Sammy Hagar Says Pantera Management Once Asked Him to Join Band
Sammy Hagar revealed that a member of Pantera’s management once asked him to become the band’s frontman. "How about if I tell you something crazy. I don't believe it; I don't believe it's true," the former Van Halen singer told SiriusXM’s Jose Mangin in a recent video interview.
“This was before I actually became friends with [Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul]. And [the manager] said Pantera … wanted me to be the lead singer of their band. And he asked me, 'Would you be interested?' And I said, 'No, not after [leaving] Van Halen [in 1996]. I'm not gonna join another band, especially covering for somebody else,' and this and that.
"And I brought it up to Vinnie one time," he continued. "He didn't remember it. … But I don't know if there's any truth to that.”
As Blabbermouth notes, Hagar previously mentioned the Pantera story — along with other high-profile band offers — in a 2011 Forbes interview.
“I was asked at one time to be in Motley Crue," he said. “I was asked at one time to be in Pantera by their [managers]. I was asked to be in Velvet Revolver when Scott Weiland quit and went back to the Stone Temple Pilots. I was waiting to be asked to be in Led Zeppelin to say no, since they were the greatest band on earth and no could replace Robert Plant. I was asked to be in Aerosmith and I said no. Certain bands and certain [frontman] singers are more difficult to replace than others. Steven Tyler and that band have stayed together for [40] years, and you don’t want to walk into something like that.”
You can listen to the new Hagar interview below.
Hagar also addressed the Aerosmith claim in a July UCR interview, saying the idea emerged some time after the band's 2009 tour, which culminated in Tyler falling off the stage at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.
“"The Aerosmith hint ... came around that time when Joe Perry tried to get me to join that band, and the management asked me to go to South America and try it out," he said. The singer added that he "almost did it” but decided it would be ultimately be the wrong move.
“I think if I would have done both those things, I would have been the guy that replaced the guy,” he said, referencing how he took over after the departure of Van Halen’s David Lee Roth. “You know, always the guy replacing the guy, and that’s a strange legacy for a guy like me, you know what I mean?"