Van Halen and Michael Anthony Speak For First Time In A Decade

(Classic Rock) Former Van Halen bass player Michael Anthony has revealed he recently chatted by phone to drummer Alex Van Halen, ending a decade-long standoff.

The Van Halen brothers replaced him with guitarist Eddie's son Wolfgang in 2007, leading to years of ill feeling, especially after old album covers were edited to remove Anthony's image.

But the bassist is cautious about whether the thaw could lead to a reunion - and he's admitted he has doubts over the supposed reconnection between Eddie and ex-singer Sammy Hagar.

Anthony tells Trunk Nation: "There's a mutual friend of Alex's and mine, Craig DeFalco. This is a guy who was a tech for me for a while. He did two or three Van Halen tours with me.

"We went out on my boat. I had a couple of cocktails, and next thing you know we're talking about the band and the good old days and all that stuff. Next thing you know, I've got him holding his phone up, shooting a video, going, 'Hey, Alex, man!' Just talking about the good times."

He also touched on the recent spate of big-name musician deaths, saying: "All these heroes of ours, people I grew up listening to, they're starting to drop left and right."

He continues: "Later on we were at my house, my buddy and myself, and his phone rings, and it's Alex. He's all, 'Hey, tell Mike I said hi!' Next thing I know, he's handing me the phone - 'Here, Al wants to talk to you.' I'm like, 'What?' This was this past May, and I hadn't spoken to Alex in, like, ten or eleven years." Read more here.

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