Alex Van Halen Ignored Sammy Hagar’s Invite for New Tour
It is no surprise that Alex Van Halen has decided not to tour again after selling most of his instruments and Van Halen memorabilia in a recent auction. Now, former Van Halen bandmate Sammy Hagar revealed that Alex did not respond to his attempt to get him to tour again or even to come watch a show. Hagar is set to begin his Best of All Worlds tour with Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony and Jason Bonham this week and there will likely be no appearances from Alex along the way.
Hagar explained, “Mike and I reached out to Alex before we did this. We reached out to him a dozen times before this tour, in every way. Email, text message, phone call, message on the machine, OK? No response. No response. I mean, we made every offer to get together or to just talk or to have breakfast, lunch or dinner. Go to the studio and play. Come to my house or I’ll come to your house. Go ride horses, go sit on the beach. What do you want to do? Let’s just do something. Let’s get together. And nothing.”
Remind He continued, “Alex’s famous line to me [was], ‘Sammy, we ain’t getting any younger.’ Mike and I said, ‘Alex, we ain’t getting any younger. We’re going out and playing for the people. We’re going to go honor the Van Halen catalog. Let’s just get together and let’s talk about it. Mike and I, we’re going out, we’re going to do this, Alex. Please join us. Let’s be friends, let’s bury the hatchet, whatever.’ There was no response. I was saying, ‘He’ll come to a show, he’s got to in L.A. or something. I’m sure he’ll come.’ But no, no, he sold all of his equipment. That was his statement. That was like, ‘Nah, I ain’t coming nowhere.’”
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Although the Van Halen brothers will not be in attendance at the shows (Eddie Van Halen passed away in 2020), Hagar says that he hopes their presence will be felt with the music. Recently the band was asked which songs they were most excited to play during the shows and Hagar and Anthony said that they can’t wait to play Van Halen’s “5150.” Bonham, however, did not want to give away the setlist and keep it a surprise for fans.
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Hagar revealed, “I’m nervous about this set list. This is deep. This is so many lyrics for me to remember and so many high notes for me to hit and it’s coming together. I’m happy.” If you’re interested in attending a show, get tickets here.
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