Former Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar has indicated his support for the ideals of the Occupy protests sweeping the world, event though he doesn’t agree with their message of ‘tearing down the system’.
In a candid interview with Attention Deficit Dilirium the frontman for supergroup Chickenfoot indicated his surprise at the momentum behind the protest movement saying “I think it’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. I never thought I’d see anything like that in my lifetime. I’m kinda shocked by it. I don’t necessarily support them because I don’t believe in tearing down the system. I really don’t. I think tearing down the system is a real negative. It puts too many people in too bad positions.”
However that doesn’t mean Hagar doesn’t agree with some of the ideals that form the cornerstone of the protests. “We need to make change,” he said. “But we need to do it through the right channels and slow enough to where you don’t just tear it down and leave rubble.”
He continued “I’m tired of people suffering. That’s not what I’m into. But it does need to be reformed and needs to be changed. I can’t stand white collar crime. That’s worse to me than some poor guy in the street who’s broke, homeless and hungry and goes and steals something out of a convenience store. To me, that ain’t crime.”
“Crime is when you’re rich like with Enron and those kind of things, those people who still cheat and steal. Those are bad people. That’s like the devil. I can’t stand that, and there’s a lot of that going on. So if we can change that, yes man, go down and protest, scream your guts out and do whatever you need to do. I say we need to get people working in this country, man.”
Hagar isn’t the only artist to throw his hat into the ring, on Wednesday in London Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello dropped by Occupy London to play a short set of songs to support those who continue to protest. Before his set he told the awaiting crowd “The people that own and control this world don’t deserve to. I have a message for them, the beginning is near. History isn’t made by CIA men running dope or by old men. It is made by people.”
He also thanked those who had helped make Rage’s ‘Killing In The Name’ the Christmas number 1 in the UK beating out the X Factor finalist saying “I’d like to thank everyone for giving the finger to Simon Cowell, X Factor and commercial music.”
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Billy Bragg also played a set earlier in the day telling audience members “We’re gathered here today for a very old cause. It’s an ongoing struggle. People have the same needs, all over the world people want the same things. A better word for their children.”
Earlier former Black Flag frontman Henry Rollins opened up in an interview about his views on the protest movement, and a little closer to home the Occupy Melbourne protests were visited by Dead Kennedy’s former frontman Jello Biafra and Blue King Brown.
