“Eddie’s musicianship blossomed when I joined the band”: Sammy Hagar in guitar world

[slowmo5150]

https://www.guitarworld.com/artists/...EL7Zv61YXrRVHQ


“Eddie’s musicianship blossomed when I joined the band”: Sammy Hagar on his musical dynamic with Eddie Van Halen – and why the virtuoso stopped releasing music in the 2000s
News
By Janelle Borg ( Guitarist, Total Guitar ) published 23 hours ago
The former Van Halen frontman asserts that EVH flourished as a musician “because he got a singer that could say, ‘I can sing that’”



Rock musicians Sammy Hagar and Eddie Van Halen (1955 - 2020), both of the group Van Halen, performs onstage at the Rosemont Horizon, Rosemont, Illinois, March 15, 1986

Just under a week after Sammy Hagar's release of Encore, Thank You, Goodnight. – the song he wrote after dreaming of Eddie Van Halen – the former Van Halen frontman is looking back on his years with the legendary band, his dynamic with Eddie, and his take on the virtuoso guitarist's lack of releases during the 2000s.

“Look, everybody gets fuckin’ dried up a little bit,” he tells Rolling Stone matter-of-factly. “And also, he had to be inspired by something. You know what I mean?”

Hagar also asserts that “Eddie’s musicianship blossomed when I joined the band”. Indeed, after the former Montrose frontman and solo artist artist was introduced to Van Halen in 1985 – by their mutual car mechanic – and started jamming with the band, the chemistry was clear to see.

Further still, Why Can't This Be Love, with Eddie on keys, was so distinct that, according to a previous Rolling Stone interview with Hagar, Warner Bros. president Mo Ostin claimed, “I smell money.”


“When I joined the band, everyone says, ‘Oh man, they started playing keyboards, and Hagar wants to write all these love songs.’ I didn’t bring the music to Eddie. Eddie brought the music to me.”

Hagar insists that, by then, EVH had already “used that guitar neck up” and “did everything and anything that neck could do”, changing his amps and gear in an attempt to continually refine and redevelop his sound. So, having Hagar join the fold served as the catalyst he needed to create something fresh.


“Over the years, he kept changing his sound to try and reinspire some new guitar things. That’s why he wrote Can’t Stop Loving You. It’s a classical piece of music, and so is 5150. I had to find a place to sing. But he sat down at a keyboard. It felt fresh.”


Between 1986 and 1995 – the Hagar era – Van Halen released four chart-topping albums. However, following their 1998 album, Van Halen III, with Gary Cherone as frontman, poor sales (by VH standards) and an unreleased follow-up project led to a hiatus. The band released no new material until 2012's A Different Kind Of Truth with original lead vocalist David Lee Roth – which turned out to be the final Van Halen record.

“People don’t realize that Eddie expanded as a musician because he got a singer that could say, ‘I can sing that,’” Hagar points out. “And we went on a fucking musical adventure.

“He stopped writing, I think, because he just ran out. Shit, how much do you need? How much can you squeeze out of the dude? He gave his blood, brother.”

In other Sammy Hagar news, the former Van Halen frontman has just shared some juicy details regarding Ozzy Osbourne's own involvement in Black Sabbath's mammoth final show.

[Number 47]

Just a rehash of the RS article. STFU Sam!

[Darkness]

It's kind of historical revisionism. We know that Eddie had the music for Dreams and Right Now before Sammy joined the band. Would be surprised if LWI and WCTB didn't exist in some form as well. Maybe the three synth tracks on OU812 (MIM/WIT/FSG) were written specifically for Sammy. You never really know considering how long Eddie held on to stuff.

[C Brown]

Sammy: “Eddie’s musicianship blossomed when I joined the band."

Also Sammy: “When I joined the band, everyone says, ‘Oh man, they started playing keyboards, and Hagar wants to write all these love songs.’ I didn’t bring the music to Eddie. Eddie brought the music to me.”

So apparently Sammy inspired Ed to write the keyboard songs that were already written. This is a bit reminiscent of Wolf suggesting that 3/16 was written for him....5 years before he was born.

Sammy will never drop that chip off his shoulder. I think he loves to cast himself as the underdog, so he has something to prove. In some ways, I admire that a near-octogenerian is still so full of piss and vinegar.

Any reasonable, objective VH fan knows that Sammy was right guy, right time. If Dave had stayed, they'd have needed Michael McDonald on speed dial.

[Reckless Fable]

With the exception of Mike, one of the things these guys don't quite get is that I that there are assholes like us online that have been chronicling, arguing and digging through the history of the band for decades online. These guys might get the front facing side of things like social media, YouTube, etc. When I see Sam say things like this, you know it's him spinning his POV. And hence the "STFU" stuff because we all know it's not really that insightful. Plus, the lines have been drawn and Sam isn't convincing many people about the virtues of the Van Hagar era in 2025.

But, I do think the subject of Ed's evolution starting in 1986 is certainly interesting. Eddie didn’t get soft. He got curious. And that curiosity came wrapped in a red bandana and tequila breath, belting about Dreams and Cabo and love from outer space. Hagar could sing like a banshee and hit notes Dave wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot ego. But that swaggering, don’t-give-a-damn swing? That left with Dave’s karate kicks and mirror shades as Dave took his assless chaps to Steve Vai's playpen.

Also, saying that Ed exhausted what he could do on guitar isn't true. But many make that argument because he was such a fiend of crazy techniques and sounds from the mid 70's to mid 80's. But, Ed was a musician and connected with other instruments. Monogamy wasn't for him. He just wanted to explore other areas that felt fresh to him.

[Little Dreamer]

It's kind of historical revisionism. We know that Eddie had the music for Dreams and Right Now before Sammy joined the band. Would be surprised if LWI and WCTB didn't exist in some form as well. Maybe the three synth tracks on OU812 (MIM/WIT/FSG) were written specifically for Sammy. You never really know considering how long Eddie held on to stuff.

How could an OPINION be revisionism of anything? There is no set of data than can prove "musicianship." So then it's gonna be everyone's opinion. Ed had pieces of music that had been turned down by DLR. With Sammy, he was able to turn them into actual songs.

[jimmy812]

Using that same philosophy, it could be argued that Eddie 'blossomed' when Gary joined the band too.

[Infinite Cactus]

It's kind of historical revisionism. We know that Eddie had the music for Dreams and Right Now before Sammy joined the band. Would be surprised if LWI and WCTB didn't exist in some form as well. Maybe the three synth tracks on OU812 (MIM/WIT/FSG) were written specifically for Sammy. You never really know considering how long Eddie held on to stuff.

He had bits of Mine All Mine at least as far back as the 1984 tour.

[NDL]

Excellent post, and I agree with the vast majority of it. That said:

But, I do think the subject of Ed's evolution starting in 1986 is certainly interesting. Eddie didn’t get soft. He got curious.

While I wouldn't say that Ed got soft, and while a song like Aftershock isn't "mild," the Van Hagar era never saw anything like Girl Gone Bad or On Fire.

But that swaggering, don’t-give-a-damn swing? That left with Dave’s karate kicks and mirror shades as Dave took his assless chaps to Steve Vai's playpen.

That's the one element that I sorely missed from the Hagar years, and it's why I got excited hearing 'Can't Get This Stuff No More,' when it first came out.

***

As for Hagar's statements, it's like a yo-yo with this guy: one day you wanna love him, the next, you wish he'd shut the hell up already. Ed, Al, and Michael, always displayed a level of musicianship throughout.

Hagar's vocal capabilities are greater than those of Roth, which enabled Ed to do things that he couldn't do with Roth.

That's it.

Period.

Moreover, the guy continually - we're talking about a couple of decades now - reminds us on 'how great I am doing.' If that's so, stop the comparison between yourself and the Roth years.

[blackandblue88]

What he said is true. Eddie gave so much with the guitar. He wanted to branch out. It’s all good. I’m happy that we got to hear it.

[Brett]

How could an OPINION be revisionism of anything? There is no set of data than can prove "musicianship." So then it's gonna be everyone's opinion. Ed had pieces of music that had been turned down by DLR. With Sammy, he was able to turn them into actual songs.

Exactly, Ed had bits and pieces of ideas for years that doesn’t mean they are songs until you collaborate with somebody and put them together. Those are not ideas that Dave would’ve done anything with. Sam brought them to life with Ed whether people want to accept it or not. Van Halen is not all Ed. I wonder when that stupidity will stop. When it’s all Ed, you get Van Halen 3. Garbage.

[Little Dreamer]

Excellent post, and I agree with the vast majority of it. That said:



While I wouldn't say that Ed got soft, and while a song like Aftershock isn't "mild," the Van Hagar era never saw anything like Girl Gone Bad or On Fire.



That's the one element that I sorely missed from the Hagar years, and it's why I got excited hearing 'Can't Get This Stuff No More,' when it first came out.

***

As for Hagar's statements, it's like a yo-yo with this guy: one day you wanna love him, the next, you wish he'd shut the hell up already. Ed, Al, and Michael, always displayed a level of musicianship throughout.

Hagar's vocal capabilities are greater than those of Roth, which enabled Ed to do things that he couldn't do with Roth.

That's it.

Period.

Moreover, the guy continually - we're talking about a couple of decades now - reminds us on 'how great I am doing.' If that's so, stop the comparison between yourself and the Roth years.

Get Up from 5150 is as wild as fierce as On Fire. Is it as good a song as On Fire? It's not. But I don't think it was intentional. Some people keep wanting to bring it back to Sammy's doorstep - that's the weird part. Eventually, getting older, you're not gonna write On Fire. The wife at home didn't want to hear On Fire. So he wrote Right Now. Nothing to do with Sam.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[I Coulda Hada VH]

Using that same philosophy, it could be argued that Eddie 'blossomed' when Gary joined the band too.

🤣🤣🤣

[VH1986]

Using that same philosophy, it could be argued that Eddie 'blossomed' when Gary joined the band too.

He did have some inspired ideas, no matter how they landed.

[I Coulda Hada VH]

He did have some inspired ideas, no matter how they landed.

27 years later and they still haven’t landed.