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When Alex Van Halen wrote his new memoir Brothers, he only recalled Van Halen's time with David Lee Roth—not even mentioning Sammy Hagar's 10 years with the band. In a recent Instagram post, the Red Rocker responded to a comment with his dismay over the exclusion, calling it "blasphemy" to Eddie Van Halen's legacy.
The photo was innocent enough—a 1991 snapshot of Hagar and EVH walking to the stage before a show—but it prompted some comments about Alex's omission of Hagar in his book.
“No disrespect to Alex but it’s ok to like VH with Sammy, even if he doesn’t anymore,” read a comment, which prompted someone else to write: “Most purists believe VH ended with DLR.”
That's when Hagar shared his thoughts. “It could have [ended], my friend, but instead we went on to sell over 50 million records for [a] No. 1 album [then] sold out every building and stadium in the world for a whole decade,” he commented. “That never happened again.”
“Alex is not doing his brother’s musical legacy justice by not acknowledging all the No. 1 albums and some great music Eddie and I wrote together—not Alex—but Eddie and I wrote together,” wrote Hagar. “To not acknowledge [those] 10 years of music is blasphemy to his brother’s musicianship, songwriting and legacy.”
Despite his disappointment, Hagar has expressed a desire to be friends with Alex again. "It's on my bucket list that I will not take this to my grave, and I don’t want Al taking it to his grave," he said in a recent interview. "I've put the olive branch out there many times, and I just put it out again to Irving Azoff."
"I want to be friends, though," he reiterated before noting that doesn't mean they have to play music together again. "I don't want to play in a band with Al. I'm not asking for that. I can see that he's not capable of doing that. If he was, I'd be happy to play with him, but it's not what I'm looking for. I just want to be friends again."
See Hagar's Instagram post below.
