During a September 16 appearance on SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, Sammy Hagar reflected on performing at the July 5th Back To The Beginning event in Birmingham, U.K., which marked Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath’s final show. Hagar sang Ozzy’s 1981 classic “Flying High Again” with a supergroup featuring Nuno Bettencourt, Vernon Reid, Adam Jones, Rudy Sarzo, and Chad Smith.
Despite weeks of preparation, Hagar admitted the moment didn’t go as planned. Determined not to rely on a teleprompter, he insisted he had the song memorized. But right before showtime, he got distracted chatting with people backstage.
Suddenly, his name was announced while he was still 50 yards away, forcing him to sprint to the stage. As the band kicked in, Hagar realized he had blanked on the opening lyrics, rushed back to search for the teleprompter, and found it out of sync with his delivery.
Sammy Hagar recalls the performance
“I was very disappointed in myself because I thought I learned ‘Flying High Again’,” he admitted. “I said, ‘I don’t [use a] teleprompter, I never use teleprompters.’ And I said, ‘I’m not gonna use a teleprompter.’ And they said, ‘Well, we’ll put up there just in case.’ I said, ‘No, you watch this.’ I thought I had it memorized. I was distracted right before I go on by a bunch of people. I’m standing on the side of stage waiting for ’em to do the set change after the drum-off, and I’m going, ‘Oh, yeah.’ I’m talking to people. All of a sudden I hear ’em announce me, and I was 50 yards from the stage. And [my wife] Kari’s going, ‘Oh, my God. They just announced you.’ And I’m going, ‘Oh, sh*t.’ And I go running out. And I’m walking around. And they start the song, and I go, ‘Hey,’ blah, blah, blah. And then I step out on the ramp and I go, ‘Holy sh*t.’ … I missed that whole thing. And I’m running back looking for the fricking teleprompter. And, of course, the lyrics are moving faster than I’m singing them. But I got it together after that.
Hagar then confessed that he choked and described the gut-wrenching feeling of stumbling in front of such a massive audience during a historic event. Still, once he found his rhythm, the performance smoothed out, and he felt both “Flying High Again” and Montrose’s “Rock Candy” ultimately landed well with the crowd.
He added, “But, man, if you wanna talk about having your private parts shrink up in front that crowd, that opportunity. And I choked. Sammy Hagar is a pro. Man, he choked, that f**ker. So, anyway, then ‘Rock Candy’ was great. Well, that song [‘Flying High Again’] was great too, after we got it going. And the band came in backwards on the intro too, and so it was even crazier.”
