Sammy Hagar has said that he wants to rekindle his friendship with Alex Van Halen, saying: "It's on my bucket list that I will not take this to my grave."
The singer who fronted Van Halen for two spells, from 1985 to 1996 and again between 2003 and 2005, hasn’t had a great relationship with the drummer for a while. The pair have reportedly not spoken for years. To compound this, Alex’s newly-published book Brothers barely mentions Hagar. He ends the narrative in 1984 and has even said that the essence of Van Halen died when Hagar’s predecessor, David Lee Roth quit the following year.
Now in a new interview with Rolling Stone, the 77-year-old frontman has opened up about the fracture between the two men. "It's sad,” he said. “I haven't read the whole book, but I've seen all the excerpts, and I heard some of the interviews. It breaks my heart, because if I think what Alex is going through, losing his brother, never played with anybody else in his life, and then his health.”
Hagar and Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony have played together in recent years and the singer says he has tried, in vain, to reach out to Alex to invite him too.
"When I saw how rickety he is, I realised, 'No wonder he's not answering my call when I say, 'Do you want to go out and play with us?' He can't.”
“I can only put myself in those shoes and say, 'What if I couldn't sing and perform anymore?' The thing that I did my whole life, the thing I devoted my life to, the thing that made me rich and famous and gave me the most beautiful life on the planet, and all of a sudden I can't do that anymore? I would feel like I was robbing the fans, to start with. When you put yourself in his shoes, I'm saying, 'Okay, I feel sorry for him.'”
"It's on my bucket list that I will not take this to my grave, and I don't want Al taking it to his grave. I've put the olive branch out there many times."
Hagar and Anthony (along with Joe Satriani) have enjoyed a successful year on their Best Of All Worlds tour, with setlists heavy on Van Halen classics. Last week they announced a Las Vegas residency for Spring 2025. But whilst Alex is unlikely to join his old bandmates, Hagar simply wants to repair the friendship. “I don’t want to play in a band with Al,” he insisted. “I’m not asking for that. I can see that he’s not capable of doing that. I just want to be friends again.”
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