27 December 2020
Newsdesk
The former Van Halen bandmates fell out when guitarist Sammy left the band but in the months leading up to Eddie's death in October following a cancer battle, they buried the hatchet.
Sammy, 73, told Variety: "Poor Eddie, broke my heart, but thank God we connected before [he died]. I heard he was in bad shape and I wanted to reach out; I finally said, 'I'm just calling him.'"
However, tracking down Eddie, 65, proved difficult as Sammy no longer had his number.
He explained: "I was calling his brother, I was calling his manager, I was calling his friends, and I'd say, 'Hey, tell Ed, give him my phone number. Tell him if he ever wants to talk to me, I really, really want to talk it out, help him and see what I can do'. I [told them], 'I want to be his friend, I want to bury the hatchet,' but they never got it done."
And, eventually, it was mutual friend George Lopez who brought the pair back together.
Sammy said: "George is a dear friend and he was Eddie's friend and he said, 'Sammy, Eddie's in bad shape, he loves you brother, you need to reach out.' I said, 'Give me his f****** number and I'll make sure I call him.'
"I said, 'Why don't you respond? I've been reaching out', and Ed said, 'Why didn't you call me? Don't f****** call my brother, f****** call me!' And I said, 'I love you man,' and it was like, boom, we were good. It was a beautiful thing."
Sammy also confirmed that he had been in talks about joining a Van Halen reunion tour with Eddie, Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth before Eddie's death.
He said: "Eddie and Al and Irving Azoff, their manager [and] my dear friend, we were looking at doing the reunion tour with everybody, which is the way it had to be. I've been pushing for that for 10 years. I was ready to put [any differences] aside. Let's go give the fans the biggest band in the world, you know what I mean? You don't get bigger than Van Halen, and the fans deserve to see it all, hear every song."
