Sammy Hagar shares regret about his friendship with Eddie Van Halen
Following a disastrous tour in 2004, Sammy Hagar’s relationship with Eddie Van Halen fell apart, and the rock singer has now shared his regrets about turning his back on his friend.
Hagar hated every moment of their final jaunt, and squared the blame at his bandmate. At the time, Van Halen was struggling immensely with alcoholism and was in the midst of addiction, which ultimately affected his performances, as well as relationship with Hagar.
Van Halen eventually faced up to his issues by entering a rehabilitation facility and getting sober in 2008. While Van Halen reunited after the tour by welcoming David Lee Roth back as their frontman, Hagar had moved on with his career and wanted to leave his days with the band in the past.
Now, in a new interview with AZ Central, Hagar recalled the challenges he faced during the final tour, recalling, “Eddie kind of lost it out there. I mean, he was in bad shape the whole tour. Not trying to bring up a sore subject, but he was not healthy and was very abusive to himself.”
Upon taking the plane home after the final date of the tour, Hagar felt overcome with a sense of dejection, stating, “I just sat there, shaking my head, going, ‘God, that was a terrible experience.’”
While after becoming sober, Van Halen began talking openly with his battle with alcohol which was a wake-up call for Hagar, who didn’t know the full extent of the guitarist’s problems. He continued, “t’s a little bit easier to understand his frustrations and probably why he was turning to alcohol and drugs more than ever. He knew things that we didn’t know, I guess, or was feeling things we didn’t know. God bless him.”
Hagar also said shared his regret over this issue, admitting, “I almost wish I would’ve known a little more about what was going on with him.”
Although Hagar said he “tried as hard as I could to connect us and get him on the good foot and get him healthy,” he believes that he “would’ve maybe tried a little harder” if he was fully aware of what was going on.
Thankfully, shortly before Van Halen’s death in 2020, Hagar rebuilt his friendship with his former bandmate and they were in regular communication before the guitarist’s passing.
Additionally, last year, Hagar revealed they had even discussed the possibility of reuniting in the studio, which sadly didn’t come to fruition. Hagar told Fox News Digital: “He was saying, you know, ‘Yeah, I’m working on some [music].’ ‘Cause I’d say, ‘Ed, what are you working on? You know, I want to get in there and work with you. Let’s write together again.’ And, you know, he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. Next year, you know, we’ll get together, make some noise and all that stuff.’”
Despite Hagar not making more music with Van Halen as the duo had planned, most importantly, they had made up for lost time and reconciled.
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