Former Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar has just released a new song as a tribute to the late Edward Van Halen. “Encore, Thank You, Goodnight” is a melodic rock anthem that Hagar co-wrote with guitarist Joe Satriani.
“This song is my final bow to that part of my life,” Hagar said. “It’s not meant to be anything more than a ‘thank you’ — with love, with respect, and with one hell of a guitar solo.”
In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times, Hagar also made a claim that Edward talked about a potential collaboration prior to his death in 2020, but that the late guitarist didn’t want his brother, drummer Alex Van Halen, to know.
“I miss the guy so much,” Hagar said. “Thank God we connected towards the end, otherwise I’d be heartbroken. I am anyway. But it was so important to me that we did connect in that last year.”
Talking about the potential missed collaboration, Hagar explained: “Eddie said to me, ‘Don’t tell anyone about us talking because I don’t want to be answering questions about rumors of a reunion.’ But he said, ‘Next year, we’re gonna get together — we’re gonna make some noise. Let me beat this shi*, and let’s do it.’ He goes, ‘Please don’t talk to anyone — not even Al.’ I’ve never said that to anyone, and I bet you Al is gonna have a f*cking fit. But Eddie said, ‘Don’t even talk to Al about this.’ I said, ‘Ed, I don’t talk to Al.'”
Hagar continued talking about the heartbreak he feels that he’ll never get the chance to collaborate with the guitar great again. “After the 2004 tour, with Eddie being in the condition he was in, I was very angry with him,” Hagar said. “But in my heart, I was hoping he would heal and would become the Eddie that I loved and knew from when I was in the band — from the good times. I was hoping that would happen and that we’d get together and play someday. And not only for the fame and fortune, which of course I’ve never gotten back to that level since. That was the pinnacle of my career. But more than that was the creativity and the energy we had together writing songs like ‘Right Now’ and ‘When It’s Love’ and ‘Love Walks In’ and ‘Top of the World.'”
“He brought something out of me that just ain’t the same without him. At my age, you sit there and wonder: If Eddie was alive, could I reach that again? Now that dream is gone.”
