Former Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar recently discussed his previous offer to David Lee Roth to join him during his Las Vegas residency, sharing his thoughts during an appearance on Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk.
When host Eddie Trunk asked if Hagar had received a response from Roth after inviting him to join his band following Roth’s tour cancellation, Hagar explained his sincere intentions behind the offer.
“No, but I was sincere,” Hagar said. “You know, I had had a couple drinks, and my heart got open for a minute. No, I’m joking. You know, I just really wanted to reach out and say, that’s a horrible thing to have shows canceled. You know, it’s like, or to have to cancel a tour.”
Hagar expressed empathy for Roth’s situation and mentioned his willingness to reach out again.
“I don’t know how he felt about it, but man, if my business wasn’t good and I had to cancel shows, it’d break my heart,” Hagar continued. “Anyway, so I felt bad for Dave. I really did. And like I said, I had a couple margaritas and, you know, I might have a couple tonight and maybe give him a call again.”
Trunk then asked about the last time the two singers spoke when they toured together, noting that Hagar had previously mentioned they barely saw each other. Hagar recalled their interactions during that tour.
“I don’t know. Maybe. I don’t think we spoke on the tour,” Hagar said. “No, we yelled at each other when we saw each other. I used to knock on his bus door after when he would open the show. You know, we flip-flopped, and he’d be in his bus when I was getting ready to go on. I’d go knock on his door just for fun, you know, because we had cameras around all, and I’d say, ‘Come on, Dave, man, come on out on stage,’ you know, giving you a warning. ‘Hey, buddy, Dave, you in there?’ My guys would be yelling, ‘Dave’s not there, Dave’s not here,’ you know.”
Hagar added that while they tried to have fun, the tour did not turn out as friendly as originally hoped.
“And we kind of had fun with it for a while, but it didn’t turn out to what it was supposed to be,” Hagar explained. “We were supposed to be friendly. You know, we’re going on tour together for the fans. You know, now we got both eras there. Like, let’s show them, you know, the stuff and do something special. But, you know, Dave’s not a jam kind of guy, you know what I mean?”
Finally, Trunk asked a hypothetical question about what Hagar would do if his tour manager informed him that Roth had accepted the invitation and was at the back door. Hagar shared his imagined scenario.
“Bring him straight into the dressing room, open up a bottle of tequila, and say, Let’s go,” Hagar said. “You know, like whatever you want to do. If you want to come out, like what do you… First of all, you gotta say, Dave, what do you want to do? You know, he’d probably say, ‘Well, I don’t want to sing.’ I don’t think that’s gonna happen, but I would love it.”
The remarks come amid a difficult stretch for Roth’s touring business, which helps explain why Hagar extended the invitation in the first place.
Roth canceled all but one of the remaining dates on his 2026 North American tour, with speculation pointing to low ticket sales as the likely reason. His camp did not issue an official statement to explain the cancellations.
Reports of weak demand had circulated well before the cancellations. Some earlier shows drew very sparse crowds, including a Fort Wayne, Indiana date that was scrapped after selling only around 200 tickets.
The two singers share a long and complicated history that stretches back decades. Hagar and Roth briefly shared a bill on the 2002 “Song for Song, The Heavyweight Champs of Rock and Roll” tour, where they headlined separate solo sets.
That outing did little to warm relations between them. Hagar later said management kept the two men separated because they nearly came to blows during the run.
Against that backdrop, Hagar’s latest comments suggest he is willing to set the past aside. His invitation remains open, though Roth has yet to respond.
