Hagar shares incite into his reconciliation with the late guitarist
Sammy Hagar has spoken in depth for the first time about the passing of Eddie Van Halen last month at the age of 65 after a long battle with cancer. The rocker spoke with SiriusXM host Eddie Trunk on Monday (Nov 23rd) detailing the day he received the news of Van Halen’s passing.
“It was two days before we did our first rehearsal [with The Circle for Sammy Hagar’s first-ever Birthday Bash pay-per-view], I think. It was something like that,” he shares. “I got news from my management and Irving Azoff had called me and told me the news. It was devastating, but I don’t have to go into that, but I think anyone knows it’s tough as any loss I’ve ever had of a family member, any loved one. It was like that. It wasn’t like ‘Oh, just some guy I know.’ It felt much stronger than I even imagined it would, but never mind that. We went into rehearsal and it was tough. Mikey and I almost couldn’t play the Van Halen songs, so I had to shuffle the songs.”
Hagar explains that he and bassist Michael Anthony kept words to a minimum during the performance for a reason.
“To talk about someone like Eddie Van Halen, the greatness of him and to try to explain it to people or try to tell old stories and all that, it’s still not time. I don’t feel comfortable with it yet. I couldn’t talk about it,” Hagar says. “When I was on stage that day, if I would’ve tried to say anything, I would’ve choked up. I wouldn’t have been able to do it so you it just feels like what’s understood need not be discussed. That was a famous thing we used to say in Van Halen. You just put your hand in the air and go, ‘Hey, what is understood need not be discussed sometimes. We don’t have to talk about this.’ And that’s kinda the way it felt the most comfortable.
“[It’s] hard to talk about it, you know. I still haven’t talked about it by the way. I knew you’d be roping me into this because I know you and you know me. It’s hard not to bite, but I haven’t talked about it yet. It’s a tough one. I don’t know. I just can’t believe I’ll never play with that guy again. I thought it was inevitable, you know, once we patched everything up at the first of the year, Eddie and I were definitely talking a lot and texting like teenagers. You know, really a love fest, really good stuff. It was like, ‘Hey man, as soon as I’m feelin’ better, let’s make some noise. Can’t wait to make some noise. Hey, you and I wrote some great songs together, let’s do it again.’ I thought, ‘Man this is great. It’s going to happen.’ And I was tellin’ Eddie, ‘I’m 73 years old’ — and he was talkin’ about next year — ‘I’m 73 years old, I don’t know if I can sing a Van Halen set next year, you know. Let’s just be friends and work it from there.’ It was like that kind of deal. It’s hard to believe it’s never going to happen, but whatever.”
Hagar adds that a mutual celebrity friend helped them reconcile their differences.
“George Lopez, the Mexican comedian, my dear friend and Eddie’s dear friend. George and I stayed in contact — I don’t play golf, but Eddie used to play golf with him — so George saw him about February of this year and George calls me and says, ‘Sammy, you gotta call Eddie.’
“This is fresh for you. This story is not out,” he affirms to Trunk as he details how the pair made peace earlier this year.
“‘You gotta call Eddie. He loves you, man. I’s just with him. He’s having a hard time. He’s really sick, but he loves you. You gotta reach out. I said, ‘Give me his phone number.’ So he gave me his phone number and I reached out. The first thing I said, ‘Hey, Ed, I reached out I called Al, I’ve left messages for Al — emails. I left emails with Irving Azoff. And he goes, ‘Yeah, but you didn’t call me. Why the fuck didn’t you call me?’ And I said, ‘Aw man, that’s all I need to hear.’
“You know, what a wise guy, he had to just give me a poke you know. So I said, ‘Well, I’m calling you know, dude.’ And it was just a big love fest. I love you! I miss you… The first thing he said was, ‘Please don’t tell anyone about this. I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want someone trying to stir up a reunion. I don’t want people to know about my health.’ And I said, ‘You got it.’ I didn’t even tell my friends that this was going on… When you got a person in his situation with the fame and the mystique and being ill, I’m on his team. I would never go out and publicize that.”
Hagar also confirms that he was interested in reuniting for a tour that would’ve included Anthony, original vocalist David Lee Roth and Gary Sherone, who took over vocal duties following Hagar’s sudden departure in 1996.
“It was totally on my radar. No one had confirmed any of it, but it was obviously what was going to happen,” he says. “You know, I wouldn’t look forward to having to share the stage with Dave, only because he’s not user friendly. No, I love the guy, I love the music, all that, but I don’t have to tell you that. He’s not user friendly. He’s always going to pull something to try to make you look bad and make him look good and all that kinda stuff. It wouldn’t been a blast, are you kidding me, a dream come true.”
Hagar assures fans Eddie’s son Wolfgang will not take his father’s place in Van Halen.
“There’s not going to be a Van Halen without Eddie, I mean, come on, there’s no such thing,” Hagar asserts. “I wouldn’t even consider. I’ll tell folks right now, don’t look at me. If there’s some kind of tribute show — one off for the fans for charity and all that — yeah yeah, absolutely with some great guest guitar players — I would be part of that, but no further than that. Without Eddie there is no Van Halen. That’s all there is to it.”
Hagar’s stance falls in line with Wolfgang’s — who made his first-ever media appearance last week on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show supporting his debut single “Distance” in which he dedicated to his father. The song is described as an open letter to Eddie and was one of his father’s favorite songs. Wolfgang has released the music as Mammoth WVH, an ode to late father’s former band name.
