Sammy Hagar is Still ‘Disappointed’ About Lack of Eddie Van Halen Tribute Event

Sammy Hagar, like many fans, is still bummed that there hasn't been a big tribute concert honoring Eddie Van Halen.

He touched on this in a new interview on Rock of Nations with Dave Kinchen and Shane McEachern. The Red Rocker said, in part, "As far as the tribute goes, I'm so disappointed how they've handled everything, including when I left the band, what they did, and that ... It's ugly, but it's not my job."

Hagar's frustration is also shared by Wolfgang Van Halen. He told Classic Rock in a November 2022 interview, "When it comes to Van Halen and entities surrounding the band it’s unfortunate ... I don’t know what it is with some bands but certain personalities just can’t get over themselves to work collectively for one purpose – that’s been the curse of Van Halen for its entire career.

In 2022, there were a lot of headlines about a rumored Van Halen tribute tour. As previously reported, former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted said in an interview with The Palm Beach Post published on April 14, 2022 that Alex Van Halen contacted him for a "possible Van Halen tour." Newsted also said Joe Satriani was selected by Alex to play guitar.

In the April 18, 2022 episode of Rock of Nations, Satriani said, "I've been talking with Alex and Dave for about a year about doing something — a tour, something like that — that was going to be a true tribute to Eddie and the Van Halen legacy...For me, it was a terrifying prospect of doing something like that, but I realized that it was something that would be a real labor of love for me. I was just so honored to take on the challenge."

Following all of these quotes from Newsted and Satriani, David Lee Roth would issue a statement to Van Halen News desk saying, "In my mind 'Van Halen 4K,' in the age of covid is going to require two of us for every position. [Joe] Satriani and [Steve] Lukather, [Michael] Anthony and [Jason] Newsted, Al [ex Van Halen] or Tommy Lee. Probably the only one who could do my job today would be Pink."

In May 2022, Michael Anthony told The Mitch Lafon and Jeremy White Show of the rumored tour, "The only thing that was kind of a surprise to me was the Jason Newsted thing when he came out and said that Alex [Van Halen] had talked to him last year or something like that, which is kind of interesting, because I actually had been talking on a conference call with [Van Halen manager] Irving Azoff, Alex and Dave [Lee Roth] last year, so I don't know what the Jason thing was all about."

Eddie Van Halen was the most influential guitarist of our generation.

Of course, flashy, fleet-fingered guitarists were a dime a dozen in the late ‘70s and ‘80s. Eddie was better than all of them, but he was more than that. A songwriter, a keyboardist, a studio wizard, ¼ of Van Halen’s four-part harmony team and a band leader that was able to guide VH through losing the most distinctive frontman of the ‘80s and led them to four chart-topping albums with Sammy Hagar.

Here, we take on the tough task of ranking their top 30 songs. (It was really, really tough to cut any of the songs on the first six albums from this list.)