Sammy Hagar has spent decades chasing the feeling he first got from The Rolling Stones' 1964 record 12 X 5, which he credits as the album that shaped him as a singer and guitarist. Though drawn to soul, funk and other strands of rock as a young music fan, it was this early Stones LP, rather than Led Zeppelin, David Bowie or James Brown, that most directly set him on his path, and he says its influence has stayed with him throughout his career, including his later work with Van Halen.

Hagar has said he taught himself every song on 12 X 5, learning guitar in imitation of Keith Richards and modelling his stage presence on Mick Jagger, and describes it as one of around a dozen indispensable Stones records for him. He says the album "held him over" until the Stones' next release and that he is still searching for records that recreate that same excitement, a drive he carried into hits such as Van Halen's 5150 decades later.