David Lee Roth's refusal to pay tribute to Eddie Van Halen apparently ruined reunion tour plans
Alex Van Halen gave an emotional interview to Rolling Stone recently, remembering his late brother Eddie Van Halen and discussing his plans to keep Van Halen's legacy alive. One of those ideas was a Van Halen reunion tour with Alex on drums and original singer David Lee Roth as the frontman. The pair began rehearsing sometime around 2022, but they ended up having a huge falling out over Alex's ideas to pay tribute to Eddie.
"The thing that broke the camel's back, and I can be honest about this now, was I said, 'Dave, at some point, we have to have a very overt—not a bowing—but an acknowledgment of Ed in the gig. If you look at how Queen does it, they show old footage,'" Alex recalled. "And the moment I said we gotta acknowledge Ed, Dave fuckin' popped a fuse.… The vitriol that came out was unbelievable."
Roth didn't comment for the story, and Alex doesn't sound clear on the reasons why the vocalist was so against giving Eddie a shining moment. But obviously, his reaction pissed Alex off: "I’m from the street. 'You talk to me like that, motherfucker, I'm gonna beat your fucking brains out. You got it?' And I mean that. And that’s how it ended," Alex said, though he is still confused. "It's 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 gotta work as a community, motherfucker. It's not you alone anymore."
Alex ultimately suffered a spinal injury that would have prevented him from touring anyway, and he's now "fine" with the outcome, as playing old Van Halen songs would be "like a jukebox" and finding a replacement for his brother is "just not the same": "The heart and the soul and the creativity and the magic was Dave, Ed, Mike, and me." Rolling Stone reports that Alex is still in touch with Roth even after the tour dissolved, and even after Roth made some disparaging remarks about Eddie's son Wolfgang. "To me, it's a sign of respect that he actually thinks that Wolfie’s on the same level as the old master Dave, right?" Alex says. "The other thing is that Wolf can easily take care of himself. It’s not a problem." It's all rock and roll, right?