On Wednesday (November 3rd), singer/guitarist Sammy Hagar, was a guest on Eddie’s Sirius/XM show, Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, where he discussed the much rumored, Eddie Van Halen tribute show.
Hagar said (via blabbermouth.net), “As far as I know, [there has been] nothing. There was that talk everybody heard about former Metallica member] Jason [Newsted] being the bass player and Joe Satriani playing guitar and Alex [Van Halen] and all that. Then I got the call from the management, I got the call from Irving Azoff, [who] said, ‘Hey, you wanna do, you and Mike [Michael Anthony] and Al with a superstar guitar player?’ I said, ‘I’ll do anything with Al and Mike and play music with people, but it’s not gonna be Van Halen. There is no Van Halen; I don’t care what anyone says. [Wolfgang] Wolfie [Van Halen] is Van Halen, okay? And he doesn’t wanna be the Van Halen copy band. I don’t blame him; he’s doing a great job on his own stuff, and it’s very cool when he jams a little bit here and there. He’s Van Halen, and if he wanted to play guitar with Al and Mikey and myself, I would love to do that. That would be just one time for the big time. Not like, ‘Okay, let’s go out and tour the world and make records.’ No, no, no, no. There is no Van Halen but to play with Al and Mike and a great guitar player for some event — almost like the event that [Foo FIghters leader] Dave Grohl put on for Taylor [Hawkins], something like that would be fantastic. But other than that, no.”
When interviewer Eddie Trunk brought up Wolfgang’s recent interview (here) in which he heavily hinted that David Lee Roth is the hold-up, Hagar replied: “It ain’t just one guy. Alex Van Halen and I don’t talk. I reached out to Alex. I’m gonna tell you right now — I reached out to Alex again recently. Mikey had a sad thing happen in his family, and I reached out to Al, and he wouldn’t return my call or my e-mail. And so I said, ‘You know what? F–k it. It’s not on the top of my list, my agenda. I think Eddie deserves, definitely, a tribute… And the whole world would show up and the whole world would do it.”
“I don’t know why people put it on Roth,” he continued. “I don’t talk to Dave. And if he did it, he’d wanna do it without me. I’m sure that’s part of the dysfunction that Wolfie’s talking about. I’ll make a statement that I don’t know is true or not, but what do you wanna bet that he goes, ‘I will only do it if Hagar’s not there.’ And if that were the case, that’s typical Roth, and that’s part of the dysfunction. It’s not like he controls it; it’s just [that] he doesn’t play well with others. And like I said, if Alex came to me and wanted to do it, I’m in. Absolutely — let’s go [and] do it somehow. But Alex has got a stick up his ass about something with me still, and he’s gonna take it to his grave, I guess. [I made peace with Eddie before he died but] I don’t think I made peace with Al. And I don’t think I’m going to unless he reaches back out to me. I’ve done it about five times now.”
Hagar clarified, “I’m not trying to start a feud between the two of us. But I love the guy, and I love Van Halen, what we did together… Al is the most stubborn Taurus. He’s a Taurus, and he’s the most stubborn Taurus. Tauruses are known for [being] stubborn. He’s a Dutch Taurus, and he is the most stubborn, hard-headed guy you’ll ever meet in your life. And he is tough to [break] down and to let go. Nope — he’s holding on to something. And I just wish he wasn’t like that. I love the guy. Like I’ve said a million times, Alex and I actually got along better than Ed and I at times. Through the hard times, Alex and I still got along, but I don’t know what happened. Somebody poisoned him. Somebody told him something. Maybe he still doesn’t like my book, which was the most honest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Some people just don’t think that that should have been done.”
Sammy Hagar and The Circle, featuring Hagar’s Van Halen bandmate, Michael Anthony, guitarist Vic Johnson and drummer Jason Bonham, released their latest album, Crazy Times, on September 30th. The video for their latest single, Father Time, which can be seen here.
10 Responses
Not much new information here but I do find it interesting that Al won’t return his attempts to reach out. Looking back, I don’t recall there ever being a definitive explanation as to why Sammy was pushed out of the band before the Cherone era.
Hagar included “dirty laundry” about Van Halen in his book. Why would Hagar expect Alex to be civil with him? One should not publicly share “dirty laundry” about “family”.
I think many musicians have fragile egos , and are overly sensitive to real or perceived slights… Sammy seems fairly level headed although he loves to talk.. AL most likely hated Sammy’s book and is taking it as some kind of personal attack – just my opinion ~ a real proper tribute with Mike ,AL Roth or Sammy probably will never happen
Being honest is a good thing, but even I have to say that doesn’t mean you have to throw your former bandmates all the way under the bus! Sammy wrote a great book, but just like Gene & Paul’s relentless nonstop attacks on Ace & Peter, some of the comments weren’t really necessary. I know he was still very upset about the way he was treated (and about the way Ed & Al treated Mikey) when he wrote his book, and even if every single word Sammy said is 100% true, there are still certain things that should always stay private and not be made public.
I completely agree
I think Sammy made like 1 billion dollars off his tequila business named Caba Wabo. Sorta like marketing the Van Halen name. If this is true it would explain the bad feelings the great Van Halen brothers had and have toward Sammy. The most exciting thing from this artist to me would be another Chickenfoot cd!
Well first of all, Hagar wrote “Cabo Wabo,” and Ed & Al decided on their own to pull out of the Cabo Wabo Cantina because it struggled early on, but Sammy kept it going because he believed in it, and the rest is VH history.