David Lee Roth Mocks Sammy Hagar's Ghost Of Eddie Van Halen Story

08-18-2025

There is no love lost between former Van Halen frontmen David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar and that was on full display during Roth's recent concert in Hampton Beach, NH where he poked fun at Hagar's claim that a dream with late guitarist Eddie Van Halen inspired his song "Encore, Thank you, Goodnight".

Sammy revealed the inspiration for the song during a conversation with Ultimate Classic Rock. He said at the time, "I had this dream and Eddie [Van Halen] came. It was just like he'd been gone. It was not like he was passed, but he had just been out of my life and we hadn't seen each other for a while. He's going, 'Man, let's write some music!' I said, 'Yeah, f*** it, man. Here, let's go!'"

Roth poked fun at that story during his August 13th concert at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom. He told the audience, "One of my esteemed colleagues, he's a contemporary, he's got a great voice, he's got a great catalog. You all know Sammy Hagar, right? He's got a great voice. And Sammy, aloud, he described to the media about six weeks ago that the ghost of Eddie Van Halen visited him and graced him with a song that he memorized and then went home and recorded. It's on the Internet.

"I don't know what the odds are, but last night the ghost of Eddie Van Halen visited me at the f***ing hotel room. I was watching the weather report and he came in and he was laughing. His f***ing ghost was laughing. I said, 'What did you do now?' He said, 'Dave, Dave...' Actually, you want me to do his accent? 'Hey, Dave.' He said, 'Dave, you know that song I gave Hagar?' I said, 'What now?' He said, 'It's actually 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida' backwards. Don't f***ing tell him.'

"This all stays in this room, right? I laughed. We shared a ghost cigarette, a ghost Marlboro. Not one of those pussy-ass white ones, but the [Marlboro Reds]. And I hugged my brother Ed, and I said, 'Man, do I f***ing miss you.' And he said, 'I miss you too, Dave.' He said, 'But you know what? You should still go to hell.' And I said, 'Save me a seat.'"