Joe Bosso from Musicradar.com spoke with SAMMY HAGAR (CHICKENFOOT, ex-VAN HALEN) recently about a number of topics including his new autobiography Red: My Uncensored Life In Rock. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Musicradar.com: Eddie Van Halen - you paint a pretty brutal picture of him in the book. Did you have second thoughts about exposing so much about him?

Hagar: "Yeah, I did. But then I thought, How can I not? Eddie's always made me out to be the bad guy. He's always had the upper hand when it comes to the press and could tell the story and frame it the way he wanted. The [2004] reunion tour, for example: I just thought that story needed to be told so that fans know why everything's happened the way it has. I didn't like what was going on at the time and how everything went down. I didn't like the way Mikey [Michael Anthony] was treated and the way they tried to treat me. They - and I'm talking about Eddie and Alex here - really made the experience unpleasant. I tried to get out of that tour. After 40 shows, I tried to quit. That's how bad it was. I didn't do that tour for money, I did it for the fans. I wanted the band to come back and be great again. We didn't get there, and I tried to bail. But they and their management - I can't accuse Eddie and Al of everything, 'cause they're not that smart [laughs] - they had me sewn in, and I was stuck. I had to go through with the rest of the tour. It was hell. So I had to paint the proper picture of what Eddie was like in order to justify my behavior at the time. To this day, people ask me if I would go back to Van Halen, and my answer is always the same: not interested. Then people think I'm an asshole or something. What I mean is, no, I would not go back to Van Halen unless things were way different. Way, way different. And I don't know if that could ever be the case. To be honest, I went a little easy on Eddie a couple of times. There you go, how's that? [laughs] There's some things I could have said, but I didn't want to open myself up to a lawsuit. But everything I did say in the book is 100 percent factual. I tried to avoid putting in my opinions about Eddie; I just stuck to the facts."

Musicradar.com: Apparently, Van Halen are recording a new record. Do you think we'll see it soon, or at all?

Hagar: "I don't. No, I don't think... Look how long it's been. They've had every opportunity. Eddie owns his own studio. His brother's his drummer and lives about a mile away. They have Wolfie on bass - they had Michael Anthony for a while, and they had him sittin' on his ass for years and years. And they've had two singers - me and Dave. With all of that, they haven't made a record in…who knows when? If it takes that long to make a record…I just…I don't see a new Van Halen record happening. I don't see Dave and Eddie being able to work it out. I've heard stories about what's going on. And I don't see Wolfie and Dave working in the same studio together. I don't know…"

Musicradar.com: Let's talk about David Lee Roth. When the two of you toured together several years ago, you didn't hit it off. I would've thought that perhaps the two of you might've sat around trading war stories.

Hagar: "I tried. When we did the Sam and Dave tour, that's how I envisioned the it - the two of us getting together after the shows, having some drinks and crackin' up and laughin' about shit. What I really hoped was that it would've forced the Sam and Dave Van Halen reunion, where we all do it together. That would've been a super fan tour. That ain't about me, it ain't about Dave, it ain't about Ed and Al, it ain't about Mikey - that's about the fans. But Van Halen are not friendly towards their fans. All Van Halen have ever done is drive a wedge between themselves and their fans. They've made great music, but they don't do anything for the fans. I'm very different in that respect, as you know. I owe it all to my fans and I never want to have the wall between us."

Read the entire interview here.