Sammy Hagar’s birthday bash always takes place in Cabo San Lucas around this time. This year, obviously, due to the pandemic, that changed. Hagar and his band, the Circle, are performing on Catalina Island off the coast of California (and home of the Catalina Wine Mixer).
Former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony is in Hagar’s band (following his own departure from the band), so when the news of Eddie Van Halen’s death hit, they were obviously together. The two paid their respects to Van Halen on social media, but they’ve since recorded a video honoring their former bandmate.
In it, Hagar says that hearing about his former bandmate’s death — who he had just started talking to again earlier this year after years of acrimony — hit him like a “freakin’ Mack Truck” and said that performing the band’s songs this weekend would be “bittersweet.”
Anthony added that the news hadn’t sunk in yet and feels “surreal.” There were talks of the bassist reuniting with the classic lineup of Van Halen for a 2019 stadium tour, according to the band’s manager Irving Azoff.
Watch the full clip below.
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