Sammy Hagar: Eddie Van Halen Helped Write My New Song in a Dream

Sammy
Hagar
is
about
to
release
a
song
that
features
a
guitar
lick
he
says

Eddie
Van
Halen
showed
him
in
a
dream.

“Encore,
Thank
You,
Goodnight”
will
be
released
on
Friday,
April
25.
It
finds
Hagar
joined
by
three-quarters
of
his

Best
of
All
Worlds
band:
Guitarist

Joe
Satriani,
bassist
and
fellow

Van
Halen
alumni

Michael
Anthony
and
drummer
Kenny
Aronoff.

Hagar
revealed
the
origins
of
the
song
to
UCR
nearly
three
years
ago,
in
an

August
2022
interview. “About
two
months
ago,
I
had
this
dream
and
Eddie
came,”
he
explained. “He’s
going, ‘Man,
let’s
write
some
music!’
I
said, ‘Yeah,
fuck
it,
man.
Here,
let’s
go!'”

Read
More:

All
48
Sammy
Hagar-Era
Van
Halen
Songs
Ranked

In
the
dream, “[Eddie]
did
this
harmonic
thing
and
he
slid
it
up
to
a
chord,
like
a
slide
guitar.
We
wrote
a
song
with
that
lick,”
Hagar
continued. “I
remembered
it.
I
got
up
in
the
morning
and
I
wrote
the
song.
I
used
the
fuckin’
lick
that
he
showed
me
in
the
song.”

Hagar
served
for
Van
Halen’s
lead
singer
for
over
a
decade,
fronting
the
band
for
four
chart-topping
albums:
1986’s


5150,
1988’s


OU812,
1991’s


For
Unlawful
Carnal
Knowledge
and
1995’s


Balance.

He
and
the
band
broke
up

in
a
highly
acrimonious
manner
in
1996,
and
their
2004
reunion
tour
ended

even
more
disastrously.
But
shortly
before
Eddie’s
2020

death,

he
and
Hagar
made
peace,
and
last
summer
the
singer
mounted
the
Best
of
All
Worlds
tour
to
pay
tribute
to
his
time
in
Van
Halen.

Two
years
later,
Hagar
had
the
dream
that
inspired
the
new “Encore,
Thank
You,
Goodnight”
single.

“This
song
is
my
final
bow
to
that
part
of
my
life,”
he
explains
in
a
press
release.
“It’s
not
meant
to
be
anything
more
than
a
thank-you
–
with
love,
with
respect,
and
with
one
hell
of
a
guitar
solo.” 

He
also
shared
that
Satriani’s
contribution
to
the
track
brought
a
unique
emotional
energy.
“Joe
was
the
perfect
partner
to
help
me
shape
the
sound
–
he
brought
in
that
big,
emotional,
guitar-driven
energy
that
feels
like
Eddie’s
spirit
but
is
entirely
of
Joe’s
creation.”

Hagar
and
his
bandmates
have
a
busy
April
coming
up.
On
Sunday
April
27th
they’ll
headline
the
Palamino
stage
at
Stagecoach
festival,
and
three
days
later
they
launch
their
Best
of
All
Worlds

Las
Vegas
residency
at
Dolby
Live,
Park
MGM.