David Lee Roth recently mocked Sammy Hagar’s claim that he was inspired to write a song based on a dream where he reunited with his late bandmate Eddie Van Halen.
In 2022, Hagar shared that he dreamt of being welcomed by Van Halen, where they collaborated on a new track. The resulting song, titled “Encore, Thank You, Goodnight,” was released in April via Big Machine Rock.
On August 13th, during his recently launched summer 2025 U.S. solo tour, Roth performed the Van Halen classic “Dance The Night Away” at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. It was during this performance that he addressed Hagar’s claim.
“One of my esteemed colleagues — he’s a contemporary, he’s got a great voice, he’s got a great catalog. You all know Sammy Hagar, right? He’s got a great voice. And Sammy, aloud, he described to the media about six weeks ago that the ghost of Eddie Van Halen visited him and graced him with a song that he memorized and then went home and recorded. It’s on the Internet.”
David Lee Roth claimed that the ghost of Eddie Van Halen visited him in his hotel room, where they joked, shared a “ghost cigarette,” and exchanged emotional words about missing each other—before Eddie humorously told Roth to “still go to hell,” to which Roth replied, “Save me a seat.”
Roth continued: “I don’t know what the odds are, but last night the ghost of Eddie Van Halen visited me at the fucking hotel room. I was watching the weather report and he came in and he was laughing. His f**king ghost was laughing. I said, ‘What did you do now?’ He said, ‘Dave, Dave…’ Actually, you want me to do his accent? [Adopts Eddie’s accent] ‘Hey, Dave.’ He said, ‘Dave, you know that song I gave Hagar?’ I said, ‘What now?’ He said, ‘It’s actually ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’ backwards. Don’t f**king tell him.’ This all stays in this room, right? I laughed. We shared a ghost cigarette, a ghost Marlboro. Not one of those p**sy-ass white ones, but the [Marlboro Reds]. And I hugged my brother Ed, and I said, ‘Man, do I f**king miss you.’ And he said, ‘I miss you too, Dave.’ He said, ‘But you know what? You should still go to hell.’ And I said, ‘Save me a seat.'”
Following the passing of his brother Eddie Van Halen in 2020, drummer Alex Van Halen had plans with Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth to stage a tour. But, according to an interview with Rolling Stone, Alex claimed that it came crashing down after Roth refused to incorporate a tribute to Eddie in their set.
As Alex recalled, he and Roth began rehearsals for a tour following Eddie’s passing, caused by complications relating to throat cancer in October 2020. They planned to bring in guitarist Joe Satriani and potentially bassist Michael Anthony, who hadn’t played in the band since 2004.
