The long-standing animosity between former Van Halen singer David Lee Roth and the band's late guitar legend Eddie Van Halen was legendary and apparently permanent. In a new interview with Rolling Stonethe band's retired drummer Alex Van Halen revealed that after Eddie's death in 2020 at age 65 from complications from throat cancer, he approached Roth about a reunion tour that would pay tribute to his younger brother.
After a few rehearsals in 2022, Alex said the project fell apart due to Roth's refusal to include a section paying tribute to the rocker who some consider the greatest guitarist of all time.
“What broke the camel's back, and I can be honest about it now, was that I said, 'Dave, at some point, we need to have a very overt – not a bow – but an acknowledgment of Ed at the concert. told of his comeback plans starting to go south when he felt numbness from peripheral neuropathy that he took as an “omen from above” that maybe things weren't meant to be.
“If you look at how Queen do it, they're showing old footage,” Alex said of the band's hat to late singer Freddie Mercury on their recent tours with replacement singer Adam Lambert. “And the moment I said we should recognize Ed, Dave f—kin blew a fuse. … The vitriol that came out was unbelievable.”
Alex, in his first interview since Eddie's death, said that Roth vehemently rejected the idea, finding it “offensive”, for reasons he still cannot fathom and which angered him. “I'm from the street,” he told the magazine. “You talk to me like that, baby, I'm going to blow your mind. Did you get it? And I mean this. And that's how it ended… Just, my God. It's like I didn't know him anymore. I have nothing but the utmost respect for his work ethic and all that. But, Dave, you have to work as a community, Mom. You are no longer alone.” RS Roth said, declining to comment for the story.
The profile also features the other A-list rock icons discussed as potential frontmen for the band that has had three lead singers over the years. Founding singer Roth held the seat from 1974-1985, then briefly in 1996 and again from 2007-2020, while Sammy Hagar took over from 1985-1996 during the band's peak and again from 2003-2005, while Extreme's Gary Cherone briefly held the mic from 1996-1999 between the other two singers' years.
Around 2001, after Cherone's departure and Hagar's return, the Van Halens had a conversation with Ozzy Osbourne and his wife, manager Sharon Osbourne, as they were considering a plan to replace the metal god as singer. “When you get a dog, you don't expect it to be a cat,” Alex explained. “When you get Ozzy, you get Ozzy. Play the music, it will sing, and it will be wonderful.”
But just before they were scheduled to hit the studio, the Osbournes got to work on their MTV reality show The Osbourneswhich killed the plan; Ozzy confirmed the talks and said that if they had taken place it would have been “phenomenal”.
Van Halen also noted that the brothers got into a fight with Soundgarden's Chris Cornell at one point — he couldn't remember when — and when Eddie left the room for a while Alex was left alone with the singer. “Chris was in a very fragile part of his life, so to speak,” she said of the singer, who died in 2017 aged 52. “I got behind the drums and he started playing bass. We played for 45 minutes. This mom came in so hard she started bleeding. I said, “That's the man you want.” And then he died.”
Saying the collapse of the original line-up was the “most disappointing thing” he had experienced in his life until Eddie's death, Alex said, for him, another brick in the wall of their demise was Eddie's decision in 1982 to play his infamous spiral guitar. solo on “Beat It” by Michael Jackson. This led to Roth deciding to go out on his own as a solo act which began, as Alex said, a death spiral for the group. After pleading with his brother not to take the gig — suggesting Jackson guest on a VH album — Eddie did it anyway, and in 1984, Jackson's monumental album Impressive work blocked VHs 1984 album from the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 album chart.
“Why would you lend your talents to Michael Jackson? I just don't get it,” Alex said RS for the controversy that continued for years. “And the funny part was, Ed came away from it going, 'Oh, who knows this kid anyway?' You made the mistake! Arrive. Don't add insult to injury by acting stupid.”
Alex Van Halen's Memoirs, Brothersis scheduled for release on October 22.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/alex-van-halen-david-lee-roth-tanked-van-halen-reunion-famous-replacement-singers-1235802321/