Sammy Hagar made a significant sacrifice to ensure Van Halen fans got their money’s worth.
In the latest installment of Hagar’s ‘Storytime,’ he delved into a mishap from the late 80s, revealing how he powered through an accident during one of their sets. The incident involved the rocker taking a tumble and fracturing his tailbone. Despite the pain, he soldiered on, determined not to disappoint the crowd. Hagar vividly recounted the moment of the mishap:
“So the first song, Summer Nights, you know, ‘Summer nights and my radio,’ I’m singing the first chorus, I start stepping backwards. I stumbled onto the stairs and hit my tailbone right in the corner of one of them metal things. And it actually cut through my leather pants. And I was numb, I fell down the stairs and I got back up and I kept singing, but I felt really weird. And I was numb, completely numb, like, so I reached back bloody hand. I’m going ‘Oh, my God.’ And I felt the bump back there as big as a frickin’ orange.”
Reflecting on the incident, Hagar admitted it was one of the worst injuries he had ever endured. Nevertheless, he refused to abandon the stage, determined to keep the fans entertained:
“In between the next two songs, Eddie was playing a little long intro and I ran over to my side of the stage and I said to my guy, ‘What’s going on?’ He’s going ‘Dude, you don’t want to know.’ And he goes, ‘Oh my God!’ He starts looking at it and saying this, right. I can’t see it. I’m like, oh my God, I’m going to faint. He goes, ‘Sit in this bucket of ice!’ He shoves me in his bucket of ice. Bottom line, make it through the show and get to the hospital. And I had a fractured tailbone, vertebrae completely knocked out of whack, and had to have stitches across it actually cut. It was brutal. So it’s the worst injury I’ve ever had because it was the first show of a 30-city tour, stadium tour. Huge pressure to do it. Never missed one show, couldn’t sing the whole damn time because I flying back and forth to my doctor.”