Sammy Hagar has been speaking about his relationship with Eddie Van Halen once more, and now says that the late guitarist had turned his attention to the cello before he died.
His comments follow Hagar’s recent claims that EVH was “dried up” in the latter stages of his life and career, which attests to why the band only released one album in the 21st century.
Eddie Van Halen was born into a musical family. His father was a Dutch jazz pianist, clarinetist and saxophonist, and the guitar legend trod a similarly multi-instrument path, by playing piano, drums and cello. The final months of his life, it seems, were dedicated to developing his skills on the orchestra staple rather than the electric guitar.
“Last time I talked to Eddie before he passed, I said, ‘Man, what are you playing?’” Hagar tells the Talkin’ Rock With Meltdown podcast. “He said, ‘Oh, man, I’ve really been playing a lot of cello!’”
Hagar says he took the surprise news in good faith, and pushed for what would have been their first collaboration together since 1995’s Balance.
“I’m going, ‘Cello? Holy shit! Play me something, dude! I’m ready to write a song with you on cello!’”
Rock journalist and Guitar Player contributing writer Steve Rosen — who penned the book Tonechaser: Understanding Edward about his 26-year friendship with the guitarist — says Van Halen's journey with cello began in 1985.
“Edward had mentioned to me back on December 7th, 1984… how he was buying a cello and wanted to learn the instrument," Rosen writes in an excerpt of the book via Something Else! Reviews. "When he first told me that, I thought immediately of my friend Ron… who was not only an excellent bass player but a trained cellist, as well.”
Van Halen was 30 in 1985, and very much in the thralls of the rock and roll lifestyle. As Rosen noted, the guitarist arrived at his cello lesson with Ron having been “drinking heavily.”
“At one point, Edward attempted to play a few notes, but had been holding the bow incorrectly,” Rosen writes. “Ron reached over and slapped his hand the way an impatient music teacher may have done with an impetuous student, as in, ‘No, no, Edward, bad student!’
“The second he did it, I saw a look of terror cross his face because he realized he had just smacked the most famous right hand to ever hold a cello bow.”
No collaboration between Hagar and a cello-playing Van Halen materialized. Moreover, the mention of that call being the pair’s last conversation insinuates it took place close to his passing in October 2020.
Hagar does, however, claim that his new song “Encore, Thank You, Goodnight” was co-written with Eddie over a year after his death. The guitarist, he says, appeared to him in a dream, and he brought riffs with him.
Hagar’s group Best of All Bands — which includes Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony, and Kenny Aronoff — featured on the track, with Satriani eager to help finish a song the ghost of Eddie Van Halen had started.
The band wrapped its Las Vegas residency last month, and Hagar is seemingly eyeing another, with Wolfgang Van Halen in tow.
Calling out the Mammoth star — who, like his father is also a multi-instrumentalist — on radio station WRIF, he said: “Hey Wolf, let’s do a residency someday. Just one show of Van Halen songs! That would be awesome!”
Wolfgang, who says his stint as the bass player in his dad's band was tainted by a toxic portion of the fanbase, has distanced himself from playing Van Halen songs as he looks to forge a singular reputation and not one of ‘Eddie's son.’
“I could very easily shack up and do ‘Wolf does Van Halen’ and probably make a decent living from it,” he says.”[But] it’s very hollow and astoundingly creatively unfulfilling. I feel like it’s kind of selling out, and I could never do that; that’s not satisfying to me. I would rather bomb on my own than succeed with what my dad laid before me.”
Despite calling on Wolfgang to join him on stage, Hagar does recognize that he is his own man.
“He’s not trying to be his dad,” he tells WRIF, “and I love that. Let that boy boogie!”
He’s certainly boogieing, and keeping his father close in the process. He’s revealed that his new song, “The End” was tracked on his dad’s legendary Frankenstein Strat. But the likelihood of him playing Van Halen songs on that guitar, or any for that matter, in the future currently seems slim.
