Sammy Hagar recently recalled the years he fronted Van Halen and described how his personal discipline often ran up against the band’s looser, party-heavy routine. The singer said he felt pressure to protect his voice and deliver onstage, even when the environment around him leaned hard into excess.
In a recent interview with The Express, Hagar said he would regularly leave parties early, lock himself in his hotel room, and instruct his tour manager not to let him back out even if he tried to rejoin the late-night chaos.
Hagar said he wasn’t claiming total innocence, but stressed that he tried to keep things “conservatively” under control because performing was the priority.
“I was guilty as everyone else. I would just always conservatively did all those things. I was always the first guy to leave during the heavy party in years and I’d say, ‘I’m out of here.’ And I’d go to my room, lock myself in and tell my tour manager, I don’t care if I come beating on your door, drag me back to my room,” Hagar said.
He explained that he disliked feeling rough the next morning after overdoing alcohol or cocaine, and preferred the idea of “having more fun tomorrow night” by staying functional.
“Because I had a job to do. My job was more important to me than anything. I also don’t like feeling like a piece of shit because I drank or did too much coke or something or stayed up all night with a bunch of ladies. I don’t like myself the next morning for doing any of that. So it’s more important to have more fun tomorrow night,” he continued.
He also traced that mindset back to earlier in his life, saying he didn’t drink or use drugs of any kind for years and only developed a taste for fine wine and tequila later on, without seeing himself as having a drinking problem.
“And it’s worked for me. I’ve run my life like this from day one. I used to never even drink and do any drugs of any kind. I always was a sexual guy. I am a sucker for that, I didn’t even drink and stuff until I was in my 40s,” he said. “And then I discovered fine wine and then tequila but I’ve never had a drinking problem. I’ve just always had discipline. I’ve never had an iron fist on top of me telling me, ‘Don’t do this.’”
For more on Hagar’s recent public back-and-forth, he previously addressed criticism of a performance when he clapped back at a Vegas show critic.
Hagar said Van Halen’s lack of restraint meant he had to rely on his own “strength” to avoid blowing out his voice, adding that a bad show would leave him feeling deeply disappointed in himself. His comments offer another clear snapshot of the internal culture clash that could surface inside one of hard rock’s most famous touring machines.
