Alex Van Halen called his former Van Halen bandmate Sammy Hagar a “complete idiot” in a recent interview, one of the drummer’s rare acknowledgements of the singer in the past few years.
The comment came while Alex was speaking with Brazilian music journalist Marcelo Vieira, who translated the drummer’s memoir Brothers to Portuguese for the Brazilian market.
Alex was asked by Vieira about the two respective autobiographies of Van Halen’s most famous singers for the Brazilian magazine Roadie Crew. Regarding David Lee Roth’s Crazy from the Heat, the drummer noted, “It’s quite fun and accurately reflects [David’s] sense of humor. Although the text is somewhat abstract and loses its train of thought at times, it’s still a very interesting perspective on that era.”
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As for Hagar’s Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock, Alex remarked, “I don’t know what he wrote, and I don’t wanna know. In my opinion, Sammy Hagar is a complete idiot.”
Hagar’s memoir, which was released in 2011, exposed some of the “dark side” of Eddie Van Halen’s life, an aspect of the book that the Red Rocker said he regretted including following the guitarist’s death in 2020.
A post about the interview with Alex Van Halen was shared Saturday on Instagram by rockcelebrities1, to which Sammy Hagar appeared in the comments, saying, “This comment and post is so unnecessary at this time in our lives, but I guess the truth hurts sometimes. Peace already.”
Hagar is getting ready to kick off the latest run of his “Best of All Worlds” Las Vegas residency featuring his all-star backing band Michael Anthony, Joe Satriani , and Kenny Aronoff, with tickets available here. Hagar invited David Lee Roth to appear at the residency following the cancellation of DLR’s solo tour, although it remains to be seen if Diamond Dave will show up.