Sammy Hagar Returns to Red Rocker Status in "Cosmic Universal Fashion"

Chickenfoot Album Promised for February 2009

Sammy Hagar, famed Red Rocker and ex-lead singer of Van Halen, has a new solo album out. Released on November 19, "Cosmic Universal Fashion" debuted on the Billboard 200 albums chart at No. 95 this week. "Cosmic Universal Fashion" is Sammy Hagar's first solo studio release in over a decade, even though 2006's "Livin' It Up," his fourth recording with his band, the Wabos, might be considered a solo album. But whereas "Livin' It Up" had a laid-back, Kenny Chesney - Jimmy Buffett feel, "Cosmic Universal Fashion" is a return to screaming guitars and riotous rock.

Hagar, who has been recording since the early 1970's, is 61, but you would never suspect it when listening to him sing. Not just because of the subject matter of his tunes - which is non-stop sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll - but by the quality of his voice, which sounds just as strong today as it did on the first songs he recorded for Montrose, the band formed by acclaimed guitarist Ronnie Montrose.

Sammy Hagar's biography reads like a guy who has never slowed down, either running full throttle as a lead singer for Montrose, Van Halen, HSAS and Planet Us (both with Journey's Neil Schon), or fronting his own solo projects. Besides his run of hit albums with Van Halen, Hagar is probably best known, appropriately enough, for his song "I Can't Drive 55," a hard-rocking tune off his solo album, "VOA," condemning the 55 miles-per-hour national legal maximum speed limit (prevalent when the song was written, obviously).

It was Hagar's time as Van Halen's lead singer where many who had not been familiar with Hagar's previous work got to hear and see the dynamic performer for the first time. After a series of hits and multi-platinum albums, Sammy Hagar left the band, although the circumstances surrounding his departure depends upon who one asks. He rejoined Van Halen for a reunion tour in the early years of the new millennium, but it did not last.