Van Halen's Sammy Hagar shared that he would like to reconcile with his former bandmate Alex Van Halen amid their longtime estrangement.
During a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the 77-year-old musician expressed his hope that he and Alex, 71, could mend their relationship before they die.
"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," Hagar said. "I’ve put the olive branch out there many times, and I just put it out again to [Van Halen manager] Irving Azoff.
Hagar became Van Halen's new frontman in 1985, when he replaced original lead singer David Lee Roth, joining Alex, who was the band's drummer, Alex's brother and guitarist Eddie Van Halen, and bassist/vocalist Michael Anthony.
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After producing four multi-platinum albums, Hagar's stint with Van Halen ended with a split in 1995. The Cabo Wabo founder briefly reunited with Van Halen in 2004, but left the band again after the conclusion of their successful summer tour.
Hagar's second departure led to a long estrangement between Eddie and Alex. However, Hagar and Eddie reconciled in the months before the Van Halen founder died due to lung cancer in October 2020.
While speaking with Rolling Stone, Hagar explained that he didn't believe that he and Alex would make music together again.
"I want to be friends, though," he said. "I don’t want to play in a band with Al. I’m not asking for that. I can see that he’s not capable of doing that. If he was, I’d be happy to play with him, but it’s not what I’m looking for. I just want to be friends again."
During a July interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, Hagar revealed that Alex was not responsive when he and Anthony attempted to speak with him several times before the two embarked on their "Best of All Worlds" tour.
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The tour, which features many hits from Van Halen's catalog, concluded in August, but will return for a Las Vegas residency at the nine-show residency at Dolby Live at Park MGM in spring 2025.
"We reached out to him a dozen times before this tour, in every way. Email, text message, phone call, message on the machine, OK? No response. No response," Hagar told the outlet.
"I mean, we made every offer to get together or to just talk or to have breakfast, lunch or dinner," he added. "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."
In October, Alex told Billboard that he was "not interested" in being involved with the tour.
"They’re not doing the band justice," he said. "They can do what they want to do. That’s not my business."
While speaking with Rolling Stone, Hagar shared his reaction to Alex's new memoir "Brothers." In the book, Alex doesn't mention Hagar by name, aside from noting "We had a lot of other singers over the years."
"The heart and the soul and the creativity and the magic was Dave, Ed, Mike, and me," he told Rolling Stone in an October interview.
In "Brothers," Alex left out the Van Hagar era entirely, concluding the story of the band in 1984 ahead of Roth's departure.
Hagar told Rolling Stone that he thought the snub was "sad."
"I haven’t read the whole book, but I’ve seen all the excerpts, and I heard some of the interviews," the Red Rocker said.
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He continued, "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… When I saw how rickety he is, I realized, "No wonder he’s not answering my call when I say, ‘Do you want to go out and play with us?'" He can’t.'"
During his October interview with Rolling Stone, Alex said his mobility was limited due to a spinal injury that he suffered in 2022.
"That breaks my heart, because I can only put myself in those shoes and say, ‘What if I couldn’t sing and perform anymore?’" Hagar said of Alex's health challenges. "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.’"
He continued, "Why he left me out, I would like to hear him explain that someday, because I don’t get it completely. I know that he’s bitter about some things, whatever that is… It’s like, ‘If you don’t want that era, that even gives me more justification to say I own it then,’ because no one else can do it, and he can’t do it even without me.
"It makes it easier for Mike and I," Hagar added. "We’re sitting there going, ‘Okay, I guess we own this,’ and we have the obligation to bring this to the fans to keep this music alive, keep it live and alive.
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However, Hagar went on to praise Alex's memoir and pondered if the drummer had plans for a sequel.
"I want to give him some more credit about that book. The way he wrote it is soulful and touching," Hagar said. "I mean, about their childhood. It's like a love letter to his brother, and that's touching to me."
"I want to give him some love for that. I understand he probably couldn't have done the whole era in one book. It would've been the Bible, the dictionary, so maybe he's got plans for a Volume 2. Who knows?"
