As music businesses try to figure out when concerts can resume, Sammy Hagar believes it's best for the economy if they return as soon as the number of new cases of coronavirus begins to go down.

Although his summer tour with Whitesnake and Night Ranger has yet to be official postponed, Hagar admitted to Rolling Stone that the tour "ain't going to happen." But he's already had discussions with the promoters and owners of outdoor venues regarding how to proceed before the pandemic is fully over.

"It’s the flu, I guess, unless there is something I don’t know," he said. "So there’s a season where it’s going to go, 'Eh.' I mean, someone is going to get it always. It’s like the cold or pneumonia. Someone is always getting something."

Hagar noted that he's "already talked to the promoters and the powers that be that own those places. I’ve said, 'What if we put sterilization things all over the place? Hand sanitizers too. And hand out face masks.' I’m not talking about now. I’m talking about when it first starts opening back up. In a big open-air setting, only sell 10,000 out of 19,000. Whatever. I’m fine with it."

Hagar's been self-quarantining with his wife, spending time in their two homes; their children recently spent some time with them. Despite the recommendations regarding social distancing, he insists on hugging his kids.

"I’d just as soon die if I can’t do that," he said. "Give me the disease and let me die if I can’t hug my wife and children. I see my kids and that’s it. I really can’t believe it. That part of it, I can’t stand it."

The desire to resume normal behavior extends to his work, where Hagar said he'd "rather personally get sick and even personally die, if that’s what it takes. We have to save the world and this country from this economic thing that’s going to kill more people in the long run."

He added that "this shutdown of the economy is going to make that escalate 10 times and then we’re all going to be sick and you can’t walk down the street. I would rather see everyone go back to work. If some of us have to sacrifice on that, okay. I will die for my children and my grandchildren to have a life anywhere close to the life that I had in this wonderful country and freedom. That’s just the way that I feel about it.

"I’m not going to go around spreading the disease. But there may be a time where we have to sacrifice. We used to go to war for our country where hundreds of thousands of people died to keep our freedom and keep this country economically where everyone has a car and a home. Those days are changing, but that’s the way I feel about this whole thing. I’m not real big on dragging it out until we’re all fucked and there’s no way out."

 

 

Van Halen Lineup Changes: A Complete Guide

More From 102.9 WBLM