Sammy Hagar claims Eddie Van Halen wanted to tour with him before passing: “He said ‘Next year, we’re gonna get together… Don’t even talk to Alex about this’”
Former Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar has revealed Eddie Van Halen’s supposed plans for a collaborative tour before his death in 2020.
Hagar, who’s currently out on his Best of All Worlds tour with Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony, and drummer Kenny Aronoff, shares the story in a new chat with the Los Angeles Times, reflecting on what might’ve been had tragedy not cut things short.
READ MORE: “I don’t want to piss my fans off”: Sammy Hagar says he never wants to go on tour again
“I miss the guy so much. Thank God we connected towards the end, otherwise I’d be heartbroken,” says Hagar. “I am anyway. But it was so important to me that we did connect in that last year. Eddie said to me, ‘Don’t tell anyone about us talking because I don’t want to be answering questions about rumours of a reunion.’”
“But he said, ‘Next year, we’re gonna get together – we’re gonna make some noise. Let me beat this shit, and let’s do it.’”
According to Hagar, the guitar legend also told him to keep the plans a secret, even from his own brother Alex.
“He goes, ‘Please don’t talk to anyone – not even Al,’” the singer recalls. “I’ve never said that to anyone, and I bet you Al is gonna have a fucking fit. But Eddie said, ‘Don’t even talk to Al about this.’ I said, ‘Ed, I don’t talk to Al.’”
For Hagar, the private exchange carried even more weight considering how things had ended between them. Van Halen’s 2004 reunion tour was far from smooth-sailing, marred by behind-the-scenes friction and concerns over Eddie’s declining health. Looking back, Hagar admits he walked away from that chapter angry and disheartened.
“After the 2004 tour, with Eddie being in the condition he was in, I was very angry with him,” he explains. “But in my heart I was hoping he would heal and would become the Eddie that I loved and knew from when I was in the band – from the good times.”
“I was hoping that would happen and that we’d get together and play someday. And not only for the fame and fortune, which of course I’ve never gotten back to that level since. That was the pinnacle of my career.”
“But more than that was the creativity and the energy we had together writing songs like Right Now and When It’s Love and Love Walks In and Top of the World. He brought something out of me that just ain’t the same without him. At my age, you sit there and wonder: If Eddie was alive, could I reach that again? Now that dream is gone.”
In the meantime, fans can check out Hagar’s new single, Encore, Thank You, Goodnight, which apparently features a guitar lick Eddie Van Halen showed him in a dream.
The post Sammy Hagar claims Eddie Van Halen wanted to tour with him before passing: “He said ‘Next year, we’re gonna get together… Don’t even talk to Alex about this’” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
