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Discussing his new memoir, he says there's a '90 percent chance' the band will reunite – 'if Eddie was totally cool'
Sammy Hagar's new autobiography Red: My Uncensored Life In Rock (in stores on March 15th) traces the singer's long career from his days in the 1970s hard rock band Montrose to his insane ride in Van Halen through the formation of his supergroup Chickenfoot.
The new issue of Rolling Stone (on sale and in the online archive Friday) has an exclusive excerpt focusing on Van Halen's disastrous 2004 reunion tour that was nearly derailed due to Eddie Van Halen's alcoholism. We chatted with Hagar about why he decided to write the book - and whether or not he'd ever return to Van Halen. (For more on the book check out Hagar's website.)

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If there was ever a guitar with a split personality, it’s the Telecaster.

On the one hand, it’s universally regarded as the number-one country electric guitar. The Telecaster was built for western swing guitarists, introduced by that name in 1951 and thus pre-dating rock ‘n’ roll by nearly half a decade. Its bright signature twang became one of the defining and enduring sounds of country music, and it was the electric guitar of choice for pioneer hit makers such as Merle Haggard, Buck Owens and Waylon Jennings, and for noted sidemen such as James Burton and Luther Perkins. More than half a century later, the Telecaster’s status as the king of country hasn’t diminished a bit. It’s still preferred by the sharpest players and songwriters atop the modern country charts—artists such as Brad Paisley, Marty Stuart, Vince Gill, Keith Urban and many others.

Far removed from the twang of Nashville and Bakersfield, though, the Telecaster has led a fascinating double life. For on the other hand—and often on the other side of the Atlantic—the Telecaster has been the weapon of choice for some of rock’s most inventive legends, innovators and iconoclasts.

Rock ‘n’ roll embraced the Telecaster with open arms and open minds. Rock royals Keith Richards, George Harrison, Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Ray Davies have all played it. So did 1960s psychedelic godfathers Syd Barrett and Jimmy Page. In the mid-1970s, punk patriarch Joe Strummer led a revolution while brandishing a Telecaster. Later that decade, the Police at first flew the punk flag but made no attempt to disguise the smart chops and startling creativity of Andy Summers, who forged a widely imitated post-punk guitar sound with his battered Telecaster as the trio rose to chart-topping world success in the 1980s. A decade later in the mid-1990s, an inventive new generation of Britpop guitarists emerged, led by Blur’s Graham Coxon and Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood, both of whom were devoted Telecaster players.

How strange and wonderful then that the same guitar that is the plaintive sound of Waylon Jennings’ sly “Mental Revenge” (1966) is also the seismic sound of one of rock’s most famous debut albums, Led Zeppelin (1969).

And how interesting that the same electric guitar that was put to such dexterous use in the 1950s by lightning-fast western swing ace Jimmy Bryant still exists in the 2000s—and basically unchanged, at that—and is put to equally nimble use by Rob Zombie’s talented shredder, John 5.

The Telecaster provides the main instrumental sound of both these albums, 1969’s Led Zeppelin (above) and Brad Paisley’s 2009 American Saturday Night.

How curious, too, that the same electric guitar that the great Muddy Waters once used to electrify the Delta blues so forcefully in the 1940s and ’50s is the same guitar that bemasked Slipknot guitarist Jim Root currently uses to pulverize metal audiences worldwide.

The Telecaster inhabits different musical worlds that couldn’t possibly be farther apart, yet it manages to sound right at home on a foot-tapping ’60s-era Buck Owens single, an atmospheric ’70s-era Pink Floyd album, a chiming ’80s-era pop hit by the Pretenders, an artsy ’90s-era electronic excursion by Radiohead and a 2000-era de-tuned nu-metal onslaught by Slipknot.

All this from the greatest country music guitar ever. Indeed, the Telecaster still rules the form for which it was intended and invented. Real country music still sounds the way it does because a Telecaster still sounds like, well, like itself.

No other famous electric guitar model seems to enjoy such a musically versatile dichotomy. You think of the Telecaster’s ubiquitous sibling, the Stratocaster®, and you think mainly of famous rock players and blues legends. It’s not necessarily the first electric guitar that leaps to mind at the mention of country music even though plenty of country players swear by it. As indispensable as the Stratocaster is, it doesn’t have quite the air that its older brother has that it naturally lives in two different places at once.

The Telecaster does leap to mind at the mention of both country music and rock music. And as modern music continues to grow around the Telecaster, the more unusual that feat seems. And so perhaps we shouldn’t say that the time-honored Telecaster suffers from a split personality. Rather, we should say that the Telecaster enjoys a split personality. The great players and forces that drive the creation of music, it appears, wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Jake E Lee

Ozzy Osbourne's "other" guitarist, Jakey Lou Williams was for a long time the "also-ran" guitarist who joined bands and then left before they got famous - he did this with Mickey Ratt, who later became RATT, with Rough Cutt, and in Dio - each time not staying long enough to contribute to the band'sdebut release. His turn came around however, joining Ozzy Osbourne after the untimely demise of Randy Rhoads. He played on Bark At The Moon, and then on The Ultimate Sin, both of which are some of Ozzy Osbourne's strongest material. He is often overlooked however, due to the iconic status of Randy Rhoads, and the imposing presence of the man who replaced him, Zakk Wylde. He left Ozzy Osbourne's band in 1987, briefly playing in the band Badlands before fading to a relative obscurity.


Micky Moody

So many high profile guitar heroes have done a stint in Whitesnake, including such famous names as John Sykes, Steve Vai, Warren DeMartini and Vivian Campbell, that Michael Joseph "Micky" Moody is often overlooked and not given his due. Micky Moody, however, was the original guitarist, and played on nine of the band's albums - more than half of the band's catalogue! His tenure in the band was for 6 years, making him one of the longest serving guitarists in the band - On this score he is edged out by Adrian Vandenberg, Reb Beach and Doug Aldrich - however he probably takes solace in the fact that these guys devote a significant amount of their time reprising music that he created.


Craig Goldy

Another alumnus of the LA band Rough Cutt, Craig Goldy stayed in the band long enough to contribute to their early material. He followed a similar path to Jake E Lee by moving from that band to play in Dio, this time after the band had had two extremely succesful albums with guitarist Vivian Campbell. He contributed to the albums Dream Evil, Master of the Moon, and Magica - some of the very favourites for die-hard Dio fans. He was the last guitarist in the band, although was replaced on tours by Doug Aldrich for some dates, due to hand injuries.


Ross The Boss

Ross "The Boss" Friedman invented New York Punk, and then went on to play heavy metal in the loudest band in the world. In 1973 he cofounded The Dictators, the New York rock band that invented punk music. This band, along with the New York Dolls, influenced the punk rock bands that came later in the '70s and caused much public controversy, including The Ramones and The Sex Pistols.

By 1978, after three albums, The Dictators had disbanded and Ross The Boss had become a guitarist for hire. In 1980, backstage at a Black Sabbath concert in England, Ross The Boss met Joey DeMaio and together they founded Manowar, who went on to become one of the biggest bands in heavy metal, and still hold the world record for being the loudest band ever.

As a guitarist, Ross The Boss was a master of "tight but loose", playing with conviction and feel, with one foot in the blues and one foot in shred guitar. At the moment he plays in The Dictators as well as in the Ross The Boss Band.


Tracii Guns

The founder of LA Guns, and of Guns N Roses, Tracii Guns never quite became the household name that many of his contemporaries like Slash, Axl and Nikki Sixx did. This is a shame, because he is one of the best songwriters, performers and musicians of that era. A man who effortlessly and seamless combined blues, rockabilly and country with punk, rock, shred and metal, he's one of only very few guitarists who can claim to be both versatile and uniquely idiosyncratic. Tracii guns still plays in LA Guns today, and now uses a Floyd Rose equipped Telecaster-style electric guitar along with Marshall amplifiers.

Dan Hawkins

The "other" guitarist in The Darkness, Dan Hawkins was often overshadowed by his by his older brother Justin Hawkins, the flamboyant singer/electric guitar player/frontman for the band. It's easy to see why Justin got so much of the limelight - his falsetto singing, stage poses, adventurous outfits and outrageous performances onstage, and his hijinks and misadventures offstage were always bound to get the most attention from critics, journalists and fans alike. But the whole time while Justin was running around, pouting, and drinking enough champagne to drown Andorra, Dan Hawkins was there laying down the riffs and the hooks that made the band famous. With a killer tone delivered by the classic pairing of a Gibson Les Paul and a Marshall stack, he was also a key songwriter for the band, and was involved in the production of the albums. He now plays in the band Stone Gods.

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