Sammy Hagar says that Eddie and Alex Van Halen "haven't made an effort to be friendly" with him ten months after he sent a tweet to Eddie Van Halen wishing him a happy birthday — and getting a cordial response. During a November 21 appearance on "Trunk Nation", Eddie Trunk's new show on SiriusXM channel Volume (106), the former VAN HALEN frontman was asked about his current relationship with either of the Van Halen brothers. He responded: "I have no idea. I've done a few things to reach out and be friends, like saying… being honest and saying — after all these guys [rock legends like Glenn Frey and David Bowie] are dying around the globe — 'Man, I don't wanna take any enemies to my grave. We've gotta be friends [again] at some point.' But, you know, they probably take it wrong, they probably think, 'Oh, yeah, he's trying to get back in the band.' I don't know what those guys think." He continued: "To be honest with you, I wished Eddie a happy birthday on his birthday and I wished Al a happy birthday on his birthday, and they don't return the birthday wishes; they've never said 'happy birthday' to me on my birthday, or to Mikey [former VAN HALEN bassist Michael Anthony]. So their camp is… I don't know… They're just kind of shut down. Obviously, there's a lot of anger over there and resentment against Mike and I, and I don't know what we did. And we always sit around scratching our ass, going, 'What? Do you remember doing anything to piss those guys off? I don't.' [Laughs] We were just kind of good guys having fun. I guess that pissed them off. We were having too much fun." Even though Anthony recently expressed doubt that Eddie Van Halen's tweeted response to Hagar in January actually came from the guitarist himself, Sammy says: "You know, it doesn't matter. I'm sure someone okayed it with him. And it was probably, at the time, a real gesture, saying, 'Hey, he wished me a happy birthday. I'll say, 'Hey, how're you doing?' back.' But when it came for my birthday, nobody did it again and said, 'Hey, happy birthday, Sammy,' especially a big one like 69. That's a cool year. That's the one you wanna say, 'Hey, have fun this year, buddy.' But, I don't know… Honestly, I don't care… I mean, I care at a friendship level, but I don't want anybody to get the wrong idea and think that I am trying to beg myself back into that band, because I'm not. I'm a very happy person right now with my band THE CIRCLE, or CHICKENFOOT, if I wanted to do that, or just do nothing. I'm in a good place, and I don't want to be miserable and I don't wanna be arguing with guys and all that stuff ever again in my life. So I'd rather kind of just leave it alone, unless it was on a friendly level, 'cause if we're friends, then okay, I'll do anything with my friends. You wanna go to the beach? You wanna go to the freakin' North Pole? Whatever you wanna do, I'm in. But not for business and get together and do a tour and be fighting; I will not do that ever again for any reason. So, I don't know… It doesn't sound like they're very friendly right now. [Laughs] They certainly haven't made an effort to be friendly with me, or Mike." Hagar told The Pulse Of Radio a while back that his problems with Eddie began as far back as the sessions for VAN HALEN's 1995 effort "Balance", Hagar's last album with the group. "Eddie needs somebody to make decisions and a leader, y'know?" he said. "He's not a natural born leader kind of guy. And his brother [Alex Van Halen] was always the leader before — or [singer David Lee] Roth was the leader before — and when Roth left, his brother and him bumped heads so much, when I walked in it was like, 'Well, what does Sam wanna do?' y'know? So it became kind of like, yeah, I was making all the decisions, so then on 'Balance', all of a sudden, he didn't like my decisions and it was like really weird." Hagar blasted his former bandmates in an interview last year, saying there was "no chemistry" between the members of the group's current lineup, including original singer David Lee Roth. He said at the time: "They don't like each other. I mean, it's obvious. It's like a backup band with a guy out there in front. I bet they don't say five words to each other offstage." Hagar, Anthony, Alex and Eddie Van Halen last teamed up in 2004 for a U.S. summer tour. In exchange for taking part in the tour, Anthony reportedly had to agree to take a pay cut and sign away his rights to the band name and logo.
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