Sammy Hagar has responded to Alex Van Halen skipping the “Van Hagar” period in his memoir, calling the dearth of acknowledgement “blasphemy” to Eddie’s legacy.
Hagar’s remarks got here through an in any other case innocuous Instagram publish that noticed the Crimson Rocker nostalgically reflecting on his time in Van Halen. Within the authentic publish, that includes a photograph from 1991 of Hagar and Eddie heading to the stage, Hagar joked about their selection of trend on the time earlier than taking a extra critical tone when commenters started to check the David Lee Roth years to Van Hagar.
“No disrespect to Alex nevertheless it’s okay to love VH with Sammy, even when he doesn’t anymore,” wrote one commenter, prompting one other: “Most purists imagine VH ended with DLR.”
Right here, Hagar chimed in.
“It might have [ended], my pal, however as a substitute we went on to promote over 50 million data for [a] No. 1 album [then] bought out each constructing and stadium on this planet for an entire decade,” commented Hagar. “That by no means occurred once more.”
Then Hagar addressed the absence of the post-DLR period of Van Halen in Alex’s new memoir, Brothers (buy right here).
“Alex isn’t doing his brother’s musical legacy justice by not acknowledging all of the No. 1 albums and a few nice music Eddie and I wrote collectively — not Alex — however Eddie and I wrote collectively,” wrote Hagar. “To not acknowledge [those] 10 years of music is blasphemy to his brother’s musicianship, songwriting and legacy.”
Alex’s e book makes no point out of the Hagar years, as a substitute ending simply earlier than DLR’s preliminary exit from the band in 1985. Alex later defined the omission in an interview with Billboard.
“What occurred after Dave left isn’t the identical band. … The magic was within the first years,” he mentioned, “once we didn’t know what we have been doing; once we have been prepared to strive something.”
Alex maintained that “the unique band was the driving power,” in a more moderen interview with the “Bringing It Again to The Beatles” podcast.
“That’s why the e book ends in 1984, as a result of that was true rock and roll,” he mentioned. “After that, it turned far more — I don’t know; I can’t clarify it. Nevertheless it’s to not say that it was not any good. We all the time did our greatest at no matter we have been doing, nevertheless it wasn’t the identical.”
You may see Sammy Hagar’s Instagram publish and Alex Van Halen’s latest video interview beneath.