Sammy Hagar Clarifies Quarantine Comments
Last month, we reported on an interview that Rolling Stone did with Sammy Hagar, as a part of a series of interviews with veteran artists discussing how they’ve been affected by the quarantine. “I’ll be comfortable playing a show before there’s a vaccine if it’s declining and seems to be going away,” Hagar said. “I’m going to make a radical statement here. This is hard to say without stirring somebody up, but truthfully, I’d rather personally get sick and even die, if that’s what it takes.”
That didn’t seem to get too much attention at the time, but when Rolling Stone recently published a compilation of quotes from the series (which also included interviews with John Fogerty, Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, Buddy Guy and Bruce Springsteen), Hagar’s quote got a bit more pickup.
Today, he addressed his quote in a new Facebook message. He said, “I did that interview a month and a half ago, things change very fast right now, so I wanted to clarify and put a few things into context now. I did that interview May 8th when we were already several weeks into the stay-at-home, which my family and I took very seriously, and things were starting to look up, the curve was beginning flattening. So when I was asked if I’d be comfortable enough to get back onstage before a vaccine was out, I was cautiously optimistic. I said, ‘Yeah, not too soon. I want to make sure it’s not escalating. When it’s declining and seems to be going away.'”
He continued, “Big picture, it’s about getting back to work in a safe and responsible way and getting this economy rolling again. I will do my part. I stand by that. I employ 200 people directly and when we tour even more. Like everything today, it’s a watch and see over the next few months but we remain cautiously optimistic that with the right improvements and safety measures in place, we might be able to play shows this year. That said, as things change, for the better or worse, we will appropriately adjust our plans.”
