Sammy Hagar Opens Up About Alex Van Halen Rift And Van Halen Legacy [WATCH]

Former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar says he does not expect to perform again with drummer Alex Van Halen, more than two decades after the band’s last tour together, as reported by Page Six.

Hagar made the remarks in a recent interview with Classic Rock, where he discussed lingering tensions with his former bandmate and reflected on the band’s history.

John Mayer and Sammy Hagar team up on this
awesome performance of Van Halen’s “Finish What Ya
Started” pic.twitter.com/diPvbI6mtd

— AXS TV (@AXSTV) March 7, 2026

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“I’m the biggest Pink Floyd fan. I see David Gilmour say, ‘I will never play with Roger Waters again,’ and I know what he means,” Hagar told the publication.

“I feel that way about Alex Van Halen. They’re negative people.”

Hagar previously said in an interview with Rolling Stone that he and Alex Van Halen have not spoken in more than two decades.

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“I hate to say it, but I dreamt about Alex the other night, man,” Hagar told the magazine in April.

“It was crazy. And it was so friggin’ real. I was saying, ‘What are you pissed off at me about, man? What the f—? Now, just tell me what your problem is. What did I do? Just tell me.’”

The ongoing tension between the former bandmates has surfaced in public discussions over the years.

In Alex Van Halen’s 2024 memoir, “Brothers,” which focuses on his relationship with Van Halen co-founder Eddie Van Halen, Hagar was not mentioned by name.

Some observers have suggested that Alex Van Halen may have taken issue with Hagar discussing Eddie Van Halen’s personal struggles in Hagar’s own memoir. Hagar has said he is unsure what the source of the dispute may be.

“And I’ve had this conversation with a few people, including [former VH manager] Irving Azoff,” Hagar said.

“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.’”

Hagar responded to that possibility by questioning why the situation would still be an issue.

“How the f— 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.’”

Hagar has also suggested that Alex Van Halen may be frustrated that he and former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony continue performing songs associated with the band.

“I think Alex is upset with me because I’m out doing it, and Mike [Anthony] and I are out doing it, and he can’t,” Hagar said in a previous interview with Rolling Stone.

“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,” Hagar added. “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.”

Hagar joined Van Halen as lead singer in 1985, replacing original vocalist David Lee Roth. During his time with the band, Van Halen released several albums and toured extensively.

❞ ❞
(OfficialVideo, 1984)pic.twitter.com/4x7YQM4SbL

— Ⓒ (@HeavyMetal_999) December 31, 2025

Following the death of Eddie Van Halen in 2020, Hagar said he has become more comfortable performing songs from his time with the band.

“Since Eddie died and since Alex sold his drum kit, I feel more comfortable leaning into my era of Van Halen and even playing a few of the old songs,” Hagar said in the Classic Rock interview.

“Because frickin’ Mike Anthony’s in the band, I feel good about playing a lot of Van Halen stuff, cause no one will ever hear it again. And that was the biggest part of my career, and everybody’s career, for god’s sake. It was the biggest band in the world.”

Hagar previously had a falling out with Eddie Van Halen as well, though the two later reconciled before the guitarist’s death in 2020 following a cancer battle that ended with a stroke.

Sammy Hagar and Eddie Van Halen. Photo by Ebet Roberts at the inaugural Farm Aid concert on September 22, 1985, in Champaign, Illinois. At this show, Hagar announced that he was the new lead singer for Van Halen, and they performed a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll”. pic.twitter.com/lYImBlss9m

— Classic Rock In Pics (@crockpics) March 9, 2026

“Eddie was the sweetest person I ever met when I first joined that band,” Hagar said.

“He was a superstar. There wasn’t anybody who didn’t look up to him and go, ‘Wow, f—ing Eddie Van Halen.’ But it never went to his head. He’d just drink too much. He had an addictive personality. I guess you could say drugs and alcohol and fame and fortune got to him, but that took a long time.”

Hagar also spoke about reconnecting with Eddie shortly before his death.

“To be able to have talked to Eddie and have a wonderful rapport with him on text, it means everything to me,” Hagar told Fox News Digital.

“If he would have died and we would have not ever said, ‘I love you’ to each other, I would have felt really bad.

“I wouldn’t be able to talk to you about it. So, that means a lot to me. And it means a lot, I think, for me to feel good about talking about being in Van Halen now. Because I feel like we buried the hatchet. Otherwise, I’d be saying, ‘Well, those guys.’ Because, you know, I was mad. I was hurt. And it’s very important that we connected.”

Hagar also commented on his relationship with the original Van Halen singer, David Lee Roth.

“David is a strange person for me,” Hagar said.

“We’re oil and water. We just don’t gel. I mean, I’ve tried. I thought it would be really cool if him and I were friends. It would be really cool if him and I went out with a great band and did all those great Van Halen songs together, but he’s just not user-friendly.”

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