SAMMY HAGAR Says It's 'So Much Easier To Write A Concept Record' Than It Is To Come Up With Standalone Songs

THE CIRCLE, Sammy Hagar's critically acclaimed supergroup also featuring Michael Anthony, Jason Bonham and Vic Johnson, will release its first album of all-original material, "Space Between", on May 10 via BMG.

With "Space Between", the band harnesses the depth of its artistic experiences and seminal collaborative sound with Hagar's prolific writing vein to produce an album that builds and explodes, song after song, around the concepts of money, greed, enlightenment and truth.

Speaking to Mistress Carrie of the WAAF radio station, Hagar said that he didn't originally set out to write a concept record.

"It started with a song about the beginning of money back when the Federal Reserve — I think it was 1864 or 1796, whatever it was; a long time ago — I thought about the idea of how before that, before they were printing money, how we used to make a living and how people would do it," he explained (hear audio below). "They would go work and they would barter. You'd trade for flour or gold, you'd bring pelts in and trade 'em for 50 pounds of bacon to take up to your cabin and live. It was like a whole different kind of thing."

He continued: "Anyway, I wrote this song called 'Devil Came To Philly', and I was writing about that — about the Federal Reserve, the beginning of that and how it's kind of like the root of all evil; everyone thinks money is the root of all evil. I don't wanna give the whole story away, but that's the thought that started it. And then it seemed like it kept going. And I don't know why. And then, all of a sudden, my life came into it, and I started writing about what I know about finances and business and about money and charities and greed and helping other people and all the different aspects of life. And it just seems like it kind of wrote itself. And next thing I know, I had a concept record. I mean, I stuck with it — I knew what I was doing halfway through it. But when I first started it, it wasn't gonna be a concept [album]; I just was writing one particular song about the Federal Reserve — 'Devil Came To Philly', where the first money was printed."

Hagar went on to say that he now wishes he had produced a concept album earlier in his caeer.

"I've written hundreds and hundreds of songs in my life through VAN HALEN, through MONTROSE, through CHICKENFOOT, through my solo stuff, and it's so much easier to write a concept record, like a book — the songs are chapters — and it's so much easier than trying to make up a new song, a new book in every song, and then just randomly writing about it," he said. "I don't know why I haven't done this before, because it's really easier to write chapters than it is single songs."

THE CIRCLE released a concert album, "At Your Service", in May 2015. Recorded on tour in 2014, it featured live performances of hits from Sammy's four decades of rock (MONTROSE, solo, VAN HALEN, THE WABORITAS, CHICKENFOOT) as well as classic tracks from the LED ZEPPELIN catalog.