They don’t rock with one another anymore.
Alex Van Halen hasn’t spoken to his former Van Halen bandmate Sammy Hagar in 21 years. And he didn’t even point out the singer’s identify in his 2024 memoir “Brothers.”
Hagar — who changed authentic lead singer David Lee Roth because the frontman of Van Halen from 1985 to 1996 after which once more from 2003 to 2005 — believes {that a} massive motive for the dangerous blood between them is the Van Halen drummer not with the ability to carry out as he as soon as did.
“I think Al’s angry because I’m out doing it, and Mike [Anthony, former Van Halen bassist] and I are out doing it, and he can’t,” Hagar advised Rolling Stone. “He’s not a singer. He’s not a guitar player. He is not really a band leader.”
Van Halen co-founded the namesake group together with his late brother, Eddie, whose 2020 dying primarily disbanded the Rock & Roll Corridor of Famers. And the drummer has been affected by a spinal damage that has affected his skill to play.
“He seems like he doesn’t want to play drums or can’t play drums anymore, and he can’t go write a new record,” Hagar mentioned. “Alex wasn’t the songwriter within the band. He was the drummer. Eddie and I wrote the songs. Dave and Eddie wrote the songs, and so we will exit and do them.
“And I think that really bothers him that Mike and I are still out there doing it,” he continued. “I would feel bad. If I put myself in his shoes, I would feel terrible if I couldn’t do it anymore.”
Certainly, Hagar remains to be conserving the Van Halen custom alive together with his Better of All Worlds Las Vegas residency beginning on Wednesday.
‘I’m on the market promoting Van Halen information and conserving the identify alive, conserving the music alive,” he mentioned.
So whereas “I’m making you money,” Hagar mentioned of Alex Van Halen, “just leave me alone. I’ll leave you alone. Everything’s good.”
Final week, Hagar launched a brand new single, “Encore, Thank You, Goodnight,” which he mentioned he was impressed to write down after Eddie Van Halen visited him in a dream.
“He had a guitar around his neck and we were having a lovefest since we hadn’t seen each other in a long time,” Hagar advised Rolling Stone. “And he just started playing this riff, and I started singing.”
He believed that “this was one hundred percent a communication from the beyond,” he mentioned. “There is no question about it. I dream about Eddie all the time, quite honestly.”
