This could've been the face of Pantera
In a recent interview to plug his new book, Sammy Hagar claimed that he was abducted by aliens. Earlier this week in an interview with Forbes, he made a claim that would suggest that said aliens must’ve fucked with his head big time – stating that he was asked to be in Pantera, among other bands.
I was asked at one time to be in Mötley Crüe. I was asked at one time to be in Pantera by their managers. I was asked to be in Velvet Revolver when Scott Weiland quit and went back to the Stone Temple Pilots. I was waiting to be asked to be in Led Zeppelin to say no, since they were the greatest band on earth and no could replace Robert Plant. I was asked to be in Aerosmith and I said no.
Sam-tera? While that makes no sense, Metal Insider got confirmation from management that he actually was asked. They didn’t offer the time period in which it happened, but we assume that it was either post-Reinventing the Steel while Anselmo was busy with Superjoint Ritual and Down, or way back in the day when they were still a near-glam band. Given Dime, Vinnie and Rex’s love of classic rock (as evidenced by their cover of Ted Nugent’s “Cat Scratch Fever), it’s entirely conceivable that they’d have wanted Hagar in the band. But just because they wanted him in the band doesn’t mean it would have been a good fit. Trying to imagine Sammy Hagar sing “Walk” or “Mouth For War” is hard to wrap your head around. And while Sammy can definitely sing, having a Hawaiian shirt-wearing tequila salesman fronting one of the most badass bands of all time would have been a head-scratcher to say the least. Mötley Crüe, on the other hand, sounds crazy enough to work. I mean, Sammy would’ve been a more conventional choice to replace Vince Neil than John Corabi.
