Michael Anthony Burn Magazine Interview

[slothrec]

Does anybody out there have the recent Burn Magazine Interview with Michael Anthony where he supposedly reveals the true state of the band? I've been looking for the text online but...no dice..

[binnie]

I was looking for it too and had no luck....

[Cato]

why do you guys care what that slut says?

[binnie]

Originally posted by Cato
why do you guys care what that slut says?

I actaully don't, but anything that gives the slightest clue into what's happening in CVH is a plus.

Especially with both Ed and Dave hinting at a reuion recently.

But I'm not gonna lose sleep if I don't find it!

[m_dixon1984]

Blabbermouth has some translated excerpts from the March 2006 interview: http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/bla...wsitemID=49721

I couldn't find anything more recent.

M

[Matt White]

"I was not going to just sit home and do nothing and that kind of upset the VAN HALEN brothers for whatever reason I can't understand myself. But basically when this whole reunion thing started Ed really didn't want me to be part of it. I don't know how he was going to call it a reunion (laughs) but I basically had to work out a deal with Irving Azoff's management company in order to be part of this thing. I kind of sucked it up a bit and I made less money but the way I looked at it was, if this possibly was the last tour that VAN HALEN would ever do then I'd be kicking myself because I wasn't a part of it and I want to be a part of it, even more so than the money so I sucked it all up and came on and did it. I did it for the fans."

It's all aboot the fans/SHEEP

...there came a point to where we actually split it up and we traveled on two different jets; Eddie and Al would fly on one jet and Sammy and I would fly on another. This was only to keep the peace and that sucks just like anything else that even turns into a big business you know, sports or anything. A lot of times you almost lose the reason in the first place of why you got into doing it you know, making music and getting laid (laughs) and it all turns into big business. It got to the point to where I couldn't even see this thing going on much longer without either somebody blowing up on somebody or whatever. So Sammy finally said, 'I'm not doing any more dates because this is just not working.'

Yeah...right...5,000 people a night and they thought they'd tour the world....SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURE

"I would have thought that we would have been nominated, voted in and inducted the first year that we were eligible, which would have been like 3 years ago or something like that. But for whatever reasons they have, maybe a lot of the people that vote you in are looking at the drama that this band has gone through and figured well, they don't deserve it yet. I don't know, but that's the only thing that I can come up with. Other than that it's like I have no idea. But I tell you it would be one damn interesting show when they ask us to get together and play for the induction ceremony. I know Dave; he'll be there a week ahead of the show just waiting."

Hmmmm...think that NOT getting in is bugging the Sisters?!?DAMN STRAIGHT

I think and there was still magic with Dave too because I mean a lot that we did back then was really cutting edge from Ed's guitar playing to all these little clones that Dave spawned...they were all there because all these guys wanted to be him."

Tell 'em Bass Player...DAVID LEE ROTH IS VAN HALEN

[saint]

On those new tunes with Dave:

"For the most part it was actually pretty good. I don't think Ed would ever let it out though. I've got some demo stuff at home, they didn't even really want me to take any stuff home but I ended up with some stuff at home anyway. I'd never do anything behind the other guys' backs with any of it so it'll just sit in my box in the archives and maybe one of my grandkids or grandkid's boyfriends will put something out one day (laughs) or steal it (laughs)."

....
maybe one of my grandkids or grandkid's boyfriends will put something out one day (laughs) or steal it (laughs)."
...

fornicate and populate you mother fucker

[saint]

dbl post

Great server.......

[AJW]

Originally posted by saint
On those new tunes with Dave:

"For the most part it was actually pretty good. I don't think Ed would ever let it out though. I've got some demo stuff at home, they didn't even really want me to take any stuff home but I ended up with some stuff at home anyway. I'd never do anything behind the other guys' backs with any of it so it'll just sit in my box in the archives and maybe one of my grandkids or grandkid's boyfriends will put something out one day (laughs) or steal it (laughs)."

....
maybe one of my grandkids or grandkid's boyfriends will put something out one day (laughs) or steal it (laughs)."
...

fornicate and populate you mother fucker

I love the jugs on the hottie in your little movie you have in your post.

[saint]

The only reason I post here is to see her titts

[Panamark]

Ya know what, Dave has more rights to tour as "The other half" than the Bass player and Sammy.. But he obviously has more class than
that....

[Nitro Express]

Originally posted by Cato
why do you guys care what that slut says?

LOL!

[Plexi Head]

Originally posted by AJW
I love the jugs on the hottie in your little movie you have in your post.

Aint that the truth.

[chi-town324]

cmon Ed....release some of those demos...

[113]

I have downloaded the whole interview, and its well worth reading( just try google search engine, and type in key words, michael Anthony, van Halen Burn magazine interview 2006) Mike reveals how thet tried on three occasions to make an album with Dave between 2000/2002. He reveals the 2004 Sammy reunion was never going to be anythting but a tour and 3 songs (which took ages to wrrite and record, through arguments).

[Nickdfresh]

Here's another translation (from Japanese) of the article's highlights...

MICHAEL ANTHONY INTERVIEWED BY BURRN! MAGAZINE JAPAN:
BURRN! Magazine is the #1 hard rock / metal music magazine in the world. Published in Japan, the magazine is famous for their worldwide exclusive interviews.

Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony was interviewed in February 2006 for the April issue, which is out now. Anthony was interviewed by the magazine's US correspondent John "Shooter" Harrell for their exclusive story.

Unfortunately, the magazine is only printed in Japanese, but I am pleased to bring just a few highlights from the interview – translated from Japanese for me.

Michael Anthony talks openly and from the heart here and is clearly someone that loves what he does and loves the interaction with fans. He lives for being on the road and for the music he has spent a lifetime performing.

I'm sure you will all agree that the below extracts highlight just why he has earnt that all-round good-guy tag. Here is Michael Anthony commenting on -

The Van Halen 2004 reunion tour:
"Well in general the reunion tour was great because it had been since 1998 that we played as Van Halen anywhere and it doesn't take very long for me after we finish a tour, it only takes a matter of weeks before I'm ready to get up and play in front of people again. So in that respect it was great getting out there and playing again and you know it's like when everybody got back together again, from outward appearances everything seemed fine but we had a few bumps because old things came back up again from time to time on the road between Sammy and Eddie so it was a little bit shaky. Actually the tour didn't end with as much fanfare as I would have liked it to or hoped it would but we got through it."

On the new business arrangements within the band for the 2004 re-union:
"I was not going to just sit home and do nothing and that kind of upset the Van Halen brothers for whatever reason I can't understand myself. But basically when this whole reunion thing started Ed really didn't want me to be part of it. I don't know how he was going to call it a reunion (laughs) but I basically had to work out a deal with Irving Azoff's management company in order to be part of this thing.

I kind of sucked it up a bit and I made less money but the way I looked at it was, if this possibly was the last tour that Van Halen would ever do then I'd be kicking myself because I wasn't a part of it and I want to be a part of it, even more so than the money so I sucked it all up and came on and did it. I did it for the fans."

On being nicknamed 'Cannonmouth' for his distinct backing vocals:
"They use to call me that in the early days. Basically Eddie's and my voice were actually I think pretty much as signature as Eddie's playing or anything else as far as the sound we had and it's kind of been that way all the way up through the years. Unfortunately though when we did the Van Halen 3 record with Gary Cherone, Ed wanted to sing more and so he sang a lot more of the backgrounds with Gary and I sang a lot less and there was a lot of negative feedback about that."

A making the re-union happen and attempts previously with David Lee Roth:
"I used to needle Sam a bit and say hey, it'd be great (getting back together). We tried to make this thing work with Roth three times and each time it was even worse than the time before. We tried to do a new album with him and his ego just wouldn't let it happen and the third time that we tried to do it with him was more like, let's see if we can just play some dates and just get along with him and he still for some reason couldn't humble himself enough to just being one of the guys again here.
Sammy was out here at a relative's wedding I think staying down at the beach and he actually called Al. So Al went down and met with him and they hung out for the whole day and got along great and at that point then it was just kind of like well, let's see what we can do as far as putting Sam and Ed back together.

I knew that Al wanted to get out and play again too because he basically had done nothing because the only person that he plays with is Ed. He doesn't get out and jam with anybody else. So one thing led to another and then (laughs) there was my involvement. You know, I'm the guy who kind of helped put this thing together and then Ed didn't even want me to be a part of it (laughs). I thought it was kind of funny."

And on the 2004 tour and tensions within the band:
"We got along great. Obviously there was tension between the brothers, basically Ed and Sammy's tequila thing because he was never happy about that, the whole Cabo Wabo thing. And a lot of these arenas that we were playing in sold Cabo Wabo and even though that really had nothing to do with Sammy because he sells to people and then the buildings, the venues buys the stuff and Sammy doesn't sell to them. So I think Ed would get a little put off when he'd see a lot of Cabo Wabo banners up around the arenas and sometimes that would even create some tension onstage and offstage. There were nights where you know you have that after the show flight on the jet and things would sometimes be a little tense on that plane and without getting into any great detail there came a point to where we actually split it up and we traveled on two different jets; Eddie and Al would fly on one jet and Sammy and I would fly on another. This was only to keep the peace and that sucks just like anything else that even turns into a big business you know, sports or anything. A lot of times you almost lose the reason in the first place of why you got into doing it you know, making music and getting laid (laughs) and it all turns into big business.
It got to the point to where I couldn't even see this thing going on much longer without either somebody blowing up on somebody or whatever. So Sammy finally said, I'm not doing any more dates because this is just not working.

[Ed] did not want Sammy doing any promoting of his stuff at all using the Van Halen name but a lot of that you don't have any control over. I came out with a hot sauce about the same time we were putting the tour together and the local radio station here in Los Angeles KLOS, they would talk about the tour and then they would talk about my hot sauce. Well the brothers caught wind of that and they thought that I had my people, as they would say "my people", calling the radio station and telling them to pump my hot sauce on Van Halen's dime here or whatever and they finally asked me to have my people "cease and desist", I remember that distinctly. But I didn't have a damn thing to do with that and I have no control over what the radio station said. In fact, gee isn't this one of the benefits that you're supposed to reap from all these years of success, that you can be able to go off and do something like that and promote something? They went on and they (the brothers) had their lawyers call every radio station that we were going to play at in every city and told them specifically they were not to mention Cabo Tequila or my Mad Anthony's Hot Sauce in the same sentence with Van Halen!"

On recording/filming the tour for possible CD/DVD release:
Well we did video every night for the screens up onstage but no, there was no actual film crew or anything brought in.We had always talked about doing a thing and Sammy did his called The Long Road To Cabo and I was on a pretty major part of that.
JH: Oh is that the one where they left your ass at the hotel (laughs)?

"Yeah and as much as some people thought that we planned that out, they left me at the hotel and one of the camera guys just happened to be back that night because he wasn't going to the show and I called him up and told him to get his camera and his ass over here to my room, we've got to video all this because they have fuckin' left me here."

But you know, that would have been great to have something like that happen with Van Halen you know; have the cameras following us around onstage, backstage, days off, whatever. Just witnessing the way that Sammy did it, it could have been huge if we did it because people love to see that kind of shit. Aerosmith, everybody has done that kind of thing.

On Van Halen's failure to be nominated for the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame:
"I would have thought that we would have been nominated, voted in and inducted the first year that we were eligible, which would have been like 3 years ago or something like that. But for whatever reasons they have, maybe a lot of the people that vote you in are looking at the drama that this band has gone through and figured well, they don't deserve it yet. I don't know, but that's the only thing that I can come up with. Other than that it's like I have no idea. But I tell you it would be one damn interesting show when they ask us to get together and play for the induction ceremony. I know Dave; he'll be there a week ahead of the show just waiting."

On the last time he saw David Lee Roth:
"It was when him and Sammy toured together, what is that, four years ago now?
He would kind of pull his hat down and just walk by me because I tell you one of the first shows that I did with those guys I forget where we were at but I had a few drinks and I went into Dave's dressing room after the show and I just unloaded on him, on what was his problem that we could not make this reunion work? And all he kept saying was, you're right, you're right. I told him, look at them out there; when you go out there and this is the beginning of the tour and he actually impressed me at the beginning of the tour but as the tour went on boy by the last show they didn't even do the last show of the tour that I was out there because they couldn't do it; Dave just started pulling shenanigans left and right.

Most nights Sammy and I would pound on his door and say come on out and numerous times invited him to come out onstage and do an encore, all three of us together but it never happened."

On recording a new album with Roth:
"We were going to do videos for the songs [on the Best Of Volume 1] and everything but Roth was really trying to take control and we finally just said, let's not even do the videos for these songs because he's going to kill the whole thing and so it fell apart.

But yeah, before that tour yeah, we tried to make it work. We went into the studio and it was kind of funny because we first got together in the studio and we were all in the one room together and we did Hot For Teacher, Mean Street and a few other songs and it's the weirdest thing because once we started playing it was like, son of a bitch, there it is, that's the magic! It was like a big déjà vu because it was the original band playing again and it sounded pretty fuckin' good too!

But then of course the longer we spent in the studio, you know we had two or three different producers in there trying to work with us and Dave would just come in with tapes of the Chemical Brothers, all different kinds of weird stuff and say hey, let's do a song like this and Ed was having a hard time dealing with him, a real hard time dealing with him and Al was saying, well, let's do a couple of things that Roth likes to do and then let's just do our thing. I don't know if we had a complete album's worth of stuff but we were pretty damn close and unfortunately, there you go with Dave again and we just couldn't finish it and all those old reasons why he left the band in the first place they started surfacing you know. He went right back to his old ways.

I mean even if you just wanted to look at it purely look at it from a money standpoint that guy was hurting for money. And it was like Dave, I mean he couldn't even put his ego aside if he wanted to go out and make $50 million and you know you've got a pretty large ego when you're going to give that all up even just because you don't get your way on something. I couldn't understand it."

On those new tunes:
"For the most part it was actually pretty good. I don't think Ed would ever let it out though. I've got some demo stuff at home, they didn't even really want me to take any stuff home but I ended up with some stuff at home anyway. I'd never do anything behind the other guys' backs with any of it so it'll just sit in my box in the archives and maybe one of my grandkids or grandkid's boyfriends will put something out one day (laughs) or steal it (laughs)."

On the Best Of Both Worlds Compilation and those 3 new songs:
"You know when we did the Best Of Both Worlds we had problems with Roth because of what he wanted and didn't want on the CD, how much he wanted to get paid and so on. So there was a point to where we were just going to say okay Dave, if that's the way you want it, we had some live versions of some of the old Van Halen songs and we were just going to tell Dave, okay if that's the way you want it we won't even put you on this record, you won't make a dime off it! I mean he was being difficult on that thing and what we wanted to do was the one disc with Sammy and the other disc with Dave plus the three new songs and Dave was even making that difficult but in the end he folded. I think he was just trying to pull a power play. Bad stuff (laughs).

I knew that we weren't going to do a whole new album with Sammy on this reunion thing. The time that it was taking in the studio to do these three songs it would have taken us a couple of years to do an entire album. And like I said, once it started to get put together Irving Azoff really pushed it, speeded us along to get us out there and so it just turned out to be well, let's just do these three songs. And to tell you the truth and I'll say this for the record: I didn't play bass on any of those three songs on there. I wasn't even in the band yet when those three songs were done.

I came aboard and I sang backgrounds on them but the music was already done and I wasn't even back in the band as far as the reunion part of it yet when the music was done. So that was kind of tough for me but it's like hey, it is what it is and I don't think Ed really talked about it much but if anybody asks me I'm not embarrassed to say that I didn't play bass on them because I wasn't part of the band at that point."

On the difference between Roth and Hagar:
"There was magic with both of them. Once Hagar joined the band he brought a new level of musicianship to the band and like Eddie always use to say, he could play anything that he wanted now because Sammy could sing anything. He (Sammy) definitely had a better range. When Sammy joined the band that's when I really had to start working on the backgrounds; the background vocals were a little bit more, uh, not tougher but with Dave there was never any problem singing backgrounds because he didn't have a huge range like Sammy did.

I think and there was still magic with Dave too because I mean a lot that we did back then was really cutting edge from Ed's guitar playing to all these little clones that Dave spawned...they were all there because all these guys wanted to be him."

On the current status of Van Halen:
"Well never say never but we're currently in a state of limbo. After the reunion tour ended so abruptly we all went into our own corners and truthfully Ed doesn't want to tour right now or maybe ever again. I don't know what he's thinking at this point. So I would say that we're on a temporary hiatus that possibly could become permanent, you never know. With that said I realize that's not much of an answer but that's really where things are right now and tomorrow it could all change again."

Jamtothis.com

[delta5150]

To summarise Michael Anthony, it was Dave's fault! hmm, right

[LeeRoth]

Geez!!!!!!!Michael Anthony is a little fucking bitch. My god is everything fucking DLR fault. He is so far up Slapnuts ass he could brush the back of his teeth. Fuck this mullet head. Whiny little bitch.

[MAX]

Well folks, the good news is Ms. Anthony's not involved in the upcoming reunion. Perhaps this interview is part of the reason as to why? Who knows? :confused:

Regardless, let's no longer worry about the guy. He now does whatever it is he does and DLR/EVH/AVH and WVH are going to do something that we care about.

So, let's look forward to that, shall we?

[113]

If Dave is so egotistical Mike, why has he been so candid about wanting to reunite with van halen since the early 90`s?

[Terry]

Originally posted by MAX
Well folks, the good news is Ms. Anthony's not involved in the upcoming reunion. Perhaps this interview is part of the reason as to why? Who knows? :confused:

Regardless, let's no longer worry about the guy. He now does whatever it is he does and DLR/EVH/AVH and WVH are going to do something that we care about.

So, let's look forward to that, shall we?

If it's gonna be just another oldies-only cash grab tour with no new material, suppose it doesn't matter if MA is there or not.

Just think it'd be a shame if that's what it turns out to be, IMO.

[113]

You bet, Ed wants closure on the Dave thing, they even lost their record contract with warner brothers, after failing to make an album with Dave. Ed is planning to milk the fans for every dollar he can. There`s a new greatest hits on the way (WOW) followed by a tour with both Sam and Dave. If they make a new album, it will be with a forth singer (brilliant ED).

[ELVIS]

That interview is ancient...

[pjvan]

Besides, everyone already knows this song:

Mike, what happened with Dave?

Dave's fault.

Mike, what happened with Sam?

I love Sam, he's so sexy.

Mike, will you ever work with Ed again?

Dave's fault, I love Sam, he's so sexy.

Thanks for you time Mike. See you out on the road with Ronnie Mac.

[Loons The Great]

2007: The Mullet Has Left The Buildin'

Was his mullet a mullet whig? He should sell mullet whig hats. You too could sport this kickass mullet.

I know The Bassplayer keeps about 6 or 7 of them mullets ready to roll like Batman kept the bat suits.

[bantonelli]

LOOONS!!! LOL!!!

Shake, WIGgin' and Roll...

[diamondsgirl]

people actually wonder why Dave hasn't insisted on Mike being in the band

why should he? if I were Dave I would tell Mike to forever fuck off (in no uncertain terms) just based on this interview alone

and btw, "Mikey"(aka Hagar's pet parrot), ego isn't neccessarily a bad thing...you might wanna try it sometime and grow a fucking pair while you're at it

[FORD]

It's funny that Sauce Boy likes to make fun of Dave's interest in the Chemical Brothers or other techno music, but doesn't criticize his butt buddy Sam for insisting that Van Hagar's follow-up to Balance would have been exactly that, a techno - electronica - dance record. That's what Chedmaster himself said he wanted to do, in his infamous never-published "book" written after the 1996 fiasco.

[113]

Dave`s interest in the chemical brothers shows how on the ball he is.
Dave moves with the times, look at his cool new haircut. Michael Anthony probably thinks its 1984 or something by the way he dresses. He wears the same style clothes, and keeps the same hill billie style, mullet he`s had for at least 30 years. I`m glad he`s out the band for the sake of the group photographs, he will scare the younger kids off the group. Mick jagger moves with the times, the stones are always a rock group, but Mick incorparates dance music and even hip hop into the stones records.

[113]

We dont need Mike in the group, his vocals can easily be replaced by backing singers!

[113]

We don`t need Mike in the group, his vocals can easily be replaced by backing singers!

[pjvan]

Why the fuck would Dave insist on Bass Player being in the band? I don't remember Bass Player ever insisting Dave be in the band.

Bass Player cuddled right up to Samold McDonald.

I bet Bass Player thought Dave was an idiot when he came in and said "let's call the band Van Halen!"

[Vinnie Velvet]

While an old interview, this once again shows that Mike is a fucking tool and obviously doesn't know what he's fucking talking about.

Yeah okay, it was all Dave's fault. What about drunken Ed??

Fucking Sammy cock-blower.