Sammy Hagar posted an Instagram video of him telling the story of how he first met Dimebag Darell on December 8, the anniversary of his death. He recalled how he had to teach him ‘Wild Thing’ by Van Halen to jam with him on the Cabo Wabo stage.
Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell passed away in 2004 when an angry fan raided his concert, shot, and killed many people, including Darell. After that shocking night, the rock and metal musicians were deeply saddened and still couldn’t get over how horrifying the event was. Almost two weeks ago was the anniversary of his death, and as a commemoration, Sammy Hagar shared a video on Instagram talking about how he met Darrell.
According to Hagar, Darrell and Vinnie Paul came to his restaurant and stage Cabo Wabo. When he first met them both, he thought Vinnie was friendly but had a problem with Darrell’s attitude. He softened the atmosphere by proposing to jam on Cabo Wabo’s stage, and they both agreed.
The trio went on stage, and they decided to sing a Van Halen song, ‘Wild Thing,’ however, Darrell didn’t know how to play it. All it took was for Hagar to show him the chords and beats for a couple of seconds, and he quickly got it. While Darrell played the guitar, Paul was on the drums and they started to perform together. The guitarist played a song he hadn’t heard before that day and that made Hagar appreciate his talents.
Here is the story as told by Hagar:
“I was playing there for Wabos, and Vinnie and Dime showed up, and Dime had his wife with him, and we sat backstage and Dime, he was, he was kinda edgy. Vinnie was friendly, Dime was friendly, but he was pissed off. Not at me but to the world. I thought, ‘Man, you got a little attitude.’ Not bad vibes but, you’re pissy, you know. So I said, ‘Well fuck it, you guys wanna jam?’ They said, ‘Yeah, yeah we wanna jam.’ This is after I had just left Van Halen.
I said, ‘What do you wanna play?’ ‘Wow, Let’s do a ‘Wild Thing,’ and Dime said ‘I don’t know ‘Wild Thing.’ But they were already on stage, so I thought, ‘You don’t know wow and shit?’ So I come around him, there is a picture on the Cabo Wabo stage, and I was going, (Makes ‘Wild Thing’ melody with his mouth) He watched and watched and he did it. Vinnie was playing the drums, and we just jammed the fuck out of the two of three. We just started playing. They were so cool, I met them in Cabo, and the next thing I know, Dime checked out. I have only seen Dime twice but, I saw Vinnie quite a bit.”
Vinnie Paul passed away in 2018, which gave Sammy Hagar to see him more after they met but, he couldn’t say the same for Darrell. Hagar got upset and emotional after telling the entire story energetically, as unfortunately, Hagar only saw Darrell once again before the tragic event took place.
