Hell may have just frozen over, because David Lee Roth says he’s willing to perform with Sammy Hagar.
Last week, Hagar announced that he and founding Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony would be joined by Jason Bonham and Joe Satriani for the Best of All Worlds tour, which will feature a set list heavily focused on Hagar’s decade-long run as Van Halen’s second lead singer.
“If Alex Van Halen wants to jump up, if David Lee Roth wants to come out and join us, come on, motherfucker,” Hagar said while announcing the tour on the Howard Stern show. “You are welcome. This is about Van Halen.”
In a brief statement issued to the Van Halen News Desk today, Roth appears to accept the invite, saying: “I’m ready to go. Let’s do this.” The site also says they have it on “very good authority” that to date nobody from Hagar’s camp has reached out to Roth with any formal invitation.
Read More: Every David Lee Roth-Era Van Halen Song Sammy Hagar Sang
The two singers have regularly sparred in the press ever since Hagar replaced Roth as Van Halen’s lead singer in 1985. He acrimoniously departed the group in 1996, returning briefly for an even more disastrous 2004 tour. Roth briefly rejoined Van Halen to record two new songs for a greatest hits compilation in 1996, then returned again in 2007, remaining with the group until guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s 2020 death.
In 2002, Roth and Hagar joined forces for a joint headlining tour. Hagar repeatedly pushed for the two to share the stage, but was consistently rebuffed by Roth. “It became a running joke,” he later explained. “I used to go beat on his dressing room and he wouldn’t even answer the door, and I’d say, ‘Yo Diamond! You ready tonight? You ready to go out and do it?’ You have to have a sense of humor about it.”
Hagar’s Best of All Worlds tour is scheduled to kick off July 13 in West Palm Beach.
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