Sammy Hagar Addresses Van Halen Tribute Concert Idea

Keavin Wiggins | 08-22-2022

Video still of Eddie Van Halen

Sammy Hagar revealed in a new interview that he is not interested in taking part in the speculated Van Halen tribute concert without original bassist Michael Anthony and he is also conflicted because he doesn't believe it would be Van Halen without the late Eddie Van Halen on guitar.

The former Van Halen frontman was asked about the tribute concert by The News-Herald in Sterling Heights, MI. The news of the proposed tribute was broken by former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted and Anthony spoke to SiriusXM host Eddie Trunk about the idea.

Sammy explained that Anthony commented to Trunk, "just because there was all this talk about Jason. What's that about, Jason Newsted playing bass for Van Halen? Great guy. Great musician. But in Van Halen? No, not when Mikey's still here and alive to do it."

The article also reported that Hagar said that he was approached by Van Halen's management about a similar idea, but he is not interested. "I'm so happy with everything I'm doing now, I don't think I'd go back there.

"Maybe if Alex was interested, it might be something to talk about, with him and Mikey and a superstar guitar player. But it's really not Van Halen without Eddie, so...I just don't know."

Back in May, Michael Anthony was asked reports about the tour during an appearance on The Mitch Lafon and Jeremy White Show. He said, "The only thing that was kind of a surprise to me was the Jason Newsted thing when he came out and said that Alex had talked to him last year or something like that.

"Which is kind of interesting, because I actually had been talking on a conference call with [Van Halen manager] Irving Azoff, Alex [Van Halen] and Dave [Lee Roth] last year, so I don't know what the Jason thing was all about."

He also shared, "I hope something happens in the future here. I think Joe [Satriani] was mentioning in some of the interviews that it's more a celebration of the band and of the music than calling it 'Van Halen.' Obviously, Eddie being probably the most integral part of the whole band, you can't really call it Van Halen after that." Watch that interview below: