Latest News

May 30, 2011

Here’s your chance to be in a music video!

Hey Redheads! Here's your opportunity to be part of a Sammy Hagar Music video! Some of you may have heard Sammy's new take on the Jimmy Buffet classic 'Margaritaville' at a few of our recent shows. Well, we decided to make a rocking video to go along with debut of the single and we are starting to collect footage to go along with this new recording. Sammy wants to give it a good time/beach/laid back feel and what better footage to use than Cabo footage? And you of course know the best part about Cabo… the Birthday Bash at the Cabo Wabo Cantina of course!

So, here's your assignment: Post videos of you and your friends & family having a good time in Cabo and at the Birthday Bash to YouTube and share the URL here as a comment to this news post to be considered for the video. We are depending on all of you Redheads to share enough for us to work with– we're counting on you!

Please submit your videos by June 30, 2011

UPDATE: We are extending the submission deadline so we can include footage from this year's Birthday Bash. Please still continue to post your videos! If you have any questions post them here or email [email protected]!

Sammy Hagar BLOG

May 17, 2011

A True Music Lover – Carter (1946 – 2011)

Redheads,

Last week I lost a manager, a friend, a cowriter, & a producer. But most of all Carter was a fan of fans – a true Redhead. He cowrote the song "Red" with me and was the kind of guy who would have been in that line sleeping on the sidewalk. He was a true music lover.

I miss him.

Click here to read Carter's Obituary

May 13, 2011

Carter (1946 – 2011)

Carter, the legendary A&R man, producer, songwriter, manager, and lifelong fighter for songs with proper bridges (and, where possible, proper nouns) died on May 10 in Palm Springs. He was 65.

Born John S. Carter in East St. Louis, Illinois, he grew up moving around the West and Midwest, the only child of an oilman and an indefatigable Arthur Godfrey fan.

Carter’s career began in 1967, when he wrote the lyrics to “Incense And Peppermints” by the Strawberry Alarm Clock – a group he renamed by picking words from song titles on the week’s Hot 100 chart. He subsequently became a radio promotion executive for Atlantic Records in San Francisco, where he hired his favorite winos from the Mission District to hand-deliver the Rolling Stones’ Exiles On Main Street to local radio programmers.

Recruited to the A&R department of Capitol Records because of his reputation for spotting hits, Carter worked with Bob Seger and Steve Miller during the periods of their commercial breakthroughs; he also signed – and co-wrote and produced – landmark albums for Sammy Hagar, Bob Welch, and The Motels.

His outstanding creative gifts were taste, language, and wit; above all he was a maker of memes, known on the street as hooks. He collaborated fully with artists, but only contributed to a composition when he sensed a failure to surrender its essence. Fixing a chorus, refurbishing a lyric, adding the telling detail (not infrequently a proper noun) or coming up with an album title or visual image that triangulated with sound and singer to create the ineradicable tattoo of a hit: that was Carter’s calling.

He was, as reported earlier, a stickler for bridges (typically, the new melodic and lyrical information that comes after verse and chorus have repeated a few times). Formal purity was not what drove him, rather the desire to hear every song matter. Unless it was on the level of a “Louie Louie,” Carter believed, any song that wasn’t flush enough to demand a bridge probably didn’t deserve to handle the dice.

In 1983 he overcame powerful corporate opposition to launch an apparent has-been, Tina Turner. He A&R’d her first Capitol album, Private Dancer, and produced several of its tracks, including the title song. The album launched Turner’s years as a global superstar, selling more than 20 million copies.

Carter went on to work at A&M, Atlantic, Chrysalis and Island Records. Yet despite his track record, he often struggled to find colleagues who believed in the artists he loved. When faced with skepticism, Carter leaned on the Ouija and made transformative decisions for fragile careers. He nurtured the songwriting of Tonio K; fought inside battles for David & David and Tori Amos; got Melissa Etheridge a publishing deal with A&M’s affiliate when the label refused to let him sign her.

Carter discovered that he was better able to fight for the talents he revered by working independently as an artist manager. His discoveries include Mark Everett, who records as the Eels, and Paula Cole.

Throughout a life in music that spanned more than forty years, one of Carter’s achievements stands out for its rarity: he has retained the love and respect of nearly everyone he ever worked with, both on the commercial and creative sides of the business. Take as evidence his professional reunion with Sammy Hagar: after decades of unbroken friendship, more than thirty years after they made “Red” together, Hagar invited Carter to manage him. They created the group Chickenfoot, which continues to thrive, along with Hagar’s solo career.

Carter is survived by his wife Christy Carter and his daughter Crosby Carter.

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to LiveStrong www.livestrong.org


Bob Lefsetz wrote a powerful remembrance about Carter that you can read here.

May 3, 2011

‘Go There Once Be There Twice’ Wins Award at Lake Arrowhead Film Festival

Sammy's new documentary, 'Go There Once Be There Twice', won the coveted June Lockhart Special Achievement In Film Award at the recent Lake Arrowhead Film Festival on April 16, 2011. Accepting the award from June are Kari, Kama and Samantha Hagar.

Sammy Hagar BLOG

March 29, 2011

What a ride!

I thought my right hand was going to fall off. I signed that many books in the last two weeks. Literally thousands and thousands. Some of you were there in NYC, St Louis, LA… I love my Redheads. So great that so many of you came out to get the book signed. Not so great that so many eBay sellers were so rude and pushy and made it so hard for the real fans who were respecting each other and following the rules. Everywhere at all the bookstores there were awkward incidents that were so embarrassing to me. If you are someone who had a bad experience I am truly sorry. The scene was just out of control. These bookstores had never seen anything like this before.

To those of you who came out to get your books signed or bought a book – THANK YOU! You helped us get number one on the New York Times best sellers list. Unbelievable.

Also, so many of you told me you heard the Howard Stern interview. What a trip he is. Doing the TV shows was fun and there could be some more coming up soon. Stay tuned. Let me tell you more when my right hand works again.

Peace
Sammy