More than 20 years after his last tour with Alex Van Halen, Sammy Hagar has hinted that he will “never perform with him again.”
“I’m a huge Pink Floyd fan. I see David Gilmour saying, ‘I’ll never play with Roger Waters again,’ and I know what he means,” the 78-year-old told Classic Rock in a recent interview. “That’s how I feel about Alex Van Halen. They’re negative people.”
Hagar told Rolling Stone last year that he hasn’t spoken to his former Van Halen bandmate in 21 years.
“I hate to say it, but I had a dream about Alex last night,” he told the magazine in April. “It was crazy. And it was very real. I said, ‘Hey, why are you mad at me? What is it about? Come on, tell me what’s wrong. What did I do? Tell me.'”
Alex Van Halen didn’t even mention Hagar by name in his 2024 memoir, Brothers, about his relationship with Van Halen co-founder Eddie Van Halen, who died in 2020.
The interviewer claimed that Alex might have been hurt by Hager writing about Eddie’s personal struggles in his memoir, but the Red Rocker disagreed.
“And I’ve had this conversation with a few people, including (former VH manager) Irving Azoff,” he said at the time. “I asked him, ‘What’s the problem?'” And several people came up to me and said, “Oh, Cabo Wabo.” Once upon a time, Van Halen, when you created it, you were all partners in it.
“And when they ran out of money, they didn’t want it anymore, so they gave it to you. And you turned it around and made hundreds of millions of dollars with it. And they’re mad. Alex is mad about that.”
“How can they be mad about that? They gave me stuff, kicked me out and left it with me. And they made me indemnify them in case I got sued and lost everything. They made me agree in a big way. And I’m like, ‘I hope not.'”
The “I Can’t Drive 55” singer told Rolling Stone that she thinks Alex is mad at her. “Because I’m playing outside, Mike (Anthony) and I are playing outside, and he can’t do it. He’s not a singer, he’s not a guitarist, he’s not a real band leader. And he doesn’t want to play drums, or he can’t seem to play drums anymore, and he can’t write a new record.”
“Alex wasn’t the band’s songwriter,” he continued.
“He was the drummer. Eddie and I wrote the songs. Dave (Lee Roth) and Eddie wrote the songs so we can go out and play. And I think it really bothers him that Mike and I are still out there doing it. I would feel bad. If I were in his shoes, I would feel terrible if I couldn’t do it anymore.”
Hagar, who replaced Ross as Van Halen’s lead singer in 1985, told Classic Rock in an interview this week that he is more committed to his time with the band.
“Since Eddie passed away and Alex sold his drum kit, I’ve felt more comfortable immersing myself in the Van Halen era and even playing some of the older songs,” he said. “We have Mike Anthony in the band, so it feels good to play a lot of Van Halen songs because no one will ever hear them again. And that was the biggest part of my career, and everyone’s career, what can I say? It was the biggest band in the world.”
Hagar had previously had a falling out with Eddie, but the former band members reconciled before the Van Halen co-founder passed away from a stroke in 2020 after a battle with cancer.
“Eddie was the kindest person I ever met when I first joined that band,” Hagar told Classic Rock.
“He was a superstar. There was no one who looked up to him and didn’t think, ‘Wow, that’s Eddie Van Halen.'” But that never crossed his mind. He just drinks too much. He had an addictive personality. You could say drugs and alcohol and fame and fortune got him, but it took a long time. ”
Red Rocker told Fox News Digital that he and Eddie had reconciled months before his death.
“It means everything to me to be able to talk to Eddie and have a great relationship over text,” Hager said.
“I would have felt really bad if he died and we never said ‘I love you’ to each other.
“I wouldn’t have been able to talk to you guys about that. So it means a lot to me. And I think it means a lot to me that I feel comfortable talking about being in Van Halen now, because I feel like I buried the machete. Otherwise, I would have said, ‘Well, those guys,'” because I was angry. I have a wound. And it’s very important that we stay connected. ”
Hager also spoke to Fox News Digital about his difficulties with Ross.
“David is a strange person to me,” he said. “We’re oil and water. We just don’t gel. I mean, I tried. I thought it would be really great if he and I were friends. It would be really great if he and I could go out with a great band and play all the great Van Halen songs together. But he’s just not user-friendly.”
