When he was only four years old, Hagar earned seventy cents a day picking raspberries to pay for a pair of shoes for school. Growing up, he would pick fruit, deliver newspapers, and mow lawns to earn money. Hagar excelled academically and discovered music while in high school, teaching himself to play guitar on a $40 instrument purchased from a Sears catalog. He fronted his first band, the Fabulous Castilles, when he was 14 years old. At age 17, Hagar went to San Bernardino and sneaked in to see the 1964 U.S. debut of the Rolling Stones at the Swing Auditorium. He also regularly attended concerts by surf guitarist Dick Dale at the Riverside National Guard Armory.