The video titled "We Love You Eddie", former bandmates Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony talk about Eddie Van Halen a day after his passing of throat cancer on Tuesday. Sammy said the news was "like getting hit by a Mack truck". The raw video was posted after his current band Sammy Hagar & the Circle filmed a concert set on Catalina Island for Sammy's Birthday Bash. The show will be aired as a pay per view special on October 17th. Hagar and Van Halen had a contentious relationship which led Hagar to leave the band in 1996 after an argument with Van Halen. Even though Hagar and Van Halen would briefly reunite in 2004, the tensions remained and Eddie's drinking drove another wedge in the relationship causing Hagar to leave for good. David Lee Roth would rejoin the band in 2007.
Sammy stated after Van Halen's death that he and Eddie had reconnected earlier this year via text but agreed to keep it a secret due to Eddie's declining health. Anthony was replaced in the band by Eddie's only son Wolfgang in 2006. The band's manager, Irving Azoff told Pollstar that a tour was in the works prior to Eddie's declining health issues that would see Anthony back in the band. The Foo Fighters and Metallica were set to be on the bill on many of those dates leaving fans to ponder what could've been.
Tomorrow October 10, WLLZ will salute the guitar God with 10 straight hours of Van Halen music starting at 9am featuring all the hits, deep cuts and live tracks. Listen here 106.7 WLLZ
Rock In Peace Eddie.