Sammy Hagar addressed his invitation to former Van Halen bandmate David Lee Roth to join him during his Las Vegas residency, speaking on the topic in a conversation shared by Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk. Roth had canceled most of his own shows due to low ticket sales.
Host Eddie Trunk asked Hagar directly about the invitation and whether Roth had responded to it.
“Right now, you’re the only stop for any Van Halen because Dave is off the road for the most part. By the way, you offered that invitation to Dave when he canceled his tour on social media to come and join you here. Did you get a response?” Trunk asked.
“No, but I was sincere. You know, I had had a couple drinks, and my heart got open for a minute. [Laughs] No, I’m joking. You know, I just really wanted to reach out and say, that’s a horrible thing to have shows canceled. You know, it’s like, or to have to cancel a tour,” Hagar said.
“I don’t know how he felt about it, but man, if my business wasn’t good and I had to cancel shows, it’d break my heart. Anyway, so I felt bad for Dave. I really did. And like I said, I had a couple margaritas and, you know, I might have a couple tonight and maybe give him a call again,” he continued.
Trunk then asked about the last time the two singers had crossed paths while touring together.
“When was the last time you— was the last time you ever spoke to him when you guys toured together? Actually, you told me that you actually didn’t even see him,” Trunk asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe. I don’t think we spoke on the tour. No, we yelled at each other when we saw each other. I used to knock on his bus door after when he would open the show. You know, we flip-flopped, and he’d be in his bus when I was getting ready to go on. I’d go knock on his door just for fun, you know, because we had cameras around all, and I’d say, ‘Come on, Dave, man, come on out on stage,’ you know, giving you a warning. ‘Hey, buddy, Dave, you in there?’ My guys would be yelling, ‘Dave’s not there, Dave’s not here,’ you know,” Hagar said.
“And we kind of had fun with it for a while, but it didn’t turn out to what it was supposed to be. We were supposed to be friendly. You know, we’re going on tour together for the fans. You know, now we got both eras there. Like, let’s show them, you know, the stuff and do something special. But, you know, Dave’s not a jam kind of guy, you know what I mean?” he added.
Trunk closed by posing a hypothetical scenario about what Hagar would do if Roth showed up unannounced at one of his shows.
“So hypothetically, if your wonderful tour manager Wayne LeBoeuf sitting over here comes up to you and says, Sam, David Lee Roth’s at the back door tonight. He took your invitation. He’s coming in. What are you gonna do?” Trunk asked.
“Bring him straight into the dressing room, open up a bottle of tequila, and say, Let’s go. You know, like whatever you want to do. If you want to come out, like what do you… First of all, you gotta say, Dave, what do you want to do? You know, he’d probably say, ‘Well, I don’t want to sing’ [Laughs]. I don’t think that’s gonna happen, but I would love it,” Hagar said.
The backdrop to this exchange makes Hagar’s outreach all the more notable, given how Roth’s touring troubles unfolded in real time this year.
Roth quietly pulled nearly every remaining date from his 2026 tour in late July, leaving only his scheduled Sturgis Motorcycle Rally appearance intact. No official reason was given for the wave of cancellations, though industry chatter pointed to soft ticket demand as the driving factor. Shows in cities including Dillon, Clear Lake, Louisville, and East Moline vanished from his website without any press release or public explanation, leaving promoters and fans looking for answers.
Hagar extended his public invitation for Roth to join him on stage on the same day the cancellations surfaced. Hagar’s Las Vegas residency features original Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony and has become the primary touring outlet tied to the Van Halen legacy while Roth remains off the road. The timing of Hagar’s gesture underscored a genuine sense of camaraderie between the two, despite their well-documented history of friction as Van Halen’s dueling frontmen.
The wider touring landscape has not been kind to legacy rock acts this year, with reports pointing to what some in the industry have dubbed “blue dot fever,” a term describing weakened ticket demand across high-priced shows. Roth’s situation was cited alongside other classic rock cancellations as evidence that even veteran acts with devoted fan bases are not immune to the pullback in concert spending.
Despite the setback, Roth has not stepped away from the public eye entirely, having made other appearances tied to the Van Halen legacy in recent weeks. Whether that activity translates into any kind of stage reunion with Hagar remains uncertain, though Hagar’s comments suggest the door remains open on his end.
