Sammy Hagar Would Rather “Get Sick and Even Die” Than See Economy Shut Down Again
With the U.S. economy beginning to reopen in most places — and the coronavirus once again on the rise as a result, in stark contrast to Europe — opinions differ vastly on how best to move forward, with some still believing that a full-fledged return to work is not only safe but necessary.
Former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar is firmly with the latter, indicating in a recent piece for Rolling Stone that he wants to get back to touring ASAP and is willing to risk his life for it.
I’ll be comfortable playing a show before there’s a vaccine, if it’s declining and seems to be going away. I’m going to make a radical statement here. This is hard to say without stirring somebody up, but truthfully, I’d rather personally get sick and even 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. I would rather see everyone go back to work. If some of us have to sacrifice on that, OK. 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. 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. I mean, how many people die on the Earth every day? I have no idea. I’m sorry to say it, but we all gotta die, man.
The notion that his grandchildren can’t have “a life anywhere close to the life that I had in this wonderful country” is so absurd I don’t even know where to start. For starters, this country clearly isn’t very “wonderful” according to the pieces I linked in this article’s intro. But more to the point, his grandkids very much CAN have a good life… if they put things on pause for a year or so until there’s a vaccine, like the rest of us! Not a huge deal. But clearly life isn’t worth living for Sammy’s precious little ones if they can’t galavant across the landscape with reckless abandon every moment they please.
The RS piece features quotes from a number of other well-known musicians way more reasonable than Sammy, such as Stevie Nicks, David Crosby, Bruce Springsteen and more.
[via Metal Injection]
