Eddie Van Halen

So Eddie Van Halen recently told Rolling Stone that David Lee Roth doesn't want to be his friend.  Well, no shit, Sherlock. Why should he?  It's clearly good business for both of you to put your differences aside and perform for your fans.

Really, when you have thrown everyone you've ever performed with, with the exception of Alex and Wolfgang, under the bus publicly, it's no surprise he doesn't want to be your friend.  But here's the thing, so many of your fans are willing to overlook the fact that you have backstabbed pretty much everyone you've ever been professionally involved with if you'll just swallow your pride and get on stage with the people that made your last name a household word.  Including Michael Anthony.

I get that you want to perform with your son.  That's admirable. But it would be a whole lot more admirable if you didn't trash talk Michael Anthony in the process.

And, what's the deal with you thinking that you can prevent Sammy Hagar from performing the songs you wrote with him while he was with your band?  Unless he signed away his publishing to you at some point, you're just wasting everyone's time.

It's pretty sad whenever you see someone trying to erase history.  But here's a fact that you're going to have to live with: Michael Anthony was a member of Van Halen for years.  Van Halen was a successful band while Sammy Hagar was singing with the band.  Iconic music was recorded over the course of both eras of Van Halen.  The fact that you were too drunk and coked up to remember writing the tunes doesn't mean it didn't happen.

As far as Sammy goes, it would be really nice if he would just stop bringing up Van Halen in his interviews.  His autobiography was a pretty good read, when he wasn't dishing gossip about shit that went on offstage with his former bandmates.  I really would have liked to hear more about how he came up with some of the iconic music he created over the course of his career and less about how fucked up his relationship with the brothers became.

It sucks that you guys parted ways in the manner in which you did, but, really, get the fuck over it. Great music was made. Fortunes were made.  You really want to look back on it with vinegar and sour grapes?

Life is short. As far as anyone knows, this is the only one you get and there is no lovely world you go on to after you become a lifeless pile of meat. Why not make the most of what time you have and stop talking trash at each other.

For my money, the only guys in all of this that have shown any class are Michael Anthony who has, generally, taken the high road every time he's been asked about Van Halen, and Wolfgang, who hasn't said much of anything, publicly, about Van Halen.

I hope Wolfgang is paying close attention to the damage that Eddie has done to his own reputation over the years as he embarks on his career.  I'm sure he loves his old man (at least, I hope that Eddie has treated his son in such a way that he can love him), but I hope he can see that all of this public back and forth has done nothing but alienate fans.

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Edit:

Interestingly, Sammy Hagar had something to say about Eddie's bashing of Michael Anthony.  Normally, I think Sammy shouldn't address Van Halen at this point in his career, unless it's necessary.  But in this case, I think he's spot on.