Former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar has reflected on the 2004 tour that saw him unite with the band after eight years – and it paints a sorry picture of Eddie Van Halen’s issues with addiction at the time. In a 2016 interview with AXS TV, which has recently been published online, Hagar even claims that his experience on 2004 Summer Tour was “the worst experience” of his life.
The reason for this, according to Hagar, is because of EVH’s drug and alcohol abuse, and the impact it had on him both emotionally and physically. “Eddie was completely whacked out off the charts on alcohol and drugs,” Hagar says. As a result, Eddie’s guitar riffing was hugely impaired; tracks would be lost in a sea of gibberish, Hagar often unable to recognise what track Eddie was even performing.
“Poor guy… he was really in bad shape,” Hagar mourns. “I thought he was going to die.”
Inebriated, Eddie was totally unrecognisable. “I’ve never met a person like that in my life,” he says. “[He tried] to bust windows out of a G5 airplane at 4,000 feet with a wine bottle… it ain’t even our plane, it’s a rental plane!”
The experience left Hagar desperate to leave midway through the tour. 40-shows deep, Hagar was ready to pull the plug. “I said, I can’t do this anymore – the guy’s going to die,” he recalls. “It was horrible. He did horrible things to people. He treated people so badly… he was a complete raving maniac.”
Unfortunately, his hands were tied. His contract made it impossible for him to quit the tour, as he’d have to financially compensate the rest of the band if the tour had to be cancelled.
Despite everything, the tour didn’t ruin Hagar’s memories of his late bandmate. He remembers Eddie fondly. “Eddie’s a sweet human being,” Hagar insists. “He’s talented and he’s a sweet wonderful guy. But he’s got some demons… when I saw those demons take over him, it was pitiful.”
Hagar will be kicking off his Best of All Worlds Tour this July. The guitarist will be performing Van Halen songs alongside ex-bandmate, bassist Michael Anthony, as well as guitarist Joe Satriani and drummer Jason Bonham.
