The one tour Sammy Hagar wanted to do over again: “I miss the guy”
The touring lifestyle always felt like second nature to Sammy Hagar.
Most people couldn’t handle spending that much time away from their families and dealing with the struggles of life on the road, but when looking at what ‘The Red Rocker’ could do onstage, he felt most at home engaging with fans and throwing the biggest party that anyone had ever seen. But if David Lee Roth did the same thing by being charismatic, Hagar was going to get fans jumping through the power of his voice.
At the risk of breaking a few hearts, it’s not like ‘Diamond Dave’ had the greatest voice, even in the band’s prime. He was a decent enough blues singer who managed to get a lot of swagger out of the band, and that worked in his favour every time they sang tunes like ‘Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love’ live. It was a nonstop shot of adrenaline in many respects, but that was never what Hagar signed up for.
Nor did Van Halen want him for that, either. They wanted to stretch a little bit more, and since they had been writing around Roth’s voice for the first half of their career, getting someone like Hagar in the mix was a breath of fresh air. Now, there was no ceiling to where they could go on albums like 5150, but by the time that the band split with ‘The Red Rocker’, things had become far too ugly for anyone to care anymore.
Hagar was already shocked to be woken up to the news that Eddie wanted to part ways, but the reunion tours were when further salt was shoved into the wound. Van Halen III was already one of the biggest trainwrecks that the band had ever faced, and while Hagar seemed to be the touring equivalent of putting a Band-Aid on a bad situation, the frontman was shocked to see how frail Eddie had become in the meantime.
He had gone through a wilderness period of falling off the wagon and even doing strange detours like scoring an adult film, but things started to get ugly when that misbehaviour started showing up onstage. Eddie was clearly not in a good spot, and despite wanting off that tour the minute that it started, Hagar said he would have gladly done the whole thing again if it meant getting to jam with Eddie one more time.
No one expected Eddie to leave so soon, and when talking about his passing, Hagar remembered wanting to end his time with Van Halen on a better note than that, saying, “Way over it – I don’t even remember it. As a matter of fact, I miss Eddie so much I would go do that tour again, just to play with the guy again. I miss the guy. Our creativity when we were on was spectacular.”
And judging by what was happening shortly before Eddie’s death, it was clear that the guitarist wanted to do a few more shows if he could. His health was never going to allow him to get back on the road, but since he and Hagar were on good enough terms to wish each other well back and forth on the socials, perhaps they could have found a way to put a nice bow on the ‘Van Hagar’ years had they had some more time.
All of it’s just wishful thinking at this point, but that doesn’t mean that those 2004 shows have to be seen in a negative light all the time. There were more than a few headaches that got them on that stage every single night, but there’s a good chance all those memories fade away over time, and Hagar can smile that he even got to play with Eddie at all.
