SAMMY HAGAR On 'Occupy Wall Street': 'I Don't Believe In Tearing Down The System'

Bryan Reesman of the Attention Deficit Delirium recently spoke to the members of CHICKENFOOT about the ongoing "Occupy Wall Street" protests assailing income inequality, joblessness and big banks.

According to the Associated Press, the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters say they're fighting for the "99 percent," or the vast majority of Americans who do not fall into the wealthiest 1 percent of the population; their causes range from bringing down Wall Street to fighting global warming. The movement gained traction through social media, and protests have taken place in several other cities nationwide.

"It just blows my mind the idea of taking Wall Street down," CHICKENFOOT singer Sammy Hagar told Attention Deficit Delirium. "I've never been a stock guy. When I sold my tequila company, it went public then. I wasn't public before. I don't believe in taking other people's money and doing things with it. Everything I've ever done has been my own money and my own thing. I don't endorse. The closest thing I came to getting involved with a big corporation was when I sold the tequila company to Gruppo Campari, who gave me enough money to change my life. I did it because I was over my head. It wasn't for sale, but they offered and I went, 'Fuck! How can I turn this down?' And the company was driving me crazy. It was too big. It exploded and was taking too much of my brainpower and my beach time. I never put my money in stocks. I've had some every now and then, but it's not my game. I have a theory about what you do with your money. You invest in your family, your friends and yourself, mainly yourself. When I built Cabo Wabo, I took my own money and built it in Mexico. I went down and took my money to buy the bottles to put the tequila in. I didn't go to the bank or take on partners to invest in it. I did it all with my own stuff, and I'm a believer in that."

When asked if he supports the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters, Hagar replied, "I don't necessarily support them because I don't believe in tearing down the system. I really don't. I think tearing down the system is a real negative. It puts too many people in too bad positions We need to make change, but we need to do it through the right channels and slow enough to where you don't just tear it down and leave rubble."

CHICKENFOOT guitarist Joe Satriani appeared to take a slightly different stance.

"I think it's fantastic," he said about the "Occupy Wall Street" protests. "I've been reading books about the financial crisis, and I'm really mad. But I don't do good walking around carrying placards and singing slogans. I'm just not like my friend Tom Morello. He's perfect for that. He's a genius and such a smart and good guy, besides being an amazing guitar player. But he's at home in that. I participate from afar. This is America. People have the ability to let the powers that be know what's really going on and what they're thinking, and I don't think they really need a solution. That's not their point to say, 'This is what we want and this is how you're going to do it for us.' That's ridiculous to think that that's the case. I think people have the need and the right to express themselves over the horror over of what transpired in the last 30 years between [all of] the administrations and, I hate to use the term Wall Street, because we're really talking about a teeny 2% of people who really went nuts. The rest of the people are good Americans who are working just like the rest of us."

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