Rumors of an all-star Van Halen tribute tour or concert have circulated since the 2020 passing of Eddie Van Halen. But recent remarks by one-time frontman Sammy Hagar insinuate that any such reunion — at least involving himself — remains a pipe dream.
Hagar weighed in on the possibility of an Eddie Van Halen tribute in a new interview with SiriusXM’s Eddie Trunk. After ex-Metallica bassist Jason Newsted revealed earlier this year that he was involved in initial talks regarding the possible tour, Hagar was asked if there had been any further developments in recent weeks, to which Hagar replied in the negative.
“As far as I know, [there has been] nothing,” Hagar told Trunk [as transcribed via Blabbermouth]. “There was that talk everybody heard about Jason 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 [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.’”
Hagar went on to say that he would like to “play with Al and Mike and a great guitar player for some event — almost like the event that [Foo Fighters frontman] Dave Grohl put on for Taylor [Hawkins], something like that would be fantastic.” However, his relationship with Alex is nonexistent at the moment.
“Alex Van Halen and I don’t talk,” Hagar added. “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? Fuck 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.”
Continued Hagar, “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. 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.”
Meanwhile, Wolfgang Van Halen recently implied that it was David Lee Roth who nixed a possible tribute concert or tour. To that, Hagar said, “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.”
For now, Hagar is promoting the new Sammy Hagar & The Circle album, Crazy Times. Fans can also catch him performing at Alice Cooper’s annual Christmas Pudding charity concert on December 3rd in Phoenix, Arizona.
