David Lee Roth AWOL After Van Halen Tribute Tour Invite Says Hagar

Michael Angulia | 08-01-2024

Sammy Hagar says that original Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth went AWOL after he was invited to take part in the current Best Of All Worlds Tour that celebrates the music of Van Halen.

Hagar originally invited Roth to take part in the trek and Roth expressed interest in doing do, but Sammy soon clarified that Roth would only be a guest on one or more songs and not the entire tour.

When asked by Eddie Trunk what happened to Roth taking part in the tour, Sammy responded, "He went AWOL. After (clarifying the offer), he just kind of went to sleep on it, which is fine. I don't need Roth antagonizing me."

He went on to say, "If he really wanted to come out and play music, sing a song and be real and not try to pull some crazy whacked out stuff. You know, the guy's unpredictable. And God bless him, he's been an entertainer his whole life and he's a showman and he likes to upstage people and that's been his game. And so, we're just not into that."

"I would love him to come and sing 'Jump' at the end of this show," Hagar added. "Just you come out and sing the f***er instead of me."

Roth's absence does not mean the tour is not honoring the early years of the band. Hagar said, "The songs we're singing, the rock tunes, we're doing 'Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love', we're doing 'Panama' and we're doing 'Jump'. "nd quite honestly, I think that's enough. I don't want to overdo it and make it look like I'm, patronizing or whatever."