Sammy Hagar is convinced his dad visited him in a dream to tell him he was dying

Sammy Hagar attends the 24th annual Keep Memory Alive "Power of Love Gala" benefit for the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health honoring Neil Diamond at MGM Grand Garden Arena on March 07, 2020
(Image credit: Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images)

The US rock singer Sammy Hagar has witnessed lots of strange things in this world and he would like you to know about them, so he passed word onto Classic Rock. The first is about aliens, whose existence the former Van Halen frontman was prompted to look into after having a dream about them. It’s always dreams, isn’t it?

“I started looking into it and started reading books about alien encounters,” he told Classic Rock. “I became a big believer and I still am a huge believer. Anyone that thinks we’re the only life in this universe is crazy! Those are the crazy people! Not the guys going round saying, 'I went up in a rocket ship'”. It could just be that everyone’s crazy, Sammy. Sammy? Sammy? Ach, he’s not listening, he’s still talking about aliens: “It’s easier for me to talk about now. Twenty years ago you were tagged as crazy and you could lose your job and your friends for it.” Not anymore, he explained. People were getting clued up and Sammy was of the opinion that the truth is out there: “I think the possibilities are just vast and it really intrigues me.” 

God, too, was another mysterious entity on Sammy’s mind, but not in the sense of organised religion: that’s a big no-no for Sammy. “Churches have probably caused more wars than anything else on the planet,” he said. ”But I think the fear of going to hell or betraying God is one of the things that keeps us sane.”

It was in another dream that Hagar heard his father banging on his front door, only to be awoken by the news that his dad had died. It made him think about the supernatural. “In the dream, I slammed the door and said 'Get out of here and don’t ever come back!'”, Hagar said, explaining that dream-him was mad that his dad had woken up his little baby. “Now I just sit there and go, ‘Why didn’t I let him in?’ What would’ve happened?”. We’ll never know the answer to that, but maybe deep down Sammy Hagar does. He’s a man intrigued by the possibilities. 

Niall Doherty

Niall Doherty is a writer and editor whose work can be found in Classic Rock, The Guardian, Music Week, FourFourTwo, on Apple Music and more. Formerly the Deputy Editor of Q magazine, he co-runs the music Substack letter The New Cue with fellow former Q colleagues Ted Kessler and Chris Catchpole. He is also Reviews Editor at Record Collector. Over the years, he's interviewed some of the world's biggest stars, including Elton John, Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Depeche Mode, Robert Plant and more. Radiohead was only for eight minutes but he still counts it.