Sammy Hagar shades Alex Van Halen over 21-year feud — knows why he won't speak to him
They don't rock with each other anymore.
Alex Van Halen hasn't spoken to his former Van Halen bandmate Sammy Hagar in 21 years. And he didn't even mention the singer's name in his 2024 memoir 'Brothers.'
Hagar — who replaced original lead singer David Lee Roth as the frontman of Van Halen from 1985 to 1996 and then again from 2003 to 2005 — believes that a big reason for the bad blood between them is the Van Halen drummer not being able to perform as he once did.
Advertisement
5 I'm out there selling Van Halen records and keeping the name alive, keeping the music alive,' said Sammy Hagar.
Getty Images
5 'I would feel terrible if I couldn't do it anymore.' said Sammy Hagar of his former bandmate Alex Van Halen.
Getty Images
'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 told Rolling Stone. 'He's not a singer. He's not a guitar player. He is not really a band leader.'
Advertisement
Van Halen co-founded the namesake group with his late brother Eddie, whose 2020 death essentially disbanded the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers. And the drummer has been suffering from a spinal injury that has affected his ability to play.
'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,' Haggar said. 'Alex wasn't the songwriter in the band. He was the drummer. 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,' he continued. 'I would feel bad. If I put myself in his shoes, I would feel terrible if I couldn't do it anymore.'
5 Sammy Hagar was the frontman of Van Halen from 1985 to 1996 and then again from 2003 to 2005
Getty Images
Advertisement
Indeed, Hagar is still keeping the Van Halen tradition alive with his 'Best of All Worlds' Las Vegas residency starting on Wednesday.
'I'm out there selling Van Halen records and keeping the name alive, keeping the music alive,' he said.
So while 'I'm making you money,' Hagar said of Alex Van Halen, 'Just leave me alone. I'll leave you alone. Everything's good.'
5 Sammy Hagar said his new single, 'Encore, Thank You, Goodnight,' was inspired after Eddie Van Halen visited him in a dream.
Getty Images
Advertisement
5 Sammy Hagar's 'Best of All Worlds' Las Vegas residency starts on Wednesday.
Getty Images for Stagecoach
Last week, Hagar released a new single, 'Encore, Thank You, Goodnight,' that he said was inspired after Eddie Van Halen visited him in a dream.
'He had a guitar around his neck and we were having a lovefest since we hadn't seen each other in a long time,' Hagar told Rolling Stone. 'And he just started playing this riff, and I started singing.'
Hagar believes that 'this was one hundred percent a communication from the beyond,' he said. 'There is no question about it. I dream about Eddie all the time, quite honestly.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
Amanda Batula calls Paige DeSorbo's Bravo exit ‘taking a summer off': She's ‘not done with TV'
Giggling at the idea of having Paige DeSorbo back on TV. After the podcast host, 32, announced her exit from 'Summer House' after seven seasons, her longtime best friend, Amanda Batula, is holding out hope that this is merely a break. 'She FaceTimed me and Ciara [Miller] and told us, and it was really tough to hear,' the swimsuit designer, 33, recalled exclusively to the Post while promoting her partnership with Swiffer. Advertisement 'I think I was sort of expecting it just because she had such a rough time last summer, and you can really tell that her anxiety was taking her over. She stayed back a few Fridays, would stay back a weekend. She was really struggling, and I think that it's the best decision for her.' 10 Amanda Batula. AmandaBatula/Instagram During Season 9, viewers saw DeSorbo navigating her relationship with her now ex-boyfriend Craig Conover and preparing to go on her 'Giggly Squad' tour with her podcast cohost Hannah Berner. Advertisement 'I'm calling it taking a summer off,' Batula teased. 'I'd like to think that she's not done. I know that she is not done with TV. That girl was born for TV. So I know we'll be seeing plenty of her. But I mean, it's exhausting to go out to the Hamptons every single weekend, driving back and forth, sitting in the traffic, all the partying, the drinking. It's a lot. And I think she went through it last summer, and she just needs a break. And I respect that.' 'But we're very sad. Ciara and I are very sad,' she went on. 'We just kind of looked at each other and were like, 'It's just the two of us.'' 10 Paige DeSorbo, Amanda Batula at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas, NV on Friday, November 3, 2023. Todd Williamson/Bravo via Getty Images However, there is hope of having the reality star make a cameo or two. Advertisement 'If we can get it together to throw a second annual snooze fest, I know our girl won't miss it,' Batula said. 'So hopefully we can make that happen.' After DeSorbo announced her departure, she shared a series of throwback pictures from her time in the house, including photos of Berner, 33. The comedian, who used to be a cast member, previously had a falling out with Batula and her husband, Kyle Cooke, 42. 10 Paige DeSorbo and Amanda Batula. Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty Images 'There were so many moments and so many photos that we have that bring back these amazing memories that the three of us had together,' Batula gushed to the Post. 'It's very unfortunate how it all fell out, but that doesn't take away from the fun, amazing times that we did have together and how much we all got along. So it's nice. I mean, every relationship changes. People grow apart sometimes and it doesn't have to dampen those memories that you had. It was really sweet to see.' Advertisement As for if a friendship reunion is in the cards, the influencer never says never. 10 'Summer House' stars Amanda Batula and Paige DeSorbo. NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images 'I'm not someone that holds grudges, and I think mine and Hannah's falling out was an unfortunate series of events that a lot of factors played into,' Batula admitted. 'I would love to get back together, somehow make amends, especially for Paige's sake. But we're both busy girls now, and people aren't just getting together to hang out on a normal basis. So it will probably take a lot of effort. But there's no negativity there whatsoever.' DeSorbo, meanwhile, wasn't the only cast member to announce her exit in recent days. Newcomer Lexi Wood also shared she won't be returning for another summer. 'I just saw the post a little bit ago,' Batula confirmed. 'I had to read it twice over. And I asked Kyle, I was like, 'Does this mean that she's not coming back?' I was confused with the way it was worded. And he's like, 'Yeah, don't think that she's coming back.' So that's a bummer, too.' 10 'Summer House' – Season 9 reunion. Jocelyn Prescod/Bravo 'I think she had so much potential. Also, I think it's unfortunate how it all played out with the Jesse [Solomon] stuff. Lexi and I knew each other before,' she continued. 'I think It would have been great to have a girl summer, but I can't control what people decide to do.' With lots of cast shakeups, including longtime star Lindsay Hubbard, 38, becoming a new mom to her baby girl Gemma, rumors have swirled if the remaining stars will even make it back into the house. Advertisement Some fans have even speculated that cameras may now focus on Batula, DeSorbo and Miller, 29, as they navigate life in the Big Apple. 10 Paige DeSorbo, Amanda Batula, Ciara Miller. Sean Zanni/Bravo via Getty Images 'There are rumors all the time,' the reality star admitted. 'I would love to stay [home.] I think Ciara, Paige, and I would all love to stay home and film. That is like the dream. But no one's presented me with anything yet. So, right now, it's just business as usual. But if anyone wants to put together a show for three girls that love to sleep in bed, we're open and we're taking offers.' In the meantime, Batula is busy with her new line Amanda Batula Swim. Advertisement 'We're doing our second and third drop at the same time,' Batula said about her collection at South Moon Under. 'And they're kind of very European-inspired. A lot of neutrals and inspired by my time in Italy and just the surroundings.' 10 Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula. Instagram/@amandabatula 'We did some different silhouettes. We listened to a lot people's feedback, tried to incorporate one piece, high-waisted bottoms, thicker straps, different things to sort of appease everyone. Made adjustments to the fit of things – we're learning. But I'm really excited for people to try out these new styles and new fits and see these two drops that we've had a bit more time to work on because I'm very passionate about them.' Each swimsuit has a special meaning to Batula: in the form of her girlfriends. Advertisement 'All the pieces are named after my best friends,' she explained. 'So my friends from high school, college, and then the girls from the show. So I incorporated everyone into my drop. I had texts from friends being like did you name this after me? I was like yes. So it's not just the girls from the show, it's any girl, any woman that has been a big part of my life, I named a piece after them.' 10 Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula share honeymoon photos. Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula Not only is Batula booked and busy, she and Cooke have been focusing on trying to better their work/life balance since tying the knot in 2021. During part two of the 'Summer House' reunion which aired in May, the fashion icon confessed that she and the Lover Boy founder had some struggles last year. Advertisement Despite fans not seeing their issues play out during season 9, Batula still felt compelled to open up about what they went through. 10 Ciara Miller, Amanda Batula, Carl Radke, Jesse Soloman, Paige DeSorbo, West Wilson, Kyle Cooke, Lindsay Hubbard, Gabby Prescod, Imrul Hassan, Lexi Wood. Kareem Black/Bravo via Getty Images 'I've always just been very honest and transparent about everything in my relationship and I'm always willing to share whatever on camera,' she said. 'I don't hold anything back. It's unfortunately not up to us what ends up getting used and what doesn't but that is something that we were going through and I just felt like it was important for people to see the full transparency.' Luckily, the pair worked on their problems and were able to come together, because, as fans know, summer is suppose to be fun. 'They see us having a great summer together and we did because there were those changes made. But it wasn't a natural occurrence. There were reasons why. I just felt like I just need to be honest and transparent with people at all times. And I feel like that was a huge piece of missing information. We filmed it so I didn't know that they weren't going to use it. I was fully prepared for everyone to see that conversation too. I just feel like everyone should know everything. I don't hold back.' 10 Season 8 of 'Summer House.' Bryan Bedder/Bravo Batula noted, 'We just actually both put in the work and had a really good Summer, which is probably why they chose not to show that beginning clip because it was irrelevant at that point because we were fine.' And with summer right around the corner, Batula and Cooke are still trying to navigate the perfect balance as they head back to the Hamptons. 'The man is never around,' she teased. 'In fact, he's here right now in the office working. He is always traveling. We will be traveling to France together in a week or two. So maybe we'll be able to reconnect and spend some quality time together there.'
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Watch Brian Wilson Play ‘California Girls' and ‘Good Vibrations' at His Last Concert
The devastating news that Brian Wilson has died at age 82 hit early Wednesday afternoon, and we're all in a state of shock. 'We are at a loss for words right now,' his family wrote in a statement. 'Please respect our privacy at this time as our family is grieving. We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world.' Wilson had been in failing health for quite a long time, and the family revealed he was suffering from dementia last year, requiring a conservatorship to handle his affairs. But it somehow seemed like he'd live forever after everything he'd survived throughout his long and difficult life. He was one of rock & roll's ultimate survivors, somehow outliving both of his brothers, Carl and Dennis, by more than a quarter-century. More from Rolling Stone Hear Neil Young Duet With the Beach Boys' Al Jardine Stan Love, NBA Player and Brian Wilson's Caretaker, Dead at 76 Al Jardine Is Going on Tour With Brian Wilson's Longtime Band In the late Nineties, Wilson stunned fans by hitting the road as a solo act for the first time in his career. He was backed at the shows by a group of Beach Boys super fans, the Wondermints, who lovingly recreated the lush, complex arrangements of the original Beach Boys recordings with amazing precision. 'We really wanted to do the music justice,' Wondermints multi-instrumentalist Probyn Gregory told Rolling Stone in 2024. 'I think everyone gave it their A-plus shot, and really focused, and really tried to emote, and tried to break down the fourth wall as much as we could. We wanted to make sure that we gave [Brian] as solid a bed as we possibly could so that he could thrive.' A couple of years into the run, they started playing Pet Sounds straight through with local symphonies. Shortly after that, they shocked the world by resurrecting Brian's lost 1967 masterpiece Smile, both on the road and in the studio. It was a peak moment that was impossible to top, but Wilson and the Wondermints continued to tour heavily practically every single year throughout the 2010s and early 2020s, pausing only for the brief Beach Boys reunion in 2012, and Covid in 2020. The final tour was a double bill with Chicago in the summer of 2022. It was a difficult time for Wilson, who often seemed distant and unengaged onstage, leaving his band — including original Beach Boy Al Jardine — to carry much of the weight. 'It was a little tough,' Gregory told Rolling Stone. 'We've seen that over the years, that sometimes he's really pumped and all there and ready to do a show. At other times he's scared and he's heard voices or he's just not feeling up to it. And I'm afraid to say that a lot of 2022 he wasn't feeling up to it…. People love to ring the bell and extol his virtues when he's on, and that's great. But when he's not engaged, it can seem really bad. And I feel bad for everyone. The audience, they want to get the good Brian, and we in the band want everyone to be pleased, but we can't control everything.' The last show took place July 26, 2022, at Pine Knob Music Theatre in Clarkson, Michigan. Like every show on the tour, it was heavy on Beach Boys classics like 'God Only Knows,' 'Good Vibrations' and 'Sloop John B.' But there were also deeper cuts, including 'Long Promised Road,' 'Sail On, Sailor,' and 'Wild Honey.' Check out fan-shot footage of 'California Girls,' 'Good Vibrations,' and several other songs from the show. It's sad on some level, since Wilson is clearly struggling, and he barely participates in 'Good Vibrations.' But take a look at at the joyous crowd perched near the stage, singing along to every word of those all-time classic songs and having a blast. Brian was dealt many difficult hands in life, including a brutish father and severe mental illness. But he spent the last few decades of his life watching music that he created spark joy in thousands of people, night after night. That's a pretty magical way to go out. Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Brian Wilson Learns to Smile
This story was originally published in the October 14, 2004 issue of Rolling Stone. Brian Wilson is waiting in the driveway of his Mediterranean-style Beverly Hills house, dressed entirely in brown corduroy, bouncing on his toes. More from Rolling Stone Watch Brian Wilson Play 'California Girls' and 'Good Vibrations' at His Last Concert Brian Wilson, Beach Boys Co-Founder and Architect of Pop, Dead at 82 Hear Neil Young Duet With the Beach Boys' Al Jardine 'Let's go!' he says, jumping into the car. 'Go down here, make a U-turn, I'll give you directions.' His silvery brown hair is uncombed, and he's unshaven, in a relaxed, Sunday-afternoon way. His face is tan; his smile is gentle, easy. Wilson looks good. 'We don't have to introduce each other, because we've met before,' he says. 'So, how you been?' 'Good. How about you?' 'I'm good,' he says. 'I'm great. Doing a lot of work. It's a big relief — whew! — because, you know, I've been through some rough times in my head, but I've been fighting it off.' Wilson is more active now than he's been since the Beach Boys were America's top group in the mid-Sixties. He tours relentlessly with his superb band; he released a solo album this summer, Gettin' In Over My Head, with cameos from Elton John and Paul McCartney; and now he's preparing to put out what may be his crowning achievement: an entirely new recording of the legendary, unfinished Smile, which was scrapped in 1967 and has become the most famous unheard album in rock history. Launched as the follow-up to the Beach Boys' classic Pet Sounds— and in response to the Beatles' masterful Rubber Soul and Revolver— Smile was intended to be the grandest, most complex rock & roll production ever: a loosely themed concept album about coast-to-coast 'Americana,' from Plymouth Rock to 'Blue Hawaii,' built from modular, cut-and-paste fragments of pop melody, orchestral instrumentation, recurring vocal themes and even the sounds of crunching vegetables and barnyard animals. Wilson, then twenty-four, described his epic musical tapestry as a 'teenage symphony to God.' Wilson's ambition, however, was undercut by intensifying, untreated mental illness as well as by drug use (including hashish and amphetamines) and pressure from the other Beach Boys and the group's label, Capitol, to stop messing around and start cranking out hits. Beach Boy Mike Love was the harshest critic, reportedly calling Smile 'a whole album of Brian's madness.' Wilson's behavior became erratic and paranoid. His Smile collaborator, the lyricist Van Dyke Parks, remembers going into Wilson's swimming pool fully clothed for a business meeting, because Wilson was afraid his house was bugged by his controlling father, Murry. One night, while recording a section of his 'Elements' suite about fire called 'Mrs. O'Leary's Cow,' Wilson distributed plastic fireman's helmets to the orchestra and lit a small fire in the studio so they could smell smoke. Later, Wilson learned that a building near the studio burned down and that there had been several other fires across Southern California. Wilson believed his music caused the fires, and he immediately stopped work on the song and locked the tapes away in a vault. BY May 1967, after more than eighty recording sessions, Wilson's masterwork was unraveling, and so was he. Smile was abandoned. Its best tracks — 'Heroes and Villains,' 'Wonderful,' 'Surf's Up'— turned up on subsequent Beach Boys albums such as Smiley Smile; bootleggers tried to piece together the rest. Some say Wilson never recovered from the monumental disappointment of Smile's failure. 'He was a man so lonely and so abused and maligned, ostracized,' says Parks. 'It was an outrage what he suffered.' Today he won't say much about that time except that Smile 'was too far ahead of its time, so I junked it.' Until recently, he didn't seem interested in revisiting the work ('Bad music, bad memories,' he told me in 2001), but a year and a half ago, looking for a new live project, Wilson's wife, Melinda, suggested trying Smile, and his bandleader, Darian Sahanaja, began to organize the project. 'It took courage,' says Wilson over steaks and Heinekens at the Mullholland Grill, near his house. 'We worked on it little by little, week by week, until finally we got it right.' 'You can hear that Brian has a glimmer,' says Parks, who worked with Wilson on the new SMiLE (differentiated in typography from the original Smile). 'That is what I think is wonderful about this project… It bathes Brian in some real redemptive light. It shows that he is very generous and very talented, and that he uses his talent to console, in a powerful way.' Work on the new Smile began in the fall of 2003, Sahanaja showed up at Wilson's house one morning with all the existing fragments of Smile he could find (both from bootlegs and the Capitol vaults) loaded onto his iBook. 'I knew Smile is not Brian's favorite topic,' says Sahanaja. 'And he had a look, like he was looking over the edge of the Empire State Building with no support.' At first, Wilson offered little reaction. 'He was quiet for a long time,' says Sahanaja. 'Then I played him 'Do You Like Worms?' and I thought he was going to freak out. But he went, 'That's pretty cool. We did that?' And it just started going, grouping different sections and songs together.' To Sahanaja's amazement, Wilson began to remember harmonies and arrangements that were never recorded. At one point, they were working on a portion of 'Do You Like Worms?' (now renamed 'Roll Plymouth Rock'), and Wilson couldn't read Parks' thirty-eight-year-old lyric sheet. 'We just couldn't figure it out,' says Sahanaja. 'Brian goes, 'Van Dyke will know.' So he picks up the phone — hasn't called Van Dyke in years — goes, 'Yeah, Van Dyke. It's Brian. Do you know the song 'Do You Like Worms?' What's this line?' ' The next morning, Van Dyke Parks showed up at Wilson's house to begin five days of work. Parks says his main goal was to bring Smile out of the past, to make it the work of a man looking back at his younger days, not to try and simply re-create material thirty-seven years old. 'It was important that this not arrive irrelevant and brain-dead,' he says. Parks made mostly subtle changes. At the start of 'In Blue Hawaii,' for example, Parks added the line 'Is it hot as hell in here? Or is it me?/It really is a mystery.' 'These words reveal Brian in the present tense,' says Parks, 'reflecting on this situation that happened to him all those years ago.' The new SMiLE was first performed by Wilson on tour in the U.K. in February, to rave reviews, then recorded at Sunset Sound and Your Place Or Mine studios in Los Angeles. It wasn't always easy. 'Darian's a perfectionist — he henpecks me,' Wilson says. 'It's hard work, but it's worth it.' Adds Sahanaja, 'Sometimes Brian was a little impatient. He would say, What do we need to do next? When am I getting my steak?' Sometimes I think he would have rather stayed at home, and, technically, he didn't have to be there a lot of the time. But he showed up, and, man, it was such a difference. Just his goofy way. We'd do a really beautiful version of 'Surf's Up.' We'd get to the last chord, and we're all there with our headphones on and we'd hear him scream, 'Right the fuck on!' That's so inspiring for us musicians.' Tonight it's hard to tell how excited Wilson is about SMiLE, but he's definitely excited about dinner. 'They have an excellent salad here; I think you should get it,' he advises, then calls the waitress over and orders two iceberg-and-blue-cheese salads and two rib-eye steaks, medium rare. Wilson seems relaxed — or as relaxed as I've seen him in recent years — as he drinks beer and talks about his courtside seats to the Lakers playoff games and about his four-month-old adopted son, Dylan. (just saying Dylan's name makes Brian burst out laughing.) 'Life's better than it's been in the past twenty years,' he says. Still, he admits that he works hard to keep depression at bay. 'Every day I have an anxiety attack,' he says. 'I can't explain why. It just comes on.' He takes medication for anxiety and depression, and he sees a therapist three times a week. 'I'm in bad mental shape, so I need it,' he says. A routine of work and exercise helps, too. Each morning before doing anything else, he spends an hour at the piano. He says he's written three new songs in the past week. 'The creative process blows me out,' he says. 'It's an amazing trip. Amazing. Just amazing. I'm older, wiser, more knowledgeable than I used to be, so I can get it together pretty quick.' He smiles, stares off for a while, gulps his Heineken, then looks up at me with pale greenish-blue eyes. 'I'll tell you something I've learned,' he says. 'It's hard work to be happy.' Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked
