Hagar

Saturday’s performance came as Sammy Hagar — who replaced Roth as Van Halen’s frontman in 1985 — has been talking publicly about Van Halen, whose founding guitarist, Eddie Van Halen, died in 2020.

Last month, ahead of Hagar’s appearance at Indio’s Stagecoach festival, Hagar told The Times that he and Eddie had discussed a reunion before the guitarist’s death and that Eddie had asked him not to talk about the plans with Eddie’s brother, Van Halen drummer Alex Van Halen.

Hagar went on to tell Rolling Stone that he thinks Alex — who made no mention of Hagar in his 2024 memoir — is angry at him because “I’m out doing it … and he can’t.”

Luke Combs, Backstreet Boys, Sammy Hagar and the Goo Goo Dolls all performed on Day 3 of the country music mega-festival in Indio.

“This is a song about the appreciation of reality,” Sammy Hagar declared rather high-mindedly to introduce Van Halen’s “Right Now” in the Palomino.