Eddie Van Halen Wanted Final Tour With Hagar and Roth

Bruce Henne | 11-17-2020

(hennemusic) A full Van Halen reunion was considered for a farewell tour before Eddie Van Halen's health issues prevented plans from being fully realized, according to bassist Wolfgang Van Halen.

During a November 16 appearance on The Howard Stern Show, the rocker revealed that he had introduced the idea of bringing Michael Anthony back into the fold for the series to his father, who eventually expanded the concept even further.

"At a certain point, it turned into what we joked as 'The Kitchen Sink Tour'," Wolfgang told Stern, "because after he was OK with that arrangement, he was like 'then let's get David [Lee Roth] and [Sammy] Hagar and even [Gary] Cherone and let's just do a giant awesome thing.' And we talked to [manager] Irving Azoff about how cool it would be."

Wolfgang further explained that Azoff reached out to Anthony - consistent with the bassist's version of the story - before he did, "and that's kind of how everything started to get leaked out ... but by that time, Dad wasn't able to."

As Wolfgang had been working on his solo debut during these discussions, part of the plan under consideration involved having the Van Halen prodigy open the shows with his own band and maybe join the lineup for a few songs.

The bassist confirmed that Eddie was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in 2017 and was told by doctors that he had six weeks left to live; the guitarist flew to Germany for radiation treatment that extended his life before things took a turn for the worse after a spring 2019 motorcycle accident that led to a brain tumor diagnosis, treatment and a number of other issues ahead of his passing last month at the age of 65. Watch the interview segment here.

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