Sammy Hagar is in the news this week for a comment he made more than a month ago about risking his health for a chance to get back on stage.
In an interview with Rolling Stone published on May 18, the 72-year-old one-time Van Halen frontman was asked if he would be comfortable performing before there is a COVID-19 vaccine.
“Yes, I will. I’m going to make a radical statement. I’m always good for that,” he replied. “Yeah, not too soon. I want to make sure it’s not escalating. When it’s declining and seems to be going away. I mean, it’s the flu, I guess, unless there is something I don’t know. So there’s a season where it’s going to go, ‘Eh.’ I mean, someone is going to get it always. It’s like the cold or pneumonia. Someone is always getting something.”
It is what he said next that has resurfaced this week.
“Now, this is hard to say too without stirring somebody up on me… but truthfully I’d rather personally get sick and even personally die, if that’s what it takes,” Hagar admitted. “We have to save the world and this country from this economic thing that’s going to kill more people in the long run.”
Hagar added: “I will die for my children and my grandchildren to have a life anywhere close to the life that I had in this wonderful country and freedom. That’s just the way that I feel about it.
“People are going to die every day. How many people die on the Earth every day? I have no idea. Just because of this virus, it’s probably not many more than people that die of something. I’m sorry to say that. But we all gotta die, man.”
In a post published Tuesday, Rolling Stone compiled 14 artists’ thoughts on touring during the pandemic. Hagar’s original comments were condensed into 173 words.