The Price of Sammy

My first record, (the big black 12 inch fine grooved vinyl disk that you played with a player that had a needle) I ever purchased was Van Halen II. The second was Sammy Hagar, and I was hooked. Sammy became my man long before “I can’t drive 55.”  I attempted to adopt Red as my favorite color since that was Sammy’s (known as the Red Rocker.)

                “You don’t know what it does to me

                My crimson sin intensity

                I’m haunted by the mystery

                The mystery of red.”

How he feels about Red is how I feel about purple. When he hooked up with Van Halen as lead singer it was a music match made in heaven for me. (I must admit, I liked Sammy better as a solo artist.)  Now it’s time to knock items off my bucket list and one of them is see Sammy play on his birthday at his bar, Cabo Wabo in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico October 13. This is been an ongoing event, well…for a long time.

This is the year I see Sammy on his birthday, and I’m taking my husband (the country guy that he is.)  And even a bigger deal; we have tickets which was not an easy task.

Years ago, the birthday bash was free. My neighbor who has been lucky enough to see Sammy play on that date told me how she waited in line at his bar for more than 24 hours and was one of the last ones to gain tickets. Okay, 24 hours in line I could do that. But a few things have changed. To avoid long lines, line jumpers and just flat out unfairness (is that even a word) Birthday bash tickets are now being sold on Sammy’s web site. For less than a minute. Forty seconds. Gone. Maybe even thirty.

I joined the Red Rocker web site, and signed up for email alerts. The first day tickets were going to be sold I was starting my new temporary part time job with the State of Oregon after being laid off after working for the same company almost 14 years (no bitterness there) and I didn’t think I could jump on the work computers to buy Sammy tickets. I gave my husband very strict instructions on how to open several browsers and attempt to start buying tickets before the go on sale.  He knew he had to score tickets or not come home. As fate would have it, Sammy’s web site crashed and no one got tickets.  And my husband came home.

The second attempt was several weeks later. Same deal. Husband to open several browsers and score two tickets or else. Less than five minutes after tickets were suppose to be release my husband walks into my workplace. My heart dropped. What happened?? Was he coming in person to tell me he couldn’t come home? No tickets?? Quite the opposite. I jumped for joy! Sammy, here I come! I have the email conformation of tickets. The conformation sounded fairly stern, if you were caught selling your tickets they would be revoked and you'd be thrown into a Mexico prison. (I made that last part up.)

A couple weeks later, another email from Sammy. Nothing is in stone yet. The web site and the “team” was still validating the tickets making sure everyone played by the rules.

A month later, and one month before the show, another email. Our tickets will  be released to us upon arrival to Cabo. Must bring ID and tickets are only released at noon a day before the show.  We’ve been “okay’ed” to pick up our purchased tickets. This is serious business.

We got lucky. We made arrangements for our hotel nine months ago. Purchased airfare eight months ago with the sole purpose of going to Sammy Hagar’s birthday bash. I had no idea it would be this difficult to get tickets for one of three shows he is playing his birthday week. According to the web site, he is going to release a few more tickets a couple of days before his show, in person. Looks like we’ll be standing in line for a day. I want that experience.

Sammy, here I come.

Mas Tequila! Prost!