Celebrating Eddie Van Halen with a tribute would have been great, but when it came to who would be capable enough to replace Eddie, Joe Satriani said it might have been ‘frightening’ to play Eddie’s parts. The guitarist discussed with Out Of The Box how he came very close to performing alongside Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth, but seemingly things didn’t go as planned.
“I get a call out of the blue from Alex Van Halen, who I’d never met until then,” told Joe as he recalled being invited by Alex to fill in for Eddie. “And he poses the unimaginable to me, which is to go out with a Van Halen tour, playing guitar. And as I’ve told other people, I heard my voice saying, ‘Yeah, I’ll do that,’ before my brain really thought, ‘Don’t say ‘yes.’”
To Satriani, Eddie’s shoes weren’t easy to fill. He emphasized, “That’s an impossible thing to do; you can’t replace Eddie Van Halen. Nobody can.’ But I had such a good conversation with Alex and just getting to know him on a few phone calls. And he brought Dave into the loop, who I’d met before, but I can’t really say I know the man… And we came close to doing that sort of coming out to a show that New York City was holding [in Central Park] last year.”
The guitarist recalled how unprepared he would have been if the show had taken place since he was working on some other projects and was already stressed about filling in for Eddie. Joe disclosed, “And that would have been frightening ’cause it was only three weeks away. And I was still listening to the Van Halen stuff, but still working on [my] album. So it wasn’t like we were prepared. There was no bass player. They hadn’t really told me who was gonna play bass.”
He continued, “And then there was the whole controversy about who should actually be in the band. And I was on the outside; I’m just some new guy. I was the one saying, ‘Who’s playing bass, by the way?’ And, ‘Is Sammy Hagar gonna come by?’ And, ‘Did you talk to Mike Anthony?’ So, conversations kept going on and on. I met with Alex at one point when I went down to L.A.”
However, before a tribute concert or a tour, problems in the Van Halen band and family needed to be solved. Joe addressed, “But I think there’s some internal stuff that needs to get worked out with the family, and then the Van Halen band family, which is kind of big. Again, I feel like I’m not close to the top of that queue.”
Satriani was still surprised that Alex Van Halen chose him to fill in for his brother. The guitarist said, “And many times I’ve told Alex, ‘Are you sure? Me?’ ’Cause I don’t perform like Eddie. I’m just a superfan. And I can certainly play the stuff. But Eddie was such an original, just the way he ran around on stage and sang and played. It’s amazing.”
It seemed like Satriani was considered by Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth to fill in for Eddie’s parts in 2021’s ‘We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert’ and a possible Van Halen tour. However, since there was no preparation and problems within the band and Van Halen’s family arose, the ‘frightening’ plan wasn’t actualized.
