Van Halen legend wants his own Las Vegas resort
For Sammy Hagar, it’s been a pretty conventional weekend in VegasVille. Celebrate a few benchmarks. Collect some hardware. Plug a few products. Rock the house.
And in this case, toss out an ambitious plan to develop a Las Vegas hotel-casino.
“I’ve got plans. The Cabo Wabo Resort and Casino,” Hagar said Friday just after receiving a Key to the Las Vegas Strip at his Cabo Wabo Cantina at Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood. “I really still plan on doing it, and this is the town I want to do it in. If not here, I’ll find another one.”
Hagar then grinned and said, “Folks, embrace me on this!”
This concept has been in Hagar’s head for more than a year. He imagines a high-end Cabo Wabo Steakhouse, themed bars, a spa, rolling food carts serving authentic Mexican items and, of course, a Cabo Wabo-branded nightclub for live music.
“I’ve got a few owners who are saying, ‘Yeah, we’ll round up the money if you really want to do it,’” Hagar said. “And I really want to, but right now we’re just batting things around.”
The couple hundred Redheads, members of Hagar’s international fan club, would be there for the groundbreaking and ribbon cutting of Sammy’s Cabo Wabo Resort. As it was, they hung out for a couple of hours as Hagar’s key event was to be staged outside the Cabo Wabo Cantina club on the Strip.
The event went off late, because Clark County Commissioner Jim Gibson was caught in an F1-construction-related traffic snag (locals were quick to notice that karmic occurrence).
It turns out the commissioner also can’t drive 55.
But the celebration was happy, if hot, as Hagar celebrated the club’s 15th anniversary (yours truly introduced Hagar and Gibson, having also attended the opening in 2009).
Approaching his 77th birthday on Oct. 13, the Red Rocker would later play a Redheads party-concert at Pearl at the Palms with The Circle, his tour-de-force backing band of bassist Michael Anthony, guitarist Vic Johnson and drummer Kenny Aranoff, filling in for Jason Bonham on this gig.
Rick Springfield showed up, as is his wont at Hagar events, and raced through “I’ve Done Everything For You.” The song originally written and recorded by Hagar, and did nothing. But Springfield’s cover was a top-10 hit as a follow-up to “Jesse’s Girl.”
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Springfield was in town to perform the Downtown Rocks free-concert series finale on Fremont Street. These two rockers go way back, and are business partners in the Sammy’s Beach Bar cocktail brand.
Hagar is just coming off his “Best of All Worlds” tour and spent the balance of his weekend in full revelry at his Sammy’s Island party platform at the Palms.
Hagar mixed his own hits with Van Halen classics on the just-completed tour. This was a high-volume experience. Rock superstar Joe Satriani’s guitar was (reportedly) turned up to 11.
“Joe plays so loud because he’s got to have a certain volume to get his feedback, and the things to be able to do what he does,” Hagar said. “And I understand, but boy. Then Mikey said, ‘Well, I’ve got to turn up, too, so I can hear myself!’ It was the loudest band I’ve ever, ever been in.”
And he was in Van Halen.
On the VH topic, Hagar still hasn’t heard from his former band mate, drummer Alex Van Halen, who is about to release his autobiography, “Brothers,” on Oct. 22.
“I reached out, but I’m not going to reach out to Alex anymore. He doesn’t want to be friends. I’m not going to chase somebody, but I still love the guy,” Hagar said. “Maybe he is disliking me for some reason. Maybe I’m way too happy for him. I’m too happy for a lot of people.”
As if to punctuate the point, Hagar laughed.
“You know, the only people I’ve ever made enemies with are people that are miserable,” he said. “I drive them crazy after a while.”
Tease this
A bonafide R&B legend has signed off for a full-scale, musical adaptation of his band’s rise to fame. Think Four Seasons and “Jersey Boys,” but with funk, and a story for all time.
Who Was Where
Jack Ma, the billionaire founder of multinational technology conglomerate Alibaba Group, was at Omnia at Caesars Palace on Friday night.
When you have that kind of money, you can wade into the booth with star DJ Martin Garrix, which Ma did.
Cool Hang Alert
The flawless vocalist Chadwick Johnson plays Myron’s at the Smith Center at 7 p.m. Tuesday. “What the World Needs Now” features the music of Burt Bacharach and Quincy Jones, from Johnson’s new EP, “Seasons Change,” which is out now. Johnson is backed by A-plus players Jason Corpuz on piano, Nick Schmitt on bass, Jeremy Klewicki on drums, Tasos Peltekis on guitar, Adrianna Thurber on violin, and Sarah Chaffee on cello.
I’ve been tracking C.J. for about a decade in Vegas, and he’s the real deal. Go to thesmithcenter.com for intel.
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John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.