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Alex Van Halen Says David Lee Roth Tanked Van Halen Reunion Over Refusal to Honor Eddie Van Halen: ‘F–kin’ Popped a Fuse’

Alex Van Halen on how David Lee Roth tanked a Van Halen reunion by refusing to honor Eddie Van Halen and A-list singers who almost took over the mic.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, the band’s retired drummer, Alex Van Halen, revealed that after Eddie’s death in 2020 at 65 due to complications from throat cancer, he approached Roth about a reunion tour that would pay tribute to his younger brother. Alex, in his first interview since Eddie’s death, said Roth adamantly refused the idea, finding it “offensive,” for reasons he still cannot understand and which raised his ire. Saying the demise of the original lineup was the “most disappointing thing” he’d experienced in his life until Eddie’s death, Alex said, for him, another brick in the wall of their demise was Eddie’s decision in 1982 to play his infamously spiraling guitar solo on Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.” That led to Roth deciding to strike out on his own as a solo act which began what Alex said was a death spiral for the group.

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