Holy Crap, it's finally happening: VH tour.

[Cail]

Michael Anthony interview

As you’ve almost certainly heard, later this month the reunited Van Halen is hitting the road for an extensive tour with David Lee Roth out front. But something is missing. Original bassist Michael Anthony — whose distinctive backing vocals are crucial to classics like “Running With the Devil” and “Panama” — has been fired and replaced by Eddie Van Halen’s sixteen-year-old son Wolfgang. Many outraged fans are pledging to stay home, while others will be showing up with “Where Is Michael Anthony?” T-shirts. Last week Anthony got on the phone with RS to explain what happened.

When was the last time you saw Eddie Van Halen?
The last time I actually spoke or saw him in person was right after we walked offstage in 2004, the last show of the tour.

How were things then?
It really didn’t end in total peace and harmony within the band, for whatever reasons. I’m not going to finger-point at anyone, but the tour, after eighty shows, just couldn’t go on at that point.

How did you find out they were going to do this upcoming tour without you?
Probably like everybody else, I found out on the Internet and through word of mouth. I can understand that he wants his kid to play with him. If I had a kid like that, I’d like to have him perform with me, too. It was kind of funny when I first heard about it being a Van Halen “reunion.”

(Keep reading for Anthony’s take on the 2004 tour, the doctored album covers that appeared online after the band’s recent reunion announcement, his sixteen-year-old replacement and more.)

So they never called you?
No, nobody ever contacted me about anything. I just kind of found out with everyone else.

Is it true they tried to keep you off the 2004 tour?
Yeah. Ed didn’t really want me on that tour.

Do you know why?
He was always put off that I was going out and playing with Sammy [Hagar] when we weren’t doing anything. It wasn’t like I was doing it to spite anybody. I was just tired of sitting at home and doing nothing. Sammy asked me one day if I would like to come out and maybe make an appearance at one or two of [his] shows and have some fun, and I said, “Yeah, great.” It kind of snowballed into me coming out and doing a few songs with him here and there.

Didn’t they make you sign something to participate in the last tour?
You’re putting all the dirt in this one, huh? I gave up a lot to do [the last Van Halen] tour, as far as my percentage of what everyone was being paid. I did have to sign something at the end of the tour, that I was relinquishing any rights or claims that I had to anything that had to do with Van Halen. The reason I did the tour was: I didn’t need the money, but I kind of figured if it was the last time Van Halen ever went out, I’d be kicking myself if I didn’t go out onstage one last time for the fans. So I kind of sucked it up a bit.

But that didn’t affect your royalties or anything?
No.

Do you regret doing that?
There’s always things that you look at in hindsight that you could have done differently or whatever, or tried to make it better. I don’t regret going out, because I did enjoy going out and playing for the fans. I kind of regret the way that it turned out, because it should have been a tour that possibly went on for at least a year, and toured all over the world, and it just wasn’t meant to be. And that’s pretty sad, in my eyes.
Some fans are saying that this current tour is not the real Van Halen. How do you respond to that?
I had a post on my blog the other week stating that it is what it is, and I’m not going to sit here and go, “Hey, those a-holes, going out and doing this without me.” I even told the fans, “Don’t judge his son, Wolfgang, too hard, because he’s the innocent guy in this whole thing.” I’m sure he’ll do fine. But as far as it being a full reunion, well, it’s not. There’s no reason for me to sit there and cry over it or whine over it. Life goes on.

Do you think Wolfgang is too young to be taking on such a huge task?
I really can’t say, because I’m not around the guy a lot. He came out and did some shows in 2004, came out onstage when his dad was playing a solo, and played a little bit. Being thrown right out into big arenas, a sixteen-year-old kid, I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of possible overwhelming things that are thrown at him in that kind of a situation, plus, when they get onstage, who knows how the fans are going to react to him? Hopefully, he’ll be able to work through all that.

Your backing vocals were an important part of the sound.
Mm-hmm. I guess it will be interesting. I don’t know, I’m not to say how they’re going to pull that one off, but I’m sure they’ve thought of something.

Dave and Ed were smiling and shaking hands at the press conference — do you think it’s genuine?
[Laughs] There again, I really can’t tell you, because I’m not around them or know what’s going on. I can speculate, but that wouldn’t really mean anything here or there. I guess the proof will be once they get out and start playing. Because once Dave gets onstage, he becomes Diamond Dave.

Did you see that they removed your image from Van Halen’s first album on their Web site?
Yes, I did. And that was the one thing that kind of saddened me a bit, when I was pointed to that, to see that my pictures were removed off of the first album. With Women and Children First, they took the picture off completely. I couldn’t figure out what they were trying to do except for brainwash the fans into thinking I was never in the band. That bummed me out quite a bit. I’m proud of all my history with Van Halen, and maybe they feel otherwise.
You seem to be taking the high road with all this.
I’m not a spiteful person. At this point in my life, I don’t need the drama. I went through that when I was in my twenties, and I don’t feel like going through it again in my fifties. I just want to have fun, be able to go out onstage and play and have a good time.

Are you touring with Sammy Hagar this summer?
Yeah, we’re actually going out late October, and we’ll be touring on and off until next summer. It stems from around March, when Sammy Hagar did this cruise thing with Carnival Cruise lines, where they cruise down to Cabo San Lucas. His fans pay an extra premium and his band goes on the ship, and they asked me if I wanted to come and perform one night. I didn’t want to just get up with his band and do Hagar stuff, so I put this thing together and I said, “Let’s just do some old Van Halen stuff and have some fun with it and do maybe a couple other covers that we all grew up to, like some Zep or Cream.” So we call it the Mad Anthony Express, and we did about two hours on this ship, and the fans loved it. I said, “Hey, this is pretty cool.”

Do you see a day in the future where the four original Van Halen members could possibly share a stage again?
At this point, I really don’t know, because I think they’ve chosen their path. They would be the ones to really ask. As far as myself, I think if the situation was right and everything was on the up and up I’d be interested in doing it. It would definitely have to be on those terms.

[Trapper]

Seems like they were always kinda selfish and narcissistic (I always thought it was pretty funny that that album-cover shot of DLR on VH2 was captured about 2 seconds before he broke his ankle on landing )

Anthony was just a bit too normal...

Although I did think that Diamond Darrell being buried with EVH's early Kramer was a nice moment.

[wayfriend]

So Michael Anthony is the John Paul Jones this time?

[Cail]

So Michael Anthony is the John Paul Jones this time?

Ha! Yeah, good analogy.

[Zarathustra]

It's real now. They played their first show Thursday. Apparently they sounded great, and Roth's voice was in "peak form."

www.kansascity.com/415/story/294852.html

CONCERT REVIEW: Seems like old times as Van Halen rocks arena
By COURTNEY DEVORES
The Charlotte Observer


* Photos of Van Halen in concert

Opening night of Van Halen's long-awaited reunion with David Lee Roth literally kicked off with several of Roth's highflying kicks at Charlotte Bobcats Arena on Thursday, although Eddie Van Halen was the first to appear on stage with one of his own signature hurky-style jumps.

The last time Van Halen performed in Charlotte with Roth as its frontman, he had just turned 30, gas was $1.21 a gallon and tickets to the show at the old Charlotte Coliseum were $12.50.

Twenty-three years later, the band's original members are all over 50 and guitarist Eddie Van Halen's 16-year-old son Wolfgang has replaced original bassist Michael Anthony.

The show sold out in a matter of minutes in August, and the arena was packed when the band hit the stage around 8:30 p.m., following a short but sweet set of pop and reggae-tinged R&B by Kymani Marley.

Fans assumed after well-publicized fighting, ill will and a couple of false starts over the past 11 years that the group would never reunite. But earlier this year the Van Halen brothers announced that Roth would rejoin the fold. If the group can keep egos and tempers in check (sources say the three original members arrived on separate buses for rehearsals), the reunion could be the biggest tour of the decade.

Any animosity wasn't apparent on stage as Roth and Eddie Van Halen saddled up next to each other, smiling, during "Everybody Wants Some" and "Dance the Night Away." Roth and Wolfgang Van Halen even sang "Oh Pretty Woman" side by side.

The younger Van Halen proved to be a showy player and spot-on backing vocalist, although he didn't yet prowl the stage like a seasoned vet.

His post rehab father looked skinny, but cut, as did his brother. In fact, the original members all looked fit, though none ran around the stage like they did 25 years ago.

"You Really Got Me" started things off with the band sticking to the set list that was leaked on the internet last week. Highlights included "Beautiful Girls," "Unchained," and "Hot For Teacher." The group saved its biggest single and only #1 pop song, "Jump," for the encore.

Roth left the band in 1985, scoring several pop hits on his own. His former band outlasted his solo success, topping the mainstream rock charts 11 times without him.

But to many fans it just wasn't the same without the flamboyant, larger-than-life Roth jumping and posing out front like an uber-charismatic game show host. One fan compared him to Liberace strutting in his embroidered jackets and skintight leather striped pants.

What might be overlooked in favor of his over-the-top persona is his voice, which was in peak form Thursday. He easily met and held notes that younger singers like Jon Bon Jovi just can't reach anymore.

[Cail]

Impressive. Shame I can't make it to one of these shows.

[Mortice Root]

Still unbelievable that's it's actually happening.... How cold is it in Hell?

[Cameraman Jenn]

I hate to say it but my local radio station 107.7 the bone does a live at five play everyday and today they played "Jump" from the current VH tour and it sounds to me like David Lee Roth has forgotten how to sing. It was painful to the point that I felt embarrassed for him. They also ended the song with about three useless minutes of discordant guitar solo mumbo jumbo that was also painful. I hope this is not indicative of the whole tour otherwise I think they are gonna have a lot of unhappy fans.

[Mortice Root]

Aww, Jenn. You went and burst my bubble! I just bought tickets for an April show here in WI.

Actually I'm not surprised DLR didn't sound good on Jump. But that's ok, Jump was never really about the vocal anyway.

Here's hoping.

[Cagliostro]

Aww, Jenn. You went and burst my bubble! I just bought tickets for an April show here in WI.

Actually I'm not surprised DLR didn't sound good on Jump. But that's ok, Jump was never really about the vocal anyway.

Here's hoping.

Was it about the keyboard? I remember everyone who could lay some fingers on pianos during that time being able to play the opening keyboard part.

[Mortice Root]

Well, I kinda meant it was more about the attitude behind the vocal delivery, not the actual quality of the vocals themselves. But yeah, the keys were cool (if simplistic.... at least the main riff anyway )

[Cameraman Jenn]

The keyboard was the only thing that seemed on about that recording. DLR had trouble with the MELODY AND the TIMING. Sorry guys, hopefully he will have gotten his groove back by the time your show rolls around MR.

[danlo]

He's just a gigilo...life goes on without him.

[Zarathustra]

DLR has always had an annoying habit of doing "lounge versions" of their songs live. This goes back to the 80s. He would intensionally mess with the timing, phrasing, and melody of the vocals--often "talking" his way through it. But he does a lot of that on the CDs, too.

I've heard plenty from this tour where he sounds at least as good as he did in the 80s. My expectations are pretty low for him; he was always the weakest link in this band. The fact that he can still hit the notes amazed me. It's orders of magnitude better than some performances of his I've seen from the late 90s.

And he's damn funny, too. Just hearing him telling a story with an acoustic guitar in his hand, leading up to Ice Cream Man, is priceless.

Check out the stuff on Youtube.

[Cail]

I saw DLR on the Diver Down tour, and then solo twice, and the guy was amazing. VH is coming through Baltimore this spring, I'm going to make it a point to see them this time.

[Mortice Root]

Ok, so I saw the show last night. It totally rocked!

The band was totally on, and Eddie and Alex sounded great, as usual. Wolfgang more than held his own, and added some pretty cool tapped-on harmonics - stuff I didn't remember Mike Anthony doing. He held up vocally really well, too. And the set list was fantastic. I couldn't have come up with a better one - though I would like to have seen "Me Wise Magic".

Then there was Dave. Wow..... just, wow. And that's both a good and bad "wow". He somehow managed to walk a line between consumate rock god, and a parody of Vegas-style kitsch, frequently alternating between the two in the same song. The singing (when he chose to sing....) was spot on, which was pretty impressive, considering how long ago this stuff was recorded. But there were times when he gave the impression that he spent more time worrying about his wardrobe changes (including matching sequenced top-hots, sunglasses and gloves) than the set list. And while some of his antics certainly succeeded at getting crowd involvement, others seemed distracting, like the martial arts routines during the insturmental breaks. He certainly did put on a hell of a performance, though, and it was hard to take my eyes off of him, which is what a frontman's supposed to do.

All in all though, this was a fantastic show, and a hell of a lot of fun. If anyone else gets the chance to go, I'd recommend it.

[Zarathustra]

Damn, I'm jealous. The Cinci show got postponed (I need to check on that . . . ). Curious: what did you pay for tickets? It was way expensive for the four of us to go, even for crappy seats. And since I wanted to see Rush two more times this year, it was a lot to spend on concerts. We're talking well over a $1000 for all three shows. I couldn't justify that. But the kids are really starting to get into classic VH, so I'm thinking about cutting out one Rush show for VH.

[sgt.null]

julie read the valerie book. seems eddie is not a very nice human being.

[Mortice Root]

Malik - My seat was pretty decent - stage left, about a third of the way back, and about halfway up the first set of seats from the floor. The ticket was $125, plus another $30 in "convience" charges. I thought it was pretty expensive (though I'd happily pay it again) and I was just paying for one ticket, not four, so I can more than understand how the cost can get to be prohibitive.

Our show was postponed too. (The rumor was that Eddie had to return to rehab briefly...) It was delayed about three weeks.

Sarge wrote

julie read the valerie book. seems eddie is not a very nice human being.

Not really a surprise. I would expect most alcoholics are fairly unpleasant to live with. Of course, it's not really an unbiased source - very few divorcees have pleasant things to say about their ex.

Interestingly, Eddie was wearing a wedding band during the show. (Not that I really notice guys' jewelry, but there were a lot of close ups of his hands.... and occasionally they were moving slow enough to see )

[sgt.null]

well it seems to have ruined his relationship with the bass player as well.