Though Sammy Hagar and Eddie Van Halen mended fences before the guitarist’s death, Hagar has remained estranged from Van Halen drummer Alex Van Halen and during a discussion with Rolling Stone he revealed why he thinks the drummer has shunned communication with him.
The Divide Between Alex Van Halen and Sammy Hagar
In the aftermath of Eddie Van Halen’s death, the divide between Sammy Hagar and Alex Van Halen has remained. The onetime bandmates haven’t spoken in 21 years and the drummer even failed to mention Hagar by name in his recent memoir. So why has the relationship remained so frosty?
When the Rolling Stone interviewer suggested that Hagar’s past memoir might not have set well with Alex, Hagar countered that he felt it might have been another reason.
“I’ve had this conversation with a few people, including [former manager] Irving Azoff. I’ve asked him, ‘What’s the problem?’ And some people have said to me, ‘Oh, Cabo Wabo.’ At one time, Van Halen, when you built it, you guys were all partners in that. And then they didn’t want it anymore when it was losing money, and they gave it to you, and you turned it around and made hundreds of millions of dollars on it. And they’re angry. Alex is angry about that.’”
Hagar said he hopes that’s not the case, adding, “How the fuck could they be angry about that? They gave me the damn thing, they walked out on me, left me with it. And they made me indemnify them in case I got sued and lost everything. They made me sign off big time.”
In 2024, Hagar recalled their Cabo Wabo venture being a bone of contention, enough so that he was banned from wearing Cabo Wabo clothing onstage during their 2004 reunion run.
READ MORE: Sammy Hagar Says He Makes More Money From Alcohol Than Music
“At the time they didn’t care [about Cabo Wabo],” Hagar explained in his book Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock. “But by the reunion, the tequila was everywhere and people were always coming up and talking about the cantina. It drove them nuts.”
According to Hagar, the Van Halen brothers went to great lengths to keep Hagar’s brand name off their stage. “They put it in the contract that I could not wear any Cabo Wabo T-shirts onstage or mention anything about the tequila or the cantina on the mic.”
In response to the band, Hagar recalled getting a Cabo Wabo tattoo on his shoulder. He would then hide the tattoo during rehearsals with long-sleeved clothing but he lost the long sleeves during the show with the tattoo visible on the concert big screens as they played.
As for the possibility that it might be the memoir, Hagar says, “The book has been brought up. The book was honest. It was well documented that Eddie was a mess on that tour. But I don’t want to drag Eddie through no coals now. That’s just water under the bridge.”
Sammy Hagar Offers One More Possibility on Alex Van Halen’s Anger Toward Him
The former Van Halen singer says there’s one other possibility on why Van Halen has cut him off, adding, “I think Al’s angry because I’m out doing it, and Mike [Anthony] and I are out doing it, and he can’t. He’s not a singer. He’s not a guitar player. He is not really a band leader. And 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. Alex wasn’t the songwriter in the band. He was the drummer. Eddie and I wrote the songs. Dave and Eddie wrote the songs, and so we can go out and do them.”
“I think that really bothers him that Mike and I are still out there doing it,” continued Hagar. “I would feel bad. If I put myself in his shoes, I would feel terrible if I couldn’t do it anymore. But I’m the happiest guy out of all of them. That pisses people off in itself. Being too happy, people don’t like that.”
He concludes of the lack of relationship with the drummer, “I’m okay with it. Al, you’re fine. Just leave me alone. I’ll leave you alone. Everything’s good. I’m making you money, by the way, Al. I’m out there selling Van Halen records and keeping the name alive, keeping the music alive.”
Sammy Hagar’s Alex Van Halen Dream
While much has been made about Sammy Hagar’s new song “Encore, Thank You, Goodnight” being inspired by a dream about Eddie Van Halen, Hagar admits he’s had an Alex Van Halen dream as well.
“I hate to say it, but I dreamt about Alex the other night, man,” he says. “It was crazy. And it was so friggin’ real. I was saying, ‘What are you pissed off at me about, man? What the fuck? Now just tell me what your problem is. What did I do? Just tell me.’”
Hagar says the dream version of Alex laughed at him. “It was kind of a friendly laugh,” says Hagar. “And he goes, ‘You really don’t know, do you?’ And I said, ‘No, I don’t.’ And so then it became this game, and he was saying, ‘Well, I’ll tell you what, let’s flip a coin, and heads, I’ll tell you, tails, suffer.’ Now that’s a fucking pretty realistic dream.”
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Gallery Credit: Chad Childers, Loudwire
