Sammy Hagar purchased an early sign of how contentious his 2004 reunion with Van Halen would be when he was banned from carrying Cabo Wabo garments onstage.

Hagar and his Van Halen bandmates introduced the Cabo Wabo cantina in 1990 in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico straight away right after the singer fell in adore with the city. A extended time later on, with the club in economical and authorized distress, Hagar acquired out his bandmates’ pursuits. He was not only capable to adjust all more than the venue’s fortunes but also released a really lucrative tequila brand underneath the identical title. He departed Van Halen in 1996 just right after a collection of escalating revolutionary and occupation route disagreements.

“At the time they failed to care [about Cabo Wabo],” Hagar defined in his guide Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock. “But by the reunion, the tequila was everywhere and persons were always coming up and chatting about the cantina. It drove them nuts.”

According to Hagar, the Van Halen brothers went to great lengths to hold Hagar’s model title off their stage. “They place it in the agreement that I could not dress in any Cabo Wabo T-shirts onstage or mention just about anything about the tequila or the cantina on the mike.”

Having mentioned that, the Red Rocker correct away came up with a backup tactic. “I went straight to a tattoo parlor and I received this giant Cabo Wabo tattoo on my shoulder. I realized we would be carrying huge online video screens and that, as the guide vocalist, I was going to get plenty of near-ups on those large video clip screens. I failed to will need a t-shirt.”

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He hid his new and nonetheless-healing tattoo from his bandmates by sporting prolonged-sleeve shirts all through rehearsals. Bassist Michael Anthony understood the prime secret and seized on the probability to mess with his buddy, jokingly slapping him on the shoulder every single and every single probability he received. “It harm like a mother with all that black in the tattoo,” Hagar recalled.

When the tour kicked off on June 11, 2004 in Greensboro, N.C. the tattoo turned out to be the least of Hagar’s issues. Eddie Van Halen was in the midst of a considerable compound abuse fight, usually rendering the typically dazzling guitarist incapable of performing up to his regular benchmarks in the course of the reside shows – and vulnerable to violent and emotional outbursts offstage. “I was just hoping it was heading to be terrific and most individuals was heading to be content material and a considerable get pleasure from fest and just go at it as soon as far more,” Hagar told NBC in 2011, “but it was not that at all. It was the extensive reverse.”

Hagar attempted to quit the tour just a few displays in, but was forced to trip it out when his lawyer pointed out that according to the conditions of the agreement he could be liable for upwards of $5 million in misplaced profits penalties.

Just in advance of the past show – Nov. 19 in Tuscon – Hagar claims Eddie produced a futile attempt to protect up Hagar’s Cabo Wabo tattoo. “He arrived up to me just before the show and rolled my sleeve down more than my tattoo. I failed to even admit him. I just rolled it back again up. He rolled it back again down. I rolled it again up. ‘Don’t be fucking with my shirt, dude,’ I said.”

The band barely manufactured it by the concert. “It was the worst demonstrate we might ever finished in our lives. …I went straight to my plane soon after the exhibit and home to San Francisco,” Hagar recalled in his 2011 e book. “I under no circumstances spoke to him all over again right after telling him to continue to keep his hand off my shirt.”

Hagar and Van Halen eventually reconciled, shortly right before the guitarist’s 2020 death. In 2007, Hagar marketed an 80% fascination in his Cabo Wabo tequila manufacturer for a whopping $80 million. Three a long time afterwards, he sold his remaining stake for an additional $11 million. The singer nevertheless owns the Cabo Wabo cantina and performs there for his yearly birthday celebration concerts.