Haven’t done any metal in a while. Here’s the Red Rocker, Sammy Hagar, recorded live at the Checkerdome (which no longer exists) in St. Louis back in 1983. I’ll be willing to bet I was there with my friend Cliff. We never missed Sammy when he came to town. Sammy loved St. Louis and St. Louis loved Sammy. The first time we saw Sammy was right after he split from Montrose and took their bass player and drummer with him, i.e everyone except Ronnie Montrose. He was the warmup act for Ted Nugent and he brought the house down and stole the show. That night, he was better than Ted. What people overlook is that he is a pretty good guitar player in his own right. What pissed me off when he joined Van Halen was that they never played any of his songs from his solo career. Anyway, here’s Bad Motor Scooter and Red.
Actually Denny, Van Halen played a lot of Sammy’s tunes from his solo days in the concerts I saw, and I saw the “Van Hagar” version of Van Halen probably about 10 times. They always played “I Can’t Drive 55”, usually as an encore, and “Eagles Fly”, “Heavy Metal”, “Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy”, and “There’s only One Way To Rock” were always played.
I saw Van Hagar three times and they never played a single song from Sammy’s solo days. I was also disappointed that Eddie never had Sammy play guitar when he played keyboards. They either had a recorded keyboard part or a keyboard player hidden offstage.
Oh, BTW he’s playing in St. Louis on 7-19. I’m going to the show with a woman I went to high school with who now lives just outside St. Louis. : )
I’ll bet he’s playing the venue in the Missouri bottoms. Can’t remember the name. I have a DVD of him playing there. He used to play in old Busch stadium in the summer. Saw him there with Judas Priest, Lover Boy, and Journey. Great show! As I said, St. Louis loves Sammy and Sammy loves St. Louis. The dude is in his 60’s and can still rock out! I imagine Michael Anthony will play part of the show with him. He did on the DVD I’ve got. He’s stayed friends with him after Eddie kicked Sammy out of the band and now Michael’s not playing with Van Halen anymore either. The rumor I heard was Sammy wanted to party too much and Eddie was trying to clean up on orders from his wife. I still prefer the old lineup on his solo shows with the ex Montrose players. He now only tours with his Wabo band.
Rob – Tell her you know a guy who grew up in Webster Groves. She’ll know where it is.
Denny- You need to read Sammy’s autobiography “Red: My Uncensored Life In Rock And Roll”. I’m reading it right now. He goes into exactly what happened with him leaving VH, and it had nothing to do with too much partying. Seems EVH was/is a control freak, and anything that was done had to be ok’d by Eddie. That’s also why Michael Anthony left- Eddie told him he couldn’t play in any other band, especially Sammy’s, even though VH was on hiatus, and Michael basically told Eddie to kiss his ass. If you want to hear/see Sammy’s new video check it out on youtube. It has Michael Anthony on bass and Neil Schon from Journey on guitar. It’s a re-make of the Depeche Mode 80’s song “Personal Jesus”, and it’s REALLY good…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9XV9IGVgYU
Actually Denny, Van Halen played a lot of Sammy’s tunes from his solo days in the concerts I saw, and I saw the “Van Hagar” version of Van Halen probably about 10 times. VH always played “I Can’t Drive 55”, usually as an encore, and “Eagles Fly”, “Heavy Metal”, “Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy”, and “There’s only One Way To Rock” were always played. I liked Sammy wayyyy better than DLR., although I only saw the DLR version of Van Halen once, in about 1980.
I was at this show. I lived 20 miles East of KCMO and me & my buddies drove to St. Louis for the night. It was an awesome trip as I recall. Holy shit, I was a old man, 25!!! Long ago. Sammy could rip out some awesome geetar solos.
I had Standing Hampton on a continuous loop. Saw Sammy at Cabo Wabo, could barley spit out a hello from the big ass grin I had on my face.