The highly anticipated Eddie Van Halen tribute tour that was set to feature Joe Satriani and ex-Metallica bassist Jason Newsted performing alongside David Lee Roth and Michael Anthony fizzled out before it could make it to venues – but the reasons behind its failure have remained unclear. However, in a new tell-all interview with Alex Van Halen, the drummer has revealed that a chain of circumstances prevented the tour from ever transpiring.
Van Halen shared that rehearsals were already well underway, with himself on drums and Roth back as frontman, alongside two musicians from Roth's solo band serving as substitutes. Satriani was indeed slated to play guitar, with Anthony being considered to reprise his role as Van Halen's bassist for the first time since 2004.
However, a shooting range incident in 2022 led to severe back issues, which Van Halen claims felt like “an omen from above.” To confirm his gut feeling, he called Brian May several times to discuss how Queen managed to continue without Freddie Mercury.
“The thing that broke the camel’s back – and I can be honest about this now,” he told Rolling Stone, “was when 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.’ The moment I said we’ve got to acknowledge Ed, Dave popped a fuse.… The vitriol that came out was unbelievable.”
According to Van Halen, Roth flat-out refused to pay homage to Eddie during the planned reunion tour, which Van Halen took offence to, leading to an alleged physical altercation.
Looking back, Van Halen now believes that the original concept for the tour wouldn’t have been fitting anyway.
“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. The heart, the soul, the creativity, and the magic were Dave, Ed, Mike, and me.”
Recently, Sammy Hagar's Best of All Worlds tour – which features Satriani, Anthony and Jason Bonham performing a setlist chock-full of Van Halen songs – has served as a quasi-stand-in for the what-could-have-been tribute tour.
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