Sammy Hagar has said he’s gotten plenty of offers to front established bands, and obviously his stint with Van Halen was the most notable. But he’s also claimed to have received offers from Velvet Revolver, Aerosmith, Motley Crue, and perhaps most surprisingly, Pantera. Hagar recently told SiriusXM, “How about if I tell you something crazy. I don’t believe it; I don’t believe it’s true. But Pantera had a manager. This was before I actually became friends with Vinnie. And he said Pantera want me to be the lead singer of the band. And he asked me, ‘Would you be interested?’ And I said, ‘No, not after (splitting with) Van Halen. 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 didn’t remember it. But I don’t know if there’s any truth to that.”
Hagar continued: “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 to walk into something like that. They had one moment years ago, when they replaced Joe Perry, but it’s still always been Steven at the front of Aerosmith. You don’t replace that. When I came into Van Halen, it was easy because Dave (Lee Roth) wasn’t a great singer, but he was a good frontman. In those times, I was selling out the same arenas they were, so it was like the combination of two forces and it worked but it’s a rare thing. We were all lucky that the fans accepted it and it got bigger. I would avoid bands that are going to break up pretty soon.”
