dollars and get yourself in a position where now it’s just art for me. It’s just fun, it’s what I love to do. The creative side of me feels safe. I always think of my audience as I could probably get away with doing anything I want. If I wanted to make s soul record, an R&B record I could do it; if I wanted to make a blues record, if I wanted to make a jazz record I could do it. And maybe it wouldn’t be as big a seller as the Circle with Space Between cause it was a rock record. But they wouldn’t abandon me, they’d still come and see me and I could probably just turn it around and say, “Okay, now I’ll make a rock record for you.” It’d all be okay. For some people, when you’re starting out, you make a mistake and you’re done. It’s crazy out there, it is the wild west. But I love being able to do whatever I want whenever I want. I gotta tell you, I’m spoiled rotten. Man, I don’t know what I would do if I had to what I do for a living and they said, “You gotta go out and do 130 shows this year cause you’re gonna go broke, you’re gonna lose your band.” I’m lucky and my band mates are lucky. We get along, we like each other believe it or not (laughs). That’s the good part too. Most bands hate each other by the time they’ve played together five years, but we haven’t burnt ourselves out by trying to make it more with disappointing situations. The experiences have been fantastic. Just for instance making this little movie that this video is from, this video is from a movie I made, full length, of the album called Space Between: The Affirmation. And Z.Z. Satriani, who’s Joe Satriani’s son, who just graduated from film school, did something for Ferrari I saw and it blew my mind, so I hired him and we wrote this movie. It was expensive and I paid for everything. This is a concept record and I wanted to make sure people understand what I’m really trying to say and I wanted to drive it home visually. It had nothing to do with money, it was purely a labor of love. It’s really good. The four videos we have released, including “No Worries,” they’re all from it. And it’s a story.

Baltin: So when will you release the whole film?

Hagar: There’s no market for it. I don’t know what to do with it. I would like to take it around to film festivals, but I don’t have time. Maybe next year. It’s just really hard to get any traction with anything unusual today cause there is no machine. There is no Ahmet Ertegun saying, “Put the hammer down, this is going to happen, we’re gonna make this go.”

Baltin: But as you also say you can make a soul record. I spoke with Paul Stanley, from KISS, about making a soul record. You made a film. Bruce Springsteen didn’t want to tour Western Stars so he made a film for it. The flip side of no machine is big artists have so much creative freedom.

Hagar: The success, being able to do it your own way like Springsteen, my favorite artist too by the way, a guy like Bruce can make a record like The Ghost Of Tom Joad, an acoustic record, after being in the E Street Band, one of the most exciting f**king rock and roll things happening on the planet, he’s playing stadiums and he comes back and does something like that and tours by himself. That wasn’t that successful relative to where he was at that time, that whole project, but it didn’t matter. This is Bruce, he’s gotten his respect and he’s made it, so now he can be an artist. Neil Young does the same kind of stuff. I kind of do the stuff, I’m not as adventurous as those guys, it’s not my wheelhouse. I pick up an acoustic guitar and I can entertain you for about 20 minutes (laughs). I’m not so good. I watched Springsteen On Broadway last night and it was just,” This guy’s a genius. He’s better than everyone.” He’s so damn believable and he’s sitting there telling you he’s full of s**t. He’s telling you he’s never been in the factory, he’s writing about stuff he’s never done and he’s good enough to even say that and you’re gonna go, “Yep, you are that good you f**ker.” The only thing I gotta dog him on is he’s too serious. If I was hanging around Bruce, I’d say, “Smile a little bit, come on, have some fun. Let’s go hit the beach, have a couple of cocktails, eat some tacos.”

Baltin: You have to get him out to play your beach party, High Tide Beach Party.

Hagar: (Cracks up) Bruce ain’t gonna play my beach thing. If I could get Bruce, Bruce would be there. I love the guy. I saw the Born To Run tour, two nights in Berkeley, changed my life. “When I grow up I want to be that guy.” And I’m older than him, but I’m sitting there going, “This guy is all grown up, he gets it, he knows who he is.” He’s a prime example of what you can do if you have made it over that hump.

Generally speaking, I refrain from commenting on Sammy these days. However, this song is so ridiculous and removed from reality that it might actually be the worst song he has ever recorded. Why crap like this is mentioned in the same breath as Van Halen is beyond me, but it takes all kinds. I get it. Sam sang in VH, Mike is playing bass, Jason Bonham is sitting behind him, so by all accounts it should be passable. But geesh. It’s really not. It’s embarassing….

the chorus reminds me of Poison songs,anyway where far from “High hopes” who i tough was a good rocker

“Space Between” Film Trailer – Sammy Hagar & The Circle

“Space Between” Film – Sammy Hagar & The Circle