Comedian George Lopez revealed for the first time how he helped reconnect Eddie Van Halen and Sammy Hagar in early 2020.
Lopez shared the story with Sukanya Krishnan and Scott Stanford on “The Suki and Scott Show“.
“Ya know I’ve never answered this question,” said Lopez. “I think Sammy had tweeted Ed ‘Happy Birthday’ and then Ed said to me, ‘Why does he tweet me happy birthday instead of calling me?’ I said, ‘Man, he’s probably tripping, he probably thinks you won’t take his call.’ He’s like, ‘No.’ So I said, ‘If he called you, would accept his call?’ And he said, ‘Yeah!’”
And with that, Lopez decided to make a call to Hagar.
Lopez said, ““I told Sam, ‘If you wanted a window to reconnect with Ed, your window is right now.’”
Soon after Hagar made the call to Eddie and the two remained in contact through phone calls and texts until shortly before Eddie passed in October.
Lopez also talked about Eddie’s struggles with shyness and public misperceptions.
“He was like, ‘Everybody thought I was aloof and disconnected. I’m shy, man. I’ve always been shy. I can play the guitar but I’m shy,'” said Lopez. “He rarely went out and his wife says [to me], ‘Call him up and go out and play golf.’ We were members of the same club and we would golf with each other.”
Lopez also showed his appreciation for those who kept Eddie’s illness away from the media’s radar.
“I knew Ed was sick and it wasn’t really out, which was surprising that it wasn’t out,” said Lopez. “It didn’t come out that he was going to another country to get treatment until it had already passed, like, he’d already done it. It wasn’t happening in real time which I think it shows the respect that people had because people saw him in the hospital, they saw him looking different yet nobody blew the whistle.”