Led Zeppelin drummer’s son Jason Bonham has revealed that Alex Van Halen got revenge on him over his father.
In a new interview with KSHE 95, Bonham recalled the day he met the Van Halen drummer. However, when he was introduced to him, Alex didn’t seem to be very surprised, and it was for one reason. Bonham explained:
“It’s been 40 years since I saw Mike play at Donnington. My wife and I went to Donnington to Monsters of Rock; AC/DC, Van Halen, the final day. The monsters were throwing lots of bottles everywhere when they were playing and I got to meet Alex that day. He came up and I’m like, ‘Oh my God that’s Alex Van Halen.’”
Bonham shared Alex’s reaction to meeting him and explained why he reacted in such a way:
“He went, ‘Hey Leonard this is Jason Bonham.’ He goes ‘So what?’ So I said, Mikey why did Alex say that?’ Nick goes, ‘We heard your dad was in the Rainbow and we were playing at Gazzarri’s next door we kind of ran around the Rainbow and kind of tried to say hi to him and Alex kind of jumped over the thing and put his hand out, your dad took a swing at him.’ [I go], ‘Oh maybe that’s why he was a little pit.”
Alex Won’t Be Joining Sammy Hagar And His Band
The incident might have affected Alex’s decision to join Sammy Hagar’s band.
In an earlier interview, Hagar said he did his best to get Alex Van Halen to join the upcoming Best Of All Worlds tour. The Van Halen singer will start the tour on July 13 along with Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony, and Jason Bonham. They plan to play Van Halen classics and songs from bands like Chickenfoot and The Circle.
Even though Hagar thinks Jason Bonham is a great fit, especially since Alex admired his dad, Hagar revealed they tried to contact Alex many times to get him to join the tour. He explained:
“Mike and I reached out to Alex before we did this. We reached out to him a dozen times before this tour, in every way. Email, text message, phone call, message on the machine, OK? No response.”
He added:
“I mean, we made every offer to get together or to just talk or to have breakfast, lunch or dinner. Go to the studio and play. Come to my house or I’ll come to your house. Go ride horses, go sit on the beach. What do you want to do? Let’s just do something. Let’s get together. And nothing.”
You can watch the interview below.