Sammy Hagar recently revealed the Van Halen song that continues to challenge him vocally, sharing his thoughts on Twitter. In a candid post, the legendary singer admitted that performing the 1995 track “Don’t Tell Me What Love Can Do” has always been difficult for him. He explained, “Singing this song was always difficult,” and went on to reveal the emotional inspiration behind the lyrics, which were written in response to Kurt Cobain’s tragic death.
“I wrote the lyrics about Kurt Cobain’s death,” Hagar shared, offering insight into the deeply personal connection he had to the song. He continued, detailing how the chorus originally intended to say, “I wanna tell you what love can do.” However, his collaborators—Bruce Fairbank, Eddie, and Alex Van Halen—chose to make the tone darker and more negative. Hagar admitted, “Technically it’s a brutal song to sing.”
Despite the struggles, Hagar announced that “Don’t Tell Me What Love Can Do” will be included in his upcoming residency in Las Vegas. He expressed enthusiasm for adding it to the show, stating, “I painted myself in a corner, but we will be doing it at the residency in Vegas. I’m going to add it to the show. Today marks the 30th anniversary of ‘Don’t Tell Me What Love Can Do’!”
The song first appeared on Van Halen’s 1995 album Balance, with Hagar, Eddie Van Halen, Michael Anthony, and Alex Van Halen contributing to the songwriting. This was a time when the band was facing both internal and external challenges, which Hagar has often described as influencing the emotional depth of the music.
In 2020, Hagar began the Lockdown Sessions on YouTube with his bandmates from The Circle—Michael Anthony, Vic Johnson, and Jason Bonham. Among the many tracks they performed, the group revisited “Don’t Tell Me What Love Can Do.” Hagar wrote in the video description, “When I heard that Kurt Cobain had taken his own life, the first thing I thought of was I wish I were there and could have tried to save him.” He explained that the original title for the song was meant to be “I want to show you what love can do,” but the tragic event made it impossible to convey the message in such an uplifting way.
He added, “So I changed the final line to ‘Don’t tell me what love can do.’ P.S. It was also the time of the breaking up of Van Halen, our last album and tour so it added a lot of emotion, negativity, and pain in the original vocal performance which surfaced the second I started singing this song for the first time since 1995.”
Hagar’s vulnerability about the song’s impact and its creation process gives fans a deeper understanding of the complexities behind one of Van Halen’s most haunting tracks.
