Over the past few years, Alex Van Halen has worked hard to avoid speaking about Sammy Hagar, not even mentioning him by name a single time in his 240-page memoir Brothers: An Intimate Account of Brotherhood and Rock Music. But earlier this month, in an interview with the Brazilian magazine Roadie Crew, he fired back when asked about Hagar’s 2011 book Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock. You act like there was never a ‘Van Hagar.’ We sold 40 some million records, [had] four Number One albums and you just scratch that off of your brother’s legacy, saying no, that never happened.
You don’t even want to acknowledge it. That’s not right, for Eddie, for me, for Mikey [Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony], for anybody.” “I’m asking Alex, like why?” he continued. Just come out and say it.
Maybe if I knew what your problem was, I could fix it. But right now he just acts like there’s not a problem, it just never happened.” In 2025, Hagar told Rolling Stone that he heard Alex Van Halen’s anger towards him stemmed from his successful Cabo Wabo tequila brand. 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. Alex is angry about that.'” He also felt the drummer was upset that Hagar and Anthony have been touring together for years, playing sets packed with Van Halen classics, while health problems prevented him touring. 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. Eddie and I wrote the songs.
Dave 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. If I put myself in his shoes, I would feel terrible if I couldn’t do it anymore.” The flare-up in the tensions between the former bandmates comes as Hagar is about to resume his Best of All Words residency at the Park MGM in Las Vegas.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
