Legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen passed away in 2020. Sadly, there has been no tribute show in his honor for what seems to be a variety of reasons. Essentially, dysfunction within the remaining Van Halen camp seems to be hold-up.
Recently, former Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar talked with Eddie Trunk, Jim Florentine and Don Jamieson of “That Rocks” about the possibility of a tribute concert featuring the surviving Van Halen members.
“It’s the same old story,” Hagar said. “It’s the same old f*cking story. Alex won’t respond to me. I reach out to him. I haven’t done it in a long time now, ’cause it’s, like, ‘Hey, you wanna talk to me? Call me.’ But there’s not going to be a Van Halen reunion. First of all, it’s too late.”
“I’ve already said it a million times — Wolfie (Eddie’s son Wolfgang Van Halen) is doing such a great job with what he’s doing, and he would be the perfect guy to play with us, so that’s out. Dave (original Van Halen singer David Lee Roth) and I are still alive, but there’s no way he would cooperate with me, so if he goes out by himself, that’s not a Van Halen reunion; that’s half a Van Halen reunion. If I go out by myself without him, it’s a half a Van Halen reunion.”
“Only good news about that is that I could sing his songs just fine. But Mike and I are like this [crosses fingers], and if Al wanted to come and play with us… I would love to play with Al. I said it recently, that I would love to play music with Al. I would like to write a song with Al. I would like to go in the studio and jam with Al. But the thought of a Van Halen reunion without Eddie, no, there’s no such thing.”
Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted previously revealed that he came close to joining Alex Van Halen for a tribute of some sort late last year.
According to The Palm Beach Post, Alex Van Halen had already tapped Joe Satriani to replace the late, great Eddie Van Halen, and the two were searching for a bass player for a possible Van Halen tour.
Newsted apparently agreed to go to California to jam with the pair, but he thought it would be impossible to do justice to Van Halen’s legacy.
“How could you?” he said. “There’s nobody that can top it, so how do you show it honor? I didn’t want it to be viewed as a money grab. And then it kind of just all fizzled.”
Satriani confirmed that he, Roth and Alex Van Halen have been in talks about doing a tour tribute to Eddie and all eras of the Van Halen legacy. “I’ve been talking with Alex and Dave for about a year about doing something — a tour, something like that — that was gonna be a true tribute to Eddie and the Van Halen legacy,” Satriani said.
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