A Van Halen reunion tour in 2022 was canceled due to David Lee Roth’s opposition to having a tribute to the late Eddie Van Halen be part of the act, drummer Alex Van Halen told Rolling Stone Tuesday.
“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. … And the moment I said we gotta acknowledge Ed, Dave f——-’ popped a fuse. … The vitriol that came out was unbelievable,” said Mr. Van Halen, the elder of the two brothers.
His younger brother, the guitarist of their eponymous band, died of throat cancer in 2020.
Wolfgang Van Halen, son of the deceased rocker, had previously alluded to Mr. Roth’s opposition to a one-off tribute concert without outright naming him.
When asked in 2022 about someone assuming that a “singer with three initials” was the issue, he told Rolling Stone, “I would say ’Do your research on the history of Van Halen, and come to your conclusions.’”
Mr. Roth, the original lead vocalist, first left the band in 1985, briefly rejoined in 1996, and then reprised his role in Van Halen from 2007 until 2020, according to Billboard.
Mr. Roth has not yet publicly commented on the accusations by Alex Van Halen, who also told Rolling Stone that the two are still in touch with each other.
Ultimately, Alex Van Halen was OK with how things turned out.
“It’s too bad on one hand, but it’s fine on the other. Because now, in retrospect, playing the old songs is not really paying tribute to anybody. That’s just like a jukebox, in my opinion. … To find a replacement for Ed? It’s just not the same,” he told Rolling Stone.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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