INDIO, Calif. — Sammy Hagar got the chance to work with his former bandmate, the late Eddie Van Halen, one last time.
Hagar released a song, “Encore, Thank You, Goodnight,” that came to him in a dream not long after Van Halen’s death in 2020.
“About a year after Eddie died, I had a dream of him. And I’ve dreamt about him many times,” Hagar told Fox News Digital at the Stagecoach Festival, where he performed with Michael Anthony, Joe Satriani and Kenny Aronoff.
Hagar described the unusual feeling of dreaming of Van Halen while knowing his friend had already died.
SAMMY HAGAR PLANNED TO RETIRE UNTIL HE RECEIVED A CALL FROM EDDIE VAN HALEN
“He was saying, ‘Hey man, let’s write a song. Dude, man, let’s write a cool song.’ And then he starts playing this riff, and I start singing. And, in the middle of a verse, I went, ‘Oh, Eddie’s passed.’ And, boom, he was gone. And I woke up, but when I woke in the middle of it, I remembered what I was singing.”
WATCH: Sammy Hagar details dream that inspired Eddie Van Halen tribute song
Hagar also managed to get down what Van Halen had been playing in the dream, and it became “Encore, Thank You, Goodnight,” which he calls “a tribute to Eddie.”
He and Van Halen were in the band together from 1985 to 1996, and while there had been tensions off and on over the years, they had reconciled shortly before Van Halen died.
The rocker admitted he waited to release the song because “people are gonna think I’m crazy, and I am. You know, I’m never gonna write with Eddie again. This is the closest thing to writing a damn song with Eddie. And it is. And it’s honest, and is brutally honest.
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“I kept thinking … I wanna make it a thank you to him. I thought, ‘Well, I’ll just say thank you for the dream. Thank you for the visit. You know, what took you so long?’ You know, I just wrote exactly about what happened in the dream, and I’m very happy with it. And the fans seem to love it. Everyone seems to embrace it. It’s my way of thanking him. It’s like, you know, goodbye. Miss you buddy, you know. And I do.”
Hagar will keep on rocking and performing at his Las Vegas residency, “The Best of All Worlds Stays in Vegas The Residency,” beginning April 30 and playing through May 17 at Dolby Live at Park MGM.
WATCH: Sammy Hagar explains why a Las Vegas residency can extend his career
The 77-year-old welcomes the opportunity, noting the perception of a Las Vegas residency has changed drastically.
“Well, in the old days, if you played Vegas and did a residency, you were washed up. You know, you think, ‘Oh, that’s the graveyard, right? That’s where you go to retire.’ Now, if you don’t have a residency, you’re nobody,” he said.
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A Las Vegas residency gives Hagar the chance to perform but at a more manageable pace.
“The cool thing about it is, at my age, I’m very tired of packing up and going on tour in hotel room after hotel room, travel, bad food, bad night’s sleep, trying to travel and then get to a show late. And then you got to run on stage unprepared,” the “I Can’t Drive 55” rocker said.
“Residency gives you a chance to have a good night’s sleep, eat some good food — best culinary market in the world, Las Vegas — and rehearse on days off in the same venue, and you get it all dialed in. You don’t have to do sound checks once you’ve got it dialed.
“I think it’s for old guys now not to go to retire, but to say, ‘I can keep doing this on this level. I can just keep doing it like this.’ I don’t want to go on tour again. I tell everybody right now, from the bottom of my heart, I’ve been doing it my whole life. It’s tough on your body, on your everything, on my voice.
“Hopefully, I’ll enjoy this as much as I think I’m going to, and I can continue maybe squeeze another 50-100 shows out of this old guy.”
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But Hagar remains energetic and youthful after decades of rock ‘n’ roll.
WATCH: Sammy Hagar never ‘worried about getting old’
“I don’t have a secret to youth. I’m just very happy to do what I do, and I’ve never thought about how old I am. I’ve never thought about certain things, like worried about getting old,” Hagar said.
“I don’t think I’m even old yet. I want to go to sleep at 125, I swear, and I just really think that if there’s any secret, it’s just to continue going and not quit and not retire and say, ‘You know, I am done, I can’t. I’m just gonna go play golf every day.’ I don’t play golf. I play music. And I can play music for the rest of my life.
“Not sure I can go on tour that much, but I can do shows. And as long as I can sing, it’s really all about that.”