‘It Was Such a Disaster, the Way Eddie Broke Down’: Sammy Hagar Looks Back on ‘Disappointing’ Final Tour With Van Halen

“He was in bad shape the whole tour. Not trying to bring up a sore subject, but he was not healthy and was very abusive to himself.”

Sammy Hagar called his “disappointing” 2004 reunion tour with Van Halen, and looked back on making peace with Eddie Van Halen prior to the guitar hero’s untimely passing.

As glorious as its early years had been, the story of Sammy Hagar and Van Halen ended nowhere near as pretty. The 2004 Hagar reunion tour was plagued by substance abuse, interpersonal struggles, and even on-stage incidents which made it obvious that the reunion hadn’t gone as planned. The Red Rocker left following the tour’s end and never returned, while bassist Michael Anthony would be replaced by Eddie Van Halen’s then-teenage son Wolfgang two years later.

Hagar, who’s in the midst of the “Best of All Worlds” tour celebrating his legacy in Van Halen and beyond, tells AZCentral in a new interview that he was “so disappointed and, honestly, hurt by the way that thing went down in 2004.” He added:

“I was hoping that was gonna be the greatest thing ever, the beginning of a whole new chapter of getting together, writing songs, making great records again and being in the biggest, greatest band in the world. It didn’t turn out that way. And it was very disappointing.”

“But I didn’t lick my wounds. I just immediately went back to the Wabos, went out and continued the party. The Wabos was my most fun band. Other than Van Halen in the beginning, the first five or six years. We had more fun than was legal. (laughs).”

Despite the caustic nature of the breakup, Hagar admits “there was always that hope in the back of my mind that Eddie would get better and there was still a shot at having Van Halen together again”. However, years went by without a second reunion, and when Edward lost his battle with cancer in 2020, any hope that the Van Hagar lineup would find closure on the stage was lost.

“I think I healed myself by just going out, playing the music, staying happy, staying busy, and staying creative. That’s what it’s all about”, Hagar adds.

Hagar’s last show with Van Halen was “a disaster”

The 2004 tour only got worse as it progressed, and its conclusion was nothing short of a “disaster”, Hagar says. Reminded of the fact that Van Halen played the last show of the 2004 tour in Arizona, he began:

“Oh, yeah, when Eddie kind of lost it out there. I mean, he was in bad shape the whole tour. Not trying to bring up a sore subject, but he was not healthy and was very abusive to himself. That second night was such a disaster, the way he broke down. I just remember walking off the stage and Irving Azoff grabbing me, saying, ‘Get in the car.’ He threw me in a car with my wife, we went straight to the airport in wet clothes, jumped on our plane and went home.”

“On the plane, I just sat there, shaking my head, going, ‘God, that was a terrible experience.’ It could’ve been so wonderful and so beautiful, but it wasn’t. I wasn’t interested in going back and doing more shows. I was like, ‘If anybody wants to continue this tour, don’t talk to me about it,’ you know? And of course, they went out and did something different.”

And while it takes two to tango, Hagar, in hindsight, wishes he positioned himself differently back then when it came to Edward:

“No one knew quite what was going on with the guy. Now we know. And it’s a little bit easier to understand his frustrations and probably why he was turning to alcohol and drugs more than ever. He knew things that we didn’t know, I guess, or was feeling things we didn’t know. God bless him.”

“I almost wish I would’ve known a little more about what was going on with him. I would’ve probably tried even harder. I tried as hard as I could to connect us and get him on the good foot and get him healthy. But I would’ve maybe tried a little harder, maybe been a little more compassionate, instead of saying ‘(Expletive) it.'”

Making peace with Eddie Van Halen

Although the second reunion tour never happened, Hagar says that finding closure with Edward, at least on the phone, made a world of difference for him:

“Well, I can’t speak for Ed, but we had some really emotional moments on the phone, being very happy to be friends again. For me, I can only speak for myself, it was so important that we had closure before he passed, because otherwise, I don’t know how I’d feel about it. I’d be waking up in the middle of the night once in a while going ‘Man, I wish we could’ve fixed that.'”

“Now, I don’t have to do that. Now, I just go, ‘Hey, I miss Ed.’ I miss the music.”

“It’s a wonderful thing to not take anything to your grave. That’s always been my philosophy. I like to make friends, not enemies, No. 1. No. 2, I’m not interested in taking any anger or anything to my grave. And I don’t want any enemy to take it to their grave. I will reach out and do whatever I can to prevent that from happening.”

“That’s what I did with Ed. When I heard he was really sick, I got on it. I was kind of waiting for him to call me. I thought, ‘He owes me the phone call.’ But when I heard he was really in bad shape, I reached out immediately. That’s the way you’ve got to do it.”