VAN HALEN Bassist Admits He Didn't Play On 'Best Of Both Worlds' Tracks

[Nickdfresh]

March 06, 2006
VAN HALEN BASSIST SAYS HE 'DIDN'T PLAY ON 'BEST OF BOTH WORLDS' ALBUM'

According to MelodicRock.com, the April 2006 issue of Japan's Burrn! magazine features Eddie Van Halen on the cover with the heading "The End Of The Reunion" (view cover image at this location). Inside is an exclusive new Michael Anthony interview conducted in February 2006 by the magazine's U.S. correspondent John "Shooter" Harrell. The interview with Michael is apparently a starkly honest and forthright conversation with the highly respected bass player. One of the statements from Anthony in this interview is the confirmation that he did not play bass on the three 2004 tracks — "It's About Time", "Up For Breakfast", and "Learning To See" — included on the band's greatest-hits album, "The Best Of Both Worlds". That is just one of many insights into the dysfunctional band that is revealed.

http://93x.com/blog.asp?id=182912&SBID=4444

Not sure if this can be considered a dupe since it seems to have been independently confirmed by the journalist who interviewed Anthony. It's the Mods call...

[Nickdfresh]

The orig.: (http://www.melodicrock.com/)

Monday, March 06, 2006

MICHAEL ANTHONY TALKS THE TALK IN NEW INTERVIEW:
On July 17, 2004 I ran the following news item that caused a major stir at the time:
"Copies of the new Van Halen compilation are appearing at retail already and I'm already getting questions e-mailed in about the package. The most notable one - why isn't Michael Anthony credited on the new songs? The fact is and my sources confirm, Anthony, the much loved bass player does not play on the three new tracks.
Appearing are Alex Van Halen on drums, Sammy Hagar on vocals, with Eddie Van Halen providing the rest of the instrumentation."

A few of the e-mails I received after printing this were not backwards in suggesting their displeasure with me for running the news and questioning the accuracy of it. But...this week - the truth revealed!
The April 2006 issue of Burrn Magazine in Japan features Eddie Van Halen on the cover with the heading The End Of The Reunion. Inside is an exclusive new Michael Anthony interview conducted in February 2006 by the magazine's US correspondent John "Shooter" Harrell.
The interview with Michael is apparently a starkly honest and forthright conversation with the highly respected bass player.
One of the statements from Anthony in this interview is the confirmation that he did not play bass on those three new 2004 tracks. That is just one of many insights into the dysfunctional band that is revealed. Watch for a much bigger news item and a summary of the interview right here this week.
http://www.melodicrock.com/burrn-april2006.jpg

Meanwhile, this from Mike's own website: "Michael, Sammy Hagar, Vic Johnson and David Lauser will be Livin' It Up this summer as Mad Anthony himself will be going out on the road with Hagar as The Other Half; part of Hagar's Livin' It Up 2006 North American Summer Tour!
It's gonna be a hell of a fiesta as a Cabo Wabo village is planned jammed with bikini girls, body builders, mariachi bands, food, drink, contests and probably some other cool stuff to boot! We'll post tour dates when we get 'em. In the mean time, check out www.redrocker.com for additional info. See ya this summer!"
The Other Half is of course the band formed by the guys to play exclusively Van Halen material in concert.

[bueno bob]

Of course he didn't play on them.

Mike hasn't played bass on a Van Halen album since 1986.

[fe_lung]

Wait, Mike is a "highly respected" bass player?

[jero]

I never listened to those tunes, and who cares!

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by fe_lung
Wait, Mike is a "highly respected" bass player?


No, but he has been arrested for Loitering







Onstage :cool:

[bueno bob]

hahahaha

good one :)

[fe_lung]

Originally posted by LoungeMachine
No, but he has been arrested for Loitering







Onstage :cool:

Shit, he should be arrested for those "solos"

[Vinnie Velvet]

Originally posted by bueno bob
Of course he didn't play on them.

Mike hasn't played bass on a Van Halen album since 1986.

That may be true.

Of course, he wasn't on any of the Gary album as well.

[bastardog]

Does he played on any album at all?

[bueno bob]

Originally posted by bastardog
Does he played on any album at all?

After 5150, everything's arguable and there's a good case for saying "No"...the usual 'inside sources' (which have been surprisingly accurate about things before) have stated that Mike hasn't played a note on a Van Halen album since 1986 and he's more or less since then been considered a "touring member" who gets to do photo/video shoots as well...

It's absolutely certain that he hasn't touched a bass on a Van Halen album for at least ten years now, though.

[thefive]

Mike is like the countries in Europe in World War II that claimed to be neutral. Switzerland, Sweden, and Ireland. Just annoys the hell out of me. How can you be neutral in a World War and all the countries around you are fighting?

Mike is like other countries too in WWII. The countries that let Germany just walk through and take over their country. Mike is a flippin mat that you just walk over. France just let Germany walk in.

Why does France have trees on both sides of their roads???? So the Germans have shade when they walk.

Austria, Czech. just let the Germans walk through. What is up with all these people at that time?


I am an American first but I am half Polish. I am proud to be Polish. Polish people were the first people to fight Hitler to the death. Damn proud of my ancestry. Polish people had to fight the Russians too.
Tells you a lot about people and countries when war time comes.

Italy hmm first half was on the axis side then the second half was on the allies side. hmm

Hitler had brown hair and brown eyes but yet he was preaching that the superior race was blond hair and blue eyes and millions and millions of Germans followed him. hmmm??? Germans....


Well gone off on a tangent.

[bueno bob]

Originally posted by Vinnie Velvet
That may be true.

Of course, he wasn't on any of the Gary album as well.

Nor was Alex, that was a drum machine throughout the whole thing unless I miss my guess...sounds like a programmed drumline to me, anyway...

Did ANYBODY participate on VH3? I'm inclined to think that it was all song-doctors and studio-fakery...featuring the grate vocals of Eddie and Gary, though... :rolleyes:

[bueno bob]

Originally posted by thefive
Well gone off on a tangent.

You feelin' alright?

lmao

[thefive]

Originally posted by bueno bob
You feelin' alright?

lmao


Yeah feeling okay at the moment and you?

[bueno bob]

Originally posted by thefive
Yeah feeling okay at the moment and you?

I'm feeling Larg...

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by thefive
Yeah feeling okay at the moment and you?

You're not the brightest bulb in the tree, are you?

[Vinnie Velvet]

Originally posted by bueno bob
After 5150, everything's arguable and there's a good case for saying "No"...the usual 'inside sources' (which have been surprisingly accurate about things before) have stated that Mike hasn't played a note on a Van Halen album since 1986 and he's more or less since then been considered a "touring member" who gets to do photo/video shoots as well...

It's absolutely certain that he hasn't touched a bass on a Van Halen album for at least ten years now, though.

I think Micheal Anthony had the burden of being the "3rd" original member who didn't have a say anymore since Dave left in '85.

It was the same situation with KISS. When Eric Carr replaced Peter Criss, he was simply a hired hand and didn't have a say on any major band decisions, unlike Criss who was a founding member. Ace, also a founding member, was voted out on most decisions because of the balance of power being shifted over to Gene and Paul.

Just one of the reasons why Ace left.

That's what happened with Mike. With Dave, everyone had an equal say because everyone was there from the beginning.

When Dave left, that balance of power shifted to Eddie and Alex, and Mike became just a 'hired gun' rather than considered a 'founding member'.

My guess that position became more and more apparent as the years went on to the point of Mike not playing on anything.

[Terry]

Think Mike mentioned something in a different interview about only playing on three of the tracks on Van Halen 3, along with none of them on the BOBW release, and that he hasn't talked to Eddie since the 2004 tour ended, and that the only reason he even played with van Hagar in 2004 is because Sammy insisted he be a part of it.

Nice, huh? This is how Ed and Al treat a guy who was loyal to them for all those years...and these are the same two guys Dave would be willing to reunite with....Alexis and Meth Mouth.

[DrMaddVibe]

bassplayer wasn't playing on "Fair Warning" either!

[DlocRoth]

He's a hack anyway.

Nothing more than a wide back for Dave to sommersault over.

[BrownSound1]

Originally posted by DrMaddVibe
bassplayer wasn't playing on "Fair Warning" either!

Why would you say that? There isn't a hard bass line on the whole album.

I actually like Mike's simplistic approach to bass playing. If you get too much shit happening it becomes a clusterfuck. PLUS..if he had made the bass line too difficult to play, then he wouldn't have been able to fill in the vocal lines that Dave seemed to miss live.

I also have never had a problem with Mike on any other issue. He's always seemed to just want to go out and play...never really lied like the Sisters have. So what if he's friends with Hagar, I mean really who gives a shit. Hell, if Dave can like a shit ass band like Linkin Park, then I can overlook Mike having Sammy as one of his friends.;)

[ELVIS]

Originally posted by BrownSound1
Why would you say that? There isn't a hard bass line on the whole album.

I actually like Mike's simplistic approach to bass playing. If you get too much shit happening it becomes a clusterfuck. PLUS..if he had made the bass line too difficult to play, then he wouldn't have been able to fill in the vocal lines that Dave seemed to miss live.



I wouldn't call his playing on anything simplistic!

I'm a bass player as well, and I appreciate most everything he's done...

Mike's (not mikey's) live bass playing is GRATE!

The lines he played live were much more difficult than his studio work, and he did alot of vocals along with it...


FUCK all you homos who put down Mike...

Not you, Brown...;)

[Nitro Express]

I think Mike is honest. He knew he had the golden ticket and stayed in Van Halen for the money and rode the mule until the mule died.

Hey, Mike was getting some good money for what he did. He got his cut of the last tour and that was probably worth putting up with the VH brothers shit. For Mike, Van Halen was a job and he treated it as such.

What other band would Mike go into? Mike knew he was better off to ride VH out.

[sethfle]

I couldn't agree with you more Elvis.....he laid down solid grooves and played a lot of cool lines on Bottoms Up from the '79 concert clip, and So This is Love from Oakland.

[Nickdfresh]

I'm a bass player too! I didn't even know it until I put my finger down on the string to make "E," and started picking in a methodical, droning manner...

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by BrownSound1
Why would you say that? There isn't a hard bass line on the whole album.

I actually like Mike's simplistic approach to bass playing. If you get too much shit happening it becomes a clusterfuck. PLUS..if he had made the bass line too difficult to play, then he wouldn't have been able to fill in the vocal lines that Dave seemed to miss live.

I also have never had a problem with Mike on any other issue. He's always seemed to just want to go out and play...never really lied like the Sisters have. So what if he's friends with Hagar, I mean really who gives a shit. Hell, if Dave can like a shit ass band like Linkin Park, then I can overlook Mike having Sammy as one of his friends.;)

I agree. I've got no more hates for the MikEy...

But I'll be fucked if I ever listen to one of his entire bass "solos" on a live boot again though...

That being said, he's a very basic player that occasionally shows flashes of intensity live, and sings great backing vocals. And MickEy playing with HAGAR effects DAVE in no way...

[Matt White]

I have no problem with MIke collecting a paycheck for the past 20 years.....


It speaks VOLUMES aboot the Sisters that they'd marginalize him after being in the band so long....

Miserable CUNTS that they are..............

[diamondD]

Mike and Dave are the ones who actually seem to want to communicate with their fans more than just the time prior to a new cd or tour. They may not like each other, but they both want the same thing.

I don't begrudge Mike at all for getting out there to play with Sam or anybody. At least he's wanting to be out there playing.

[Nickdfresh]

Isn't there a story, or an interview that claims, that DAVE and MIKE hung out back stage at times during the Sam & Dave Tour? Talking over drinks most the night at one point...

I doubt there is much real animosity between these two. It's mainly the sistas' that have wrecked everything...

[diamondD]

I don't think they really care too much for each other, but they both appreciate where they came from and how they got there. And they know it took the 4 of them to make it magic.

[Bill Lumbergh]

Shocking............:rolleyes:

[shaggydoo]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh

...One of the statements from Anthony in this interview is the confirmation that he did not play bass on the three 2004 tracks — "It's About Time", "Up For Breakfast", and "Learning To See" — included on the band's greatest-hits album, "The Best Of Both Worlds"...


Ya know the up-side of all this just occurred to me... three of the worst songs ever... which Mike has got no involvement with... hell, Mike can not be held accountable in any way!!! He comes off smelling like roses, only the actual participants can be to blame for that shit!

...and the comments about the drum machine make me wonder who exactly comprises the Van Halen band? Eddie Vanhalen plus a hired vocalist? Why not go all the way Eddie and be a one man band?

[PlexiBrown]

Mike is a great rock bassist and the background vocal sound of the original VH.

[Terry]

Yeah, but ever since Mike gave interviews in 1996 and 1997 where he claims he told the Van Halens that he wouldn't participate in a tour with Roth, I've had no use for the little fucker.

But to give him his due, he is capable of much more as a bassist than the intro to RWTD, and his backing vocals were a part of the CVH sound (dunno about him covering for Dave live, as one other posters suggests, since those who were actually AT a CVH concert know that the audience is yelling out the choruses just as loudly as anything Anthony was doing)

[Loons The Great]

How little you know about the age you live in if you think that honey is sweeter than cash in hand.

[ODShowtime]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
I'm a bass player too! I didn't even know it until I put my finger down on the string to make "E," and started picking in a methodical, droning manner...

I like Mike's work, but you're right, the intro to Runnin' With the Devil isn't exactly a technical achievement!