Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock
By Sammy Hagar
Hardcover | Kindle
HarperCollins
Release date: March 15, 2011

Sammy Hagar was once the frontman of one of the biggest and greatest bands in history, the mighty Van Halen. But while Hagar sang about standing on “Top Of The World,” as he surely was at times, making millions of dollars, living a life of luxury with fast cars and plenty of women, the musician didn’t always have it easy. Matter of fact, Hagar spent years learning that money, fame, and hit records couldn’t solve every problem, like his wife’s mental state or his bandmate’s addictions and jealousies.

In his autobiography, Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock, we learn that Hagar began life modestly in Fontana, CA. The youngest of four children, he was raised in a low-income household with an alcoholic father who abused his mother. He later went on have his own family with little means of supporting them, but Hagar makes it clear that he was always a hard worker. It always seemed that the entertainer got his big break in music when he was asked by the Van Halen brothers, guitarist Eddie and drummer Alex, to replace their departing singer David Lee Roth just as the band had come off a winning strike with their best-selling album up until that time, 1984. But while Van Halen was one of the biggest rock bands at the time, thanks to hits like “Jump” and “Panana,” Hagar was already a successful solo artist who had actually made enough money and did enough tours on his own to retire from music altogether. And retire to a life of solitude with his wife and kids was his plan until Eddie Van Halen persuaded him to join the band, and while Hagar was reluctant to accept, his chemistry musically with Van Halen proved too strong a force to deny — the singer/guitarist was ready for the “Best Of Both Worlds.”