In a recent interview with Paulo Baron and Regis Tadeu "Por Dentro ," Sammy Hagar spoke about his autobiography, Red: My Uncensored Life In Rock , and more specifically, about how he wrote about Eddie Van Halen.
In his 2011 book, Sammy Hagar reportedly described the guitarist as a laid-back-looking, frighteningly thin person who drank excessively. In a recent conversation, the singer regretted including his negative impressions of Eddie in his book.
“Because of Eddie Van Halen’s tragic death, I apologize from the bottom of my heart for exposing his dark side to a point where I think nobody wants to know right now, and unfortunately, it’s in the book,” Hagar said. “And it’s all true, it’s not like I’m lying, but if I were writing the book today, I would only put the good side of Eddie Van Halen because he was a brilliant, genius guitarist, and a great friend and great partner – until everything went wrong, as it always does.”
Sammy went on to say that nobody knew much about Eddie, but that people who saw him on stage at the time might have found his behavior strange. The musician also admitted that he didn't know Van Halen was ill at the time, but that if he had known, he would have tried to help. "But he was impossible. He was simply uncontrollable, it was difficult."
“He was the sweetest guy in the world when I met him,” Hagar continued. “I thought, ‘How can this guy play so well and be so humble?’ I remember thinking, ‘It’s impossible. He must have a fire inside him that he’s not showing.’ And when that fire flared up, it was one of the great ones – it was a volcano.”
Van Halen vocalist David Lee Roth , saying that the singer "pretends" to be someone else and that he thinks Lee Roth "isn't happy. "
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