Hagar doesn’t just blame David Lee Roth for failed tribute
Sammy Hagar is speaking out about the proposed Eddie Van Halen tribute that was mentioned earlier this year. The Red Rocker called into Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk on Wednesday (Nov 3rd) where he confirms talks were underway but things seemed to have fizzled.
“As far as I know, nothing. There was that talk everybody heard about Jason [Newsted] 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 [Michael 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. [Eddie’s son Wolfgang] is Van Halen, okay? And he doesn’t wanna be the Van Halen copy band. I don’t blame him. He’s doing a great job on his own stuff, and it’s very cool when he jams a little bit here and there. He’s Van Halen, and if he wanted to play guitar with Al and Mikey and myself, I would love to do that. That would be just one time for the big time. Not like, ‘Okay, let’s go out and tour the world and make records.’ No, no, no, no. There is no Van Halen, but to play with Al and Mike and a great guitar player for some event — almost like the event that Dave Grohl put on for Taylor [Hawkins], something like that would be fantastic. But other than that, no.”
Despite a lot of the blame being placed on Roth, something Wolfgang indirectly confirmed in a recent interview, Hagar says drummer and Eddie’s brother Alex Van Halen should be the one in charge of honoring his brother two years after his death.
“It would be lame for [Roth] to not be involved. It ain’t just one guy. Alex Van Halen and I don’t talk. 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 what Dave Grohl did for Taylor [Hawkins] was one of the greatest events I’ve ever seen in my life what happened, in England — in London. That was the most amazing — that made Live Aid look like kid stuff, you know, from back in the old days and that was amazing. Eddie deserves something like that and the whole world would show up and the whole world would do it.
“I don’t know why the whole world puts it on Roth. 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. I’ll make a statement that I don’t know is true or not, but what do you wanna bet that he goes, ‘I will only do it if Hagar’s not there.’ And if that were the case, that’s typical Roth, and that’s part of the dysfunction. It’s not like he controls it. It’s just like he doesn’t play well with others. And like I said, if Alex came to me and wanted to do it, I’m in. Absolutely. Let’s go do it somehow. 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, you know.”
Hagar confirms that he made peace with Eddie before he passed away, but not with Alex.
“Totally. 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, but I’m not trying to start a feud between the two of us. But I love the guy, and I love what Van Halen, what we did together,” he says. “It just breaks my heart it’ll never be again. But that’s okay. But the tribute should happen and I know that Wolf would probably do a great job of it. But it’s not really his responsibility either to try to wrangle up these people. He’s out trying to start a career and he’s done a great job. I mean, a great job. And I don’t blame him, like I said, for not wanting to be like his dad and play all the old songs with his uncle and Mikey and a couple of old singers. Why would he want to do that? Nah. He don’t want to do that. One time for the big time, and if Wolfie played guitar all night, that would be plenty.
“Al is the most stubborn Taurus. He’s a Taurus, and he’s the most stubborn Taurus. Tauruses are known for [being] stubborn. He’s a Dutch Taurus, and he is the most stubborn, hard-headed guy you’ll ever meet in your life. And he is tough to get broke down and to let go. He just — nope — he’s holding on to something. And I just wish he wasn’t like that. I love the guy. Like I’ve said a million times, Alex and I actually got along better than Ed and I at times. Through the hard times, Alex and I still got along, but I don’t know what happened. Somebody poisoned him. Somebody told him something. Maybe, maybe he still doesn’t like my book, which was the most honest thing I’ve ever done in my life. You now, some people just don’t think that that should have been done, I guess. I don’t know.”
Hagar elaborates that discussions were underway for a Van Halen tribute, but as a residency instead.
“[Azoff] wrangled it with me and my manager, and Mike, and then said ‘Al’s not ready.’ And that was a quote. That wasn’t a tribute to Eddie, that was going to Vegas and being a tribute to Van Halen’s music and that was the idea of that like doing a residency type thing, and I didn’t agree to it to begin with,” Hagar shares. “I said, ‘Oh a couple of nights or something, sure. But I’m not goin to spend a couple of months in Las Vegas doing a residency as Van Halen unless Dave is going to do it and cooperate because it’s like him trying to do it without me, it’s unfair.’ We sold 46 million records with the Van Hagar era, and they sold another 46 million records. You can’t do it with just one version. It’s stupid. It’s embarrassing for me to go out and do one version.”
Trunk conferred with Hagar about his band being the only place to see Van Halen music performed live.
“It’s all there is is us out there doing it. Just like Wolfie going up and playing ‘Hot for Teacher’ and stuff, you gotta give a little love to the whole thing now. Without Eddie, it’s not just one side or the other,” Hagar says about his band The Circle playing all era Van Halen songs on stage,” he says.
Elsewhere in the interview, Trunk and Hagar discuss what’s ahead for the rocker who just turned 75 last month.
“I’ve thought about it long and hard and that’s one of the reasons why I don’t want to go out and tour too much next year because it could be the last one and I don’t really know,” Hagar says. “So my thing is I would never — I’m saying never say never — well right now, I’m gonna say I will never announce a farewell tour, go do it — a big long tour — and keep going and going like all of these other people do. It makes me sick to see that. I’d rather not say nothing and just when I do my last show, it’s my last show, I might say it then, but I’d rather not make a pre-announcement in case I want to keep going. I’m glad you asked that question, though. It’s been on my mind real hard. ‘How do you go out? Do you just go away?’ Yeah, I don’t know. I’m too public of a figure and I have too many businesses and things to where I can’t just go away. Somebody’s gonna catch me somewhere, you know, and they’re gonna say, ‘What are you doing?’ It seems like I almost have to make an announcement, but I’m not solid with that yet, and it’s not time yet, but I am thinking that way… ‘How in the hell am I gonna — how am I gonna do it when it’s time?’ and I don’t know. I’d rather just say one show, ‘You know what? That’s the last show. I’m done. I can’t do it anymore. I’d rather just say that.”
Crazy Times, recorded at Nashville’s historic RCA Studio A, is Hagar’s 27th studio album and his second recorded with The Circle. Produced by 8x Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb, the 10-track album is available via UMe. Nine of the tracks were written or cowritten by Hagar, along with the notable cover, “Pump It Up,” a 1978 song by Elvis Costello and the Attractions. Cobb co-wrote three songs on the album and performed with the band on every track in the process. The music video for “Father Time” was produced by Chris and Aimee Kurtz and edited by Aaron Abercrombie & Sean Power.
