Hagar chats with Eddie Trunk about his Roth and more
Sammy Hagar and David Lee Roth have not had the best relationship, but there doesn’t seem to be any current animosity between the former Van Halen singers. During a show on August 13th, Roth commented on Hagar’s claim that he had a dream where Eddie Van Halen’s ghost visited him and helped him write his latest song, “Encore, Thank You, Goodnight.”
Roth began by calling Hagar an “esteemed colleague” with a “great voice” and “great catalog.” He then told the audience that he also had a dream where Eddie Van Halen’s ghost visited him, and the ghost was laughing. Roth joked that Eddie told him the song he gave Hagar was actually Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” played backward.
Following Roth’s comments, Hagar responded on social media. Hagar did not view the comments as negative, but rather as “the first compliment and real olive branch moment” the two have had in a long time. He said that he believes there is “some truth in between the showmanship” of Roth’s story and that the songs they both wrote with Eddie need to be carried on forever.
Hagar recently spoke with Eddie Trunk of Trunk Nation, airing weekdays on SiriusXM’s Faction Talk 103. The Red Rocker praised Roth for his words.
“Dave never does stuff like that. Like to me it was like, ‘Wow, Dave actually became cool for a minute about me.’ You know? And I think him and I can be friends. I mean, honestly, I would love to be friends with Dave. You know, he is the wackiest guy. I mean, he would be a blast, in my opinion, he would be a blast to hang with, you know what I mean? Get on a boat and go cruising around on the islands or something with that guy and some of our friends and stuff. I mean, we’ve got so much in common and so much history together. If you think about it, we both spent 10 years of our lives with Van Halen, Eddie and Alex Van Halen. You know, Eddie Van Halen, right? I mean, we wrote songs with them, there’s so much that we could be, we have in common.”
He continues, “And you know, we’re totally two different kinds of people, but that’s what makes it fun. But anyway, I just think he really did have that dream. And he’s a great storyteller. So the guy gets up there and tells his story a little bit more elaborate. You know, we smoked Marlboro, you know, a ghost cigarette together. You know, he’s a good storyteller. And I just thought it was wonderful that he actually said that. And he actually said, ‘You know Sammy Hagar, the guy’s got a great voice’ or something like that, you know? He said, ‘He’s got a good catalog.’ Whoa. Dave, right on. Me too, brother. I feel this, you know, they had to invent the clickbait that killed me. It just killed me that they actually tried to make a negative outta that for once, when there was a positive between the two of us, you know?
“But no, you know, I got no problem with Dave and what he’s doing. I’ve said it to my publicist, to everyone, you know, people always asking, ‘What do you think about this? Give me a comment about Dave’s, you know, these people that are posting all these crazy stuff from his shows out there. What do you comment?’ I said, ‘I would never negative comment, man.’ You know, the guy’s got the balls to go out there and do it and do it for the fans. He’s not doing it for money. Dave’s got plenty of money for God’s sakes. You know what I mean? Van Halen, nobody in Van Halen’s broke. And he’s doing it because he loves it, you know, and he looks like he’s having a good time. He’s got a pretty good band. There ain’t no question about that. And the smartest thing, I even told him this in a, I sent him a note about it when, when we had that little Instagram comment thing, I sent him a personal note and said, ‘Hey, smartest thing you ever do is get them background singers.'”
He concludes, “Those choruses in Van Halen are the most important part, besides Eddie’s guitar playing, some of the most important parts of that music to those fans. They love singing along to those songs. And you got those guys singing it, and they sound good singing it, you know, and it’s like, I think it was a good move. If he can’t do it, get somebody that can do it and just go out there and do your thing, whatever. Anyway, I’m all cool with Dave. I just want to make that straight and clear, you know.”
Hagar will release Sammy Hagar & The Best of All Worlds Band – The Residency, a 19-track live album recorded during his first run at Dolby Live at Park MGM In Las Vegas, on October 10th, via Big Machine Rock. The album captures rare deep cuts and Van Halen favorites, with the first advance track, “Summer Nights (Live),” available now on all DSPs.
Hagar tells Trunk that he wasn’t planning on releasing the project.
“I didn’t even want to do a live album. And I said, ‘No. Who wants to hear a live album?’ You know, people may, yeah, yeah. You know, it’s like, and then I started, I said, ‘Okay, do a couple.’ Chris Lord-Alge mixed a few for me. And I picked the ones that I thought were gonna be the most difficult, like ‘Humans Being,’ and ‘Summer Nights’ and ‘5150,’ you know, big epic pieces like that. And when I heard it, I felt like I said, the people that didn’t get to go to this thing are gonna go, ‘I feel like I’m there. He really captured the audience, or the audience captured the show.’ Whatever it was, it feels just like, you know, remember the old Framp thing comes alive. You felt like you were at that concert, you know, Jay Gilles full house.”
Hagar and his Best of All Worlds Band will return to the theater in 2026 for 11 more performances in March and September. The high-octane “only in Las Vegas” show is a celebration of Hagar’s legendary catalog, including the deepest dive yet into his tenure with Van Halen. The Las Vegas residency represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see this band of brothers deliver one of the most legendary hits-packed live shows of their careers.
