Rumors began swirling of an Eddie Van Halen tribute tour in April 2022. The tour was supposed to feature Van Halen drummer Alex Van Halen and vocalist David Lee Roth alongside ex-Metallica bassist Jason Newsted (or Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony) and guitarist Joe Satriani.
The tour never happened and in 2024, ex-Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar recruited Anthony, Satriani, drummer Jason Bonham, and multi-instrumentalist Rai Thistlethwayte for his own Van Halen tribute trek named The Best of All Worlds Tour.
So what happened with the original rumored tour? According to Alex Van Halen in a new interview with Rolling Stone, it all came down to Roth allegedly being a real jerk.
"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.' And the moment I said we gotta acknowledge Ed, Dave fuckin' popped a fuse.… The vitriol that came out was unbelievable."
Which I guess isn't too surprising given some of the comments Eddie's son Wolfgang Van Halen has made over the years about the failed tribute tour.
At this point in the piece, Rolling Stone notes that Roth declined to comment on Alex Van Halen's assessment of the situation. Alex went on to say that he was eventually fine with the tour not happening, saying "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."
On the Hagar band touring Van Halen's material, Alex didn't have much to say outside: "The heart and the soul and the creativity and the magic was Dave, Ed, Mike, and me."
Eddie Van Halen died on October 6, 2020 due to complications with throat cancer.
