Sammy Hagar Apologizes to Van Halen: 'I Never Want to Take an Enemy to My Grave'

As the one-time frontman of Van Halen and full-time badass known the world over as the Red Rocker, it's hard to think of Sammy Hagar slowing down. But at 68 years old, the music icon is beginning to look at life a little differently.

"It's really odd for me to think about my age," he admits in an exclusive clip from this Saturday's episode of Oprah: Where Are They Now?

He says that the loss of David Bowie to cancer earlier this year was a major wakeup call. "I had no idea he was sick, he was a private guy [and] one of my all time heroes. And then Glenn Frey. The guys that are dying at my age now all around me, it blows my mind."



With the additional deaths of Prince, George Martin and Merle Haggard, the musical community has faced a rough year. But the tragedies have helped Hagar maintain a sense of gratitude. "It makes me think about how lucky I am and it makes me want to not have any more enemies ... I want to never take an enemy to my grave."

The statement brings to mind Hagar's highly publicized disputes with his former bandmates in Van Halen, which he joined in 1986 following the departure of David Lee Roth. A decade later he left the group under highly acrimonious circumstances, and has lashed out at his ex musical colleagues a number of times in the press.

But these days, he's ready to "forgive and forget" the past drama. "The whole 'Van Halen issue,' I've really put that behind me," he says in a second clip of the upcoming episode. "I'm not asking to get back in a band and do all that again – that's work! I don't want to do that. I just want to be friends. I just want to say sorry for anything bad I said about you."

Oprah: Where Are They Now? featuring Sammy Hagar airs Saturday, Aug. 20 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on OWN.