In August of 2022, Hagar told Ultimate Classic Rock that Eddie Van Halen visited him in a dream and helped him write a new song: “I remembered it. I got up in the morning and I wrote the song. I used the fuckin’ lick that he showed me in the song.” And then, nearly three years later, the song, entitled “Encore, Thank You, Goodnight,” was finally released, with Hagar joined by Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony and Kenny Aronoff on the recording.
And then, this week, during his show on Wednesday night in Hampton Beach, David Lee Roth shared a lighthearted story that he, too, had been visited by the ghost of Eddie Van Halen.
“One of my esteemed colleagues, he’s a contemporary, he’s got a great voice, he’s got a great catalog. You all know Sammy Hagar, right? He’s got a great voice. And Sammy, aloud, he described to the media about six weeks ago that the ghost of Eddie Van Halen visited him and graced him with a song that he memorized and then went home and recorded. It’s on the Internet.
“I don’t know what the odds are, but last night the ghost of Eddie Van Halen visited me at the fucking hotel room. I was watching the weather report, and he came in and he was laughing. His fucking ghost was laughing.
“I said, ‘What did you do now?’ He said, ‘Dave, Dave…Dave, you know that song I gave Hagar?’ I said, ‘What now?’ He said, ‘It’s actually [Iron Butterfly’s 1968 hit] ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’ backwards. Don’t fucking tell him.’
“I laughed. We shared a ghost cigarette… and I hugged my brother Ed, and I said, ‘Man, do I fucking miss you.’ And he said, ‘I miss you too, Dave.’ He said, ‘But you know what? You should still go to hell.’ And I said, ‘Save me a seat.'”
Watch the segment below.