Alex Van Halen Is Ghosting Sammy Hagar

Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, Joe Satriani and Jason Bonham are about to embark on “The Best Of All Worlds” tour celebrating the legacy of Van Halen as well as Hagar’s many other musical projects. Satriani was approached about two years ago to participate in a Van Halen tribute show with David Lee Roth and Alex Van Halen, but it never materialized. It was reported that Roth was “holding up” the proceedings.

Hagar put out an invite when he announced “The Best Of All Worlds” tour that both Roth and Alex Van Halen were welcome to guest with the band at any time on the trek. Roth guesting at this point seems impossible , and it now appears Alex Van Halen won’t be there at any point, either.

“Mike and I reached out to Alex before we did this,” Hagar told Ultimate Classic Rock . “We reached out to him a dozen times before this tour, in every way. E-mail, text message, phone call, message on the machine, okay? 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.”

Hagar continued: “When the tour came, the first person we called and left all of the messages, sent all of emails, it was Alex Van Halen. Mike and I said, ‘We’re wanting to do this thing.’ 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, ‘ah, I ain’t coming nowhere.'”