In 1974, rock band Van Halen was formed with Eddie Van Halen playing lead guitar, David Lee Roth on lead vocals, Alex Van Halen on drums, and Michael Anthony on bass. They went on to become one of the biggest rock bands of all time, but not without their own problems.
Van Halen is an American hard rock band formed in Pasadena, California in 1972. From 1974 … https://t.co/KtQnurHL0w pic.twitter.com/mzWyXRpG47
— Web Music Star (@WebMusicStar) October 24, 2016
David Lee Roth exited the band in 1985 and was replaced by Sammy Hagar. Both singers had their own issues with the other members of Van Halen. In 2007, Michael Anthony was replaced by Eddie’s son Wolfgang Van Halen as they embarked on a reunion tour, which Anthony publicly called a “revision not a reunion.”
He told Rolling Stone , “I’m a little miffed that they’re calling it a Van Halen reunion. If I was dead and they needed someone to play, that’s one thing, but to me this is not a reunion.”
Needless today, his public riff with Van Halen lasted for years. In October 2020, Eddie Van Halen passed away after an “arduous battle with cancer,” according to his son Wolfgang.
— Wolf Van Halen (@WolfVanHalen) October 6, 2020
In an interview with Variety, Sammy Hagar revealed that he and Eddie were able to speak before his death and bury the hatchet.
“Poor Eddie, broke my heart, but thank God we connected before [he died],” Sammy said. “I said, ‘Why don’t you respond? I’ve been reaching out,’ and Ed said, ‘Why didn’t you call me? Don’t fucking call my brother, fucking call me!’ And I said, ‘I love you man,’ and it was like, boom, we were good. It was a beautiful thing.”
Unfortunately, the same can not be said for founding Van Halen member Michael Anthony. He appeared on the Talkin’ Rock With Meltdown podcast recently and talked about his life as a rock legend and his relationship with his former bandmates in recent years.
Of his contact with Eddie, Michael said, “We actually hadn’t spoken and unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to. It kind of bothers me because we had some issues that were never resolved.”
He continued, “But, I mean, what can you do? It was on the track of a reunion, which I’m really sad that it never happened, but life, the show goes on.”
Michael also noted that he never knew how sick Eddie was until it was too late.
“Eddie was very private about how ill he was. We all knew he was ill, but it was a real shock to all of us,” he said on the podcast.
When Eddie passed away, Michael shared a series of photos on Instagram and said, “No words…Heartbroken, my love to the family?”
See his post below.
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