"I wasn't writing the music. Ed would write a piece of music. I'd listen to it and come up with a melody and then we would arrange it. We'd put it together and I would write lyrics to my melodies"

Sammy Hagar lays out a clear division of creative roles with Eddie Van Halen, emphasizing a workflow built on trust and complementary strengths. Eddie generates the foundational musical piece, riffs, chord progressions, grooves, and the overall instrumental character. Hagar responds to that canvas as a topliner, listening closely to find a vocal melody that feels inevitable within the contours of the track. The process is dialogic: music speaks first, melody answers, and then both are shaped through arrangement.

The arranging stage is where the collaboration tightens. Decisions about structure, dynamics, and transitions, where the verse sits, how the chorus lifts, whether a bridge or key change is needed, are made together. This is less about authorship than architecture, aligning instrumental ideas with a vocal line to create a cohesive, escalating arc. Hagar’s final step is lyric writing, but only after the melody is locked. The words are crafted to fit the rhythm, pitch, and phrasing he’s already discovered, which often yields lines that sing naturally because they’re born from the melody’s cadence rather than imposed on it.

That sequence, music, melody, arrangement, lyrics, underscores a melody-first philosophy. It suggests that emotional resonance and memorability in rock songs often flow from the vocal line’s shape, with language serving the music rather than dictating it. Hagar also signals transparency about authorship: he isn’t claiming to write Eddie’s music, yet his melodic and lyrical contributions fundamentally define what listeners experience as the song’s identity. It’s a pragmatic and respectful model common in bands, where a guitarist seeds the harmonic landscape and the singer sculpts the hook and narrative. The result is synergy rather than compromise: Eddie’s inventive musical frameworks gain a human voice, and Hagar’s melodies and words gain power from a virtuosic, dynamic backdrop.