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Sammy Hagar says he’s determined to rekindle his friendship with Alex Van Halen, adding, “It’s on my bucket list that I won’t take this to my grave.”

Red Rocker Hagar enjoyed two stints as Van Halen’s frontman, but he and drummer Alex Van Halen haven’t spoken in years.

Hagar and Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony have performed together in recent years and the singer says he has repeatedly invited Alex. But, he says, those invitations fall on deaf ears.

Alex recently released a book about his late brother Eddie, titled Brothers. The book barely mentions Hagar, and Alex says the spiritual part of Van Halen died when original frontman David Lee Roth first left the band in 1985.

The fact that Alex chose to ignore the enormous success the band had with Hagar as frontman clearly irritates the Red Rocker. But he still wants to end the tension while the couple is still standing.

Hagar tells Rolling Stone: “It’s sad. I haven’t read the whole book, but I’ve seen all the excerpts and heard some interviews.

“It breaks my heart because when I think about what Alex is going through: losing his brother, never playing with anyone else in his life, and then his health.

“When I saw how rickety he is, I realized, ‘No wonder he doesn’t answer my call when I say, ‘Do you want to go out and play with us?’ He can’t do that. That breaks my heart because I can only put myself in those shoes and say, ‘What if I couldn’t sing and perform anymore?’ The thing I’ve done all my life, the thing I’ve dedicated my life to, the thing that made me rich and famous and gave me the best life on earth, and suddenly I can’t do that anymore?

For starters, I would feel like I was robbing the fans. If you put yourself in his shoes, I say, “Okay, I feel sorry for him.”

“It’s on my bucket list that I don’t take this to my grave, and I don’t want Al to take it to his grave. I’ve laid the olive branch there many times.”

Hagar says he’s not sure why his spells as a Van Halen singer don’t appear on Brothers, adding, “Why he left me out, I’d like to hear him explain it one day, because I understand not quite.

“I know he’s bitter about some things, whatever that is… It’s like, ‘If you don’t want that era, that gives me even more justification to say I own it,’ because no one else has it can do, and He can’t even do it without me. It makes it easier for Mike and me.

“We sit there and say, ‘Okay, I think we own this,’ and we have an obligation to get this to the fans to keep this music alive, alive and alive. This music is too good to leave to throw.”

Regarding the future of his relationship with Alex, Hagar says: “I want to be friends. I don’t want to be in a band with Al. I’m not asking for that. I see that he’s not capable of that.” If it was, I’d love to play with him, but it’s not what I’m looking for. I just want to be friends again.”