Michael Anthony on David Lee Roth: He’s “Kind of a Crazy Guy”
The post Michael Anthony on David Lee Roth: He’s “Kind of a Crazy Guy” appeared first on Consequence.
Michael Anthony has opened up about his relationship with former Van Halen bandmate David Lee Roth. While the bassist insists he has nothing against the singer, he describes the frontman as “kind of a crazy guy.”
In July, Anthony will head out on the “Best of All Worlds” tour alongside Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani, and Jason Bonham. The all-star outfit will be performing Van Halen songs from all eras of the band on the North American outing.
A couple years ago, a different tour honoring the late Eddie Van Halen was being planned that would have seen Anthony and Satriani playing alongside Roth and Alex Van Halen, with ex-Metallica bassist Jason Newsted also reported to be involved. That outing never materialized, and Anthony reveals he hasn’t spoken with Roth since.
In a Q&A at the Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy Camp last month in a video just posted on YouTube (transcribed by Blabbermouth), Anthony discussed the planned tribute tour, as well as his current relationship with Roth.
“I haven’t spoken with Dave in quite some time,” said Anthony. “The last time I actually spoke with him was when [there was talk] about a possible reunion thing. It’s really crazy because I hadn’t heard anything about Jason Newsted coming into the fold. And I got a call from Alex and Dave from [manager] Irving Azoff’s office some years back asking about my thoughts on doing a reunion, a tour. And Joe Satriani was gonna be the guitar player. And that was probably the last time I talked to Dave. That was — God, I don’t know — about a few years ago now. I forget — something like that.”
The bassist continued, “Dave’s kind of a crazy guy. It’s hard to explain Dave. We don’t have enough time. But, no, other than that, no. I mean, I don’t have anything against Dave. And I’ve said this in the past to different people, whatever, that if the chance ever came up or whatever, I would definitely be willing to jam with him or whatever. In fact, I think the last time he did his last [residency] shows at the House Of Blues in Vegas some years back. I was actually gonna come to one of those shows and surprise him and come up and jump on stage, but, unfortunately, we were playing a gig somewhere else — Sammy and I were.”
As far as the “Best of All Worlds” tour, Anthony remarked, “Well, Sammy and I figured it’s 20 years ago this year that we did the last Van Halen reunion. And Sammy and I were talking about it. We’re always reminiscing and stuff like that, and we thought, ‘Gosh, 20 years.’ And who knows what’s happening now? We obviously can’t wait much longer. Sammy’s an old man now. But we didn’t wanna wait any longer.”
He added, “And with Ed, unfortunately, passing away the other year. And Alex, he’s still pretty much — I know he still grieves and stuff like that. And he doesn’t really get out; he doesn’t get out and play. And so Sammy and I wanted to get the music out to everybody. And we thought what a better way… Let’s get together and take it and play it. Someone’s gotta play it.”
The “Best of All Worlds” tour kicks off July 13th in West Palm Beach, Florida, and runs through an August 31st show in St. Louis, with tickets available here.
Hagar extended an invite to Roth to make a guest appearance on the tour, but that seems unlikely after a new war of words broke out between the long-feuding Van Halen frontmen. Roth even went so far as to say that “Sammy Hagar was abducted by aliens and he was sex probed.”
Check out the aforementioned Q&A with Michael Anthony below, and see where he ranks on our recent list of the 100 Greatest Bassists of All Time.
Michael Anthony on David Lee Roth: He’s “Kind of a Crazy Guy”
Spencer Kaufman
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