In a recent interview with Billboard, Alex Van Halen revealed his reasons for declining an invitation to join Sammy Hagar’s 2024 “The Best Of All Worlds” tour, which heavily focused on Van Halen’s iconic catalog. The lineup featured former Van Halen members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, alongside Joe Satriani and Jason Bonham. Despite the fanfare surrounding the tour, Alex made it clear that he had no interest in participating. He explained bluntly, “I’m not interested. They’re not doing the band justice. They can do what they want to do. That’s not my business.”
The tour followed an earlier, unfulfilled plan for a Van Halen tribute project, which reportedly stalled due to David Lee Roth delaying approvals. Satriani had been tapped to collaborate on that tribute alongside Alex and Roth, but it never came to fruition.
Alex is currently promoting his upcoming memoir Brothers, which notably skips over Hagar’s era with Van Halen, as well as Gary Cherone’s brief stint with the band, and even the reunion with Roth that began in 2007. Alex reflected on the band’s history, saying: “What happened after Dave left is not the same band… “I’m not saying it was better or worse or any of that. The fact is Ed and I did our best work whenever we played. We always gave it our best shot. But the magic was in the first years when we didn’t know what we were doing when we were willing to try anything.”
Alex‘s undying admiration for his late brother shines through during the interview: “When Ed picked (the guitar) up he could make it sing. It was amazing. That sound, that intonation was phenomenal. You couldn’t express it in words. Everybody gets blinded by the fact Ed was such a phenomenal player (that) you’re not even understanding who the human being was. Maybe people don’t care, but I care. He’s my brother.”
At the same time, the drummer acknowledged the long-running dysfunction the band ran on: “Me, Ed and Dave were very subversive in the way we looked at music and the political system and the way we looked at people in general…The band was dysfunctional. It was completely running on three wheels, if you will. I think Ed was quoted as saying ‘But we always played well,’ and that was ultimately what kept it together until it was no longer together. It was a very sad moment when that whole thing fell apart.”
In a separate Rolling Stone interview, Alex didn’t mention Hagar by name, underscoring his preference for the classic lineup. He stated: “The heart and the soul and the creativity and the magic was Dave, Ed, Mike and me… We had a lot of other singers over the years.”
Meanwhile, Hagar has openly discussed his efforts to involve Alex in “The Best Of All Worlds,” revealing to the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he tried contacting him multiple times. “I reached out to Alex a dozen times…and got no response,” Hagar said. He even expressed willingness to let Alex take any role he wished, saying, “I mean, I’ve asked him to meet me under any conditions, any circumstances, anytime, anyplace, anywhere.” Despite the persistent attempts, Alex remained silent.