Sammy Hagar plots shows with Wabos, Montrose
Sammy Hagar, who spent last summer on a reunion tour with Van Halen, will head up another revival this summer when he joins his former Montrose bandmates on stage during a handful of shows he’ll headline with his current group, The Wabos.
So far, Hagar has lined up five August concerts, three of which will feature Montrose. Details are included in the itinerary below.
During a recent interview with Norway’s Metal Express, Hagar outlined what fans can expect if they’re attending one of the Montrose dates.
“I’ll go out and play an hour and a half, two hours with the Wabos, and then, for the encore, we’ll bring Montrose, the original Montrose–you know, [drummer] Denny [Carmassi], [bassist] Bill [Church], myself and [guitarist] Ronnie [Montrose]–and we’ll play about 40 minutes of Montrose stuff,” he said.
Hagar fronted Montrose in the early ’70s, but went solo after a falling out with the group’s namesake guitarist. The band’s self-titled 1973 debut spawned the cuts “Space Station No. 5,” “Bad Motor Scooter” and “Rock Candy.”
The Wabos, a backing band that Hagar formed following his 1996 split with Van Halen, features his pre-VH solo-band drummer David Lauser, bassist Mona and former Bus Boys guitarist Victor Johnson. The group was on hiatus for much of 2004 while Hagar mounted an 80-date reunion run with Van Halen, an occurrence that The Wabos won’t have to worry about again any time soon, according to Hagar’s recent comments to Metal Express.
“I’m not saying that we would never do it again, but some people would have to change, including maybe myself,” Hagar said. “Maybe I’m the first guy that should change. But we would have to change. We couldn’t just do it the way it was being done. It was falling apart.”
Hagar went on to say that the last show on the 2004 Van Halen tour was a “disaster.”
“It was a horrible experience,” he said. “We had to be pushed off the stage separately, [with] me taken this way and Eddie [Van Halen] taken this way, and Alex [Van Halen] and Michael [Anthony] down the middle, because we were ready to go to blows. It was that bad. So that was horrible. The rest of the tour wasn’t that bad, but at the end … I don’t know. Something got crazy.”
Before heading out on tour with Van Halen, Hagar and the group recorded three new songs–“It’s About Time,” “Up for Breakfast” and “Learning to See”–which appeared on last year’s two-disc hits collection, “Best of Both Worlds.”
Hagar and The Wabos, meanwhile, issued their most recent studio album, “Not 4 Sale,” in 2002. The concert set “Live – Hallelujah” followed in 2003.
Last month, Hagar and the Wabos released a cover of the classic Staple Singers hit “I’ll Take You There.” The cut is available exclusively via Apple’s iTunes Music Store.
In October, Hagar and The Wabos will make their annual pilgrimage to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, the site of Hagar’s Cabo Wabo nightclub. There, they’ll celebrate Hagar’s 58th birthday with several live performances. Details for the multi-night event–known as the Birthday Bash–have not yet been announced.
Hagar and The Wabos hope to put out a new record soon, but nothing definite is lined up, according to a spokesperson.
August 2005 Shows
6 – Clarkston, MI – DTE Energy Music Theatre (w/ Montrose)
9 – Phoenix, AZ – Dodge Theatre
11 – San Diego, CA – Harrah’s Rincon
13 – Lake Tahoe, NV – Harrah’s Tahoe (w/ Montrose)
14 – Concord, CA – Chronicle Pavilion @ Concord (w/ Montrose)
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