The pair were all smiles as they filmed a TEDxFargo event in North Dakota

NEED TO KNOW

• Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth reunited publicly for the first time since 2015 at a TEDxFargo event
• The pair’s conversation, moderated by artist Robert Vargas, will be released on YouTube in the coming weeks
• Alex Van Halen has said David Lee Roth was his first phone call after Eddie Van Halen’s death

It’s a reunion nearly 10 years in the making for former bandmates Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth.

The Van Halen rockers were all smiles as they made their first public appearance together since 2015 in Fargo, N.D., where they participated in a TEDxFargo talk on July 30.

The pair’s conversation, which was moderated by artist Robert Vargas, will be shared on YouTube in a few weeks’ time. Vargas billed the event as a conversation covering “art, music and creative process” in an Instagram post.

The outing marks the first time drummer Alex, 73, and singer Roth, 71, have shared a stage since Van Halen’s final performance at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in October 2015.

While promoting his book Brothers in 2024, Alex told Rolling Stone that plans for a reunion tour following the 2020 death of his brother and bandmate Eddie fell apart after Roth balked at the idea of paying tribute to the guitarist at every show — something Roth’s rep called “nonsense.”

“The thing that broke the camel’s back, and I can be honest about this now, was I said, ‘Dave, at some point, we have to have a very overt — not a bowing — but an acknowledgement of Ed in the gig. If you look at how Queen does it, they show old footage,’” Alex said. “And the moment I said we gotta acknowledge Ed, Dave f—in’ popped a fuse… The vitriol that came out was unbelievable.”

The drummer added that Roth taking offense to the idea of honoring Eddie upset him, and the two got into a fight.

“I’m from the street. ‘You talk to me like that, motherf—er, I’m gonna beat your f—ing brains out. You got it,’” he said. “And I mean that. And that’s how it ended. It’s just, my God. It’s like I didn’t know him anymore. I have nothing but the utmost respect for his work ethic and all that. But, Dave, you gotta work as a community, motherf—er. It’s not you alone anymore.”

Van Halen last toured in 2015 with a lineup of Alex, Roth, Eddie and Eddie’s son, Wolfgang Van Halen, on bass.

Roth announced his retirement in 2021, but has since returned to the stage. He toured last summer and this summer, though he canceled all but one of his upcoming tour dates last month.

Alex covered Roth’s 1985 departure from Van Halen in his Brothers book, and wrote that the singer’s exit “felt like treason” and left him “angry and confounded.”

Alex said that Roth left to pursue a career as a writer, director and actor, but had a planned film deal with CBS fall through.

“I’m not gloating,” he wrote. “I don’t take any pleasure in admitting that all of us were better together, no matter how much we fought, no matter how pissed off it makes me to think about it.”

Alex also noted that Roth was his very first phone call after Eddie’s death.

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