Van Halen drummer Alex Van Halen was knighted in the Netherlands on 1 September 2026, appointed a Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion during a ceremony in Nijmegen, the city where he and his late brother Eddie grew up. The honour capped a busy few months for the band's various camps, which also saw Alex publicly reunite with former frontman David Lee Roth and take a fresh swipe at another ex-singer, Sammy Hagar, underlining the enduring rivalries between Van Halen's different eras even as the band's legacy continues to be marked and reissued.

Alex appeared alongside Roth at TEDxFargo on 30 July, their first joint public appearance since Van Halen's final show in 2015, days after Roth cancelled his remaining 2026 tour dates over poor ticket sales. Hagar has since invited Roth to guest at his Las Vegas residency later in September, though nothing is confirmed. In a new Roadie Crew interview, Alex called Hagar "a complete idiot" over his 2011 memoir, echoing past criticism of the Hagar-fronted "Best Of All Worlds" shows. Separately, Rhino will reissue Van Halen's final studio album, A Different Kind Of Truth, on 23 October, following May's 40th-anniversary reissue of 5150, Hagar's debut with the band.