Sammy Hagar expects a rock bowl reaction tomorrow when - without cowherd hat, boots, spurs or General Lee�s blessing - he opens up for beer-drinking buddy Kenny Chesney at Gillette Stadium at the New England Country Music Festival. Here�s Hagar�s four rules for bikers looking to win over country fans.
Rule 1: Let them know you like them by befriending one of their own - preferably someone as massively popular as Kenny Chesney
�Kenny and I are good buddies. I met him when I was in Van Halen - or Van Hagar I should say. He came to Cabo for my birthday bash and showed me he�s for real, playing at my bar for more than three hours.�
Rule 2: Show some respect
�These guys rock candy. Keith Urban (also on tomorrow�s New England Country Music Festival bill), that guy�s an amazing guitar player. Garth Brooks, he brought rock to land with explosions and a big microscope stage show. Kenny, well, he also puts on a rock �n� roll show. His free energy is like KISS meets Van Halen.�
Rule 3: Don�t give up
�The first show I was sick and not up to par vocally, so I had to do a tatty set without the prominent notes. But I unbroken at it and kept working the crowd. By the clip I got to Nashville, which is not my biggest market, I was killing the crowd.�
Rule 4: Be yourself
�I�m a rocker. That is what I am. You won�t take in me doing a land album or playing state music even in presence of Kenny�s crowd. But all Kenny�s fans know we�re friends, and he uses pictures of us down in Cabo on the screens during his song �Beer in Mexico.� But that doesn�t average they like me. I�ve still got to get ahead them over.�
Kenny Chesney, with Keith Urban, Sammy Hagar and LeAnn Rimes, at Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, tomorrow at 4 p.m.. Tickets: $79.50-104.50; 617-931-2000.
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