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.”
Last year, Sammy Hagar spoke at length about his final texts with Eddie Van Halen. During a chat with Kyle Meredith, the “Red Rocker” shed light on the tone of the chats and explained it was based on friendship — not business: “It was so awesome. Our texts were so plain and simple — 'Hey man, how ya doin'? And he'd start opening up to me about how sick he was, and, 'Dude — I just had this tumor on the side of my neck — ahhh.' So, I was always checkin' on him him seein' how he was doin' — that was our relationship — 'Hey, when can we get together?' Like, 'Hey Ed, tell me when you're ready, I'm gonna drive over and cook you a big ole' spaghetti dinner, y'know.' (Laughs). We were talkin' like that. Y'know, a guy's got cancer and is on his death bed — we ain't talkin' about how much money he's got in the bank, y'know? We were trying to be friends and soulful and let each other know that we're okay and I'm there for ya.”
Sammy Hagar & The Circle with George Thorogood & The Destroyers performs on Friday (August 26) in Maryland Heights, Missouri at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre.