Samy Hagar says "everyone turned back into sheep" during the Covid-19 pandemic

Sammy Hagar, 2019 — (Image credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

Sammy Hagar and The Circle are releasing a new album, titled Crazy Times, on September 30, and former Van Halen frontman Hagar has revealed that it's a concept record, "about everything that has gone on since the [Covid-19] pandemic started."

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Hagar shares his belief that "we lost our freedoms during that time", and says "All of a sudden, everyone turned back into sheep because they were so afraid."

The cover artwork for Crazy Times, which Hagar's band recorded in Nashville with producer Dave Cobb in a single week, features a man riding a bicycle through New York's Times Square while engulfed in flames, which Hagar tells Rolling Stone is intended to represent America’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Everyone is watching the guy on the bike instead of the fucked-up shit happening in the streets," Hagar tells Rolling Stone's Andy Greene. "We always gravitate toward the big distraction, but fuckin’ Covid was the big distraction. We all took our eye off the ball. The government just seemed to get away with murder. All of a sudden, everyone turned back into sheep because they were so afraid.

"And I just think we lost our freedoms during that time," Hagar continues. "The government started pushing us around telling us what you gotta do. ‘You gotta get shots, you gotta do this, you gotta do that. You can’t go here. You can’t go there. You gotta wear masks.’ Maybe all that was necessary, and I did get the vaccine, but I know more people that got Covid this year than last year, including myself."

Hagar also makes it abundantly clear in his Rolling Stone interview that he's no fan of former US President Donald Trump, who was in charge when the Covid-19 pandemic was declared.

"He’s an asshole," Hagar says. "I don’t like the fact that he was down on Mexicans because I think the Mexican people are some of the greatest people on the planet. I live in Mexico. And those are God-loving, family-oriented, hard-working people. Without them, we can’t do shit in America… I liked that Trump wanted to clean up politics, but I’m not sure what his motives were. He’s just so arrogant."

You can read the full interview with Hagar on RollingStone.com.

And you can watch the video for his new album's title track, Crazy Times below:

Artists

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.