SAMMY HAGAR Says Unreleased VAN HALEN Song 'Between Us Two' Will Eventually See Light Of Day

In a new interview with Kyle Meredith, Sammy Hagar was asked about the status of the unreleased VAN HALEN ballad called "Between Us Two" which was originally recorded for the soundtrack to the 1996 blockbuster "Twister". The former VAN HALEN singer said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Everyone keeps asking me if there's any old songs that never got released, and I always say, 'Not really. There was a couple.' But I didn't remember — two or three. 'Between Us Two', that's a midtempo ballad. That's like a 'Be Still' kind of a song, from my new album ['Crazy Times' by SAMMY HAGAR & THE CIRCLE]. If somebody said, 'How was it?' It was more like a 'Be Still'. It was kind of almost country — not country, but… I don't know. It was kind of like [VAN HALEN's] 'Can't Stop Lovin' You', [but] not as uptempo."

Hagar confirmed that "Between Us Two" is completed and available to release. "We've 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 [with VAN HALEN]. And they'll find it. That's gonna be a treasure."

VAN HALEN originally planned to complete two songs — "Between Us Two" and a rocker called "The Silent Extreme" — for the "Twister" soundtrack. "The Silent Extreme" eventually became "Humans Being" after the song's lyrics proved a major source of contention, as the film's director, Jan De Bont, reportedly didn't want the lyrics to be closely related to the movie's context. "Between Us Two" ended up being replaced by "Respect The Wind", an instrumental credited to guitarist Eddie Van Halen and drummer Alex Van Halen alone.

Hagar replaced David Lee Roth in VAN HALEN in 1985 and recorded four studio albums with the band — "5150", "OU812", "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" and "Balance" — all of which topped the U.S. chart.

Sammy, Eddie, Alex and bassist Michael Anthony last teamed up in 2004 for a U.S. summer tour. In exchange for taking part in the tour, Anthony reportedly had to agree to take a pay cut and sign away his rights to the band name and logo.

In his autobiography, "Red: My Uncensored Life In Rock", Hagar slammed Eddie, saying the guitarist was unkempt, hunched over, frighteningly skinny, drinking wine straight out of a bottle, missing part of his tongue (after a cancer scare) and several teeth. He told an interviewer in 2012: "What happened on that reunion tour in '04 was some of the most miserable, back-stabbing dark crap I've ever been involved with my whole life."

In a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone, Eddie questioned an "embellished" portion of "Red: My Uncensored Life In Rock" that painted the guitarist as a "very angry drunk" during the group's 2004 reunion tour.

Hagar mended his relationship with Eddie months prior to the legendary VAN HALEN guitarist's October 2020 passing.

Photo credit: Leah Steiger