For fans of one of the biggest rock bands of the ‘80s, the idea of unheard material surfacing from the vault sounds like a dream. But for Sammy Hagar, the announcement comes with mixed emotions.
After drummer Alex Van Halen revealed he’s developing an archival project built around unfinished recordings—including drum tracks from himself, guitar parts from the late Eddie Van Halen and bass contributions from Eddie’s son, Wolfgang Van Halen—questions quickly turned to whether other former members would be involved, specifically Hagar and former bassist Michael Anthony.
Hagar says the answer is quite simple.
“No. We haven't been asked, number one,” he said during an appearance on Rock of Nations on Thursday, February 26.
The singer didn’t just brush it off. Instead, he explained just how much music may still exist from his era with the band. According to Hagar, 78, their creative process involved a lot of marathon jam sessions that were always rolling tape.
“Everything that I ever did, and every time we made a record, we recorded hundreds of hours of jam and music, and then we'd cut 'em up, made songs,” he explained. “That's the way we did it, right? So there's so much stuff from Mike and I and Ed and Al in the studio.”
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He even recalled how multiple tracks from the 1986 album 5150 grew out of a single extended session. “Like I said, just the initial day that I went in there, we got 'Summer Nights', we got 'Good Enough' and the beginnings of 'Get Up' from [the 1986 album) 5150—three songs that came from that eight-hour jam.”
While acknowledging that the project ultimately belongs to Alex, Hagar admitted the omission stings. “I'm disappointed that Mike and I wouldn't be invited. It's, like, what? Are you kidding me? We're still alive. We're out here doing it. We're playing those songs. We can still do it, you know?” he claimed.
Anthony has also weighed in on how the unreleased material should be handled: “The way I personally feel about it is, if they wanted to do it justice, [the best idea would be] to just finish it up as a great instrumental nod to Eddie,” he said in a recent interview on Cleveland’s 98.5 WNCX.
He suggested that adding a new singer, instead of Hagar, could overcomplicate things. “You know, because getting a new singer in there, we’re not forming a new band, and then you’ve got to work on lyrics and all that stuff. And who knows when anything would be put out at that point.” Instead, he suggested the band focus on strictly instrumental music.
For now, the project remains in progress. And as for Hagar and Anthony, they’re focused on their upcoming Las Vegas residency celebrating the band’s catalog with his supergroup, Best of All Worlds Band.
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