Sammy Hagar Recalls Eddie Van Halen’s First Reaction To His Voice: “This Is Some Kind Of Magic Guy In Here?”
Sammy Hagar has recalled the late Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen‘s first reaction to his voice and said that he and his bandmates were looked very surprised.
Sammy Hagar was originally the lead singer of the rock band Van Halen from 1985 to 1996. Following his departure, Hagar reunited with the band just 7-year after in 2003 and parted ways with them once again in 2005. During his career with the band, the musician recorded four studio albums in total.
In his recent appearance on Washington Post, Hagar has mentioned his relationship with his former bandmate Eddie Van Halen, who’s passed away in 2020 due to cancer. According to Hagar, Eddie told his bandmates when he first heard him that he had a magical voice.
“From the second I walked in the studio – I got there around noon, they had been up all night working on a couple of songs on the ‘5150’ record when I came to see if I wanted to be in the band,” Hagar reveals.
“It wasn’t like an audition, Eddie asked me to come down and jam and I said, ‘Sure.’ I mean, who’s gonna refuse to jam with Eddie Van Halen, right? So, I came down, I just got off tour, three or four days before that, 130 shows.
“I was a little cooked, but those days I was so healthy and in such a good shape, I could sing like a bird – my voice was in the best shape it’s ever been in when I walked through that door.
“And he started playing ‘Summer Nights,’ I immediately started singing that, and I don’t think they stopped, they almost stopped and looked at each other like, ‘What the hell is going on? This is some kind of magic guy in here or something?'”
Hagar Says Eddie’s Music Was So Powerful
Paying his tribute to Eddie, Hagar said that the guitarist’s music was so powerful. He added his words that his music has always been talking to him. He also revealed how Eddie‘s playing affected him.
“We did that, finished it, I went home and wrote the lyrics, I had all the melodies, I just made them up,” Hagar continued.
“Eddie’s music was so powerful that when he would play me a song for the first time, it would go right to the heart, right to the brain, and I could sing a melody. I would just go home and write lyrics.
“We never struggled, there were maybe three songs that I struggled with, his music just spoke to me. It actually dictated my lyrics, that’s the craziest thing. I said, ‘That song sounded like a fun, happy, summer night song…'”
Sammy Adds Eddie Was So Inspiring
Later that, Sammy Hagar told the interviewer that Eddie was so inspiring player and friend. He also touched on the music he played and stated that speakers were going to explode every time he’s played.
“Then we played ‘Good Enough,’ the opening track from ‘5150,’ and he had that big, fat bass string on the bottom of his guitar, and I’m going, ‘What in the hell? I’ve never heard anything sound like that,'” Hagar added.
“It was nasty and mean and just ripping his speakers, sounded like they were just going to explode and shrivel up and fall out of the cabinet, and it just was so inspiring.
“And we all looked at each other again and again every time we did anything that day, and looked at each other like, ‘Wow, this is really cool!’
“He was pulling out things that maybe he couldn’t have presented before – if you know what I mean.”
