Sammy Hagar has revealed that the late-Eddie Van Halen came to him in a dream and wrote a song with him. Hagar, who’ll release Crazy Times, his latest album with the Circle on September 30th, spoke about the visitation to Ultimate Classic Rock.
Hagar explained, “About two months ago, I had this dream and Eddie came. . . We hadn’t seen each other for a while. He’s going, ‘Man, let’s write some music!’ I said, ‘Yeah, f*** it, man. Here, let’s go!’ (We) went over into a corner, in this room. He had a guitar and he played me this thing. It was like this lick — (just like) the last lick that Eddie Van Halen showed me, when I went back for the (2004) reunion tour and when he was a mess. I said, ‘Eddie, show me your newest s***,’ because every time I’d be around him I’d say, ‘Show me your newest s***.’ He’d say, ‘Oh, check this out!'”
He went on to say, “(In the dream) he did this harmonic thing and he slid it up to a chord, like a slide guitar. We wrote a song with that lick. I remembered it. I got up in the morning and I wrote the song. It’s called, ‘Thank You.’ I used the f***in’ lick that he showed me in the song. . . I’ve got goosebumps, head to toe, (talking about it). So I wrote it (about that experience), and we’ll do that song someday.”
Hagar spoke about how he intends to credit the song: “Now, that’s going to be an Eddie-influenced song, to the point that I’m going to co-write it with him. I’m going to give him credit and then maybe we’ll donate the money to charity, whatever. You see, I feel so embarrassed about it because everyone’s going to say, ‘Oh, look at Sammy trying to capitalize on Eddie.’ No, I’m not. You don’t understand. This was a real f***in’ dream, and I told you exactly what happened in it.”
Sammy Hagar & The Circle with George Thorogood & The Destroyers performs on Friday (August 26) in Maryland Heights, Missouri at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre.
DID YOU KNOW???
- Sammy Hagar recorded four studio albums with Van Halen between 1985 and 1995, rejoining briefly in 2004 for a disastrous reunion trek.
CHECK IT OUT: Van Halen on February 1st, 1989 performing “Why Can’t This Be Love” live in Tokyo: