When grunge started becoming popular in the early ’90s, Sammy Hagar invited Alice in Chains to open for Van Halen out of nervousness.
In an interview with Jenny McCarthy, Hagar admitted that the new wave of alternative rock in 1991 made him, a veteran rocker, nervous. “That was freaky, man!” he admitted. “Because I’m looking at these guys, and we were sort of the glam rock, we’re all dressed up and dressing like girls and stuff… They were like down and dirty and funky, they made me nervous. I thought, ‘These guys are gonna disrespect us.’ You know they’re gonna look at us like, ‘Your shit’s done, buddy.’”
“That’s how insecure I was,” he continued. “I said, ‘Let’s get ’em on the damn show, that way their fans will know that we’re cool!’ … It came out of fear a little bit. Not bad fear, but nervousness.”