Sammy Hagar admits that he has no idea why former bandmate Alex Van Halen has a long-standing beef with him, as he addressed the recent comments from AVH that described him as a “complete idiot”.
Speaking to Eddie Trunk on SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation, Hagar said he had no desire to get into a “tug-of-war” in the press, but argued that, if Alex Van Halen had problems with anything he wrote in his warts ’n’ all autobiography, Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock, then that was on him, insisting everything he wrote was true.
“I don’t know what Alex’s problem is,” said Hagar. “I’m always honest. I tell the truth. And I have never lied in my book.”
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But is the book the source of the beef? Hagar has been quoted as saying they haven’t spoken in 21 years. The book came out in 2011. Alex Van Halen had been speaking with Brazilian music journalist Marcelo Vieira, when he took aim at the Red Rocker. He also said that he hadn’t read Hagar’s book, and didn’t want to know what was in the book. The plot thickens.
Hagar sure sounds none the wiser. But he says whatever Alex Van Halen is doing, it is tarnishing the legacy of Van Halen.
“I want to call Alex out and say, ‘Dude, we all know. You act like there was never a Sammy Hagar. You act like there was never a Van Halen,’” said Hagar. “We sold 40-some million records, four number-one albums, and you just scratched that off of your brother’s legacy… You don’t even want to acknowledge it… That’s weird. That’s not right for Eddie, for me, for Mike [Anthony], for anybody.”
Needless to say, all this to and fro goes some way to deepening our understanding on why a proper Eddie Van Halen tribute concert did not happen, that there was no Kumbaya moment where all VH alumni rallied to the flag and put on a show for old time’s sake – for Edward Van Halen’s sake.
Hagar said Alex Van Halen’s recent behavior called to mind his treatment of Anthony, when he began airbrushing him out of the band’s history when his nephew Wolfgang Van Halen replaced him on bass guitar.
But hope is at hand. Hagar says he’s willing to talk. Maybe Eddie Trunk could mediate? Or maybe this calls for Dr Phil. It’s a lot of drama. Who knows if there is a book in it (we’ve had enough trouble with books) but it could make great TV.
“To me, he’s doing a lot of stuff wrong for the legacy of Van Halen,” said Hagar. “And the one that is my business is I just want to know why. Just come clean. Tell the people, tell me, make a public statement… If we can’t fix it, then just go about my business.
“It’s all good. It’s not changing my life. And it doesn’t really even bother me anymore because I think the fans really know it’s wrong.”
Over to you, Alex.
