{"id":630725,"date":"2026-09-20T19:02:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T19:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630725\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T19:02:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T19:02:22","slug":"sammy-hagar-on-the-self-destruction-that-derailed-ronnie-montrose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630725\/","title":{"rendered":"Sammy Hagar on the self-destruction that derailed Ronnie Montrose"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sammy Hagar certainly gets his due as a singer, frontman, band leader, songwriter and, of course, liquor and restaurant entrepreneur. That he\u2019s also a solid guitar player is often lost in the mix.<\/p>\n

That, however, could have something to do with those who have stood beside him throughout his 54-year recording career.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Red Rocker came to prominence in 1973 as the frontman for Montrose, collaborating with Ronnie Montrose over the course of two albums \u2014 Montrose and Paper Money \u2014 and favorites such as \u201cBad Motor Scooter\u201d and \u201cRock the Nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Sammy\n<\/p>\n

Sammy Hagar performs at the 2025 Stagecoach Festival, Indio, California on April 27, 2025. (Image credit: Frazer Harrison\/Getty Images for Stagecoach)<\/p>\n

After Montrose changed the lineup in 1975, Hagar embarked on a solo career and scored his own batch of hits (\u201cThere\u2019s Only One Way to Rock,\u201d \u201cI Can\u2019t Drive 55\u201d and more). He also teamed with Journey\u2019s Neal Schon in 1983 for the short-lived supergroup HSAS, which released the live album Through the Fire in 1984.<\/p>\n

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.)<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

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\u2019s Best of All Worlds Band <\/a>in 2024. In between, Hagar brought Vic Johnson into his bands the Waboritas and the Circle.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a lot of electric<\/a> 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 \u2014 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\u2019s played with who aren\u2019t Eddie Van Halen (we\u2019ll leave that discussion for another day).<\/p>\n

All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

\n

\"Sammy\n<\/p>\n

Hagar at the 2025 iHeartRadio Music Festival at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, September 19, 2025. (Image credit: Matt Winkelmeyer\/Getty Images for iHeartRadio)Ronnie Montrose<\/p>\n

\u201cRonnie was on fire. That\u2019s the way he played \u2014 like it\u2019s burning. He wasn\u2019t that fast. He wasn\u2019t a shredder. He played well, and he played really fiery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he got into his Town Without Pity era, he started playing more like what Joe Satriani plays \u2014 with that sound and that vocal style. He probably would\u2019ve gotten even better; he just had some real head problems. I\u2019ve never seen a guy like that. He fired everybody. The second you had one smidgen of success with him, he broke up the band.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

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\"Ronnie\n<\/p>\n

Montrose and Hagar onstage at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Bonner Springs, Kansas, August 22, 2003. (Image credit: Jason Squires\/WireImage)<\/p>\n

\u201cMontrose \u2014 we were about to explode. We were gonna be the American Led Zeppelin, and he couldn\u2019t take it. I don\u2019t know what it was. He was afraid of success. He\u2019d sit there in the studio holding his face like, \u2018Oh God, what are we gonna do?\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Fuck, let\u2019s jam! Let\u2019s make some music.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was so tormented, man. I don\u2019t know why; I think it must\u2019ve been some far-out childhood thing that happened to him. I mean, come on \u2014 the guy shot himself in the head. It\u2019s horrible. [Montrose died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on March 3, 2012.]<\/p>\n

\u201cThat 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\u2019t around, but if I\u2019d been around and knew he was in that kind of condition, I would\u2019ve put this guy in a hospital or taken him under my wing. I would\u2019ve helped.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neal Schon<\/p>\n

\u201cNeal\u2019s 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\u2019d play Winterland [in San Francisco]. Neal just walks around with a fuckin\u2019 guitar around his neck. He takes it off to shower, and that\u2019s probably it. He probably fucks with a guitar around his neck. He\u2019s just always playing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"(L-R)\n<\/p>\n

Hagar and Neal Schon perform with Hagar Schon Aronson Shrieve (HSAS) at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco, November 10, 1983. (Image credit: Randy Bachman\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s 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] \u2014 just spills out all these crazy, whacked-out notes. I don\u2019t know if any of them are real notes, but if you\u2019re not hitting bad notes, it doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could say, \u2018Let\u2019s write a song, Neal,\u2019 and he\u2019ll write a song<\/a> in five minutes. Him and Joe Satriani \u2014 they\u2019re so frickin\u2019 prolific, it\u2019s scary. And it\u2019s \u2019cause he\u2019s got the guitar on all the time, so he\u2019ll think, \u2018Here\u2019s what I was playing a couple minutes ago. This could be a song.\u2019 That\u2019s Neal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vic Johnson<\/p>\n

\u201cI call him Vic \u2018Right Hand\u2019 Johnson all the time. He\u2019s got a right hand like The Edge, like Pete Townshend. He can shred \u2014 his left hand\u2019s great \u2014 but his right hand, man, he kicks off a groove and you don\u2019t need to hear the drums. He puts it right in the pocket.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was never in a band till he got in my band, and he was kind of a sideman. Earlier on, if he\u2019d had a superstar singer \u2014 a Sammy Hagar, a David Lee Roth or a Robert Plant or somebody \u2014 Vic would\u2019ve been much more famous as a guitar player.<\/p>\n

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\"Vic\n<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got a right hand like The Edge, like Pete Townshend.\u201d Vic Johnson and Hagar at the 2018 High Tide Beach Party in Huntington Beach, California. (Image credit: Scott Dudelson\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cVic\u2019s got the biggest, fattest sound. When I pick up his guitar, his strings are really fat \u2014 big ol\u2019 fat strings. I can\u2019t play \u2019em. I can\u2019t bend \u2019em, but he\u2019s got those big, ol\u2019 strong hands, and he gets a lot of tone out of there.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe [Satriani], Neal Schon \u2014 Eddie, when he heard Vic play \u2014 they all go, \u2018Yeah, he\u2019s got a cool tone.\u2019 Vic\u2019s pretty much a simple Ronnie Montrose-style guitar player like me, but he\u2019s got the baddest tone of all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe Satriani<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe\u2019s got the same thing Jeff Beck had, and that\u2019s that he can make the guitar sing. He\u2019s got the tone and the touch \u2014 his vibrato and the way he uses his whammy bar<\/a> \u2014 like Jeff Beck. Songs like \u2018Summer Song\u2019 or \u2018Surfing With the Alien\u2019 sound like there\u2019s a singer in the band.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s one of the few instrumentalists<\/a> who can carry it to where you can tolerate it. When I go see an instrumentalist, by about the third song I\u2019m going, \u2018Well, when\u2019s the singer coming out?\u2019 \u2019Cause I\u2019m getting bored. But Joe will play the next tune and you\u2019re like, \u2018Wow, that\u2019s a cool melody!\u2019 In my head, it\u2019s like he\u2019s singing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Joe could be one of the best guitar players on the planet right now. Look \u2014 he taught Steve Vai<\/a> 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. \u2019Cause you can\u2019t outdo the teacher<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"Sammy\n<\/p>\n

Hagar and Joe Satriani perform with Chickenfoot at the Verizon Wireless Theatre in Houston, September 16, 2009. (Image credit: Gary Miller\/FilmMagic)<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe knows exactly what Eddie was playing; that\u2019s 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\u2019s the difference between him and some kid in a music store playing \u2018Eruption\u2019 exactly like Eddie. Joe knows what he\u2019s doing, and he knows what Eddie was doing, and that\u2019s different from simply emulating somebody.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a genius, honest to God. I\u2019m not joking about his intelligence. He\u2019s super smart. When you interview him, his answers are so thoughtful and so deep. I love the guy.<\/p>\n

\u201cLemme say one bad thing about him so you don\u2019t think I\u2019m kissing his ass too much: He plays too fuckin\u2019 loud. And he doesn\u2019t need to play that loud \u2019cause he has in-ears. But he\u2019s used to not having a singer, so he thinks, \u2018I gotta be the loudest thing.\u2019 [laughs] We\u2019re still working that out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sammy Hagar certainly gets his due as a singer, frontman, band leader, songwriter and, of course, liquor and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278],"class_list":["post-630725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}