Sammy Hagar, regardless of the venture, doesn’t do boring. This is seemingly so when it comes to major interviews. The Red Rocker recently spoke with Rolling Stone, and he had some interesting things to say regarding Alex Van Halen.
In the interview, RS‘s Andy Greene said he thinks the reason Alex won’t speak to Hagar has to do with him writing about Eddie Van Halen’s addiction issues in his 2011 memoir Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock. Hagar disagrees and said he believes, and was told by other people, it has to do with Cabo Wabo, the bar-restaurant Van Halen founded in 1990.
Eventually, Hagar bought out the shares owned by his Van Halen bandmates, turned the restaurant around, made it incredibly successful, launched a massively popular tequila brand of the same name, and made millions and millions of dollars from the brand.
Hagar said, “To that I said, ‘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.’”
More than the success of Cabo Wabo, Hagar also thinks AVH is angry with him and won’t speak to him is due to the fact that he’s still out on the road with former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony performing, and Alex isn’t.
“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,” said Hagar. “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 … I would feel bad. If I put myself in his shoes, I would feel terrible if I couldn’t do it anymore.”
Hagar added that if Alex leaves him alone, he’ll leave Alex alone. However, he got one more jab in there: “Everything’s good. I’m making you money, by the way, Al. I’m out there selling Van Halen records and keeping the name alive, keeping the music alive.”
