Sammy Hagar Says He Wrote a Song With Eddie Van Halen in a Dream

Sammy Hagar says he wrote a new tune known as “Thank You” utilizing a guitar lick that Eddie Van Halen confirmed him in a current dream.

“I shouldn’t be hyping it now,” Hagar tells UCR. “Nobody knows this but Michael Anthony, Jason [Bonham] and Vic [Johnson]. About two months ago, I had this dream and Eddie came. We were in a room like this, [with] a bunch of people around. It was just like he’d been gone. It was not like he was passed, but he had just been out of my life and we hadn’t seen each other for a while. He’s going, ‘Man, let’s write some music!’ I said, ‘Yeah, fuck it, man. Here, let’s go!'”

Hagar says they “went over into a corner, in this room. He had a guitar and he played me this thing. It was like this lick – [just like] the last lick that Eddie Van Halen showed me, when I went back for the [2004] reunion tour and when he was a mess. I said, ‘Eddie, show me your newest shit,’ because every time I’d be around him I’d say, ‘Show me your newest shit.’ He’d say, ‘Oh, check this out!'”

In the dream, “he did this harmonic thing and he slid it up to a chord, like a slide guitar. We wrote a song with that lick,” Hagar provides. “I remembered it. I got up in the morning and I wrote the song. It’s called, ‘Thank You.’ I used the fuckin’ lick that he showed me in the song. I told Jason, ‘I just really don’t know what to say lyrically.’ I’ve got goosebumps, head to toe, [talking about it]. So I wrote it [about that experience], and we’ll do that song someday.”

“Thank You” got here collectively too late for inclusion on his upcoming Crazy Times album. But when it does arrive, Hagar intends to share the songwriting credit score along with his former bandmate.

“Now, that’s going to be an Eddie-influenced song, to the point that I’m going to co-write it with him. I’m going to give him credit and then maybe we’ll donate the money to charity, whatever,” Hagar says. “You see, I feel so embarrassed about it because everyone’s going to say, ‘Oh, look at Sammy trying to capitalize on Eddie.’ No, I’m not. You don’t understand. This was a real fuckin’ dream, and I told you exactly what happened in it.”

Crazy Times, Hagar’s second album with the Circle, arrives on Sept. 30. The title observe and a cowl of Elvis Costello’s “Pump It Up” have already been launched. The band is presently touring the U.S. with help from George Thorogood.