Earlier this week, Eddie Van Halen told Rolling Stone that bassist Michael Anthony left Van Halen by choice. Anthony, who was replaced by the guitarist’s teenage son Wolfgang on the band’s tour with David Lee Roth in 2007 and 2008, has responded to Eddie’s claims, reiterating his assertion that he never quit the band. “I never ‘quit.’ I never once said, ‘I’m out of here.’ It never happened,” Anthony told MusicRadar after hearing Van Halen’s comments to RS. “That’s the weird thing right now, for Eddie to be trying to paint himself as ‘not the bad guy.’ ”

“The funny thing is that everyone who quits the band always claims they got fired by me. Hey, I’m not the bad guy here. When [Sammy] Hagar left the band, Mike went with him,” Eddie told RS after being asked what he thought about Hagar and Anthony’s new band Chickenfoot. “Then when we get back together with Dave, and all of a sudden, he wants back in. It’s like, ‘No, dude, you quit the band.’ ”


Anthony spoke to Rock Daily in 2007, just days after Van Halen reunited with Roth, telling us that Eddie Van Halen had tried to push him out of the band as early as Van Halen’s 2004 tour. “[Eddie] was always put off that I was going out and playing with Sammy [Hagar] when we weren’t doing anything. It wasn’t like I was doing it to spite anybody. I was just tired of sitting at home and doing nothing,” Anthony said, adding that he only found out about the reunion tour with Roth by reading about it on the Internet and that he was never contacted to participate.

Speaking to MusicRadar, Anthony said, “Why would I have quit Van Halen? It never happened. And what’s weird is, he was being asked about Chickenfoot, whether he had heard us or not, and suddenly he launches into this thing about me quitting the group. What does one thing even have to do with the other?” Regardless of who is reinventing history, Eddie says he has no hard feelings, telling RS, “I’ve got no beef with anybody. I wish them well. I hope they are … I don’t know what a ’supergroup’ means, but I hope they accomplish what they’re setting out to do.”


http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/06/03/michael-anthony-refutes-eddies-claim-he-quit-van-halen/

Well, this is new.

I don't care what anyone thinks, that Mike is a class act! :D

I just want to go on record that it still sucks that Van Halen is and ever was anything other than Dave, Ed, Alex & Mike.

I don't care what anyone thinks, that Mike is a class act! :D

I just want to go on record that it still sucks that Van Halen is and ever was anything other than Dave, Ed, Alex & Mike.

I agree with all of that. This isn't hate for Sam era or anything but for me the VH I really dug has been gone since 1985.

I dig CF though and very happy Mike is onto something great.

+1. Great for Mikey.

1.Van Halen was great for Mike and Mike was great for Van Halen. As much as I love MA, I doubt that we would be talking about Snake or MA today w/o Van Halen. JMO - I could be wrong.

2. MA had to know that EVH was shopping for other bassists back in the day. How would you like your source of fame and millions to be at the whim of a drunk guitar god, a somewhat enabling big bro, and a wacky lead singer (take your pick)? It would suck going all of those years wondering when the ax may fall.

3. Hindsight 20/20: MA should have ditched VH in '96 and gone with Sammy. No offense to Mona, but Planet Us and/or CF would have happened sooner. EVH might have gotten off his ass and hired Sheehan and a successul Roth reunion may have been earlier. Who knows?

4. As it stands, MA is on a kick-ass record. He is touring and playing music. Isn't that what any musician wants?

1.Van Halen was great for Mike and Mike was great for Van Halen. As much as I love MA, I doubt that we would be talking about Snake or MA today w/o Van Halen. JMO - I could be wrong.

2. MA had to know that EVH was shopping for other bassists back in the day. How would you like your source of fame and millions to be at the whim of a drunk guitar god, a somewhat enabling big bro, and a wacky lead singer (take your pick)? It would suck going all of those years wondering when the ax may fall.

3. Hindsight 20/20: MA should have ditched VH in '96 and gone with Sammy. No offense to Mona, but Planet Us and/or CF would have happened sooner. EVH might have gotten off his ass and hired Sheehan and a successul Roth reunion may have been earlier. Who knows?

4. As it stands, MA is on a kick-ass record. He is touring and playing music. Isn't that what any musician wants?

Point #4 is the point...the other observations are good ones, but Mikey is having fun and showing his talent...his backing vocals are all over the CF record.

1.Van Halen was great for Mike and Mike was great for Van Halen. As much as I love MA, I doubt that we would be talking about Snake or MA today w/o Van Halen. JMO - I could be wrong.

2. MA had to know that EVH was shopping for other bassists back in the day. How would you like your source of fame and millions to be at the whim of a drunk guitar god, a somewhat enabling big bro, and a wacky lead singer (take your pick)? It would suck going all of those years wondering when the ax may fall.

3. Hindsight 20/20: MA should have ditched VH in '96 and gone with Sammy. No offense to Mona, but Planet Us and/or CF would have happened sooner. EVH might have gotten off his ass and hired Sheehan and a successul Roth reunion may have been earlier. Who knows?

4. As it stands, MA is on a kick-ass record. He is touring and playing music. Isn't that what any musician wants?


So you don't think Mike could have gotten a professional gig other then Van Halen? With that ferocious bass playing and soaring, instantly indentifiable vocals?

Mike is and forever will be the Glenn Hughes, Tim Bogart and John Paul Jones of Van Halen.

Mike's celebrity may not have been as big but do you really think VH and their music would have been as good with the fucking math teacher on bass? I've heard some of those demos with him on it. There is something missing on those and his name is Michael Anthony.

Ed, Al and Dave are a couple of real buffoons for not realizing what they had in Mike.