Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony have said they were left out of Alex Van Halen’s effort to assemble an album of previously unreleased Van Halen recordings, with Hagar calling it disappointing given their history of making records with the band. The comments come as the drummer’s long-rumoured project continues to generate fresh attention among fans of the group.
Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony react
In a new interview with Rock Of Nations With Dave Kinchen And Shane McEachern, Hagar said neither he nor Anthony has been approached to contribute, despite the amount of studio material recorded during the 1980s and 1990s with him fronting the band.
Hagar recalled an eight-hour jam at 5150 Studios that produced the foundations of songs including “Summer Nights,” “Good Enough,” and “Get Up,” arguing there is “so much stuff” Alex could choose from if he wanted their involvement.
“We haven’t been asked, number one. I can tell you, the day I walked in the studio, in 5150, to basically, if you wanna call it an audition, but to meet the guys and to play music, we played for about eight hours at least. And we recorded everything. Everything that I ever did, and every time we made a record, we recorded hundreds of hours of jam and music, and then we cut ’em up, made songs. That’s the way we did it. So there’s so much stuff from Mike and I and Ed and Al in the studio.”
“Like I said, just the initial day that I went in there, we got ‘Summer Nights’, we got ‘Good Enough’ and the beginnings of ‘Get Up’ from [the] ‘5150’ [album] — three songs that came from that eight-hour jam. And I remember there was a blues thing we did, and I was making up lyrics. So there’s so much stuff that Al could really choose from, if he wanted to include Mike and I.
Hagar added that while Alex “can do whatever he wants,” he views the recordings as an Alex-led project rather than a full-band undertaking, and said he was frustrated to be excluded while he is still performing the material live. Anthony echoed that sentiment, saying he would have “no problem” coming in to sing or play if the tracks were based on material they had previously jammed on in the studio.
Hagar said, “But, obviously, Al’s got a reason, and he’s Alex Van Halen; he can do whatever he wants. And, to me, it’s an Alex Van Halen project, and it’s not necessarily a Van Halen project, but I guess we’ll see if it ever sees the light today. But I’m disappointed that Mike and I wouldn’t be invited. It’s, like, what? Are you kidding me? We’re still alive. We’re out here doing it. We’re playing those songs. We can still do it, you know?”
Michael Anthony chimed in:
“Yeah. If this is material that we jammed on or whatever, I’d have no problem coming in and singing or [playing bass] or whatever. It’s all good there.”
The dispute over participation follows earlier Alex Van Halen snubbing Sammy Hagar for David Lee Roth as questions continued about who might be involved if unreleased recordings are officially finished and released.
For now, Hagar and Anthony remain focused on performing Van Halen songs publicly, while Alex’s unreleased-album plans appear to be moving forward without their direct input.
