Alex Van Halen Says Split With David Lee Roth Was ‘Wasteful’

Alex Van Halen said the moment David Lee Roth left Van Halen for the first time was the most disappointing experience of his life – until the death of his brother Eddie.

The drummer’s upcoming memoir Brothers finishes with the co-founding singer’s departure in 1985 and mentions little of the years that came afterwards, including the Sammy Hagar era.

Elsewhere in the book he described the split as “the most disappointing thing I’d experienced in my life, the thing that seemed the most wasteful and unjust. Until I lost my brother.”

The band’s relationship with Roth has been strained for decades – but Van Halen told Billboard he wasn’t angry with the singer. “He was one of the three main components of the band. At the time we didn’t recognize it because we were constantly battling things out.

Alex Van Halen Called Roth First When Eddie Died

“That’s why…the first person I called when Ed died was Dave, because I felt like I owed him that [because of] the work we had done together, and the fact that our families knew each other, and the fact that everybody was sort of on the same level – if you will – when we first started.”

He added: “I don’t know where things went wrong… I have nothing but the utmost respect for Dave and his work ethic. I just think some of his choices were really strange to me, but that’s not my job to figure it out.”

“What happened after Dave left is not the same band,” he reflected. “I’m not saying it was better or worse or any of that. … We always gave it our best shot. But the magic was in the first years, when we didn’t know what we were doing; when we were willing to try anything.”