Veteran rocker Sammy Hagar found himself in hot water recently following comments he made about returning to live music before a coronavirus vaccine is developed.
In an interview with Rolling Stone conducted in mid-May, the musician shared, “I’ll be comfortable playing a show before there’s a vaccine, if it’s declining and seems to be going away.
“I’m going to make a radical statement here. This is hard to say without stirring somebody up, but truthfully, I’d rather personally get sick and even die, if that’s what it takes.”
The musician went on to explain that the dire economic consequences of the pandemic were going to cause more harm in the long term than the virus. Naturally, the outlandish comments were met with backlash. In response to the criticism, Hagar has penned a statement, clarifying his statement.
“I did that interview May 8th when we were already several weeks into the stay-at-home, which my family and I took very seriously, and things were starting to look up, the curve was beginning flattening,” he shared with Rolling Stone. “So when I was asked if I’d be comfortable enough to get back on stage before a vaccine was out, I was cautiously optimistic. I said, “Yeah, not too soon. I want to make sure it’s not escalating. When it’s declining and seems to be going away.”
“Big picture, it’s about getting back to work in a safe and responsible way and getting this economy rolling again. I will do my part. I stand by that. I employ 200 people directly and when we tour even more.
“Like everything today, it’s a watch and see over the next few months but we remain cautiously optimistic that with the right improvements and safety measures in place, we might be able to play shows this year. That said, as things change, for the better or worse, we will appropriately adjust our plans.”
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Earlier this month, Sammy Hagar delivered a bizarre take addressing the Black Lives Matter protests that unfurled across the US.
“Why would anyone kill innocent people and take it out on the whole race, the whole society we are living in because of a bad guy?” Hagar shared. “A bad cop? A bad black man? A bad white man? A bad Chinese, Japanese, Hispanic, South American? What’s the difference? Why would you take it out on the whole human race – people with families and children that are innocent?”
The musician’s message was confusing, though ultimately you get the sense that he was pleading for the violence to stop.
“There are bad guys everywhere, every walk of life,” he says. “I know it, you know it – we all know it. Stop the violence. Stop racism, prejudice, please.”
