Sammy Hagar is set to kick off his The Best of All Worlds Tour on Saturday. The rocker and his band will be playing Van Halen songs during the show, and while he may have originally hoped that former Van Halen drummer Alex Van Halen would stop by, he knows it isn’t about to happen.
Hagar tells Classic Rock that when he started planning the tour with Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony he “immediately reached out to Al” but heard nothing back.
“No response,” Hagar says. “I hit him again. No response. I called (manager) Irving Azoff; he goes, ‘Al doesn’t want to play with anybody. He’s still mourning his brother’s death… I don’t think he’s ready.’ And I said, ‘Well, get him to talk to me.’”
Then in May, Alex announced he was selling off all his equipment at an auction that closed June 9. Hagar is taking that personally.
“I think that was his statement to me,” he says. “I think that was his way of saying, ‘I’m over. I’m done.’ It’s a shame.”
“There’s a time I was saying, ‘Oh, he’ll show up. You watch, he’ll f*****’ show up at the (Los Angeles) Forum or something,’” Sammy adds. “Mike and I had this running joke that we were gonna put him on the guest list every night of every show, just for fun. But, no, after selling his drums, he ain’t showing up nowhere, I can guarantee you that.”
Hagar’s The Best of All Worlds tour kicks off July 13 in West Palm Beach, Florida. A complete list of dates can be found at redrocker.com.
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