{"id":807561,"date":"2020-05-18T10:10:50","date_gmt":"2020-05-18T16:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=998454"},"modified":"2020-05-18T10:10:50","modified_gmt":"2020-05-18T16:10:50","slug":"sammy-hagar-on-life-in-quarantine-im-enjoying-doing-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/sammy-hagar-on-life-in-quarantine-im-enjoying-doing-nothing\/","title":{"rendered":"Sammy Hagar on Life in Quarantine: \u2018I\u2019m Enjoying Doing Nothing\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/10225783auC.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/sammy-hagar\/\" id=\"auto-tag_sammy-hagar\" data-tag=\"sammy-hagar\">Sammy Hagar<\/a> thought he\u2019d be spending the summer playing outdoor amphitheaters with his band the Circle alongside Whitesnake and Night Ranger. And even though those dates haven\u2019t technically been canceled yet, he knows it would take a small miracle for the tour to go on as planned. He\u2019s kept busy by teaming up with his Circle bandmates remotely to cover songs like the Who\u2019s \u201cWon\u2019t Get Fooled Again,\u201d Bob Marley\u2019s \u201cThree Little Birds,\u201d and Van Halen\u2019s \u201cGood Enough.\u201d But mainly he\u2019s just cooking, sleeping, walking on the beach, watching <em>Ozark<\/em> on Netflix, and waiting for life to return to normal. He took a break from all that to phone up <em>Rolling Stone<\/em> and chat about his lockdown life.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How are you doing?<\/strong><br \/>I\u2019m actually doing fine. I feel sorry for the world and all the people out of work and I feel terrible for all that kind of stuff. But other than that, I\u2019m enjoying doing nothing for the first time in my life.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Walk me through your average day of doing nothing.<\/strong><br \/>When I wake up, I don\u2019t have to get out of bed because I don\u2019t have anything to do. It\u2019s not like, \u201cHey, you\u2019ve got an interview at 9:30\u201d or \u201cYou gotta be somewhere,\u201d so I just stay in bed until I feel like getting up. I look at my morning e-mails and texts because I don\u2019t work after 7 p.m. I just shut everything down after that. I just lay in bed and do all that, naked.<\/p>\n<p>My wife opens the blinds up and the doors and the windows. I just lay there sometimes until as late as 10:30 or 11:00. I roll out, but don\u2019t get dressed. I mean, I put on a bathing suit. I live in California, so it\u2019s warm. I brush my teeth and scratch my hand through my hair to fluff it up a little to get rid of bedhead and I come downstairs and have a little breakfast and coffee, maybe make a few phone calls.<\/p>\n<p>I pick up my guitar and noodle around. At 1:30 or 2:00 I go for a walk on the beach and then have a quick little lunch. I\u2019m not a big breakfast guy. I have a light breakfast. I come back and my wife and I will go for another walk or I\u2019ll take a nap. Maybe I\u2019ll fire up the jacuzzi for later.<\/p>\n<p>I have started to move my cocktail hour up to 4:30 now. I\u2019ll mix myself a nice margarita or a mojito, my two favorite cocktails, and start thinking about dinner. I go through the refrigerator and go, \u201cWhat do you feel like?\u201d I start prepping and eat dinner around 6:00 with a nice bottle of wine. Around 8:00 I jump in the jacuzzi. And maybe watch a movie around 9:00 and then go to bed [<em>laughs<\/em>]. I\u2019m dead serious. Kind of sad, huh?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CP4FVRHUDWY?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Are you seeing anyone besides your wife? Who else is in your quarantine circle?<\/strong><br \/>Our kids. My son and his wife came to our house a couple of days ago and spent the weekend. They are leaving today, but they\u2019ve been in quarantine up in Lake Tahoe. My other daughter lives in Southern California. She came over last night to see my son and us and spend the night. They just left.<\/p>\n<p>Family-wise, I\u2019m hugging. I\u2019m sorry. I hug my kids. I\u2019d just as soon die if I can\u2019t do that. Give me the disease and let me die if I can\u2019t hug my wife and children. I see my kids and that\u2019s it. I really can\u2019t believe it. That part of it, I can\u2019t stand it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I heard Paul McCartney say that he\u2019s making his own bed because he has nobody else around to do that. Are you doing more housework like that?<\/strong><br \/>[<em>Big laugh<\/em>] No! I cook. I\u2019m the chef. I don\u2019t mind doing the cooking and I\u2019ll do the heavy lifting. But no. We let the gardeners come. They wear masks and we don\u2019t go outside while they\u2019re here. We don\u2019t have a housekeeper come into the house, that\u2019s for sure. But we have a couple of homes. I hate to say that because in these times I don\u2019t want to say that I\u2019m anywhere near wealthy since it\u2019s not a fashionable thing.<\/p>\n<p>But when we leave our house to drive to the other one, our housekeeper comes into the house and sterilizes everything, wears a mask. When we go back to the house, it\u2019s all clean and nice. Up until then, we just take care of ourselves. We don\u2019t make a big mess.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve always been like that. I take out my own garbage, I\u2019m sorry to say. I\u2019ve been a rock star my whole life, but I\u2019ve always taken out the garbage. I used to wash my own cars and I did yesterday, by the way. I washed a car. I don\u2019t mind doing my own chores. I don\u2019t like being waited on hand on foot.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What movies and TV shows have you been watching<\/strong>?<br \/>I got hooked on friggin\u2019 <em>Ozark,<\/em> man. Oh, boy, did I get hooked. If I wasn\u2019t married, I\u2019d want to marry [Julia Garner\u2019s character] Ruth [Langmore]. Let\u2019s just put it like that. She\u2019d be my kind of gal. It would be like, \u201cOK, honey, I\u2019m going to stay in bed all day. Go take care of that stuff.\u201d [<em>Laughs<\/em>]<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1SgDmRtKois?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>I keep meaning to watch that show. I\u2019ve heard it\u2019s like a new <em>Breaking Bad.<\/em><\/strong><br \/>I started <em>Breaking Bad<\/em> after I finished the whole thing. Listen, I don\u2019t watch TV. I watch my TV show <em>Rock and Roll Road Trip<\/em>. I watch boxing if there\u2019s a good fight on. And if someone really cons me, if my wife is like, \u201cHoney, I want you to watch this movie. Please! I swear I\u2019ll do this and that for you if you watch this movie,\u201d I\u2019ll say, \u201cOK, I\u2019ll watch the damn movie.\u201d I do not watch movies. I don\u2019t have time to watch TV normally.<\/p>\n<p>But I got so hooked on <em>Ozark<\/em> that I was watching three episodes a night until we finished it. We knocked it out and I couldn\u2019t stop. And then I said, \u201cOK. I\u2019m going to start on <em>Breaking Bad<\/em> because the same people that turned me onto <em>Ozark<\/em> said, \u2018You gotta watch <em>Breaking Bad<\/em>.&#8217;\u201d We watched five or six episodes and it was too much for me. I said, \u201cYou know what? In these times, I can\u2019t watch some meth head with a baby in the house going crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It just breaks my heart. I\u2019m way too sensitive for that. These times have made me more sensitive. I\u2019ve always been really sensitive to people struggling. I can\u2019t take it. These times have made it worse since I know there are so many people out there where that\u2019s going on. I don\u2019t want to think like that. I need to remain happy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tell me about the best meals that you\u2019ve cooked.<\/strong><br \/>Man. You don\u2019t want to know what a good chef I am. My chef buddies, they know. Emeril Lagasse and Guy Fieri and Mario Batali \u2014 one of my favorite chefs of all time, though I know he got in trouble, but he\u2019s the greatest friggin\u2019 Italian chef on the planet \u2014 they\u2019ve all taught me things on how to cook. I call them up when i\u2019m struggling with something. I just say, \u201cLook, I\u2019ve got these poor man\u2019s abalone, these things that grows on the rocks during low tide.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll pop a few off and I\u2019ll say I don\u2019t know exactly what to do with them. \u201cOh, you just salt some water and put them overnight in the refrigerator and the next morning they\u2019ll be hard as a rock and you just pull them out of there, hit them with a tenderizing hammer, bread them, and fry them or make ceviche.\u201d They give me these tips. All my life, I\u2019ve been calling them up when I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/785PFskRPBs?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>What else do you make?<\/strong><br \/>I make some of the best pastas and risottos in the world because Mario Batali has taught me every trick in the book about how to make every kind of pasta.<\/p>\n<p>Also, I roast a mean chicken. I had a book called <em>Are We Having Any Fun Yet?<\/em> There\u2019s a recipe in there called Antonio\u2019s Chicken. It\u2019s the simplest thing in the world. You just take the chicken and you just kind of smash it down, the whole chicken, you push the breast down and flatten it out, just a little bit. Don\u2019t cut it open. Leave it whole. Wash it, dry it, squeeze lemon juice all over it, put salt and pepper in the cavity, and rub oil or butter if you want \u2014 I\u2019m an olive oil guy \u2014 on the outside.<\/p>\n<p>Heat your oven as far as it will go: 500\/550. And make sure it is 100 percent ready to go. Put that thing in a pan in the oven, shove it in, and leave it there for 45 minutes. Don\u2019t even look at it. You\u2019re going to freak out if you look at it. It\u2019s bubbling up. \u201cIt\u2019s going to burn!\u201d It ain\u2019t gonna burn.<\/p>\n<p>Then turn it down to 175 for another 45 minutes. You can leave it, though, after that. You can leave it for five hours and it won\u2019t dry out because 175 doesn\u2019t cook it anymore, but it keeps it the right temperature so the moisture stays in and the skin stays crunchy. And you pull that fucker out when you\u2019re ready and you don\u2019t even have to use a knife. You just peel the leg off and it\u2019ll pop right out. That\u2019s the best chicken in the world. Take the juice in the bottom, put a tiny bit of wine over the top of it, and I\u2019m telling you. That\u2019s it. That\u2019s the best chicken in the world.<\/p>\n<p><strong>To switch gears here, do you you think you\u2019ll be comfortable enough to get back onstage before a vaccine is out?<\/strong><br \/>Yes, I will. I\u2019m going to make a radical statement. I\u2019m always good for that. Yeah, not too soon. I want to make sure it\u2019s not escalating. When it\u2019s declining and seems to be going away. I mean, it\u2019s the flu, I guess, unless there is something I don\u2019t know. So there\u2019s a season where it\u2019s going to go, \u201cEh.\u201d I mean, someone is going to get it always. It\u2019s like the cold or pneumonia. Someone is always getting something.<\/p>\n<p>But if it calms down and it seems OK, I wouldn\u2019t mind playing an outdoor amphitheater. I\u2019ve already talked to the promoters and the powers that be that own those places. I\u2019ve said, \u201cWhat if we put sterilization things all over the place? Hand sanitizers, too. And hand out face masks.\u201d I\u2019m not talking about now. I\u2019m talking about when it first starts opening back up. In a big open-air setting, only sell 10,000 out of 19,000. Whatever. I\u2019m fine with it. Now, this is hard to say too without stirring somebody up on me \u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>Go ahead.<\/strong><br \/>But truthfully I\u2019d rather personally get sick and even personally die, if that\u2019s what it takes. We have to save the world and this country from this economic thing that\u2019s going to kill more people in the long run. Look at homelessness. If you want to talk about a pandemic, friggin\u2019 homelessness in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago \u2026 I\u2019ve been all over America, man. It\u2019s growing faster than anything.<\/p>\n<p>This shutdown of the economy is going to make that escalate 10 times and then we\u2019re all going to be sick and you can\u2019t walk down the street. I would rather see everyone go back to work. If some of us have to sacrifice on that, OK. I will die for my children and my grandchildren to have a life anywhere close to the life that I had in this wonderful country and freedom. That\u2019s just the way that I feel about it.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not going to go around spreading the disease. But there may be a time where we have to sacrifice. We used to go to war for our country where hundreds of thousands of people died to keep our freedom and keep this country economically where everyone has a car and a home. Those days are changing, but that\u2019s the way I feel about this whole thing. I\u2019m not real big on dragging it out until we\u2019re all fucked and there\u2019s no way out.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OyMAJ8JGxkU?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Your summer tour is supposed to start pretty soon, though.<\/strong><br \/>That ain\u2019t going to happen. I wouldn\u2019t do that. That\u2019s too early. But let\u2019s get through this summer and see how things are looking. If it\u2019s cooling down a bit and the numbers are going down \u2026 not in people dying, but people getting it. People are going to die every day. How many people die on the Earth every day? I have no idea. Just because of this virus, it\u2019s probably not many more than people that die of something. I\u2019m sorry to say that. But we all gotta die, man.<\/p>\n<p>I think I\u2019ll wait until the numbers of this virus flatten out and start going down and then I\u2019m happy to do a show. If people want to come, they\u2019ll come. If they don\u2019t wanna come \u2026 Wear a mask and have hand sanitizers all over the damn place. How inexpensive is that?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you already miss the stage and the crowds?<\/strong><br \/>Oh, my God. The only thing I don\u2019t miss is having something to do. I don\u2019t like waking up in the morning and my tour manager being like, \u201cWake up. We\u2019re leaving in an hour. Be in the lobby.\u201d You go fuckin\u2019 grab your clothes and throw them in the suitcase and snap it up and go down to the lobby and it\u2019s move, move, move. But the show \u2026 when you hit the stage, it\u2019s the greatest thing in the world. I really miss it. I really, really miss it. There is something very addictive about performing. It\u2019s just \u2026 wow. Very special.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Are these Lockdown Sessions that you\u2019re doing filling some of that void in your heart?<\/strong><br \/>Oh, yes. What I like about them more than anything is it\u2019s not a whole performance. You don\u2019t have to be in physical shape like you do for a two-hour show. I couldn\u2019t do that now, but I could do one song. And my voice is strong. We can get so creative. There\u2019s no pressure. Nobody paid for anything. The ease of doing this and the amount of creativity that comes into your brain, like when we did \u201cThree Little Birds\u201d by Bob Marley \u2026 I\u2019ve never done a Bob Marley song in my life. I love the guy, but I\u2019m just not a reggae singer. I said, \u201cJason, what are we going to do?\u201d He said, \u201cDo it like Robert Plant did it in on \u2018D\u2019yer Maker.&#8217;\u201d I said, \u201cYeah, just put the drums down and send it to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Anything goes. A guy like myself who has been around as long as I\u2019ve been and all the commercial stuff in the bands, I\u2019m pretty open-minded about stuff. I can pretty much do what I want to do. But in the back of your mind, I go, \u201cWell, I wouldn\u2019t put that on a record.\u201d Well, guess what? I do it on a Lockdown Session.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re doing the Buffalo Springfield song \u201cFor What It\u2019s Worth\u201d right now. I got a little \u201cYou Can\u2019t Always Get What You Want\u201d by the Stones in there and a little Lou Reed\u2019s \u201cWalk on the Wild Side\u201d and made this crazy little mashup that I would never do in record or a concert. I\u2019m just having a blast with this. It\u2019s the most creative fun I\u2019ve had musically in a long time. It\u2019s right up there with, I don\u2019t know, Van Halen.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GdZqtKrfOk4?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>And you can blast it out to the world overnight.<\/strong><br \/>It\u2019s free. That\u2019s my favorite part. We\u2019ve got six songs and videos now. It didn\u2019t cost us one friggin\u2019 penny. We\u2019re doing it on our iPhones and I\u2019m going, \u201cOh, my God.\u201d They look and sound great and people love them. I don\u2019t know if they are of the quality to put on a DVD and record to sell, but who knows? The main thing is that it\u2019s free. I\u2019m loving it to death. We\u2019re going to do a Little Richard song next and mash it up with Led Zeppelin\u2019s \u201cRock and Roll.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>At least something good is coming out of all this.<\/strong><br \/>There\u2019s going to be something good coming out of this besides music. I think people are going to get used to having an easier life. When they get used to working from home, there won\u2019t be so much traffic on the road because people are going to realize they don\u2019t need those big ego-trip offices in the big office building.<\/p>\n<p>We all get back to a little more nature and that may be the best thing to come out of this. Let the planet heal. The air will clear up since there won\u2019t be so much traffic on the road. People won\u2019t be so uptight going back and forth to work and going up to an office all day and having big desks and secretaries. They can get back to simplified things.<\/p>\n<p>And you\u2019re probably going to make more money. If that\u2019s your goal, to make a zillion dollars, get rid of that big-ass fuckin\u2019 office and all the people that you don\u2019t need and do the shit yourself. Your family life will be better and your overhead will come down. Simplify. Simplify. That\u2019s what I\u2019m seeing as a positive coming out of this.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gAl_eAu7dEA?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>I\u2019ll wrap up, but I really think you should finish <em>Breaking Bad.<\/em> It gets really, really good.<\/strong><br \/>Oh, man! My heart\u2019s gotta heal. You know which one I\u2019m talking about? The kid and the teacher start up again. [\u201cPeakaboo\u201d from Season Two.] They found the meth heads that stuck them up for their meth. I could not take the child. It broke my heart. I\u2019m the softest man in the world. You show me a sick child and I\u2019ll do anything to help. That just broke my heart. I even told my buddy that turned me onto it, my guitarist Vic Johnson, I said, \u201cYou motherfucker. You tried to turn me onto this \u2026\u201d He said, \u201cOh, no, you gotta keep going.\u201d [<em>Laughs<\/em>] And you told me the same thing. I\u2019ll give it a shot.<\/p>\n<div class=\"pmc-contextual-player\">\n<h3>Popular on Rolling Stone<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/sammy-hagar-quarantine-interview-coronavirus-998454\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sammy Hagar thought he\u2019d be spending the summer playing outdoor amphitheaters with his band the Circle alongside Whitesnake and Night Ranger. And even though those dates haven\u2019t technically been canceled yet, he knows it would take a small miracle for the tour to go on as planned. He\u2019s kept busy by teaming up with his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-807561","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-10 19:04:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}