Why Sammy Hagar Won’t Do Socially Distanced Shows
Sammy Hagar ruled out the idea of playing socially distanced shows while coronavirus restrictions continue, saying his fans would never be able to observe the rules once he started performing.
During the first months of lockdown he released a series of cover versions that were recorded remotely with his band the Circle. He also completed his annual birthday celebration with a “boat-in” concert, similar to a drive-in but with boats moored on an island shore while he performed from a stage on the beach. (The show was also available via pay-per-view.)
In a new interview with Radio.com, Hagar condemned the phrase “getting creative with it” in relation to staging shows. “I don't like ‘creative’ with trying to do a concert. I’m sorry. I don’t wanna do them from my home," he said.
"I have my fun by walking out onstage for two hours and playing the music and entertaining and talking to the folks and getting the feedback. There's nothing that will ever replace that. And I need it and I want it, and my fans need it and they want it, and we've got to have it. So we've got to get back to it.”
You can check out the interview below.
Hagar noted that "the drive-in movie theater thing, that didn't appeal to me. I couldn't do it. … So we did the Catalina Island thing, where we said, ‘Well, let's have a boat-in and see how that works.’” He said the performance involved remaining at the location for a week, and that, with all the costs involved, the pay-per-view event was “successful” but “not financially successful," even though that wasn't the point.
He said he’d been offered shows in locations where cut-capacity audiences would be allowed to attend, citing the example of a 10,000-capacity venue with 5,000 fans in the room. Insisting that he’d happily play for less people, he added: “I just know that those 5,000 people are not going to stay in their seats and socially distance. The second we start getting it on and I start saying, 'Are we having any fun yet?' and holding the mic up in the air and [singing], ‘Right Now,’ they're going to be at the front of the stage, all unsocially distanced. … It's going get criticized or I'm going get sued or fined or something.”
Hagar went on to suggest that, despite the tragedy of the pandemic, it was a necessary shock to the system. “We were getting, as a race on this planet, all of us, we were getting a little out there and taking a lot for granted,” he argued. “Hopefully, this kind of set people back, brought them back down to earth a little bit. It’s a hell of a way to do it, but that’s my hope that when we come out of this, people are going to be a little more thankful and maybe more considerate of others.”