Sammy Hagar talks about music, rum and dead Ferrari batteries
At Barrett Jackson Scottsdale 2024, Sammy Hagar went on without his Sammy beach house cocktail, his LaFerrari and Eddie Van Halen.
One of the most hard drive rock songs of the 1980s is one of the rock songs about fast cars and fast women. It was the 1984 hit “Panama.”
The song has a bit of a story that stood out when compiling a summer driving playlist. So, the story is as follows: Lore says the interviewer accused Van Halen’s then lead singer David Leellos of writing songs about sex, drugs and fast cars. Ross realised that he had never actually written a song about a fast car, so the story began to tackle “Panama.”
“I don’t like it, get her shiny machine/wheel vibe and keep the moving parts clean…” The lyrics go.
Some versions of the story believe that the song’s name comes from what stripper Ross knew. But it was also the name of the real car, David Bertinelli told the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA Today network. Bertinelli was the stepbrother of the late Eddie Van Halen when the song was written.
“Ed was writing music and David Lee Ross came up with lyrics,” Bertinelli said. “Dave had a friend who had a race car and was called Panama.”
The famous bridge for the song was the idea of Eddie Van Halen, Bertinelli said. On the bridge, Ross sings: “I can barely see the road due to the heat“Because the car’s engine is revving in the background.
The engine comes from Van Halen’s 1972 Red Lamborghini Mula S and is an anniversary gift from his wife Valerie Bertinelli, said David Bertinelli. The license plate features “Apr11” which was the anniversary.
“They wanted the engine sound to the song, so they dragged the microphone from Recording Studio 5150 (Los Angeles) into the car. There’s an asphalt driveway next to the studio.” “There was too much wind near the exhaust, so we put the microphone near the gas cap. Ed got there and spun it.”
The car had a V-12 engine. Bertinelli said he rode it that day and said, “It was fast and crazy. A gorgeous machine.”
“He drove pretty fast,” Bertinelli said of Eddie. “We used to drive a motorcycle together and Ed was lead foot. He was pulled, but they let him go.”
Van Halen’s future lead singer Sammy Hagar wasn’t that lucky. He got his ticket because he went 62 mph in the 55 mph zone in New York.
Eddie Van Halen passed away on October 6, 2020, but she was linked to Michigan through Bertinelli, who lives in Chalebova. Bertinelli’s children were raised in Clarkston when their father worked for General Motors.
Jamie L. Lareau: Please contact jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jarouan. Read more about General Motors and sign up for our automotive newsletter. Become a subscriber.
