Sammy Hagar took to Instagram on Monday, May 27 to share a video of himself discussing his recent tribute song to his former band mate Eddie Van Halen.
Hagar has previously said that he wrote the song “Encore, Thank You, Goodnight” with the late guitarist in a dream.
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In the new video clip, which Hagar explained in the caption of his post was shot on the last day of his band’s rehearsals for their recently completed Las Vegas residency, he spoke about the inspiration for the song.
“I just thought, I want to say this from the bottom of my heart, that I wanted to do something about Eddie,” he explained. “From the second I heard he passed, I was waiting for the family and everybody to get together and do the tribute. I mean, hey, I’m alive. I can sing the songs. We got bands. We can all play. And it never happened.”
Hagar, however, noted that other members of Van Halen did do their own tributes of sorts, including Eddie’s son with Valerie Bertinelli, Wolfgang Van Halen, who played bass in the latter incarnation of the band before he eventually formed his own band, Mammoth WVH.
“I just love what Wolfie did, how he held his record and then came with the ‘Distance,’ which is the most soulful thing. I mean, it breaks my heart still today when I hear it. It’s wonderful. So beautiful,” Hagar added.
He also praised the band’s former drummer, Alex Van Halen, although he still holds a grudge against Hagar.
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“Even Al, even though he left me out of the book, I’m OK with that,” Hagar added. “Go read my book if you want to know what happened in my era, but you know, [Alex’s book Brothers] was a tribute to his brother… It was like a love letter to Eddie.”
Hagar then explained how he came up with his new song. “It’s been a long time coming for me. I’ve been thinking I have to do something someday. So this came, you know, from the dream a couple years ago.”
He added that his current guitarist on his Best of All Worlds tour, Joe Satriani, helped him finish the song.
“I just love the way the fans are really understanding it. It’s a love letter, too. It’s a thank you. It’s a tribute. It’s a praise. It’s everything. It’s straight from the heart and it’s to kind of close that chapter a little bit,” he explained.
Hagar added that he’ll “go out and play the songs for the rest of my life,” but wanted to say it again, “Eddie, thank you. Thank you for everything. Love you, miss you.”
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