Alex Van Halen has renewed his long-running feud with former bandmate Sammy Hagar, calling him “a complete idiot” in a new interview.
The remark came during an interview with Brazilian music journalist Marcelo Vieira, published earlier this month. Asked about Hagar’s 2011 memoir, “Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock,” Alex didn’t hold back.
“I don’t know what he wrote, and I don’t wanna know,” he said, according to a translation from the original Portuguese interview published by Roadie Crew. “In my opinion, Sammy Hagar is a complete idiot.”
Hagar responded over the weekend in an Instagram comment, writing: “This comment and post is so unnecessary at this time in our lives, but I guess the truth hurts sometimes. Peace already.”
A representative for Alex did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Two decades of silence
Hagar has said the two men haven’t spoken in more than 20 years. He fronted Van Halen from 1985 to 1996, replacing original singer David Lee Roth, and later rejoined the group for a 2004 reunion tour.
The tension resurfaced publicly in 2024 when Alex declined to join Hagar and former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony for their “Best of All Worlds” tour, which celebrated Hagar’s era with the band.
“I’m not interested,” Alex told Billboard at the time. “They’re not doing the band justice. They can do what they want to do. That’s not my business.”
Hagar has said he and Anthony tried to reach Alex about a dozen times while putting the tour together but got no response.
Alex’s own 2024 memoir, “Brothers,” largely centered on Van Halen’s original lineup with Roth and gave little attention to Hagar’s decade fronting the band.
“What happened after Dave left is not the same band,” Alex told Billboard while promoting the book. “I’m not saying it was better or worse or any of that.… But the magic was in the first years, when we didn’t know what we were doing, when we were willing to try anything.”
Hagar’s side
Earlier this year, Hagar told Classic Rock he had no interest in playing with Alex again.
“I’m the biggest Pink Floyd fan. I see David Gilmour say, ‘I will never play with Roger Waters again,’ and I know what he means. I feel that way about Alex Van Halen. They’re negative people.”
Hagar, 78, has suggested the rift may be tied to Alex’s health problems and his apparent inability or unwillingness to keep playing drums, speculating that Alex resents watching Hagar and Anthony continue performing Van Halen songs live.
In an April 2025 interview with Rolling Stone, Hagar said he and Alex had not spoken in 21 years and described a dream about him.
“I hate to say it, but I dreamt about Alex the other night, man. It was crazy. And it was so friggin’ real. I was saying, ‘What are you p—ed off at me about, man? What the f—? Now, just tell me what your problem is. What did I do? Just tell me.'”
Hagar told the magazine he believes Alex resents that he and Anthony are still touring the material. “He’s not a singer. He’s not a guitar player. He is not really a band leader. And he seems like he doesn’t want to play drums or can’t play drums anymore, and he can’t go write a new record,” Hagar said, adding that he and Eddie Van Halen, along with Roth, wrote the band’s songs rather than Alex.
“I would feel bad. If I put myself in his shoes, I would feel terrible if I couldn’t do it anymore,” Hagar said.
