Van Halen Drummer Butts Heads With Al Roker on Flight

Tomorrow night, when New York City journalists pack themselves into Cafe Wha? to watch Van Halen play an intimate gig, it's a safe bet Al Roker won't be among the invited guests. As the New York Post reports, the TV weatherman recently ran afoul of founder Alex Van Halen, refusing to swap seats on an American Airlines flight.

The altercation took place on Monday, after Roker had hosted the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles. On his way back to New York, he found himself seated between Van Halen and his wife, Stine Schyberg. The drummer complained that he and his missus weren't together, according to the story, and rather than switch, Roker fiddled with his phone, "desperately trying to ignore the situation," according to a tattler.

An airline agent apparently asked Roker to move to another aisle seat, but he refused, since doing so would have placed him slightly closer to another passenger's dog. It seems the meteorologist is allergic to mutts, and in the end, Van Halen and his wife found a couple in business class willing to trade them seats.

The Post's witness said Van Halen didn't pull any "rock star bullbleep," though Schyberg reportedly made a bigger deal of the situation. So far, neither band reps nor Roker's NBC peeps have commented on the story.