t's been over two years since Eddie Van Halen passed away, and his former bandmate Sammy Hagar is still missing him terribly.
"I cherish him more than ever," Hagar tells USA Today. "I miss his unique creativity. He'd play something and I'd go what, where the hell did that come from? He was so out of left field, so original, that creativity always lifted me."
Hagar had a successful solo career before joining Van Halen in 1985, but he admits being in the band was "the peak of my musical career."
“My ego wants to say I was doing great as a solo artist. Well, yeah, I was doing fine,” he says, “but Van Halen was some other thing man. It was a four-headed monster, and I miss Ed dearly.”
Van Halen and Hagar had been estranged for several years before the guitarist’s October 2020 death, and Hagar says, “What happened with us at the end was such a shame.”
“It’s what happens when alcohol and drugs are involved, and I'm going through a divorce. It's such a shame,” he says. “If Van Halen were still together today, we'd be headlining every one of these festivals all over the world.”