Van Halen Camp Dropped The Ball On Reunion

06-20-2019

Former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony says in a new interview that he had two approaches from the band's camp to discuss a reunion tour, but they never followed up.

Anthony shared more details about the ill-fated reunion during a SiriusXM appearance on Wednesday. He said, "The reason The Circle is taking a break right now is that if things would have worked out as they were starting to go and was planned, we would have been in pre-production rehearsals with Van Halen right now.

"I'm sure you know Sammy [Hagar] had made a statement saying I was offered [the reunion tour]. And I can tell you, I spoke with [Van Halen's manager] Irving Azoff last October. That's when I first heard from him and he asked if I would be interested in any kind of a reunion, and I told him, I said, 'Yeah.' I was finishing up a couple of shows with Sammy and I said, 'Yeah, I'd be interested to hear what you guys have going on. I've got these few dates left, and give me a call.' And I never heard a call back.

And then, right after the first of the year, I got David Lee Roth's, Dave's business manager or lawyer, or something, got ahold of me about a meeting or something.

"And so at that point, I gave it over to our manager, because I didn't wanna start getting in this whole thing - I wanted to do it the correct way, especially after the way things went for me in 2004.

He concluded, "From what I've heard, and I haven't spoken to any of the guys, they were gonna try to plan a thing for this summer. And for whatever reason, I was never, My people were never, They never got in touch with us about any kind of a contract or any kind of a meeting to discuss or whatever. And the next thing I knew, the plug got pulled on it."