Sammy Hagar Recalls Final Texts With Eddie Van Halen

Sammy Hagar spoke at length about his final texts with his long-estranged bandmate, the late-great Eddie Van Halen. During a chat with Kyle Meredith, the “Red Rocker” shed light on the tone of the chats — and their tentative plans for a major Van Halen reunion tour.

Hagar explained that when and if an Eddie Van Halen tribute concert takes place — wild horses won't be able to keep him away: “I have nothing to do with the (Eddie Van Halen) legacy. That’s their business — that’s Wolfie (Van Halen), Alex Van Halen; they’re family members. Whoever wants to call me up and say, 'Here’s the date,' I will be there. I don’t care where I am. I’ll cancel a (solo) show (if I need to (laughs).”

Hagar went on to explain that canceling show has always been a major — nearly non-existent — event in the Van Halen world: “(That’s) something Van Halen would never do. I always make that joke — canceling a show was (out of the question with) Van Halen. I went out sick without being able to sing, Eddie went out with a crutch, Alex went out with a f***ing neck brace — we wouldn’t cancel shows. But I will cancel my show for a tribute to Eddie any day.”

Sammy Hagar spoke about the exact nature of his texts with Eddie Van Halen and explained it was based on friendship — not business: “It was so awesome. Our texts were so plain and simple — 'Hey man, how ya doin'? And he'd start opening up to me about how sick he was, and, 'Dude — I just had this tumor on the side of my neck — ahhh.' So, I was always checkin' on him him seein' how he was doin' — that was our relationship — 'Hey, when can we get together?' Like, 'Hey Ed, tell me when you're ready, I'm gonna drive over and cook you a big ole' spaghetti dinner, y'know.' (Laughs). We were talkin' like that. Y'know, a guy's got cancer and is on his death bed — we ain't talkin' about how much money he's got in the bank, y'know? We were trying to be friends and soulful and let each other know that we're okay and I'm there for ya.”

Hagar said that he and Eddie Van Halen were on the same page regarding wanting to keep their plans quiet: “The was talk of a reunion next year. Y'know, Eddie was sayin' — 'Hey man, let's not talk about this to anyone, y'know, because we don't want to sit around answering questions about, 'Well, what's goin' on? What's goin' on?' Y'know, Van Halen always stirs up a lot of interest. No one ever knew what we were doin' in the old days. But we were talkin' about, 'Hey, let's make some noise next year. 'Man, c'mon Ed, get well, we gotta go out and we gotta do one time for the big time, the whole gang' — (He was like), 'Yeah, yeah, yeah!' — y'know? So, that was always very hard to keep zipped. But — never happened.”