Ex-Van Halen vocalist Sammy Hagar recently revealed he had secretly made peace with Eddie Van Halen prior to his passing. Now in an interview with Mark & Neanderpaul, Hagar elaborates how he got back in contact with Eddie and how easy the conversations were.
"A mutual friend of ours, George Lopez, who's a comedian, called me and said, 'Sam, you've gotta call Ed. He's not doing good. And he loves you. You guys have to do something.'" said Hagar. "George was looking to try to put the band back together and all that. So I said, 'Oh, man. Are you kidding me? I went through his brother. I tried to go through everybody. Tell Eddie I hope he's doing well. I'd love to speak with him, come and see him, whatever.'
"So all of a sudden, George says, 'Here's his phone number. Call him.' I picked up the phone, and we were texting and talking almost weekly — I would say, honestly, weekly since the beginning of the year. And [it was] nothing but a love fest. [He was] talking about how great Wolfie is doing with his new record. He sent me some music long before it came out."
Hagar sang for Van Halen between 1985 and 1996, and again between 2003 and 2005. The two famously hadn't spoke since the Van Halen reunion tour ended, but the friendship was rekindled in the last few months of Eddie's life. Hagar made the revelation in a note passed to The Howard Stern Show on SiriusXM.
The note wrote: "Eddie and I had been texting, and it's been a love fest since we started communicating earlier this year. We both agreed not to tell anyone, because of all the rumors it would stir up about a reunion, et cetera, and we both knew that wasn't gonna happen. But he also didn't want anyone to know about his health."
Sammy continued: "He stopped responding to me a month ago, and I figured it wasn't good. I reached out one more time last week, and when he didn't respond, I figured it was a matter of time. But it came way too soon."
[via Blabbermouth]
