Sammy Hagar answered Alex Van Halen on Instagram after Van Halen called him a “complete idiot” in a recent interview, pushing a long-simmering split back into public view. Hagar’s reply was blunt and short: “This comment and post is so unnecessary at this time in our lives, but I guess the truth hurts sometimes. Peace already,”
The reaction matters because the comment landed now, in the middle of renewed interest in the Van Halen legacy and just after Van Halen was asked whether he had read the autobiographies of David Lee Roth and Hagar. Instead of brushing the question aside, he dismissed Hagar outright, while the Instagram post that carried the quote gave Hagar a public place to answer without waiting for a back-and-forth off camera.
Hagar has said many times that he would like to make peace with Van Halen, but he has also said they do not talk after their last reunion in 2004 and that Van Halen does not return his calls. That history gives his latest response extra weight: it is not a fresh feud so much as an old one being reopened in front of everyone, with no sign either side is ready to lower the volume.
The friction has been building for years. After Eddie Van Halen died in 2020 at the age of 65, Alex Van Halen considered special shows to honor him, but Hagar and Michael Anthony were not invited. Joe Satriani was initially going to be involved, and Van Halen later said talks with David Lee Roth took place, but the shows fell apart because the singer did not want to acknowledge Eddie during them.
Van Halen is now also trying to make a movie about his and Eddie Van Halen’s lives and is working with Steve Lukather on a final Van Halen album built from material recorded by the brothers. The album would be finished with a vocalist not yet chosen, though it is hard to see Hagar as that voice, and the article makes clear it would probably not be David Lee Roth either. For now, Hagar’s answer on Instagram reads less like a surrender than a reminder that the door to peace is still open on one side only.
