Sammy Hagar Calls Unreleased Van Halen Song a ‘Treasure’
Sammy Hagar said a shelved Van Halen track, "Between Us Two," may appear on a future archival release.
The song was originally written in the mid-'90s for use in the 1996 film Twister, but it was ultimately shelved. (Two other songs were used in the movie: "Humans Being," credited to the entire band, and "Respect the Wind," credited to only Eddie and Alex Van Halen.)
Hagar, however, has suggested that "Between Us Two," might be released in the future. Speaking on the Consequence podcast “Kyle Meredith With … ”, the singer said the song was fully completed in the '90s and has been sitting in the band's archives.
"I don’t know if I can resurrect it, but we got it, it's done," he said. "It's in the archives; they'll find it. They're looking through the archives right now to try to remaster some of the old stuff from my era. They'll find it. That's gonna be a treasure."
Hagar told UCR in 2021 that there were "a few jams" in the vault but admitted that some of them "just weren't great." He noted that a handful of the tracks were left unfinished but added that completing them wasn't something he wanted to pursue by himself. "I'm very careful with all of that stuff because I don't want to make enemies with anyone in that camp," he said. "You know, it's not my place to jump out and finish a Van Halen song."
On the podcast, Hagar warned that releasing "Between Us Two" is easier said than done. "[Resurrecting it] would have to go through the Van Halen camp, and it's a little dysfunctional over there," he said. "There's never been a fearless leader in the Van Halen camp. [David Lee] Roth was for a while. I was for a while. Then Eddie [Van Halen] took over for a while, then Alex [Van Halen] came in. … Now Wolfie [Van Halen] is the fearless leader."
Hagar expressed a similar viewpoint in another recent interview, speaking with Eddie Trunk on SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation show. "There is no Van Halen. … Wolfie is Van Halen, OK?" he said. "And he doesn't wanna be the Van Halen copy band. I don't blame him. He's doing a great job on his own stuff, and it's very cool when he jams a little bit here and there. He’s Van Halen, and if he wanted to play guitar with Al and Mikey [Anthony] and myself, I would love to do that."