(Credits: Far Out / Sammy Hagar)
Sun 4 January 2026 17:00, UK
Although he might be known as a heavy metal singer, rattling the rafters with a voice that could part clouds in a thunderstorm, Sammy Hagar began his musical journey wanting to be a folkie.
“I heard Donovan and thought, ‘Yeah, man, I wanna be like that.’ As a young singer and songwriter, I was really inspired by him, even more than Dylan, whom I do love, too,” the Red Rocker told Louder regarding his folk-inclined beginnings. “The record that had the biggest influence on me was Sunshine Superman.”
A measure of that magic and mysticism has always remained in Hagar’s work, no matter how disparate the genre he operates in may be on paper. The perfect midground for this straddling of dainty folk magic, and the meatier side of music is perhaps Neil Young: the only musician who can be said to be the Godfather of Grunge and yet also the creator of one of the most tender records ever rendered.
It’s the title track from this album that Hagar admires the most in Young’s wavering, wonderful back catalogue. “One of my favorite Neil Young songs, without a doubt, is ‘After The Gold Rush’,” Hagar told Stereogum before explaining his uncanny personal experience with the Canadian icon.
“Years ago, I walked into a concert of Neil’s at a theater in Portland while he was in the middle of that song,” Hagar recalled. “He was seated at a small, antique-looking pump organ type instrument that sounded amazing.” He was in awe of it all: the beauty, the invention, the endearing humility.
“That’s when I realized what the song is about,” he continued, “aliens, UFOs, almost a second coming in spaceships.” While that’s a rather literal view of something that could be viewed as rather more Kurt Vonnegut-esque, it certainly fuelled Hagar’s imagination.
“In 1975 I wrote a song called ‘Silver Lights’ about the exact same subject,” he declared. “Hearing it live, I could really hear the lyrics. It was mind-blowing, and I’m sure the haze of weed in the room made it feel even more intense.” The song, in his view, seemed to embody the same essence of dreaminess that had inspired him when he was listening to Donovan at the very start of his journey.
Now, after rising to lofty heights with Van Halen, Hagar is a huge star in his own right, and he has rubbed shoulders with Young on numerous enamoured occasions. “I’ve played a few Bridge School Benefits with him, and he’s performed it there. I just think that song is something else,” he says.
Heaping further praise on the 1970 classic, he calls it “extremely special and from a very deep place. I don’t know why I’ve never talked to him about it. When you’re standing in front of Neil Young, he can be intimidating,” he says, so intense and so real.”
That’s always been part of Young’s appeal. There might be something dainty about ‘After the Gold Rush’ and the high-pitched voice Young sings it in, but the environmentalism at the core of the classic track also embodies his fierce side, too. “Scorpios are like that,” Hagar says, “and Neil is a Scorpio. I’m a huge fan, and I consider us friends.”
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