THE FINAL SHOWS IN TUSCON
NOVEMBER 18th-19th, 2004
The 2004 Sammy Hagar Reunion Shows, in which Eddie has a meltdown. Both Valerie and Sammy talk about that night in their respective books. Eddie was at a low point. It's very sad. He came out onstage, and had drawn all over his body with a marker. Ed tried to hit Valerie's brother. Ed smashed a guitar onstage, and then trashed his dressing room.
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Hagar says the guitarist collapsed more than once backstage. Rumors of arguments that nearly led to blows proliferated. “There were nights where it was kind of like a rollercoaster, up or down,” Anthony remembered a few years later, “and myself, I would have liked to have seen him totally clean up if we were gonna take this further.”
Some 40 shows in, Hagar says he tried to quit. Only the threat of a lawsuit changed his mind. With 17 shows left, Hagar admitted to listeners on KSHE in St. Louis that he preferred working with his solo group, even as the tour lurched toward a predictably disastrous conclusion at its final stop in Tucson on November 19, 2004. “It was,” Hagar says in ‘Red,’ “the worst show we’d ever done in our lives. Eddie played so bad.” Everything ended as Van Halen smashed his guitar to bits in a fit of sudden rage, sending pieces of it into the crowd. “You don’t understand,” a crying reportedly Eddie said to the crowd.
(SAMMY HAGAR – RED)
The last two shows were at an amphitheater in Tuscon. The second night, Eddie unwound completely. He knew it was the end of the tour. He knew it was done. He came up to me before the show, when I was talking to Irving, and rolled my sleeve down over my tattoo. I didn’t even acknowledge him. I just rolled it back up. He rolled it back down, I rolled it back up.
“Don’t be fucking with my shirt, dude,” I said. “That thing ain’t gonna last,” he said, showing me his Van Halen tattoo. “See that? That’s better. That’s gonna last longer.”
Like I cared. We had a crew on that tour of more than 120. I had a bunch of cases of tequila in my dressing room and I was sitting in my dressing room signing bottles for the crew. Eddie came in and saw what I was doing.
“Can I have a bottle?” he said. I went over to the refrigerator and pulled one out. “I’ll give you a bottle.” I said. “These others are signed for the crew.”
He takes a couple of big slugs and sets it down. “Why can’t I have one of these?” he said. I told him those bottles were for the crew and I had the exact right number. If you take one, I told him, somebody’s not gonna get one. He walks away, over to one of my guests in the dressing room, a booking agent Eddie knew but mistook for the son of Warner Brothers Recors chairman Mo Ostin. He proceeded to give the guy a ration of shit about something that made no sense to anyone but Ed. “And your dad, he was a great man, and you and your brother are nothing.”
He was raving crazy. He already attacked Valarie’s brother who made the mistake of showing up to the concert to see his ex-brother-in-law. People were screaming and yelling in the dressing room, and he was running wild beating up people and smashing bottles against the wall. He lost it completely.
Irving took me aside. “When the show’s over,” he told me, “I’m getting in my limo and we’re getting out of here.” My plane was awaiting to take me home.
It was the worst show we’d ever done in our lives.
(Valerie Bertinelli – Losing it)
But the good mood was wiped out by the drama at the show. Ed was in terrible shape, and those closest to him on the tour let me know that they were scared for his life. I saw what they meant as soon as I spotted him backstage. Months on the road, the shit storm he created around himself, and the crap he took ravaged his skinny frame. I saw the damage in his eyes, which were wild as his long, messy hair.
By this point, Ed also hated Sammy. There always had to be a bad guy in his life, someone responsible for all of his problems, and as far as he was concerned, that was Sammy now. I could feel the tension between them all the way out at the soundboard, where I watched the show with Tom, who put a protective arm around m whenever some unruly guys began getting too close to me.
During one of Ed’s solos, the crowd chanted “Ed-dee! Ed-dee! Ed-dee!” I leaned over and shouted in Tom’s ear, “If they only knew the truth.”
That was apparent soon enough. During Sammy’s guitar solo on “Eagles Fly” one of his own songs, Ed started in on Pat, who was watching the show from my old perch on Ed’s side of the stage. The two of them had always gotten along. But Ed was in a state. He yelled at Pat, and then tried to choke my much larger brother. Taken by surprise, Pat defended himself by grabbing Ed’s hand and saying, “Don’t do this. You don’t want to do this.”
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(Pat – Valarie’s Brother with Wolfgang)
With his free hand, Ed tried to take a swing at Pat. Pat blocked his punch, took hold of both of Ed’s arms, and yelled, “You don’t want to do this!” Fortunately, one of the burly backstage security guards agreed. He grabbed Ed and dragged him away. I saw the whole thing unfold from where I was watching with Tom by the soundboard. I couldn’t believe it. And then again, I knew what Ed was like when he was drinking heavily. I also knew from what we’d been told that he was beyond that point and in some other place. Still.
“What the fuck is going on?” I said to Tom.
He had no idea. I felt bad that he was seeing this... This drama that had been and was still part of my life.
“I have to get up there” I said heading into the crowd.
By the time I got to the side of the stage, Pat was walking away and Ed was going back onstage.
“What the hell happened” Pat said upon seeing me.
“I don’t know,” I said, “You tell me.”
“I can’t believe that asshole,” Pat muttered. “He’s out of his mind. Something’s wrong with him.”
“Welcome to my life-again,” I said.
I stayed on the side of the stage and kept a watchful eye on Wolfie through his solo and then followed him backstage after the show. Ed had destroyed his guitar and screamed at the audience through the microphone. It was a mess. I wanted to get Wolfie out of there as soon as possible. He also wanted to get out of there. Through years of dealing with his dad, he’d learned that you don’t try to help or reason with Ed when he’s like that. You get away.
As Ed ripped up his dressing room, various people expressed their concern to me about him. Ed wasn’t my problem anymore. My thoughts were on Wolfie.
In the van back to Scottsdale, I tried to talk to Wolfie about what had happened with Ed, but he shut me down with a curt, “No mom, not now.” Soon he fell asleep for the remainder of the long drive, and the rest of us talked and a dozed until we got back to Pat and Stacy’s.
SAMMY HAGAR:
Irving took me aside. “When this show’s over,” he told me, “I’m getting you in a limo, and we’re getting out of here.” My plane was waiting to take me home. It was the worst show we’d ever done in our lives. Eddie played so bad. He smashed his favorite guitar to pieces. Sprayed shrapnel into the crowd. He got on the microphone, crying. “You don’t understand,” he said. “You people pay my rent. I love you people.”
They tell me he pulled some crazy shit on the plane home. My man was completely gone and out of it. I went straight to my plane after the show and home to San Francisco. I never spoke to him again after telling him to keep his hand off my shirt.
Hagar says: “Eddie’s problems are all from drugs and alcohol, and all of it self-inflicted. Eddie’s not tortured by anything but Eddie.”
MICHAEL ANTHONY
When was the last time you saw Eddie Van Halen?
The last time I actually spoke or saw him in person was right after we walked offstage in 2004, the last show of the tour.
How were things then?
It really didn’t end in total peace and harmony within the band, for whatever reasons. I’m not going to finger-point at anyone, but the tour, after eighty shows, just couldn’t go on at that point.
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Originally Posted by Seshmeister
