Try Hard Hagar gives back to communities with his foundation and concerts
Sammy Hagar will be the first to tell you he isn’t out to save the world. But through his Hagar Family Foundation, his Acoustic- -a-cure benefit concerts and his support of local food banks, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer has made a considerable impact.
“I always say you have to take care of your own community first,” Hagar says. “I’m not trying to save people around the world just because I simply don’t have that kind of money. Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates: even those people don’t have that kind of money. They help, and they try, and they spend hundreds of millions of dollars, so with my little bit that I have, I try too.”
Perhaps the most prominent of Hagar’s initiatives is the annual Acoustic- -a-cure benefit show, which takes place every May at the Fillmore in San Francisco. Hagar started the series in the aftermath of his old bandmate Ronnie Montrose’s bout with prostate cancer, which led to an introduction to the staff at UC San Francisco’s Benioff Children’s Hospital. While there, Hagar was particularly taken by the work of Dr. Jean Nakamura and her research into rehabilitating children who have undergone radiation treatment. Hagar says the concert series has since raised a million dollars for the hospital.
“What is so great about Acoustic- -acure is there’s no pictures of dying babies, no doctors standing up there depressing you,” Hagar says. “At so many charity events I’m like, ‘Man, I just want to give them the money and see something beautiful.’ So I said, let’s just make it all about the music. High ticket prices, no bands, all stripped down. It’s a unique show because you get to see James Hetfield or Billie Joe Armstrong doing a Metallica or a Green Day song with an acoustic guitar — it was so successful that everyone wanted to do it. Pretty soon I was telling people, ‘Sorry we’ve got too many people.’”
On a more low-key note, Hagar also donates money from his Sammy’s Beach Bar and Grill restaurants to local charities — his Hawaii location, for example, helps provide lodging and travel costs to the families of children undergoing cancer treatments — and he is an avid supporter of food banks. His Hagar Family Foundation has donated more than $ million since its founding in , and Hagar personally writes a check to a food bank in every city he performs in.
“I go down to food banks on my days off sometimes, and I’ll see a family who seems perfectly normal and I’ll ask them what brings them to the food bank. And they’ll be like, ‘Well I’m a gardener and my wife cleans houses, but when my truck needs new tires and insurance comes due sometimes we can’t make it through the month, and the food bank is a place we can go to make ends meet.’ And to me that’s beautiful that food banks can help people like that who need it.
“My philosophy is that [philanthropy] is not something you brag about, and if a lot of people don’t know what I do, that’s just fine,” Hagar says. “But when you’re a celebrity, a lot of times you can shine light. If I’m talking about it and exploiting it a little bit, it’s because I want to bring light to it that someone else maybe can’t.”