“Oh man, I’ve really been playing a lot of cello!”: Sammy Hagar claims Eddie Van Halen was spending a lot of time playing an instrument that wasn’t guitar before he died
What with Eddie Van Halen apparently writing music from beyond the grave, we continue to be surprised by what the Van Halen guitar legend is capable of. In fact, Sammy Hagar has revealed that Eddie was attempting to master another stringed instrument prior to his death.
In a new interview with Talkin’ Rock With Meltdown, the ex-Van Halen frontman explains that Eddie was re-acquainting himself with the cello before he died. “Last time I talked to Eddie before he passed I said, ‘Man, what are you playing?’,” he recalls. “He said, ‘Oh, man, I’ve really been playing a lot of cello!’”
READ MORE: “I don’t want to piss my fans off”: Sammy Hagar says he never wants to go on tour again
Excited by the news, Hagar was instantly keen to use the cello on a new track; “I’m going, ‘Cello? Holy shit! Play me something, dude! I’m ready to write a song with you on cello!’”
Eddie had voiced his love of the cello throughout his life. There are numerous photos of him playing the instrument, and in 2017 he even shared a photo of his own beloved cello via social media. “My favourite instrument… aside from guitar and piano!” he wrote on X (then Twitter).
My favorite instrument…aside from guitar and piano.#cello #guitar #music #MusicMonday #musician pic.twitter.com/dVacsOBWH5
— Eddie Van Halen (@eddievanhalen) August 28, 2017
Eddie’s cello journey started way back in June 1985, according to rock journalist Steve Rosen. His novel Tonechaser – Understanding Edward: My 26-Year Journey With Edward Van Halen recalled the first time Eddie tried to tackle the instrument.
“Edward had mentioned to me back on December 7th, 1984… how he was buying a cello and wanted to learn the instrument,” he wrote [excerpt via Something Else! Reviews]. “When he first told me that, I thought immediately of my friend Ron… who was not only an excellent bass player but a trained cellist, as well.”
Ron was keen to teach Eddie, and, when the lesson finally came, Eddie turned up drunk. Rosen noted that “he had been drinking heavily, but was in good spirits”.
“At one point, Edward attempted to play a few notes – but had been holding the bow incorrectly,” Rosen recalled. “Ron reached over and slapped his hand the way an impatient music teacher may have done with an impetuous student, as in, ‘No, no, Edward, bad student!’”
“The second he did it, I saw a look of terror cross his face because he realised he had just smacked the most famous right hand to ever hold a cello bow. He sat there, rigid…”
Thankfully, Eddie saw the funny side. “Immediately, Edward roared with laughter and thought it was the most hilarious thing he’d ever experienced. Edward was doubled over and the bow he was holding in his right hand was sort of raised into the air as if he was conducting some mad orchestra of invisible, drunken musicians.”
Eddie’s love of the cello and piano was something Hagar believes was under-appreciated by the likes of David Lee Roth, the longest-standing Van Halen frontman. “As artists, Eddie and I were really capable of doing a lot of stuff that he couldn’t do before me, because the other guy [Roth] didn’t want keyboards,” he insists.
“When I [first] walked in the room with Eddie … he showed me Good Enough and he showed me Summer Nights,” he continues. “Those are two riffs he had. And then what did he do? He went and sat down at the piano and he started playing all this stuff!”
“When he started playing the riff to Dreams… I had no idea he was that good of a keyboard player. He really wanted to expand as a musician, and it was always held back by the record companies and the people around him. I think we would’ve broken out of that… and start doing some really crazy stuff.”
Encore, Thank You, Goodnight, Hagar’s final ‘collaboration’ with Eddie, is out now. Check it out below.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
