Rocker Sammy Hagar said he’s willing to sacrifice people to the coronavirus ― himself included ― if it means saving the economy.
The former Van Halen frontman told Rolling Stone magazine on Tuesday that he would also be happy to play shows “before there’s a vaccine, if it’s declining and seems to be going away.”
“I’m going to make a radical statement here. This is hard to say without stirring somebody up, but truthfully, I’d rather personally get sick and even die, if that’s what it takes,” the musician said as part of an article that asked touring artists how they were coping with being off the road.
“We have to save the world and this country from this economic thing that’s going to kill more people in the long run,” Hagar continued, saying he would “rather see everyone go back to work” and “if some of us have to sacrifice on that, OK.”
“I will die for my children and my grandchildren to have a life anywhere close to the life that I had in this wonderful country. That’s just the way that I feel about it,” he added. “I’m not going to go around spreading the disease. But there may be a time where we have to sacrifice. I mean, how many people die on the Earth every day? I have no idea. I’m sorry to say it, but we all gotta die, man.”
Meanwhile, John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival described the pandemic as “so real and so scary and life-threatening.”
“Maybe some other guy thinks it’s a good idea, but I’m not dying for Donald Trump,” Fogerty said of state reopenings. “I’m not dying for the economy. How can you have any kind of a crowd?”
Hagar’s comments came as multiple states announced record spikes in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases following last month’s easing of restrictions aimed at slowing the virus’s spread.
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