Catching Up With Sammy Hagar
HAMMER: Welcome back to SHOWBIZ TONIGHT. I`m A. J. Hammer in New York, and right now it`s a SHOWBIZ exclusive, hanging with Hagar. Now I got together with the legendary Sammy Hagar just before he rocked the House of Blues in New Orleans. It`s part of the big dance concert series. And I learned very quickly that any time that Sammy is around, it`s a party. The man, after all, did launch his own tequila company. But would he trade all of the good times on stage for a gig perhaps as a singing show judge on TV? Well, you got to hear what Sammy told me about that. But first, he tells me why if he`s not performing in Cabo San Lucas at his infamous Cabo Wabo Cantina, there`s only one place he wants to be, and that`s New Orleans.</s>SAMMY HAGAR, SINGER: Well, Cabo San Lucas, New Orleans, Las Vegas, those are party towns. Really, I love playing these towns because it`s like the party is already here. We just go join it.</s>HAMMER: I was a little surprised, Sammy, you know, you walked into the bar. I half expected you to just go behind the bar for a second to make sure they were properly featuring. Well, just in case, I checked for you. I did my research --</s>HAGAR: Thank you, sir.</s>HAMMER: -- and I made sure that the Cabo Wabo brand was represented here at the house.</s>HAGAR: I`ve got one in my -- well, if -- at worse, I just represent this way. But I`ve got one in my dressing room. So I`m cool. We roll with a bunch of them. But the truth of the matter is I think they have it here part of the time or most of the time. You know, people market things and put their name brand on anything, and then they show me the bottle of tequila. I didn`t put my name on that. I invented that. I put the bottles and put the tequila in them and put the corks in them myself. I mean, I totally started that from scratch.</s>HAMMER: That was not a little vanity project.</s>HAMMER: A lot of stars, particularly female stars and some men as well, they`ll come -- the brand will come up with a perfume with them, and then they go into a factory and they sniff a bunch of perfumes and then slap their name on it. You came up with the tequila.</s>HAGAR: No, the whole name, the brand, we built the Cabo Wabo, the whole nine yards. So I didn`t slap my name on nothing.</s>HAMMER: You know, you obviously with the kind of career you have had and the longevity you have had, you worked long and hard to get there. It`s not lost on anybody. It`s a much different game now. Fame and success comes much differently and in different ways than it used to. There are people and some quite talented people who get instant fame whether it be because of YouTube or they went on one of these music competitions or reality shows. Anything wrong with that in your mind? Is it just a different day?</s>HAGAR: Just a different day. There`s nothing wrong with anything. You know, I`m a firm believer. I even -- the whole thing about giving the music away, I think it straightened a lot of record companies that had been really tough on artists and they ripped so many people off. They -- you know, karma comes around. I`m OK with playing music for free, giving music away. I`m OK with all that. You know, you got to find a way that makes people more creative.</s>HAMMER: Were you ever approached to be a judge on one of these shows?</s>HAGAR: Yes, I was.</s>HAMMER: Because it`s -- I was -- I -- just look at you. I`m thinking it`s perfect.</s>HAGAR: I`ve done numerous shows. One of the ones I really like a lot, I won`t say who it is, and I turned it down. I was with my management this afternoon flying in here. We were talking on the plane about doing this and doing that. And I just said, you know, I really don`t want to do TV, because I get offered tons of TV. And I don`t want to do it, because it`s hard work. All right. I admit it.</s>HAMMER: Everybody always wants to know and you have said not all that long ago that you feel it is inevitable that one day you will find yourself back on stage with Van Halen. My question --</s>HAGAR: Whoo.</s>HAMMER: My question -- you said it.</s>HAGAR: OK.</s>HAMMER: But here`s my question. First of all, do you still feel that way?</s>HAGAR: So much water would probably have to go under the bridge. I`m really not interested right now, anyway, but I haven`t been asked. So I`m not like saying no, because I haven`t been asked. They`re doing a tour right now, and it`s doing great and I`m really happy that Eddie seems to be on a good foot and healthy, and that`s the most important thing for that band.</s>HAMMER: And a lot of fans obviously think it would be really cool to see a Van Halen reunion with Sammy Hagar one day, so never say never. And if you feel really inspired by all of Sammy`s energy and enthusiasm, you might feel a bit more inspired when I tell you he`s 64 years old. That is inspiring. Oh, pretty woman. Tonight brand-new ugly fury against the woman who claims she`s so beautiful other women hate her. Freelance columnist Samantha Brick is speaking out today about the backlash that she`s gotten since writing a column in U.K.`s "The Daily Mail" about the downside of her unrelenting beauty. She tells the "Today" show`s Ann Curry she`s not full of herself.</s>CURRY: You use the word "I" at least 60 times in your article. And so I think the question has been to be posed, I mean, are you aware of how narcissistic your piece sounded? And upon review, do you think that perhaps you should have written it maybe a little differently if you really wanted to make your point?</s>SAMANTHA BRICK, FREELANCE COLUMNIST: Well, the piece is a first-person piece. It`s about my experience and my life, so drawing on other people`s experiences, I wouldn`t be qualified to do that. If I was writing a much more generic piece, then of course, I could have done that. Really, it was just a tricorative (ph), A. It wasn`t to have a kind of global vitriolic attack on me as an individual, which is what`s happened.</s>HAMMER: OK. Guess this controversy won`t be dying down anytime soon. Moving on now to Giuliana`s cancer confession. Tonight, reality show Giuliana Rancic opens up about her battle with breast cancer and how life has been since having a double mastectomy. Giuliana and her husband, Bill Rancic, right here tonight with an update on how she`s doing. It is a must-see headline-making Showbiz newsmaker interview. And he`s the king of the deep sea. "Titanic" director James Cameron voyages to the deepest point on Earth and SHOWBIZ TONIGHT is there.</s>JAMES CAMERON, DIRECTOR AND EXPLORER: At a certain point I said, you know what, just stop. Just stop the vehicle and just take a look out the window with your own eyes. I had to just take a moment and kind of bear witness and feel the weight of the water over my head.</s>HAMMER: SHOWBIZ TONIGHT goes inside James Cameron`s absolutely incredible journey to the bottom of the earth. This is SHOWBIZ TONIGHT on HLN, news and views. Now the SHOWBIZ "News Ticker." These are more stories from the SHOWBIZ TONIGHT newsroom, making news tonight.