Former Van Halen lead singer Sammy Hagar, also known as The Red Rocker, has opened up on Twitter about the death of his bandmate Eddie Van Halen.
Hagar tweeted a photo of the two of them with the words, “Heartbroken and speechless. My love to the family.”
Sammy Hagar and Eddie Van Halen’s Relationship
To put it simply, Hagar and Van Halen had a tempestuous relationship. After Van Halen eviscerated former bassist Michael Anthony in a 2015 Billboard interview, Hagar released a video calling Van Halen “a liar.” He also suggested repeatedly that Van Halen was holding Anthony back as a bass player to cover up his own mistakes as a guitarist.
“Especially on the ’04 reunion tour: If Mike would have played any more than one note, it would have showed that Eddie wasn’t playing the right chords again and again and again,” Hagar said then. “I couldn’t sing to him, you couldn’t play bass to him. That is a lot of bullshit and I don’t know why they go after [Anthony] like that. He doesn’t deserve it. He’s one of the greatest rock and roll bass players ever. Michael Anthony is top five rock and roll bass player in the world, any bass player would tell you.”
But Hagar reached out to Van Halen on his 65th birthday early this year. That was following reports that his battle with throat cancer was not going so well.
And by May of this year, Hagar was defiantly telling an interviewer that Van Halen would likely be on tour next year. His prediction came in response to comments by former Van Halen singer David Lee Roth that Van Halen was done for good.
“Eddie had a lot of health issues, but I heard he got it together,” Sammy Hagar said. “I pray for the guy and I love the guy.”
