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Sammy Hagar on the Bet He Made with Metallica in ’88 (And Who Still Owes Him Money)

Sammy Hagar shares some incredible gems on social media. A great example is a photo he shared yesterday (February 16) from 1988. In the photo, you can spot Van Halen…

Sammy Hagar and James Hetfield
Rich Polk, Noam Galai/Getty Images

Sammy Hagar shares some incredible gems on social media. A great example is a photo he shared yesterday (February 16) from 1988.

In the photo, you can spot Van Halen and some members of the supporting bands from VH's "Monsters of Rock" tour. Providing support on that tour were the Scorpions, Dokken, Kingdom Come and a tiny band out of San Francisco named Metallica. (Sarcasm FTW!)

"There's a lot of metal going on here," begins Hagar in the photo's caption. "This was the press conference for the Monsters of Rock stadium tour. I must admit we had a good time that day hanging out with all these guys. Metallica hadn't broke yet with 'Enter Sandman,' but they crushed it every night, put a big hurt on Dokken, who had to follow them, ouch!"

Hagar concluded, "I bet the members of Metallica $100 each that at the end of this tour their next record would go platinum. So far Lars [Ulrich] and Kirk [Hammett] are the only ones that paid up. Ha ha."

In other words: If James Hetfield and/or Jason Newsted are reading this right now, you owe the Red Rocker a benjamin.

Erica Banas is a news blogger who's been covering the rock/classic rock world since 2014. The coolest event she's ever covered in person was the 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. (Sir Paul McCartney inducting Foo Fighters? C'mon now!) She's also well-versed in etiquette and extraordinarily nice. #TransRightsAreHumanRights