In a new conversation with Guitarist, Joe Satriani said he refused the reunion offer from Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth.
When Alex and Roth first asked Satriani to join a Van Halen tribute project, he said yes, but three weeks later he called Alex back and said, “‘No way. I can’t do this. This is too hard.’”
The musician continued, “But he convinced me that I could do it, and then another couple of weeks later, it was the same kind of thing. I thought, ‘Man, some of these songs are… they’re just not me.’ Eddie played in a completely different way.”
“Where he put his timing… it’s so different from what I cultivated in my playing for decades. So that was the hardest part; I was just always pushing like Eddie did, and I was always trying to find the deepest pocket,” Satriani also shared.
“Because it was a friend calling about a retrospective of his whole career,” Joe said about why he accepted Sammy Hagar’s tour offer. “It did happen to involve anywhere from 15 to 20 Van Halen songs – and they were different from the songs that Dave and Alex wanted to do. Dave was not going to do any Van Hagar stuff, anything from after he left the band.”
The reunion project of Alex and Roth was planned before but it was canceled later on. Satriani is still touring with Hagar on the Best of All Worlds tour. They’re joined by Michael Anthony and Kenny Aronoff.
Jason Bonham was the drummer for the tour initially but he later left due to his mother’s health issue. “[Aronoff]’ll be the drummer till Jason can [come back],” Hagar told KSHE 95 about Bonham’s future with the tour.
The singer added, “I mean, the tour is over now, but we’re going to Japan, and if Jason is still with his mom – he’s gotta be there till she either comes through or whatever. I shouldn’t be talking about his personal business, but, you know, he’s got a medical emergency with his mother. You don’t ignore that.”
Best of All Worlds Tour will continue in Japan on September 20. The band will have two more shows in Japan on September 22 and 23.