Rocker Recalls Horrific Fall on Stage: Metal Stairs 'Cut Through My Leather Pants'

Former Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar has revealed that he suffered a "brutal" injury during the opening night of the Monsters of Rock tour in 1988 that left the Red Rocker with blood pouring out of his backside.

What made matters worse -- he had to tough it out and continue the show and the rest of the 30-city stadium tour.

Hagar made the reveal in a post on his YouTube channel titled "Most Memorable Stage Injury - Storytime #58." As Hagar recalls in the clip, the tour had a few different stage setups, and the band didn't get to rehearse on that stage before the gig.

"So, it had these metal stairs...and I hadn't performed on 'em, so the first song, 'Summer Nights.' I'm singing the first chorus, I'm stepping backwards. I stumbled onto the stairs and hit my tailbone right in the corner of one of them metal things. And it actually cut through my leather pants. And I was numb, completely numb...So I reached back...Bloody hand. I'm going 'Oh, my God.' And I felt the bump back there as big as a frickin' orange."

Thankfully, Eddie Van Halen played a long intro between the two next songs in the set, which allowed Hagar time to go to the side of the stage and get checked out.

"I ran over to my side of the stage and I said to my guy, 'What's going on?' He's going, 'Dude, you don't want to know.' And he goes, 'Oh my God!'"

Hagar says at that point, he felt as if he was going to faint. The roadie advised him to sit in a bucket of ice to relieve the pain and bring down the swelling.

"Bottom line. Make it through the show and get to the hospital," Hagar says. "I had a fractured tailbone, vertebrae completely knocked out of whack and had to have stitches across it...It was brutal...It's the worst injury I've ever had."

Although Hagar never missed a date, he says he "couldn't sing the whole damn time" because he had to fly back and forth to see his doctor. "I couldn't hit the high note in 'Eagles Fly' because I had a sinus infection [and] an ear infection from flying, and the throat...I got run down. I got sick."

Not only that, Hagar had to receive a steroid shot in his back every day so he "could stand up straight."

"It was brutal. Horrible," he recalls. "You don't ever want that to happen to you."

There was one bright side. Hagar met Sting during that time at his doctor's office. No word, however, whether the Police frontman gave Hagar any tips on tantric sex.

Tags

Sammy Hagar, Van Halen, Sting