SAMMY HAGAR On Covering DEPECHE MODE's 'Personal Jesus' - "For A Bizarre Alternative Electronic Band, That's A Badass Blues Lick"

SAMMY HAGAR (CHICKENFOOT, ex-VAN HALEN) is featured in a new interview with Peter Hodgson at Gibson.com discussing his new album, Sammy Hagar & Friends An excerpt is available below: 

Gibson.com: 'All We Need Is An Island' is reminds me of your song 'Living On A Coastline' in the sense that even if you don't speak English, you can hear that song and understand exactly what it's about. 
Hagar: "Haha. Wait, you know 'Living On A Coastline'? You know about that? Oh, you tricky son of a gun! That record, Livin' It Up, didn't get released in many countries. It was very underground, released strictly for my fans. But it is, it's my lifestyle and this record is like Livin' It Up was, upgraded to today. But that is an amazing love song, and when I decided to put the Hawaiian guitar on there, I gotta tell ya, I don't know one person who didn't say 'No, don't do it Sammy, you're going too far now.' I'm going 'You can't go too far! There's no such thing! There's no place that's too far!' I called up Mickey Hart and I said 'Mickey, give me the Tahitian drumbeat on that mother.' He dug deep and found this Tahitian drum. I said 'What I want you to feel when you listen to this is that you're stranded on a desert island with a woman you're madly in love with and at night you hear these drums coming from another island that you can't get to… and I want people to make love to that song, man.'" 


Gibson.com: DEPECHE MODE's 'Personal Jesus' is an interesting choice because even though it wasn't originally recorded in a heavy blues style, you can unlock that from it. 
Hagar: "I've gotta tell you, as I studied that lick I went 'That is a blues fricken' lick.' For an electronic band, some bizarre alternative electronic band, that's a badass blues lick. And I played it on guitar and said, 'This is it.' And Neal Schon, the intro on that thing, the licks Neal's playing, it's in high gear. I can't wait till the Depeche Mode guys hear it. I think when they hear it they're going to say, "Sammy Hagar, that (expletive) rock and roll freak?" Haha. They've gotta like it. It's a blues song and it's a great lyric, a great deep, dark lyric. I can't write lyrics like that. It's too dark for me." 

You can check here the complete interview

Sammy Hagar & Friends, is out now. The tracklisting is as follows: 

'Winding Down' (with Taj Mahal) 
'Not Going Down' (with Bill Church, Denny Carmassi) 
'Personal Jesus' (with Neal Schon, Michael Anthony, Chad Smith) 
'Father Sun' (with Denny Carmassi, Aaron Hagar) 
'Knockdown Dragout' (with Kid Rock, Joe Satriani, Denny Carmassi) 
'Ramblin' Gamblin' Man' (with David Lauser, Mona Gnader , Vic Johnson) 
'Bad On Fords And Chevrolets' (with Ronnie Dunn, David Lauser, Mona Gnader, Vic Johnson) 
'Margaritaville' (with Toby Keith) 
'All We Need Is An Island' (with Nancy Wilson, Mickey Hart) 
'Going Down' (with Neal Schon, Michael Anthony, Chad Smith) 
'Space Station #5' (with Denny Carmassi, Bill Church, Joe Satriani) * 

* Live from Ronnie Montrose Tribute exclusively available on Deluxe Edition CD