Music News

Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony released a heartfelt video to YouTube paying tribute to the late Eddie Van Halen.

Hagar and Anthony are currently on Catalina Island prepping for Hagar’s annual birthday bash concert taking place on October 17. They recorded the video message below on October 7 shortly after rehearsal.

Hagar says in the video, “After the unfortunate thing that happened with Eddie Van Halen yesterday, which for Mike and I was like getting hit by a freaking Mack truck, It kind of took the wind out of the sails…I just wanna say that I’m kind of devastated. A Van Halen song never felt so hard to sing and play in my life.”

Anthony added, “It was hard. It’s very surreal right now. It hasn’t sunk in yet.”

Hagar continued, “What I felt playing especially a song like ‘Right Now’ that is so timeless, that I felt, ‘Wow, thank God for this.’ We’ll never play it with Eddie again, but thank God for this.”

The video ends with a clip from rehearsal that day of Hagar asking from a moment of silence in honor of EVH before he and his backing band, The Circle, played “Right Now.”

 

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Erica Banas is a rock/classic rock news blogger who's well-versed in etiquette and extraordinarily nice. #TransRightsAreHumanRights