Sammy Hagar Recalls The Van Halen Tour That Was Rough For Eddie And Alex Brothers

Sammy Hagar recalled a memorable Van Halen tour with a recent Instagram post and revealed why it was a horrible experience for both Eddie and Alex Van Halen.

During the ‘Van Hagar’ era that spanned 11 years, Van Halen released four U.S. No. 1 and multi-platinum albums. Besides, Hagar contributed to the band’s 2004 greatest hits collection ‘Best Of Both Worlds’ with three new songs. In June 2021, the musician teamed up with Michael Anthony to launch a new Instagram account named Van Hagar/Other Half.

In this new account, both Hagar and Anthony post exclusive photos and videos from the Van Hagar years of Van Halen. Moreover, the pair also talks about key moments from their career in the band. In a recent post, Hagar and Anthony recalled a tour that was pretty rough for the Van Halen brothers.

In the post, the pair included unseen footage of Van Halen’s performance of ‘Feelin’ in Buffalo, New York in May 1995. They then talked about the band’s Balance tour, also referred to as the ‘Ambulance tour.’ At the time of the tour, Eddie and Alex weren’t in good physical shape as Eddie was struggling with hip problems while Alex had three ruptured vertebrae.

According to Hagar, the tour was rough for the brothers due to these issues, and Alex had to wear a neck brace during the performance while Eddie wasn’t that energetic. He said that the tour was pretty much non-functional, although the performances were great. The musician then jokingly said it’s funny the tour was called ‘Balance.’

Following that, Anthony also revealed his insights on the tour and said their ‘Feelin’ performance was one of their best. He then stated that despite Eddie and Alex Van Halen’s struggles, the performances turned out to be great.

Van Hagar/Other Half’s Instagram post read:

“Van Halen – ‘Feelin,’ Buffalo 1995.

Sammy: Wow, well that’s a long-lost deep track that I have forgotten about. I always remember that tour was a rough one with Alex’s neck brace, Eddie, and his hip problems: he wasn’t jumping around, but he was playing his ass off. It was kind of a non-functional tour, and the songs from ‘Balance’ were pretty much all about what was going on in Van Halen.

Singing this song was like pouring your heart out to 20,000 people every night. As great of a performance, this is, it’s hard for me to watch it. Singing with Mikey’s super high-octane vocal power always blows my mind, and this of course is the epitome. Listen, it takes me right back. It’s funny the album & tour was called ‘Balance.’

Mike: Wow, I hadn’t heard that one in a long time, definitely one of our deeper cuts and smokin’ live! Always loved our 2 part harmonies on this, and even with everything going on at the time (Eddie’s hip and Al’s neck problems!) on tour, this baby was rocking! Oh, and need I mention a killer solo from our man on lead guitar?!”

Below, you can check out Van Halen’s ‘Feelin’ performance at the Balance tour.