SAMMY HAGAR GIGS FOR FREE?

10/31/2012
In a recent interview with CNBC, the Red Rocker Sammy Hagar discusses the current status of the music industry and his role in it. Hagar says that he is well aware that a band starting out today is faced with a different reality than he was when he started out in the music industry in the late sixties.

Hagar acknowledges that these days he basically plays music for free, while living off his other business ventures, like Cabo Wabo Tequila, and his latest product, Sammy's Beach Bar Rum: "I like playing music for free. I no longer play music for a living. I pay my band, my crew, everybody else, but I don’t look for it in my income. I don’t have to do it. We should take the business out of it. I’m fortunate that I have other ways to make a living."

Hagar, who has been busy touring behind the latest Chickenfoot album earlier in the year, notices the difference in what's popular today versus when he started out, saying: "There’s all kinds of bigger stars than me. On the Internet they get a hundred million hits. I put my stuff up there, I get thirty or forty thousand. What’s up with that?"