Sammy Hagar admits that he still regrets that a final all-inclusive Van Halen tour with all its past and former members never took place. Hagar and the Circle drop their latest album, Crazy Times, tomorrow (September 30th), and the “Red Rocker” appears in conversation tonight (September 29th) for a career-spanning chat at the Clive Davis Theater at L.A.’s Grammy Museum.
Regarding the “kitchen sink” tour that never was due to Eddie Van Halen‘s 2020 death, Hagar told Rolling Stone, ” What a shame, huh? I mean, honestly, the shame is that Eddie Van Halen’s no longer with us. That’s the shame. But if we would’ve done that. . . All the damage that I did with my book, the damage Ed did with his actions and his stuff he did in public, and the (Gary) Cherone shenanigans, and the (David Lee) Roth reunions, my reunion. . . That would’ve righted everything, if we would have did that tour. That would have righted everything, and I wanted that so bad. Just to all of us to go, ‘We’re clean again. We’re angels. We’re spotless.'”
He went on to say, “I just think it’s crazy to do anything that’s called Van Halen without Eddie. I would love it if Dave wanted to do a tribute where he’d sing ten of his songs, and then I’d come out and do ten of mine. That would be great with Alex (Van Halen) and Mike (Anthony) and maybe a bunch of different guitar players. Look at what Dave (Grohl) just did for Taylor (Hawkins). That’s one of the greatest events in rock history. That’s right up there with the early Farm Aids, and right up there with Live Aid. That was a great event, and that could be done for Ed with everybody playing.”
As to what form a tribute to Eddie Van Halen could take, Hagar said, “I’m thinking of one-off weekend or something where we give the money away to some cause. It can’t just be, ‘Hey, we’re going to grab some money.’ I got plenty of money. There’s nothing that I would do for money that I just wasn’t in love with the idea of doing. And I’m not in love with the idea of being Van Halen without Eddie Van Halen. ‘Matter of fact, I’m dead against it. But I would love to play music with Alex and Mike again. I would love to play those songs again. And if we did a residency or a tribute, I would sing 50/50. I would sing half the Dave songs too for the Van Halen fans. And those songs are great. I don’t mind singing some of them.”
Regarding some type of tribute for Eddie Van Halen, Hagar said: “I think it’s necessary.”
SIDE NOTES
- Last month Sammy Hagar revealed how he co-wrote a new song with Eddie Van Halen during a dream. Hagar told Ultimate Classic Rock: “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!’. . .(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.”
CHECK IT OUT: Sammy Hagar & Eddie Van Halen on September 22nd, 1985 at Farm Aid performing “Rock And Roll” live in Champaign, Illinois: