Sammy Hagar Shares Song He Wrote In A Dream With Eddie Van Halen, Speculates Why Alex Van Halen Hasn’t Spoken To Him In 21 Years

Former Van Halen singer and tequila-heist victim Sammy Hagar recently released "Encore, Thank You, Goodnight.," a new single that he says he co-wrote with his former bandmate Eddie Van Halen. Eddie Van Halen passed away in 2020, and this is not a leftover, unrecorded track from Hagar's time in Van Halen. Insted, Hagar tells Rolling Stone that Eddie appeared to him in a dream and they wrote the song together: "This was 100% a communication from the beyond."

Sammy Hagar recently played the country mega-fest Stagecoach, and he's about to start another run of his Las Vegas residency. The band at Hagar's residency includes ex-Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony and Eddie Van Halen's contemporary Joe Satriani, one of his few peers in the theatrical-shredder world. Satriani also plays guitar on "Encore, Thank You, Goodnight.," and he does a good job channeling Eddie's playing style. In the song's Spotify credits, Hagar and Satriani are the co-writers, and Eddie Van Halen's astral projection is not listed. It does sound a lot like '80s Van Halen, though. Listen below.

In new Rolling Stone interview, Sammy Hagar expands on the single's dream-zone genesis:

It’s Van Halen-esque, and I’m not trying to cheat on it or anything. This is real. I had this dream. I love this song. I loved Eddie like a brother. I miss him so bad. Every time I play music, every time I pick up a guitar or go to rehearsal or jump on stage or try to get with Joe Satriani rehearsing a song we might want to play or write, I miss Eddie.

Joe is the closest thing on this planet for me, not for the world, but for me, to Eddie Van Halen. The way Eddie and I wrote, Joe and I, we write that way, and it’s very special. Joe’s music inspires me to sing a melody and inspires lyrics to come out. That first Chickenfoot record is a good example. The second one we struggled with, because of timing. We were too rushed. But the first record, that’s a great fuckin’ rock record.

Eddie, I’m telling you, I could be sitting around dry, laying on the beach, not a thought in the world about music. And Eddie could walk out there and start humming or start noodling a song out in my front yard, across the fence when we lived next door to each other. He’d come out with the guitar around his neck and go, “Hey, listen.” He’d go, “Nah-nah-nah…,” like “5150” or something, and I’d go, “Holy fuck!” I would drop everything, jump over the fence, go in there, and we would write a song. His music was so inspiring. The world knows.

Dreaming or otherwise, Sammy Hagar is not on such great terms with another former bandmate, Eddie's brother Alex Van Halen. In the Rolling Stone interview, Hagar mentions that he hasn't spoken with Alex in 21 years -- not while awake, anyway. In a recent dream, Hagar says that he talked to Alex and asked why Alex won't talk to him. Alex wouldn't answer. Rolling Stone writer Andy Greene speculates that Alex, a private person, didn't like the way Hagar wrote about Eddie's struggles in his memoir: "I imagine he sees you as a loudmouth that refuses to shut up." Hagar considers that possibility, and he lets loose with this reply:

No. I don’t think that’s it. And I’ve had this conversation with a few people, including [former VH manager] Irving Azoff. I’ve asked him, “What’s the problem?” And some people have said to me, “Oh, Cabo Wabo. At one time, Van Halen, when you built it, you guys were all partners in that. And then they didn’t want it anymore when it was losing money, and they gave it to you, and you turned it around and made hundreds of millions of dollars on it. And they’re angry. Alex is angry about that.”

To that I said, “How the fuck could they be angry about that? They gave me the damn thing, they walked out on me, left me with it. And they made me indemnify them in case I got sued and lost everything. They made me sign off big time.” And I’m going, “I hope it’s not that.”

The book has been brought up. The book was honest. It was well documented that Eddie was a mess on that tour. But I don’t want to drag Eddie through no coals now. That’s just water under the bridge.

I think Al’s angry because I’m out doing it, and Mike and I are out doing it, and he can’t. He’s not a singer. He’s not a guitar player. He is not really a band leader. And he seems like he doesn’t want to play drums or can’t play drums anymore, and he can’t go write a new record. Alex wasn’t the songwriter in the band. He was the drummer. Eddie and I wrote the songs. Dave and Eddie wrote the songs, and so we can go out and do them. And I think that really bothers him that Mike and I are still out there doing it. I would feel bad. If I put myself in his shoes, I would feel terrible if I couldn’t do it anymore.

But I’m the happiest guy out of all of them. That pisses people off in itself. Being too happy, people don’t like that...

Al, you’re fine. Just leave me alone. I’ll leave you alone. Everything’s good. I’m making you money, by the way, Al. I’m out there selling Van Halen records and keeping the name alive, keeping the music alive.

There are a bunch more Alex Van Halen digs in the interview, which you can read here. The web of resentments among former Van Halen members is a fascinating thing to contemplate.

Coincidentally, Van Halen just came up during Bill Hader's appearance on the latest episode of Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend. He did a good impression of Eddie Van Halen and recounted a story Osees' Paul Quattrone once told him about the time Roth met Henry Rollins.