Sammy Hagar revealed that back in late-2009, Aerosmith was interested in him taking over frontman duties from Steven Tyler. As anyone following the rock world remembers, that was around the time where the inner-band tensions between the group were an almost weekly headline, as Tyler was said to be devoting his energies to “Brand Tyler.”

Hagar recalled the situation to Ultimate Classic Rock, explaining, “Joe Perry tried to get me to join that band, and the management asked me to go to South America and try it out. I almost did it. . . I would have been the guy that replaced the guy. Y’know, always the guy replacing the guy, and that’s a strange legacy for a guy like me, y’know what I mean? The problem is, I would have taken the toxicity out of the whole thing! (Laughs) It probably would have bombed because I’m not a toxic kind of guy. When the arguments start, I’m outta here. I can’t be in a bad situation like that.”

Hagar admitted, “That was real tempting there for five minutes. I got down to Cabo, and I really relaxed and thought about it. I was listening to all of the tunes and all of this stuff. I was thinkin’, ‘Livin’ On The Edge,’ I’ll f***in’ kill that song!’ “And then I woke up on the beach and said, ‘Y’know what? I can’t do this.’ So that was it.”

Sammy Hagar & The Circle are set to perform at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield on Thursday, August 12th.