According to Billboard, the trouble began in March 2007, when the most prominent member of Van Halen, guitarist Eddie Van Halen, announced he wasn’t going to attend the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. He had apparently signed up at a rehab clinic for “undisclosed reasons.” And without Eddie, the other Van Halens in the group weren’t going to show up, either. No Alex, who played drums, or Wolfgang, Eddie’s son who had joined the group after they fired the original bassist Michael Anthony. And without these guys, there was going to be no Van Halen performance, so David Lee Roth wasn’t having it, either.

In his 2011 biography of Eddie Van Halen, Kevin Dodds noted that Roth had considered attending and singing a song with the super group Velvet Revolver, made up of Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland and some of Guns N’ Roses. But, in true David Lee Roth fashion, he was unable to come to an agreement with the super group. They wanted to play “You Really Got Me,” but Roth didn’t want to sing a cover at his induction and pushed for them to play “Jump.” Velvet Revolver refused, so Roth said no to the whole shebang. As a result, the only guys to show up to accept Van Halen’s membership in the Rock Hall were Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar, both of whom had been fired from the band.