Sammy Hagar says it's "ugly" that a tribute concert in honour of Eddie Van Halen hasn't taken place

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By ( Classic Rock ) published

Red Rocker Sammy Hagar thinks a concert in Eddie Van Halen's memory should happen – but says it's not his job to arrange it

Guitarist Eddie Van Halen and Sammy Hagar are shown performing on stage during a "live" concert appearance with Van Halen on August 26, 1986. (Photo by John Atashian/Getty Images)
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar says it's criminal that a tribute concert hasn't been arranged in honour of the late Eddie Van Halen.

Red Rocker Hagar says a memorial show should be held in honour of the iconic guitarist, but he believes the responsibility to arrange it isn't his.

Taking aim at surviving members of Van Halen, Hagar tells the Rock of Nations podcast with Dave Kinchen and Shane McEachern: "I’m so disappointed how they’ve handled everything, including when I left the band and what they did.

"The dysfunction in that band – when I was in the band the first nine years, we got along like freaking brothers and sisters. And we were happy together. One big family. 

"Things went wrong. Drugs and alcohol are a bad thing when it turns ugly. It’s just never been the same.

"For them not to have done something for Eddie Van Halen, the greatest guitar player in the world, on the planet. Greatest rock musician, I’m telling ya. It’s ugly. But it’s not my job."

Eddie's son Wolfgang Van Halen previously said that plans to stage a tribute concert fell through because "some people can be hard to work with, and made it not happen."

Wolf declined to point the finger at anyone in particular for the fact that a tribute gig for the guitar hero came to nothing, but stated that "some people are too full of themselves to let others have a good time."

"I would love to just sit here and say everything and say the truth," Wolfgang continues. "There are plenty of interviews my dad did, where he straight up just said everything. And people hated him for it and thought he was lying. So I could just say shit, but people have already decided how they feel about things, facts or not."

Stef Lach

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.