‘You talk to me like that, motherf***er, I’m gonna beat your f***ing brains out’
“The thing that broke the camel’s back, and I can be honest about this now, was I said, ‘Dave, at some point, we have to have a very overt — not a bowing — but an acknowledgment of Ed in the gig,” Alex explained. “If you look at how Queen does it, they show old footage’ (of late singer Freddie Mercury). And the moment I said we gotta acknowledge Ed, Dave f***in’ popped a fuse … The vitriol that came out was unbelievable.”
When Roth refused to do so, reportedly finding it “offensive,” the reunion tour was nixed permanently.
Roth’s steadfast refusal to craft a show that would include a remembrance of Eddie left Alex confused.
“It’s just, my God. It’s like I didn’t know him anymore,” Alex said. “I have nothing but the utmost respect for his work ethic and all that. But, Dave, you gotta work as a community, motherf***er. It’s not you alone anymore.”
Alex said that he and Roth were eyeing Joe Satriani to play guitar and were considering bringing back Van Halen’s original bassist Michael Anthony for the shows.
But Alex, who recently wrote a book about his relationship with Eddie, titled Brothers, said that he was happy in a way that the tour never happened.
“It’s too bad on one hand, but it’s fine on the other,” Alex said. “Because now, in retrospect, playing the old songs is not really paying tribute to anybody. That’s just like a jukebox, in my opinion … To find a replacement for Ed? It’s just not the same … The heart and the soul and the creativity and the magic was Dave, Ed, Mike, and me.”
“He also said that he wrote Eruption and came up with (Eddie’s custom guitar) the Frankenstein Strat,” Wolfgang said.
“To me, it’s a sign of respect,” Alex said. “That he actually thinks that Wolfie’s on the same level as the old master Dave, right? The other thing is that Wolf can easily take care of himself. It’s not a problem.”
“I’m not interested,” he said of the trek, which also featured Anthony on bass. “They’re not doing the band justice. They can do what they want to do. That’s not my business.”