As fans now know, Sammy Hagar was able to reconnect with Eddie Van Halen before he died. But in a new interview with Variety, Hagar reveals that it wasn’t initially easy making that connection and the person who stepped up to facilitate it was actor/comedian and former talk show host George Lopez.
Hagar revealed that he had long regretted the divide with his former bandmate and was happy to have had the chance to reconnect with Eddie before his passing. “Poor Eddie, broke my heart, but thank God we connected before [he died],” Hagar says. “I heard he was in bad shape and I wanted to reach out; I finally said, ‘I’m just calling him.’”
The “Red Rocker” revealed however that he no longer had Van Halen’s number and initial attempts to make contact through intermediaries proved unsuccessful. “I was calling his brother, I was calling his manager, I was calling his friends, and I’d say, ‘Hey, tell Ed, give him my phone number. Tell him if he ever wants to talk to me, I really, really want to talk it out, help him and see what I can do,’” Hagar says. “I [told them], ‘I want to be his friend, I want to bury the hatchet,’ but they never got it done.”
Finally George Lopez was the one who helped him contact Van Halen. The singer stated, “George is a dear friend and he was Eddie’s friend and he said, ‘Sammy, Eddie’s in bad shape, he loves you brother, you need to reach out.’ I said, ‘Give me his fucking number and I’ll make sure I call him.’”
Hagar says of the initial conversation, “I said, ‘Why don’t you respond? I’ve been reaching out,’ and Ed said, ‘Why didn’t you call me? Don’t fucking call my brother, fucking call me!’ And I said, ‘I love you man,’ and it was like, boom, we were good. It was a beautiful thing.”
Hagar revealed earlier this year that he had been texting back and forth with Eddie for a good portion of the year and that both musicians had agreed to keep their renewed friendship private because of all the reunion rumors it would stir up which they knew wasn’t going to happen due to Van Halen’s health.