In a new chat with Classic Rock, Sammy Hagar revealed how much money he made off of his tequila business.
On May 7, 2007, Sammy Hagar sold 80 percent of his Cabo Wabo Tequila to Italy’s Gruppo Campari for $80 million. What started as a brand at his Cabo Wabo restaurant in Mexico, ended up being a bigger payday than Hagar’s earnings from his 24 years with bands like Montrose and Van Halen.
“When the first offer came in at about $60m, that was for the whole thing, and you know, after taxes… I just thought, I love this company, it’s making a ton of money, more than I was making in Van Halen, ever. Why do I want to sell it? But then they said, ‘How much will it take?’ I told them and they just went, ‘Okay.’ If I’d have said no to $80m, somebody would have committed me to the hospital – like, he needs psychiatric treatment,” he said during the chat.
“The thing is, I don’t do anything for money. I do it for the thrill of it. I know you’re gonna think, well, if I had your money I’d feel this way too, but I felt this way before I sold my tequila company,” he continued. “If you’re only in it for money, you’ll never be satisfied, because money does not satisfy you. It’s the trip – seeing something grow from a seed to a full-blown tree – that’s rewarding. A bunch of money in a bank is not fulfilling, unless you go count it every day.”
Hagar also revealed that he had no real need for more wealth and he was happy to give the most of the money away. “I already had everything. I already have a house in Hawaii, a house in Mexico, my main residence in California. I have five Ferraris, E-Type Jags and Aston Martins and old muscle cars. So when all that money came in I was like, Hmmm, what am I gonna do with this? So I gave millions and millions of dollars away to my family, I gave all my band members big bonuses, and I started a foundation to help kids,” he added.
With nearly three decades of experience in the tequila business, Hagar first made his mark with his award-winning Cabo Wabo brand, launching it in 1991. The rocker turned back to the tequila scene with a new venture in 2020—Santo Tequila. He teamed up with celebrity chef Guy Fieri.
“Tequila is just really my passion,” Hagar told Rolling Stone at the Santo Tequila launch event in Montana. He explained that his approach to making tequila has changed: “I’m a perfectionist now.”
Guy Fieri said of Hagar, “I’ve never heard Sammy speak competitively about anybody in music, and I don’t think you’ll ever hear me speak competitively about anybody in the business. I’m a fan of my industry and I want everybody to do great. I never want to get ahead in my business by somebody’s failure [and] I don’t want our tequila to rise to its success because of somebody’s failure.”
Before Santo Tequila, Cabo Wabo helped launch Sammy Hagar’s other liquor ventures. In 2011, he introduced Sammy’s Beach Bar Rum, made in Hawaii. Then in 2017, he launched Santo Mezquila, a blend of mescal and tequila, with Adam Levine.
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