Sammy Hagar: “Here’s How I Met Eddie Van Halen”
As Sammy Hagar fans know, the “I Can’t Drive 55” songwriter has a thing for fast cars.
He recently got together with another automobile aficionado—Jay Leno—to talk about his collection for the premiere episode of Jay Leno’s Garage.
While showing Leno the 1982 Ferrari 512BB he used for the “I Can’t Drive 55” music video, Hagar recalled how the car played a role in his meeting Eddie Van Halen and, eventually, joining Van Halen.
Check out the relevant clip from the show below. We’ve also include the original “I Can’t Drive 55” video at bottom.
Get The Pick Newsletter
All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!
Christopher Scapelliti is editor-in-chief of Guitar Player magazine, the world’s longest-running guitar magazine, founded in 1967. In his extensive career, he has authored in-depth interviews with such guitarists as Pete Townshend, Slash, Billy Corgan, Jack White, Elvis Costello and Todd Rundgren, and audio professionals including Beatles engineers Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott. He is the co-author of Guitar Aficionado: The Collections: The Most Famous, Rare, and Valuable Guitars in the World, a founding editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine, and a former editor with Guitar World, Guitar for the Practicing Musician and Maximum Guitar. Apart from guitars, he maintains a collection of more than 30 vintage analog synthesizers.

“I walk in and Hans has me sit down. And he goes, ‘Let’s just get down to business. I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately’”: After his spiritual awakening, Tim Henson is ready for anything – heavy Polyphia, trippy solo records and A-list film collabs

“There’s amazing players like Josh Smith and Eric Gales, and I thought, ‘OK, I’ve been missing out. I’m learning the blues’”: Tosin Abasi said he wanted to release a blues album – is it still on the cards?