Sammy Hagar has said his new song “Encore, Thank You, Good Night,” was inspired by a dream he had about Eddie Van Halen, but it turns out Eddie’s not the only Van Halen he’s been dreaming about.
“I hate to say it, but I dreamt about Alex the other night, man,” Sammy tells Rolling Stone. “It was crazy. And it was so friggin’ real. I was saying, ‘What are you pissed off at me about, man? What the f***? Now just tell me what your problem is. What did I do? Just tell me.'”
Hagar says Alex laughed and asked “You really don’t know, do you?”
Alex and Sammy haven’t spoken in 21 years, and in the interview Sammy suggests the animosity could be over several things, including the success of his Cabo Wabo franchise, which Van Halen bailed on when it was losing money, only for Sammy to turn it around. Another is Sammy’s memoir, Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock, in which he was honest about a bad period of Eddie’s life.
But Sammy says he really thinks Alex is mad “because I’m out doing it … and he can’t,” noting that Alex is not a singer, doesn’t play guitar and doesn’t really play drums anymore.
“I would feel bad. If I put myself in his shoes, I would feel terrible if I couldn’t do it anymore,” he adds, “But I’m the happiest guy out of all of them. That pisses people off in itself. Being too happy, people don’t like that.”
“And I’m okay with it,” Sammy says. “Al, you’re fine. Just leave me alone. I’ll leave you alone. Everything’s good. I’m making you money, by the way, Al … I’m out there selling Van Halen records and keeping the name alive, keeping the music alive.”
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