Sammy Hagar told his fans not to freak out after he discovered his real name is not Sammy Hagar.
On a new episode of the PBS show Finding Your Roots, the singer discovered there were no men named Hagar who matched his DNA – and that his actual surname is Belcher.
“Genetically, you are not a Hagar,” host Henry Louis Gates, Jr. told the former Van Halen frontman, who responded: “Get outta here!”
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Gates continued: “You are not a Hagar… you are a Belcher. Your Y DNA matches 27 men with the surname Belcher. There is no doubt. You are Sammy Belcher.” The subject replied: “What a trip!”
He later posted a commentary video on social media, saying: “Don’t freak out about this – this is no big deal! This is actually pretty cool because at least I know a little bit about my past.”
He continued: “There’s nothing in a name… you are who you are. And maybe what you call yourself is even more important than what you’re really named.”
Sammy Hagar Didn’t Know His Ancestors Were French
He added that “a lot of people change their name,” citing the examples of Sting (Gordon Sumner) and Madonna – although her name actually is Madonna Louise Ciccone.
Reiterating he was “all cool,” Hagar said of the show: “I was honored to be on there, and I learned a lot of things I didn’t know anyway. I didn’t know anything about my ancestry, and now I do. If there are any Belchers out there who are really relatives, well hey! Welcome! Hi! See you on tour!”
The revelation also entails a change in his geographical ancestry – while Hagar is originally a Scottish surname, Belcher is originally Norman, from what would later be a part of France.
