George Lopez Reveals How He Reconnected Eddie Van Halen & Sammy Hagar

Comedian George Lopez was the one who reconnected feuding bandmates Eddie Van Halen and Sammy Hagar before Eddie passed away from cancer in October 2020.

George shared the story for the first time with Sukanya Krishnan and Scott Stanford on “The Suki and Scott Show,” explaining it started during a game of golf with Van Halen.

Lopez said his longtime friend was already battling cancer when a conversation came up about having a beef with people.

George said, “I think Sammy had tweeted Ed ‘Happy Birthday’ and then Ed said to me, ‘Why does he tweet me happy birthday instead of calling me?’ I said, ‘Man, he’s probably tripping, he probably thinks you won’t take his call.’ He’s like, ‘No.’ So I said, ‘If he called you, would accept his call?’ And he said, ‘Yeah!’”

That prompted Lopez to reach out to Hagar: “I told Sam, ‘If you wanted a window to reconnect with Ed, your window is right now.’”

After Eddie passed away in October, Sammy opened up to St. Louis radio station KSHE about how George facilitated the reunion.

“I reached out to Eddie because… George Lopez, the comedian, who I’ve known for a long time and who also is dear friends with Eddie, calls me up and says, ‘Sammy, I need you to call Eddie. I played golf with him. He’s not doing good.’”

Hagar insisted he had tried to reach out to Eddie through others but couldn’t get through, saying, “I didn’t have Eddie’s contact number. So George says, ‘Here’s his number. Call him.’”

When Van Halen answered Hagar’s call, he joked, “What took you so long?” and Sammy said, “It was just one big love fest from then on.”

Hagar added, “That was back in the beginning of the year, before COVID. So, yeah, we’ve been texting and talking about Wolfie [Eddie’s son, Wolfgang] and his new record, and about us and the things we did and how great the stuff is.”