Former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony opened up about how he came to join the iconic rock band. He shared his thoughts on the growing tensions between David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen in a resurfaced interview.
Anthony traced his connection to Van Halen back to his high school days. A chance encounter with the band, then known as Mammoth, eventually led to him becoming their bassist.
In the November 95 issue of Base Player, Anthony said, “Snake was the first power trio I ever played in. I was going to Arcadia High School in California, and we had a carnival on our field, and they played. Back then they were called Mammoth – it was Ed on guitar, Al on drums, and some bass player. Ed was singing lead.”
He continued, “Around that time, Snake opened up for Van Halen. Roth had just joined the band, and they asked me if they could borrow our PA. Theirs had blown up. A while later, Ed told a friend of mine that the band was going to be getting rid of their bass player. My friend told Ed, ‘Hey, Mike might be interested in joining.’ … Ed and Al asked me if I wanted to join. I thought about it for half a second and said, ‘I’m in!’ I learned five cover tunes a day so we could play parties. We eventually started playing clubs, and we also did weddings.”
Anthony then spoke about the friction that began to surface during the band’s 1984 tour. He highlighted both musical disagreements and personal dynamics as key factors in Roth’s eventual departure.
Anthony said, “During our 84 tour, there was a lot of tension – Ed had written Jump, and it turned out to be the biggest single Van Halen ever did. Dave never liked Ed playing keyboards, but Ed finally said, ‘Fuck you!’ Then he met Valerie Bertinelli, and I think that pissed Dave off more.”
He further said, “At the end of that tour, we fired our tour manager because of some skeletons we found in his closet. So Ed, Al, and I were in the studio starting to work up some music, and Dave decided he wanted to record a solo EP with California Girls. We knew he was testing the water to see how he’d do on his own. All of a sudden, the dream was over and Dave had left.”
Anthony also talked about the uncertainty that followed Roth’s exit. He noted that the remaining members ultimately chose to press on.
He said, “At that point, we didn’t know if the band would continue, but we eventually realized that the music was coming from us, not Dave. A lot of people thought he was Van Halen, even our record company wanted us to change our name. When Dave left the rest of us hanging, we thought, ‘What do we do now?’”
