The decades-long rivalry between Sammy Hagar and David Lee Roth has produced its fair share of tension, but in a rare turn, both singers seem to have found a surprising moment of respect — even if it came wrapped in humor and ghost stories.
During a recent show in New Hampshire, Roth riffed on Hagar’s well-publicized dream about Eddie Van Halen. At the time, Hagar had shared that he once dreamt of reuniting with the late guitarist and writing music together, which later became the song “Encore, Thank You, Goodnight” from his latest album The Collection II.
On stage, Roth told the crowd: “One of my esteemed colleagues — he’s a contemporary, he’s got a great voice, he’s got a great catalog. You all know Sammy Hagar, right? He’s got a great voice. And Sammy, aloud, he described to the media about six weeks ago that the ghost of Eddie Van Halen visited him and graced him with a song that he memorized and then went home and recorded. It’s on the Internet.”
He didn’t stop there, weaving his own surreal take on the story: “I don’t know what the odds are, but last night the ghost of Eddie Van Halen visited me at the fucking hotel room. I was watching the weather report, and he came in and he was laughing. His fucking ghost was laughing. I said, ‘What did you do now?’ He said, ‘Dave, Dave…’ Actually, you want me to do his accent? [Adopts Eddie’s accent] ‘Hey, Dave.’ He said, ‘Dave, you know that song I gave Hagar?’ I said, ‘What now?’ He said, ‘It’s actually [Iron Butterfly’s] ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’ backwards. Don’t fucking tell him.’ This all stays in this room, right? I laughed. We shared a ghost cigarette, a ghost Marlboro. Not one of those pussy-ass white ones, but the [Marlboro Reds]. And I hugged my brother Ed, and I said, ‘Man, do I fucking miss you.’ And he said, ‘I miss you too, Dave.’ He said, ‘But you know what? You should still go to hell.’ And I said, ‘Save me a seat.'”
For many fans, it was clear Roth was poking fun, but Hagar heard something else. In a later interview on Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, he said (via Blabbermouth), “Dave never does stuff like that. To me, it was, like, ‘Wow, Dave actually became cool for a minute about me,’ and I think he and I can be friends. Honestly, I would love to be friends with Dave. He is the wackiest guy. He would be a blast — in my opinion, he would be a blast to hang with. Get on a boat and go cruising around in the islands or something with that guy and some of our friends and stuff.”
Hagar pointed to their shared history as a possible bridge: “We’ve got so much in common and so much history together, if you think about it. We both spent 10 years of our lives with Van Halen — Eddie and Alex Van Halen. Eddie Van Halen, right? I mean, we wrote songs with [Eddie]. There’s so much that we have in common. And we’re totally two different kinds of people, but that’s what makes it fun. The people around us would be having more fun.”
Rather than take offense at Roth’s ghost tale, Hagar leaned into it: “But anyway, I just think he really did have that dream. And he’s a great storyteller. So the guy gets up there and tells his story a little bit more elaborate — ‘we smoked a Marlboro,’ a ghost cigarette together. He’s a good storyteller. And I just thought it was wonderful that he actually said, ‘You know Sammy Hagar. The guy’s got a great voice,’ or something like that, he said, ‘and he’s got a good catalog.’ Whoa. Dave. Right on, brother.”
For Hagar, the bottom line is mutual respect: “I’ve got no problem with Dave and what he’s doing. I’ve said it to my publicist, to everyone, people always asking, ‘What do you think about this? Give me a comment about these people who are posting all this crazy stuff from his shows out there. What do you comment?’ I said, ‘I would never make a negative comment, man.’ The guy’s got the balls to go out there and do it and do it for the fans. He’s not doing it for money. Dave‘s got plenty of money, for God’s sakes. Nobody in Van Halen‘s broken. And he’s doing it ’cause he loves it. And he looks like he’s having a good time. He’s got a pretty damn good band, there ain’t no question about that.”
He even praised Roth’s stage decisions: “And the smartest thing — I even told him this; I sent him a note about it when we had that little Instagram comment thing — I sent him a personal note and said, ‘Hey, smartest thing you ever do is get them background singers.’ Those choruses in Van Halen are the most important part, besides Eddie‘s guitar playing, some of the most important parts of that music to those fans. They love singing along to those songs. And you got those guys singing it, and they sound good singing it. And I think it was a good move. If he can’t do it, get somebody that can do it and just go out there and do your thing, whatever.”
Ultimately, Hagar kept it simple: “Anyway, I’m all cool with Dave. I just wanna make that straight and clear.”
