Former Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar has revealed that he refused to join Aerosmith due to “toxicity”.
In an interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, Sammy Hagar explained that he received an offer to join the band from guitarist Joe Perry when they went through a rough patch in 2009.
That year, frontman Steven Tyler broke his shoulder while performing, which led to the cancellation of their tour.
From there, reports emerged that Tyler was planning on launching a solo career, and Perry publicly stated the group was “positively looking for a new singer to work with.”
When asked about how he came to be in the running to replace Tyler, Sammy Hagar replied: “the Aerosmith hint came around that time when Joe Perry tried to get me to join that band, and the management asked me to go to South America and try it out.”
He continued: “I almost did it. I think if I would have done both those things, I would have been the guy that replaced the guy.
“You know, always the guy replacing the guy, and that’s a strange legacy for a guy like me, you know what I mean?
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“The problem is, I would have taken the toxicity out of the whole thing! 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.
“But 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 fuckin’ kill that song!’
“And then I woke up on the beach and said, ‘You know what? I can’t do this.’ So that was it,” he concluded.
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Check out ‘Janie’s Got a Gun’ by Aerosmith:
