Sammy Hagar is facing criticism after making a joke about Eddie Van Halen’s guitar playing.
On the Van Hagar/Other Half Instagram account, the Red Rocker posted a voice-over from one of his Van Halen concerts with Eddie. The caption read, “This goes to show the power of music. It can make grown men do crazy sh*t like this!”
The video sparked mixed reactions among fans. Some thought the post was disrespectful to Eddie, while others found it humorous, resulting in divided opinions.
One commenter wrote, “It’s so weird to hear such awful guitar with this. Ed’s playing on this is probably the best-sounding guitar playing I have ever heard in my life.” Hagar responded, “Oh my friend I agree 100% on Ed’s Guitar tone. But this I couldn’t refuse reposting it whoever made this had a good sense of humor and of course, everyone knows how great Ed tone and playing was.”
Another fan commented, “I’m sorry, I can’t in good faith laugh at this. I’ve watched it 47 times. And it still isn’t funny to me. I need to see more like this to get a better idea.” Sammy replied, “It’s ‘Beavis and Butthead’ type humor. That’s why it’s so funny to me, but there was definitely nothing funny about this band or Eddie Van Halen’s guitar playing the greatest of all time.”
Hagar, who appeared on four Van Halen albums with Eddie, also shared on X which Van Halen song he struggles to sing. “Singing this song was always difficult,” Hagar said, sharing a live version of Van Halen’s 1995 song, ‘Don’t Tell Me What Love Can Do.’ “I wrote the lyrics about Kurt Cobain’s death.”
He continued, “I wanted the chorus to say ‘I wanna tell you what love can do,’ but Bruce Fairbank, Ed and Al wanted to make it more dark and negative. Technically it’s a brutal song to sing.”
“I painted myself in a corner, but we will be doing it at the residency in Vegas. I’m going to add it to the show. Today marks the 30th anniversary of ‘Don’t Tell Me What Love Can Do’!” Hagar added.
Last year, Sammy celebrated his Van Halen era by performing the band’s songs on a tour with Michael Anthony, Joe Satriani, and Jason Bonham, who was later replaced by Kenny Aronoff.
