In a recent interview with Guitarist, Joe Satriani shared his decision to decline the reunion offer from Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth. Initially, when Alex and Roth approached him about joining a Van Halen tribute project, Satriani agreed. However, just three weeks later, he reconsidered, stating, “‘No way. I can’t do this. This is too hard.’”

Satriani explained, “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.”

He elaborated on the difficulty of replicating Eddie Van Halen’s distinctive style: “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.”

In contrast, Satriani accepted Sammy Hagar’s tour offer, explaining, “Because it was a friend calling about a retrospective of his whole career.” This tour included 15 to 20 Van Halen songs, but they differed from the ones Alex and Roth wanted to perform. Notably, Roth was not interested in any material from the Van Hagar era.

The planned reunion project between Alex and Roth was ultimately canceled. Meanwhile, Satriani continues to tour with Hagar on the Best of All Worlds tour, alongside Michael Anthony and drummer Kenny Aronoff.

Initially, Jason Bonham was set to be the drummer for the tour, but he stepped down due to his mother’s health issues. Hagar commented to KSHE 95 about Bonham’s situation, saying, “[Aronoff]’ll be the drummer till Jason can [come back].” He emphasized the importance of Bonham being there for his mother during her medical emergency: “You don’t ignore that.”