Van Halen was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, and not only did the band not perform, few of the group members attended — and bassist Michael Anthony still seems upset about it.
“Sammy (Hagar) and I were the only two from the band that showed up, and we weren’t even in the band at the time,” Anthony shared on The Hook Rocks podcast. “And it was pretty sad, because I turned to Sammy during the show — I forget who was onstage playing — and we were sitting at our table and I go, ‘Sammy, could you imagine if all of us, if we were all here and everybody got along and we got up there? We would kick the a** out of this thing. It’d be an induction ceremony that nobody would ever forget.'”
He added, “And sadly enough, it wasn’t to be.”
The topic came up as Anthony was discussing the failed attempts at a Van Halen tribute tour following Eddie Van Halen’s death, news of which first came to light in 2022.
The reports claimed Metallica’s Jason Newstead was approached by Alex Van Halen to do it, while Joe Satriani was to play guitar, with David Lee Roth also possibly taking part.
As for why it never happened, Anthony shared, “All I can say is — I’m not gonna point fingers — but through all of this there was — one of the ingredients was not, let’s say, playing ball with everybody else. And that’s all I’m gonna say. I’ll let you all figure it out. And that’s why none of it worked.”
But Hagar and Anthony will be playing Van Halen tunes again on Sammy’s The Best of All Worlds tour, launching July 13 in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
