In a new interview with Billboard, Sammy Hagar says he wants to make peace with Alex Van Halen, even if the two can’t fully reconcile. The former Van Halen singer’s comments come after the drummer recently called him a “complete idiot.”
“I’ll put out an olive branch right now, and say it again a million times — I would love to bury the hatchet with Alex,” Hagar says. “I would love to be friends again. If we played music, mo’ better. That would be awesome… But I’m willing to forget anything and everything and be friends and bring the two eras together like they should be.
“It’s the crack in the world I wrote about 50 years ago,” Hagar continues, referring to his 1977 song “Crack in the World,” which he says predicted the divisions that now pit people against one another.
“He’s sticking with it, and why? I’m trying to get rid of that. Unification over separation. Let’s unify this world. That’s my dream and wish; if I could find a way to do that, there you go. That might be my future.”
The 73-year-old singer is responding to comments Alex made earlier this year in an interview with music journalist Marcelo Vieira for Brazilian magazine Roadie Crew. Asked about Hagar’s 2011 autobiography, Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock, which included unflattering accounts of the Van Halen brothers and Eddie Van Halen’s struggles with alcoholism, the drummer dismissed his former bandmate.
“I don’t know what he wrote, and I don’t want to know,” Alex replied. “In my opinion, Sammy Hagar is a complete idiot.”
Hagar addressed the insult in a September 17 interview with SiriusXM’s Eddie Trunk.
“Guilty as charged, first of all,” Hagar said with a laugh when Trunk asked about Alex’s remarks. “I’m probably the most successful idiot on the planet.”
But Hagar also took issue with Alex’s assertion that Van Halen “did our best work” with original frontman David Lee Roth, with whom the drummer recently reunited for a TEDx talk.
“What happened after Dave left is not the same band,” Alex said while promoting his 2024 memoir, Brothers. “I’m not saying it was better or worse or any of that … but the magic was in the first years, when we didn’t know what we were doing; when we were willing to try anything.”
Hagar replaced Roth in 1985 and went on to front Van Halen through a commercially successful run. Speaking to Trunk, he argued that Alex’s characterization overlooks what the band accomplished during that era.
“We sold 40-some million records, four number-one albums, and you just scratch that off of your brother’s legacy, saying, ‘No, that never happened.’ You don’t even want to acknowledge it.”
This isn’t the first time Hagar has offered an olive branch. When Trunk asked what he would do if Alex showed up at Hagar’s Van Halen-celebrating Best of All Worlds Tour residency in Las Vegas, the singer said he would welcome his former bandmate without hesitation.
“Alex? Oh, come in. Oh, 100 percent, I’ll grab him, I’ll kiss him right on the lips. … I’d treat him like the person that I used to love and I could still love.”
