Sammy Hagar is releasing a new song called "Encore, Thank You, Goodnight" on Friday (April 25) that has a very surreal origin story: Eddie Van Halen helped write the song in a dream.
The Red Rocker detailed the dream in a 2022 interview. "About two months ago, I had this dream and Eddie came," he explained at the time. "He’s going, 'Man, let’s write some music!' I said, 'Yeah, f**k it, man. Here, let’s go!'"
"[Eddie] did this harmonic thing and he slid it up to a chord, like a slide guitar. We wrote a song with that lick," Hagar continued. "I remembered it. I got up in the morning and I wrote the song. I used the f**kin’ lick that he showed me in the song."
Hagar recorded the song with guitarist Joe Satriani, bassist and former Van Halen bandmate Michael Anthony, and drummer Kenny Aronoff.
“Joe was the perfect partner to help me shape the sound," he said in a press release about the song. "He brought in that big, emotional, guitar-driven energy that feels like Eddie’s spirit but is entirely of Joe’s creation."
Hagar fronted Van Halen for more than a decade and sings on four of their chart-topping albums: 1986's 5150, 1988's OU812, 1991's For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge and 1995's Balance. He left the band in 1996 on bad terms that got even worse after a 2004 reunion; however, EVH and Hagar mended their years-long feud prior to the guitarist's death in 2020.
“This song is my final bow to that part of my life,” Hagar added in the press release. “It’s not meant to be anything more than a thank-you - with love, with respect, and with one hell of a guitar solo.”
After the song's release, Hagar plans to kick off a "Best of All Worlds" Las Vegas residency on April 30 that will showcase his full career, including his time with Van Halen.