Sammy Hagar’s The Circle Completes ‘Concept’ Album of Original Material
Rob Smith
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Sammy Hagar’s supergroup The Circle — featuring the Red Rocker along with bassist Michael Anthony, drummer Jason Bonham and guitarist Vic Johnson — has reportedly finished their first album of original material, and there’s a bit of a concept behind the project.
Speaking with Sonic Perspectives, Bonham said the as-yet-untitled record will be a "concept kind of album" that is meant to be played from start to finish, rather than picked apart song by song.
“What [Hagar] wanted to do was do something very different than he's ever done,” Bonham explained, “which is send you on a journey, like the old days ... where the placement of each [song] is vital for it to make sense."
The Circle’s debut record, At Your Service, was a live album containing classic cuts from Hagar’s back catalog (solo and with Montrose and Van Halen) and Led Zeppelin, owing to the work Bonham’s father John did with that band.
Bonham told Sonic Perspectives that the final track for the new Circle album was completed last month. “On Father's Day, I was on tour and I went into the studio,” he said, “because [Hagar] sent me a new song that he wanted to add to the album. … I had a day off [and] did that. And literally I got the mix back from [Hagar] yesterday.”
There are no details yet on when The Circle’s new album will be released, or whether there are plans for the band to tour in support of it.
Bonham, as he mentioned, is currently on tour with his band Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening, opening for Foreigner and Whitesnake on their summer trek through the nation’s amphitheaters. That tour ends August 1, in Irvine, Calif.
