Sammy Hagar is here to join us for an Audacy Check In to talk about his new song, “Encore, Thank You, Goodnight.” which he says was inspired by a dream about Eddie Van Halen.
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00:00that you had all those years with Eddie and now still with Mikey all these years later and now
00:04you've got Kenny uh behind the kit doing this uh best of all worlds tour with with Joe is do you
00:11look around going wow look at look at this it's pretty amazing yes I do I I'm humbled by this
00:16band and and being in Van Halen I wasn't humbled let's talk about this you're the end of the moth
00:24here is uh your dance card is full you just said you're playing stagecoach on the palomino stage
00:30which kind of blows my mind that's out of uh character but I mean you're gonna bring it
00:35anywhere you play anyway and then two days later you're cranking up the uh the Vegas residency
00:40at Dolby Live Park MGM but wait it all starts with the release of this brand new song and dude I
00:48cannot stop listening to this song encore thank you good night I know it's uh you got to tell the
00:53story I know it's a dream you had about a year after Eddie passed all about Eddie and you did
00:58this as a tribute to him but the first intro guitar that I'm hearing from Joe Satriani I thought okay
01:03this has got to be a lost Eddie track from 5150 and I know that's the thought behind it that he's what
01:10he's doing yeah when I I was I sat on that this dream and this little piece of music that I had
01:16which is just the verse and the chorus thank you for the music I didn't have the lyrics I just had
01:22thank you and I didn't know what I was going to say about what I was going to thank him exactly for
01:26uh there's a lot of things you know so I finally pulled all that together but anyway I played Joe
01:31that stuff and I said what would Eddie have done to this song because we I woke up in the middle of
01:36the dream because when I dream of people that have passed I don't know about y'all but when I dream of
01:40them and I realize in my dream I go oh wait a minute this guy's dead fucking dream's over man it
01:45yeah good night I have the same thing yeah I have everybody visiting me too and as soon as I
01:50realize then it's done I know isn't that weird so yeah that gives me goosebumps see me too man me too
01:55that's that's the truth yeah so when I woke up from this dream with Eddie we were in the middle of
02:02writing a song and I was singing this melody so it was so fresh I remembered my melody
02:07and I'm going man I woke up I sang that into my iPhone my wife's sitting there pulling covers over
02:18her head then you're waking me up four o'clock in the morning I got my guitar out I got my notepad
02:24and and I'm so good when I was one of them things where nobody wants to hear about dreams you know
02:30you wake up and say honey I had this weird dream you can't believe it on stream and you start trying
02:34to tell her she goes I don't want to hear about your dream right now it's too fucking crazy it
02:37doesn't make any sense I'm going yeah I know so so nobody wants to hear about your dream so I I was
02:42reluctant and then finally I said fuck it I'm going to play this for Joe so Joe when after doing the
02:50whole best of all worlds tour 34 cities playing 14 Van Halen songs he studied Eddie inside and out
02:56he said hey I got this man I said just think about what would Eddie do to this song if I played it for
03:03him because you know like a song like finish what you started you know I played it for Eddie I went
03:07you know come on baby finish what you started yeah I'm incomplete and ain't no way and Eddie goes
03:15and that was so far removed from what Eddie was doing then that guitar part because it speaks to what
03:25you're saying the lyric yes yes yes because I wrote because I wrote this little piece to where normally
03:30I didn't write the music Eddie wrote all the music I wrote all the lyrics right but but this one time
03:34when I do well there's two songs that I played him like that but that but that was the one and and
03:40what he put to it I said Joe what would Eddie put to this if I played this for him and he came up with
03:46that fucking intro he said you know it's like eruption or something you know uh cathedral all these
03:50intros that he made for songs so Joe put an intro on it and that's called encore okay brilliant I think
03:57yeah I totally yeah and then we play the song thank you and Joe put all these crazy little bridges in
04:03there and these little instrumental out of time sections crazy timing and then the outro the last
04:11thing good night is this little lullaby that Joe plays at the very end because it's it's it's complete
04:16it's like thank you Eddie thank you you know I mean it's just such a heartfelt thing from me to him
04:23I just wrote exactly what I dreamt and exactly what I felt and uh that's so personal it's one of the most
04:29personal songs I've ever written in my life but the lyrics are so emotional man I mean it struck me
04:34hard and you know also it speaks to your world-class musicianship and songwriting prowess that you have
04:41played with Eddie Van Halen yeah you play with Joe Satriani two of the greatest guitar players ever
04:48to to grace this planet and you're up there more than holding your own obviously because you're such
04:54an amazing talent uh a six-string slinger yourself but wow it spins my head around I mean how do you
05:02feel about that that you that you had all those years with Eddie and now still with Mikey all these
05:06years later and now you've got Kenny uh behind the kit doing this uh best of all worlds tour with
05:13with Joe is do you look around going wow look at look at this it's pretty amazing yes I do I I'm humbled
05:19by this band and in being in Van Halen I wasn't humbled uh at that time you know I was a you know
05:26platinum solo artist selling out arenas all over the world so I wasn't as humbled joining Van Halen as I
05:33looking back as I could have been uh but now I'm humbled by it because Eddie Van Halen's one of
05:39the greatest rock musicians that ever lived and I'll I I'm I'm more impressed with this guy
05:44every day of my life and I will always be inspired by his musical abilities and his musical
05:53uniqueness I tell you it's the the better I get and the more knowledge I get at what at my craft
06:00I always go back to Eddie and go wow wow he was already there he was already there every time I
06:07I come to a new conclusion new height I go oh wow Eddie knew this and it's it's amazing um how great
06:14that guy and unique that guy really was um it's almost like the pop image to have them being the
06:20biggest you know Van Halen always being one of the biggest fans in the world and you know both in both
06:24eras that it all it almost hurt what he really was as a musician because he he got his musicianship
06:32in at that but he was taken lightly by some people just because he was in a pop band he was a rock star
06:37you know he was better than that he was more he was Beethoven he was freaking right you know the
06:42maestro yes he really was yeah I'm humbled by this band that I'm in when and and I learned from being
06:49in Van Halen when I left Van Halen I was so much better of a singer songwriter guitar player I was
06:55a better artist period from being in Van Halen and the light went on in my head I went you know what
07:01I need to be around good players and when I'm around good players I'm better uh when I'm not around great
07:07players I I tend to get lazy and I I get self-indulgent and because my red the redheads my fans anybody's
07:14been to the cobble wobble birthday badges and all that you know that these fans I could walk out in
07:18a bathing suit with no shirt no shoes and they would be yes we love saying of course and you don't want
07:24to see that in this day and age you know but they would be fine with it so I get I get a little too
07:29comfortable in my old skin but when I'm around Joe Sontriani around Michael Anthony the way he sings
07:35I'm going man I I gotta hit this note right Mikey can fucking sing this note if I can't he'll say why
07:40you want me to sing that for you Sambo that's what he does all the time you know I'm going no
07:44you just mind your own business Mike my dear friend Mike but anyway Kenny Aronoff these guys are
07:49comparable musicians that make me have to step it up and and care and pay attention and uh I found
07:56that out that I have to be around great musicians and boy I am right now this is this band is as good
08:01as they get Kenny Aronoff joined this best of all worlds tour 23 shows in he came to the 24th show
08:0724 hour notice and learned 24 songs it's oddly enough with 24 24 24 I heard about that yeah yeah
08:15and and and and the fucking guy made less mistakes the first night than I made after 20 and I've been
08:2023 shows in so when you're around guys like that you you step it up a little bit you go man I don't
08:26want to be come off stage and you go say man uh do you remember how that goes right say yeah I remember
08:32how it goes I just got lazy well you're talking about Mikey and those background vocals it's so
08:39great to see that these songs this Van Halen catalog that hadn't got played forever are back on stage
08:45with the best of all worlds tour and it's you and Mikey and those two voices blending together like
08:49you remember you know it's mind-blowing man it's so good you know what it's so amazing that Mike and I
08:58discussed before the best of all worlds tour he said let's get another key let's get a keyboard
09:02player so that we don't have to have the keyboards on tape and some of the background vocals on tape
09:06and Van Halen we always had keyboards on tape except 5150 tour Eddie played keyboards and I play guitar
09:12right after that everything went on tape and we said let's get a keyboard player that could sing
09:17so we got Ray Thistleweight from from Australia and he was such an addition because now the vocals are
09:24live the keyboards are live so we can jam those songs we don't have to play to a track when you're
09:29playing to a track it's sterile it's stiff you know you got to pay attention and you can't you know
09:34you got to really listen close so you don't get off from the track so uh man it's so much fun playing
09:38these songs especially songs like right now which brings goosebumps just thinking about yeah and it
09:45takes me right back to the the video I mean I can play every image to every part of that song
09:52it's burned in my brain it's that good lyrically and the video and musically I mean needless to say
09:58it's and to see that on stage with the keyboards playing live is takes it to the next level it
10:03really does it's a masterpiece that song yeah uh it's of lyric and melody and and and music I mean
10:10it's really a gelling of two things that are like dreams is one of those songs Eddie and I did that a lot
10:17you know 51 50 is one of those kind of songs uh and this new song to me uh thank you we'll just call
10:23it thank you to shorten it up but it is one of those songs too where it's a magical gel of uh of
10:29something and that's where the power is you know those are the ones that's that stay forever right now
10:35wasn't even that big of a hit I mean it was a big MTV hit because it was innovative but it it was
10:42like number 27 or something on the top 40 charts but you play it you know like when I'm when I'm
10:49doing uh stagecoach for instance you know you say here I am a friend of 70,000 mostly country fans
10:55just music fans in general and and I'm going how do you feel about that I'm going all I got to do is
11:00play right now and that's it it transcends the genre it really came over it's because it's just
11:07like stairway to heaven or something you know it just it transcends any genre of music so uh you know
11:13that's that that's that was the highlight of my life and I'm chasing that you know I'll chase that
11:20for the rest of my life but I don't plan on and I don't have delusions of grandeur of catching in that
11:25Van Halen was the pinnacle of my musical career always will be and I think Eddie I'm thinking
11:31Eddie for it in a song it's that's fucking simple the song is amazing and I'm sure are you gonna be
11:36playing it live oh hell yeah oh killer all right yeah I don't want to tell you too much but we're
11:41not playing it at stagecoach because it's not really out long enough yet but we're playing it at
11:46the residency that's for sure and the place we're playing it which I ain't telling you uh because
11:52the you know reveals the surprises are half the fucking sure you know half what makes things
11:59magic so but what the place we're placing it in the set is gonna blow you away oh you gotta come
12:06and see this fucking thing I definitely want to man nine shows cranking up into this month going
12:11through May 17 it's gonna be at Dolby Live Park MGM all the information on our website now and Sammy
12:18I'll let you go but one more thing I just saw a clip of you asking Chad Smith your drummer in
12:23Chicken Foot of course how long you how long did he think he and the Chili Peppers would continue I'm
12:28gonna pose that question to you or you're gonna go till the end aren't you I have to I mean you know
12:35I mean I made this commitment to my fans um I've taken them on a journey and asked them to accept
12:42you know me as who I am when like I said when I stopped putting on a uniform basically and started
12:48just being Sammy Hagar uh the way I am on off stage on stage all the same guy uh you know it's a little
12:54more exaggerated on stage of course but uh I when I asked them to be if they're okay with that and
13:01they basically said yeah and they follow me around the world I can't drop them off someplace you know
13:06what I mean I can't say hey guys guess what I'm done now you guys go ahead and hang out here on this
13:11beach and but I won't be back you know it's the scene in Forrest Gump when he stops running and
13:16everybody's like yeah there you go that's a great that's a great analogy Remy that I got here I go I
13:22got goosebumps again that is exactly it I can't drop them off at the fucking store you know so so I'm
13:30I'm going as long as I can but trust me with the day I stand on stage and can't sing and and can't
13:36perform the way I feel I need to uh then I I will have to quit I'll be forced to quit I won't I won't
13:44quit but I may be forced to quit someday I got you and I'm hoping that this residency allows me a few
13:50more years because without the travel it's half as hard sure yes so see that's my body to be there
13:57forever yeah yeah I might be able to do I might be able to hang in there with you come on right on
14:02man yeah I love it well continued success Sammy keep kicking ass this Cabo Wabo is for you
14:07oh right on Remy right on peace and love