Michael Anthony just opened up in a new interview about the one thing he wishes had gone differently in his career. And spoiler alert, it’s not about missed albums or bad tour food. It’s about Eddie Van Halen. About how it ended. And how it should’ve ended.
“The only regret that I have is that how things unfortunately turned out for Van Halen,” Anthony said. “It’s a culmination of everything that happened or whatever because when Van Halen was really firing on all 12 cylinders, we’re living the dream. It’s the fairy tale or whatever. And the first time it ended was when David Lee Roth left the band.”
Anthony reflected on the band’s rebirth with Sammy Hagar. He expressed disappointment about the band’s conclusion.
“Luckily Sammy joined the band and it was like a rebirth,” he continued. “And obviously, the band was even bigger at that point or whatever but the only regret I have is that the way it all ended. It should have gone out with a freaking bang that shook the world and it was more like a whimper the way everything ended.”
In early 2019, a rumor surfaced that the classic Van Halen lineup would reunite that summer for a run of stadium shows. This would have been the first time that Michael, Eddie, David and Alex Van Halen performed together since 1984.
The rumors originally started with Roth, who hinted to Vulture that Van Halen would be playing stadiums with Anthony back in the lineup.
Van Halen and Anthony had not been on good terms for more than a decade, with Anthony not invited to join the reunion with Roth that began in 2007. The subsequent two tours and studio album, “A Different Kind Of Truth”, featured Wolfgang on bass.
Anthony took a pay cut and signed away all of his rights to the band name and logo in order to participate in Van Halen’s 2004 tour, which featured Hagar.
