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Sammy Hagar wants to make peace with Alex Van Halen, and during a recent interview with Rolling Stone he opened up about his attempts to "put the olive branch out" to his former Van Halen bandmate.
"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. "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."
Hagar did reach out to Van Halen about playing on his "Best of All Worlds" tour but didn't get a response. The drummer addressed the situation in an interview last month, bluntly saying he wasn't "interested."
"They're not doing the band justice," he said at the time. "They can do what they want to do. That's not my business."
He also recently published a memoir called Brothers that's about his relationship with his late brother Eddie Van Halen and also recounts their time playing in Van Halen together; however, it notably only mentions the band's tenure with David Lee Roth and not Hagar.
"It's sad," the Red Rocker said about the memoir. "I haven't read the whole book, but I've seen all the excerpts, and I heard some of the interviews. It breaks my heart, because if I think what Alex is going through, losing his brother, never played with anybody else in his life, and then his health … When I saw how rickety he is, I realized, 'No wonder he's not answering my call when I say, "Do you want to go out and play with us?"' He can't."
"That breaks my heart, because I can only put myself in those shoes and say, 'What if I couldn't sing and perform anymore?'" he continued. "The thing that I did my whole life, the thing I devoted my life to, the thing that made me rich and famous and gave me the most beautiful life on the planet, and all of a sudden I can't do that anymore? I would feel like I was robbing the fans, to start with. When you put yourself in his shoes, I'm saying, 'Okay, I feel sorry for him.'"
As for the exclusion in the book, Hagar's not really sure the reason. "Why he left me out, I would like to hear him explain that someday, because I don't get it completely," he admitted before justifying him and former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony playing the "Van Hagar" catalog on tour. "I know that he's bitter about some things, whatever that is … It's like, 'If you don't want that era, that even gives me more justification to say I own it then,' because no one else can do it, and he can't do it even without me. It makes it easier for Mike and I. We're sitting there going, 'Okay, I guess we own this,' and we have the obligation to bring this to the fans to keep this music alive, keep it live and alive."
Elsewhere in the interview, Hagar addressed why he permanently replaced Jason Bonham after Kenny Aronoff filled in for him over the summer. "There's two reasons," he said of his choice to stick with Aronoff. "Number one, he's one of the greatest drummers on the planet. I think he's been on more million-selling records than any musician in the world. And he did so well on this tour, and he plays with Joe on a full-time basis..."
"And he blew my mind," Hagar continued. "I played with Kenny in Chickenfoot, and he blew my mind then too, because when we auditioned him, he learns every song. 'Tell me what songs we're playing.' 'Okay, here they are.' He charts them out and he sits there, and he f***in' can read it, and play it with soul and power perfectly, just one time, the first time he plays it. If that don't blow a musician's mind, I don't know what would, especially these kinds of songs. These songs are crazy. They're f***in' Van Halen arrangements."
With Aronoff behind the kit, Hagar reunited the last Chickenfoot touring lineup. They've also been seen recording in the studio together. Bonham recently opened up about being "let go" and divulged that Hagar broke the news to him shortly after the tour ended.
"I was trying to answer fans, really, because they were asking me, 'Why aren't you involved with the new thing they're recording?' and saying, 'Aren't you gonna do it again?' 'I was let go, so, no,'" Bonham explained. "Sammy rang me awhile ago. He was asking about my mom, but then he said, 'Y'know, I’m not gonna do much next year,' blah, blah blah, 'and I'm gonna go with Kenny.' I was a little shocked, I must say. I'd be lying to you if I wasn't a little sad, because we were on fire at the end of the tour. And I got a little upset. That was strange, after 10 years of being with him."
That being said, there's no bad blood between the two musicians. "Listen, I love the guy to bits. I don't wish him any ill. I still speak to him," Bonham clarified. "Honestly, the guy has taught me so much – about business, being positive. I'm an English guy; I can be really negative half the time. Even if the sun is shining, 'but it could rain.' He really helped me in that aspect big-time, and business sense and never taking no for an answer, always believing in yourself."