In a recent Interview on The Forward Podcast by Lance Armstrong, Former Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar discussed how bad his life went after a bad business deal.
Below is the conversation:
Armstrong: “You sold Cabo Wabo to Campari group for ninety million dollars. Good investors?”
Hagar: “Well, it was one-hundred million dollars but I wanted to keep twenty-percent. I got greedy which is the last thing that anybody should ever do in their lives I have a new album called Space Between which is about – money, greed, enlightenment, and truth.
Greed is the stumbling block for everything and everyone, and we are all greedy. I mean here, guys give me a hundred million bucks and I say: “Well I wanna keep twenty-percent because I was going they’ll build this brand they launched, launched it worldwide and my twenty percent will be worth another one hundred million.”
Armstrong: “You wanted two bites of the apple?”
Hagar: “I did, yeah, it was wrong and I got f*cked. So I ended up with ninety-three million. However, when I sold it back I got thirteen for what was worth twenty for the first time. I saw back seven years later, and because they’re a big company they said: “Oh, our overhead and now our ten percent of this and so here’s your blah blah”
Sure, I was getting twenty percent royalties and I’m going: “They’re dying with my brand, ya know!” I was making all that money but they weren’t. It’s just the way they build a brand, they put thirteen people on the payroll for just that brand, all these things.”