David Lee Roth and Alex Van Halen Reunite Publicly for First Time Since 2015

David Lee Roth and Alex Van Halen appeared together in public for the first time in more than a decade, sitting down for a conversation at TEDxFargo on July 30. The event also included artist Robert Vargas, and it marked the pair’s first public reunion since Van Halen’s final show at the Hollywood Bowl in October 2015.

Vargas posted photos from the appearance captioned “Good vibrations only,” writing that the TEDxFargo talk was “now filmed and in the vault.” He described the panel as “Three icons, one conversation. Talking Art, Music, & Creative Process capped with a virtual standing ovation.” The conversation will soon be available to stream on YouTube.

What Happened to the Van Halen Reunion Tour?

Van Halen guitarist and co-founder Eddie Van Halen died in 2020, five years after the band’s farewell show. Following his death, Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth had been planning a Van Halen reunion tour, but those plans never came to fruition.

Alex Van Halen told Rolling Stone the plans broke down after he told Roth the band needed an overt acknowledgment of Eddie during any reunion show, comparing the idea to how Queen incorporates old footage of Freddie Mercury into its performances. According to Alex, Roth reacted with intense anger to the suggestion.

“That’s how it ended,” Alex Van Halen said. “It’s just, my God. It’s like I didn’t know him anymore… But, Dave, you gotta work as a community, motherf**ker. It’s not you alone anymore.” David Lee Roth declined to comment in response to Alex Van Halen’s account of the collapsed tour.

Shortly after the reunion plans fell apart, Alex Van Halen suffered a broken back, an injury that would have forced the tour’s cancellation had it moved forward. Looking back, he said he now believes it is for the best that the trek never happened, arguing that playing the old songs without Eddie would amount to little more than “a jukebox” and that finding a replacement for Eddie “is just not the same.”

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• Van Halens David Lee Roth and Alex Van Halen Reunite Onstage for the First Time Since 2015 | American Songwriter