Sammy Hagar says that he tried to sabotage his upcoming live album because he didn’t want it to be released.
Sammy Hagar and The Best of All Worlds Band – The Residency arrives on Oct. 10 after it was recorded earlier this year in Las Vegas while he performed a Van Halen-heavy set with Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony, Kenny Aronoff and Rai Thistlethwayte.
In a recent interview on SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation (via AntiMusic), Hagar said he was so against the idea of a live release that he assigned producer Chris Lord-Alge what he hoped would be an impossible task.
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“I said, ‘No – who wants to hear a live album?’” the singer recalled, before explaining that he’d bowed to other opinions and agreed to a few tracks being developed. “Chris Lord-Alge mixed a few for me – and I picked the ones that I thought were gonna be the most difficult, like ‘Humans Being,’ and ‘Summer Nights’ and ‘5150.’ You know, big epic pieces like that.”
He had to admit he’d been wrong when he heard the results. “I said, ‘The people that didn’t get to go to this thing are gonna go, “I feel like I’m there.” He really captured the audience, or the audience captured the show.’”
Hagar compared the album to Peter Frampton’s celebrated live release Frampton Comes Alive!, saying: “You felt like you were at that concert for some reason. Sometimes magic happens… the magic was just there.”
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The tracks on The Residency were taken from two nights, the second and the last, with Hagar stating: “We didn’t overdub one thing. We didn’t auto tune if something was off key… [instead] we took the performance from another night.”
He added that his enthusiasm for the record contributed to plans for more live shows. “It’s the best live album I’ve heard in 100 years. This band blows my mind. And that’s why I said, ‘I’m gonna do another residency.’ When I heard this I said, ‘This band, man – this is a real band.’”
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Gallery Credit: Matthew Wilkening
