Montrose talks Hagar reunion

Axeman Ronnie believes he and Chickenfoot singer Sammy could perform together in the future – if they can find time
Ronnie Montrose

We'll ride again: Montrose

Guitarist Ronnie Montrose hopes he and former Montrose singer Sammy Hagar can find the time to perform together again.

Hagar fronted the band for hit tracks Bad Motor Scooter and Rock Candy, and sang on the band’s first two albums, Montrose and Paper Money. He left in 1974 to pursue a solo career and later joined Van Halen before winding up in supergroup Chickenfoot.

But Montrose is hoping the pair can get together once more – although he doesn’t believe they’ll record any new material.

He tells Bakersfield.com: “There will never be any recording or touring in that sense, but Sammy and I still talk.

“He’s busy doing his thing and I’m doing mine. We may do a reunion show for fun, and literally at this point in our lives it would be just for fun.

“I’m sure there will come a day when Sammy and I will share a stage together and play some of the old songs.”

The guitarist continues to insist that, despite the reputation of his band’s self-titled 1973 album, he was never a heavy metal musician.

“I considered Montrose heavy rock,” he says. “Heavy metal to me is bands like Metallica and Megadeth in the 80s. My heroes were Zeppelin, Free and Deep Pruple. In my mind, because of my own sensibilities, and my – for lack of better terms – nomenclature and semantics, all of us, including Aerosmith, were not metal. It was all heavy rock.”