Sammy Hagar Recalls Almost Joining Aerosmith

Sammy Hagar revealed that back in late-2009, Aerosmith was interested in him taking over frontman duties from Steven Tyler. As anyone following the rock world remembers, that was around the time where the inner-band tensions between the group were an almost weekly headline, as Tyler was said to be devoting his energies to “Brand Tyler.”

Hagar recalled the situation to Ultimate Classic Rock, explaining, “Joe Perry tried to get me to join that band, and the management asked me to go to South America and try it out. I almost did it. . . I would have been the guy that replaced the guy. Y'know, always the guy replacing the guy, and that's a strange legacy for a guy like me, y'know what I mean? The problem is, I would have taken the toxicity out of the whole thing! (Laughs) It probably would have bombed because I'm not a toxic kind of guy. When the arguments start, I'm outta here. I can't be in a bad situation like that.”

Hagar admitted, “That was real tempting there for five minutes. I got down to Cabo, and I really relaxed and thought about it. I was listening to all of the tunes and all of this stuff. I was thinkin', 'Livin' On The Edge,' I'll f***in' kill that song!' “And then I woke up on the beach and said, 'Y'know what? I can't do this.' So that was it.”

Sammy Hagar has been on both sides of the frontman game — replacing David Lee Roth in Van Halen — along with Extreme's Gary Cherone replacing him in 1996. Hagar told us a while back he sympathized with Cherone accepting what he probably thought was the gig of a lifetime — only to see it go down in flames: “To me, it was inevitable. It didn’t work. Everybody knows it didn’t work. The album was a stiff and the tour didn’t do well — it was just was bad chemistry. Y'know, that coulda happened when I joined the band — but it didn’t because we made a great record. And my career was in a place with 'I Can’t Drive 55,' y'know, I was equal to Van Halen at that time, so, it was a lot easier for the fans to accept that; and even then, it wasn’t totally accepted immediately. Y'know, we had to work hard. It’s a bummer for Gary because it'll probably ruin his whole damn career. Y'know, the guy's a decent singer, but what’s he going to do now? 'Hey, he’s the guy that bombed with Van Halen. (Laughs) Y'know, he’s the guy that. . .' Y'know, that’s not a good handle to have.”

UPDATED: Sammy Hagar & The Circle tour dates (subject to change):

August 12 – Springfield, IL – Illinois State Fair
August 13 – Wabash, IN – Eagles Theatre
August 15 – Cleveland, OH – The Agora Theatre
August 21 – Boise, ID – Albertson’s Boise Open
August 22 – Airway Heights, WA – Northern Quest Casino
August 28 – New Town, ND – 4 Bears Casino & Lodge
September 10 – Durant, OK – Choctaw Grand Theater
September 11 – Tulsa, OK – River Spirit Casino
October 7, 8, 9 – Avalon, CA – Avalon Casino Ballroom
October 29, 20 – Las Vegas, NV – Strat Showroom
November 5, 6, 12, 13 – Las Vegas, NV – Strat Showroom