Why Alex Van Halen Turned Down Sammy Hagar's Tour Invite

10-18-2024

Alex Van Halen has been doing press to promote his new memoir "Brothers" and during a new interview he explained why he decided not to accept Sammy Hagar's invitation to be part of the Best Of All Worlds Tour this past summer, and also revealed his favorite era of Van Halen.

Hagar launched The Best Of All Worlds Tour to pay tribute to legacy of Van Halen and recruited his former Van Halen bandmate Michael Anthony, along with guitarist Joe Satriani and drummers Jason Bonham and Kenny Aronoff to be part of the trek.

Alex was asked why he turned down Sammy's invitation to be part of the tour during a new interview with Billboard. He said, "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 drummer's attitude towards that Hagar led trek might be explained by his view of Van Halen and his favorite era of the group. He said, "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."