In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Sammy Hagar spoke about his relationship with his former VAN HALEN bandmate Alex Van Halen, who hasn’t spoken with Hagar in 21 years, and refused to even mention Sammy by name in his recent memoir, “Brothers”. Regarding why there has been no communication between the two in the last couple of decades, Sammy said: “I’ve had this conversation with a few people, including (former VAN HALEN 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.’ To that I said, ‘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.’ And I’m going, ‘I hope it’s not that.'”

Referencing his 2011 autobiography “Red: My Uncensored Life In Rock”, in which Hagar slammed Alex‘s brother Eddie Van Halen, saying the guitarist was unkempt, hunched over, frighteningly skinny, drinking wine straight out of a bottle, missing part of his tongue (after a cancer scare) and several teeth, Sammy continued: “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.

“I think Al‘s angry because I’m out doing it, and Mike (Anthony, former VAN HALEN bassist) and I are out doing it, and he can’t,” Hagar added. “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 (Lee Roth) and Eddie wrote the songs, and so we can go out and do them. And I think that really bothers him that Mike and I are still out there doing it. 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.”

When interviewer Andy Greene noted that Alex has had real health issues and has reasons to feel bitter, Sammy said: “Yeah, I’d say so. And 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.”

In an interview with Andy Greene of Rolling Stone magazine of November 2024, Sammy Hagar was asked to address his absence from Alex Van Halen‘s book “Brothers” in which the VAN HALEN drummer wrote that the essence of VAN HALEN ended when David Lee Roth left the group. Hagar said: “It’s sad. I haven’t read the whole book, but I’ve seen all the excerpts, and I heard some of the interviews. 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.”

Referencing the fact that Alex has been filmed and photographed walking with a cane while promoting “Brothers”, Sammy continued: “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. That breaks my heart, because I can only put myself in those shoes and say, ‘What if I couldn’t sing and perform anymore?’ 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.'”

Hagar added: “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 (Anthony, former VAN HALEN bassist) and I to go out and play the songs on our own. 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. This music is too good to throw away.”

Later in the interview, Sammy once again said that he is determined to make peace with Alex. “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,” he said. “I’ve put the olive branch out there many times, and I just put it out again to (VAN HALEN manager) Irving Azoff.

“I want to be friends… I don’t want to play in a band with Al,” Sammy explained. “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.”

Last month, Alex explained his refusal to participate in this past summer’s “The Best Of All Worlds” that focused largely on the music of VAN HALEN. The trek featured Hagar and Anthony, along with guitarist Joe Satriani and drummer Jason Bonham.

The 2024 tour came more than two years after Satriani revealed that he was approached about participating in a VAN HALEN tribute show with Alex and David Lee Roth. That project never got off the ground, reportedly because Roth was “holding up” getting everything approved.