Hear Sammy Hagar’s Eddie Van Halen-Inspired Song

Sammy Hagar has released a new song titled “Encore, Thank You, Goodnight,” inspired by a guitar lick that former bandmate Eddie Van Halen showed him in a dream.

You can listen to the song below.

“Encore, Thank You, Goodnight” features three-quarters of Hagar’s Best of All Worlds touring band: guitarist Joe Satriani, bassist and fellow Van Halen alum Michael Anthony and drummer Kenny Aronoff.

Hagar first told UCR the origins of “Encore, Thank You, Goodnight” in an August 2022 interview. “About two months ago, I had this dream and Eddie came,” he explained. “He’s going, ‘Man, let’s write some music!’ I said, ‘Yeah, fuck it, man. Here, let’s go!'”

In a new interview, Hagar told UCR: “Most people don’t want to hear about your dreams, and so I was hesitant to bring this up, you know? I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll just write this song and just never say nothing about it.’ But I can’t not talk about this. This was way too out there. We actually were writing a freaking song over in the corner, like we do, like Eddie does.”

Putting ‘Encore, Thank You, Goodnight’ Together

With its speedy tapped licks and thundering grooves, “Encore, Thank You, Goodnight” evokes Hagar’s Van Halen heyday — and it serves as a fond reflection on the decade-long tenure that yielded four consecutive chart-topping, multiplatinum albums.

“This song is my final bow to that part of my life,” he said in a statement. “It’s not meant to be anything more than a thank you — with love, with respect, and with one hell of a guitar solo.”

Hagar also needed one hell of a guitarist to pull it off. “Joe was the perfect partner to help me shape the sound — he brought in that big, emotional, guitar-driven energy that feels like Eddie’s spirit but is entirely of Joe’s creation,” he explained. “With Michael Anthony’s thundering bass and stellar Van Halen-esque background vocals and Kenny Aronoff’s relentlessly powerful driving rhythms, the song really came together on all levels.”