UPDATES TO BELOW STORY!
Sammy Hagar has released a video for his new song, "Encore. Thank You. Goodnight," his tribute to Eddie Van Halen.
It features Sammy and his Best of All Worlds band -- Michael Anthony, Joe Satriani and Kenny Aronoff -- performing on a soundstage interspersed with Sammy dreaming about Eddie, which is what inspired the song. And interspersed are images of Eddie along with video, taken when Hagar was in Van Halen, of him and Eddie getting their hair cut by their wives -- Valerie Bertinelli (Eddie) and Kari, along with Hagar's son Aaron.
In other Hagar news, his 12-song set Sunday at the Stagecoach festival in Indio, California featured nine Van Halen songs, including “Panama,” which is from the David Lee Roth era. The other three were Hagar solo songs, and joining him on “Mas Tequila” was his partner in Santo spirits, celebrity chef Guy Fieri.
Hagar now starts his nine-date Las Vegas residency at Dolby Live @ Park MGM tomorrow night. He's been teasing it on Instagram with videos of rehearsals and a band interview.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Five months after Sammy Hagar announced he'd written and recorded a song in tribute to Eddie Van Halen comes "Encore. Thank You. Goodnight."
Featuring his Best of All Worlds tour band -- bassist Michael Anthony, guitarist Joe Satriani, and drummer Kenny Aronoff -- the song was inspired by a dream Hagar had in 2022 where he and Eddie discussed writing a song together, with Eddie even playing him a guitar lick. Hagar wrote it the next day and even conveyed the lick to Satriani, who's credited as co-writer.
The song opens with Satriani playing an "Eruption"-style lick, and there's also a section in the middle where you hear an audience chanting "Eddie! Eddie! Eddie!"
Hagar and his Best of All Worlds band perform Sunday at the Stagecoach festival in Indio, California before starting their nine-date Las Vegas residency next Wednesday at Dolby Live at Park MGM.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sammy Hagar will release a new single Friday called “Encore, Thank You, Goodnight."
Backed by his Best of All Worlds band -- Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony and Kenny Aronoff -- Hagar says it was inspired by a dream he had about Eddie Van Halen.
He says. "I can't wait for the world to hear this very special song Joe [Satriani] and I wrote as a long overdue thank you to Eddie Van Halen for the music, the good times, and the dream that inspired this track."
Hagar first announced the song last November, even posting a video showing him and Anthony working on it.
At that time he was thinking of calling it "Thank You" or "Over in the Corner."
Eddie Van Halen died from cancer on October 6th, 2020. He was 65.
Check out Sammy's original post about it here from his official Instagram page.