Sammy Hagar recalls the moment he found out that Eddie Van Halen, his friend and former bandmate, had died last year.

“I fell apart,” Hagar admits during an appearance on an upcoming episode of Celebrity Sleepover. The Red Rocker goes on to express his appreciation for having mended things with the Van Halen guitarist before his death. “It just was such a miracle that him and I hooked up about four months, five months before that.”

Hagar further explains that he and Eddie “went really into some soul talking about doing something next year.” This seemingly aligns with Hagar’s previous comments about the Kitchen Sink tour, which would have seen all of the current and former Van Halen members reuniting for a trek.

You can watch the exclusive clip of Hagar's appearance on Celebrity Sleepover below. The show airs Sunday mornings at 1AM on NBC following Saturday Night Live.

Last October, Hagar recalled his reconciliation conversation with Van Halen. "When I called him, after years of not speaking … he said, 'What took you so long?’” the Red Rocker revealed. “It put the biggest smile on my face. I said, 'Oh, my God. Don't ask me.' That was just very touching to me: 'Hey, I've been waitin'.'"

It’s been a long road since then, as Hagar has had to deal with the emotional toll of losing someone he cared so much about. Still, he's managed to take a more philosophical view of it all.

“The way I swallowed this pill and have been able to say, ‘You know what, we made 11 years of music together,” Hagar explained. “We wrote some 40, 50 million-selling records and some of the greatest songs in rock history. I’m so fortunate to have that. And then to have Michael Anthony standing next to me onstage [these days]. And we play songs like ‘Right Now,' ‘Pound Cake’ and ‘Top of the World,’ ‘Finish What You Started.’ It’s like, yeah, this music lives. This is what Eddie left.”

 

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