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Van Halen's lead vocalist, Sam Hagar, called out the band drummer Alex Van Halen for the latter's memoir, Brothers. The timeline of when Gary Cherone replaced Sam Hagar in 1996 was also not included in the memoir. Earlier this week, on December 31, 2024, Sam shared a photo of himself with Eddie Van Halen, dated 1991, on Instagram.
This wasn't the first time Sam spoke about his experience in the rock band. Previously, in September 2022, Sam Hagar told Rolling Stone that he thought he was forced to leave the band in 1996. Hagar mentioned that it was Eddie who called him up to deliver the news.
Eddie apparently suggested he follow his solo career while the band decided to bring back David Lee Roth. While Sam Hagar eventually rejoined the band, he revealed that he never wanted to leave in the first place.
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As for the Instagram post, it garnered a number of comments from netizens. However, a particular comment prompted Sam to criticize Alex Van Halen for leaving out significant phases of the band from his memoir.
The account with the user handle (@pantera_dos_mil) commented under the post:
"You have to be in minority. Most purists believe VH ended with DLR."
According to the user, many believed Van Halen ended after Roth exited in 1985. The former bandmate noticed the comment, too, and responded soon. Sam Hagar wrote:
"It could have been my friend. But instead we went on to sell over 50 million records for number one album, sold out every building and stadium in the world for a decade."
He further mentioned in another comment:
"Alex is not doing his brother’s musical legacy justice by not acknowledging all the No. 1 albums and some great music Eddie and I wrote together – not Alex – but Eddie and I wrote together. To not acknowledge [those] 10 years of music is blasphemy to his brother’s musicianship, songwriting and legacy."
As reported by Billboard, the memoir focused on the first 12 years of the band. The memoir, thus, didn't include the time when David Lee Roth left the band and Hagar joined in 1985.
Sam Hagar had previously opened up about his issues with Eddie Van Halen
In November 2023, Sam Hagar appeared on The Howard Stern Show, giving insights into the reasons behind the fallout and issues with Eddie Van Halen. The duo reportedly began having trouble while the band was recording their tenth album, Balance.
Sam told the host about a new manager who joined the band then and "poisoned" Eddie. The lead vocalist said:
"He started poisoning Ed now, saying, 'Sammy thinks it’s his band.' Mike will tell you. I was innocent. They all turned on me because I didn’t like this manager."
While the duo reunited in 2004 for The Best of Both Worlds Tour, the situation didn't improve until Eddie passed away in 2020. Hagar revealed that he didn't know Eddie was battling cancer. According to him, he would have been "more compassionate" had he known about the fact.
In separate news, Sam Hagar just conducted a tour last year that began in July and continued till September.
