Sammy Hagar says he has no plans to follow-up a recent birthday tweet to Eddie Van Halen because he senses it would be misinterpreted as more than a gesture of simply trying to re-establish a friendship.
Prior to the January exchange as Eddie turned 61, the pair had not been in touch in a dozen years following a 2004 reunion tour.
Hagar tells Rolling Stone: “It would be misinterpreted. I know the way those guys think. ‘Oh, he wants something! He wants back in the band. He must be broke.’ I’m sorry, but unless they’ve changed drastically, which when I’ve talked to people that do know them it sounds like they haven’t changed at all, it would be misinterpreted. I also don’t want to provoke that. That’s not what I’m looking for in my life now.”
This past week marks the 30th anniversary of 5150, Hagar’s first album with Van Halen.
While Hagar’s attempt at first contact with the guitarist comes at a time when speculation about David Lee Roth’s status with Van Halen continues, he explains it was the recent deaths of David Bowie and Glenn Frey that gave him the motivation to make peace with his former bandmate.
He says: “I’ve never seen so many guys from my era K.O. like that. Bowie was my hero. It was one after the other, even a young guy like Scott Weiland. He inducted me in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. You just go, ‘Aw, man!’”
The Red Rocker confirms that he would accept an offer from Van Halen to hang out if such an invitation came his way, even after the scars left on both sides from splits in 1996 and 2004.
Hagar reveals: “I’d say, ‘Fuck yeah, let’s get some coffee.’ If I did it myself I’d be way too vulnerable. I’d be in a room with the guys like, ‘No, no. You don’t understand. That’s not what I’m talking about. I just want to be friends. And once we’re friends, we can do anything. Until that is proven, I can’t be in a band with you guys, or whatever.’”
Given his solo career, gigs with supergroups Chickenfoot and The Circle, and his long-standing friendship with Michael Anthony, would Hagar even entertain a return to the Los Angeles group without the former Van Halen bassist?
Sammy says: “There’s no scenario I’d do it without Mikey. Absolutely not. I would do a solo album with Ed. We can call it the Sam and Ed Show or the Ed and Sam Show. But there’s no such thing as a Van Halen reunion without Mikey. I think they just proved that.”
