For years, Sammy Hagar and Eddie Van Halen weren’t exactly on great terms. Their post-breakup tension was basically legendary in rock circles and very awkward.
But just months before Eddie’s tragic death in 2020, a quiet olive branch was extended. And this time… it stuck.
In a new interview, Sammy told Detroit’s WRIF that the last time he talked to Eddie, they didn’t rehash drama. They didn’t dwell on the years lost. He recalled:
“Oh, hell no. Oh, no regrets whatsoever. I regret that we broke up, just to see what else we could have done. I would’ve loved to have made another record or two with Eddie writing.
“Eddie and I wrote some great songs together, and I think the best stuff was yet to come; it could have been yet to come, because Eddie was really reaching out on instruments,” he continued.
“Last time I talked to Eddie before he passed, I said, ‘Man, what are you playing?’ He said, ‘Oh, man, I’ve really been playing a lot of cello.’ And I’m going, ‘Cello? Holy sh*t.’ ‘Play me something, dude. I’m ready to write a song with you on cello.’
“As artists, Eddie and I were really capable of doing a lot of stuff that he couldn’t do before me because the other guy didn’t want keyboards,” Sammy added, apparently referring to Van Halen’s original singer David Lee Roth.
“And when I walked in the room with Eddie, he showed me two guitar songs when I joined, on ‘5150’ — he showed me ‘Good Enough’ and he showed me ‘Summer Nights’. Those are two riffs he had. And then what did he do? He went and sat down at the piano and he started playing all this stuff. And I’m going, ‘Whoa. What?’ He starts playing to riff to ‘Dreams’. He’s sitting there playing ‘Love Walks In’. He’s just playing all these things on keyboards, and I’m going, ‘Whoa, I had no idea he was that good of a keyboard player.’ So, he really wanted to expand as a musician. To me, I think that’s what his dream would’ve been. And it was always held back by the record companies and the people around him. I think we would’ve broke out of that within a year and start doing some really crazy stuff.
“Now, all the hardcore Van Halen fans are out there saying, ‘No, no. You would’ve ruined it. We want ‘Poundcake’.’ But it’s all good, man. It’s all good.
“That’s the only regret I have,” Hagar concluded. “I regret nothing about being in that band. It’s the greatest thing that ever happened to me. I will never reach that pinnacle again in my musical career, and I don’t even try for it. It’s, like, why even try? I can’t do it. Those times are gone and I’m proud to have been there.”
