Ed at Roth's House

[damngoodtimes]

Damn... Thome's post really shed some different light on things for me.

Sam and Mike would have been happy to drive EVH's death mobile right into his grave as long as they could keep using Van Halen for free plugs for shitty booze and worthless condiments. During the last tour, be it the porn star GF, Alex, Wolf, David or any combination of the four... someone had the balls to say let's put this tour on hold until Ed can get his shit back together a bit and then we'll see if we can get it rolling again.
Sam and Mike really are scumbags if you think about it... shame on them!

walker, great call.

Ed's comment in this interview that he's been sober for over a year now points to him "sort of" admitting for the first time what we all suspected when they put the tour on hold in March 2008. He admitted the rehab stint in March 2007 which let him skip the HOF induction and delayed the start of the reunion tour, but they covered for the break in early 2008.

Ed's a private guy who is clearly uncomfortable speaking about private issues or even being in public. The 2007-08 tour was his first real extended experiment with doing this thing sober. The key to all of it was having a supportive group around him.

Dave's patience in all of this has very pleasantly surprised me. Some of it was clearly borne out of frustration and desperation to finally get this thing right. But, much of it seems to be a newfound maturity that suits Dave well as a rockstar in his mid-50's.

[damngoodtimes]

oh, and all this shit over whether Mike quit or was fired is pointless. It's semantics. Dude wasn't around. Truth is, he was out of the band back in 2003 and was brought back in 2004 by Sammy for the tour only.

Wolfie was there and was the impetus for getting Ed's act together and getting the band back together. By that point, there was really no decision to be made about Mike. He neither needed to be fired nor did he need to actually quit.

[thome]

Do you have the link to that video?

There is a whole thread around here, I think.. I started, either that or I posted the vid in a thread several years ago..?

I made the same refference to, kicking a man while he is down, life isn't the MMA.

It was the 2004 tour Ed slipped and fell probably had to many I don't know but Sam ran over and immediatly started mock kicking him . Live on stage.

I also do not want to start to much sh!t about a situation I have been in, but I usually fall down and wake up on a steel bed..so I have no room to make judgement calls about what it all means.

I do know that no-one I call friend would leave me on the floor. Or piss on me, or write on me with a sharpie, or any # of dumbsh!t supposed friend images I see on the internet these days..

\Coulda been a joking situation and I would hate to have everything I've done documented on film, so there you go..


My main point is/was, I believe whether or not, they were fed-up, or stopped caring, or got tired of using Ed, or Ed wised up and let them walk away... finding perhaps it wasn't all Ed's,(his own) fault all the time.

It's not the journey it's the destination....

[Seshmeister]

Ed's comments seem to be just about right to me, they are kinda like when I am standing in line at the drug store and some loose lipped cashier, asks me how is everything going.......I usually say fine, all the while ..I want to say, -do you want the whole story or just the-, "fine & you" answer?

Or "just gimme my methadone so I can get back to posting"

[sadaist]

... that's an insightful theory.

I'd venture to say most of Thomes posts are insightful, but it's on us to take the peyote to understand them.



"Did you see the size of that Chicken?"

[ZahZoo]

At least he calls MA Mike instead of Sol Sobelesky. Poor lost Mikey

I believe that was Sauce Sobolewski was the name coined by Ed on his drunk Stern interview a few years ago when he announced he'd cured cancer.

[Guitar Shark]

Or "just gimme my methadone so I can get back to posting"

[GAR]

Yeah, I'm too busy doing my own thing. I wish them well. 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 Hagar left the band, Mike went with him. 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." So my son became the bass player. But we didn't give Mike the boot to have my son play. He was around. We didn't have a bass player. "Hey Wolfie, you want to play?"

It must be pretty mind-blowing to play with your kid.
He was only 15 years old. "You want to play bass?" "Sure." We did not have a bass player. That's the only thing really that bothers me about people acting like I'm the bad guy.

Kevin Duggan recently told me the reason Mike was not in the Return of Roth lineup was "Ed told him he wanted to give his kid a unique opportunity and get him into the music industry.

We joked about the backing ipod vocal tracks over the last tour's PA system: "yeah, I heard that too. Sounds as though Mike went on tour even when he wasn't there.."

[Seshmeister]

It wasn't his voice though and didn't sound like him.

[kwame k]

But Mikey's bass tech told him so and Clay is never wrong about that stuff

[fryingdutchman]

Now that the tour proved to be a success from a financial standpoint, I'm sure Dave couldn't give a rat's ass about Mike anymore.

I don't know...there's still a part of me that wants to believe that Dave still wants the passion and fire of the original 4, and that it ain't all about the Benjamins.

That being said, I don't think we'll ever see the original 4 together again. So treasure the memories, folks.

[Igosplut]

Kevin Duggan recently told me....

Did he catch you in his dumpster?

[VH Drummer]

I don't know...there's still a part of me that wants to believe that Dave still wants the passion and fire of the original 4, and that it ain't all about the Benjamins.

That being said, I don't think we'll ever see the original 4 together again. So treasure the memories, folks.

I'd hope so, but then many will say if Dave really did have that desire, then he would have held out until the original band was back. But then again, what if he created some crazy scheme where he wins their trust and loyalty back and then one day suggests they bring back Mike and since they trust him, they do so. Then, all of the MA bandwagon haters rejoice that the band is back and begin to talk shit about the kid--most jokes containing references to his weight and how he just couldn't cut it (no pun intended). So there you have it, folks, Dave's scheme to get the original band back together involves a few more years of pain from the fans.

[thome]

I'd hope so, but then many will say if Dave really did have that desire, then he would have held out until the original band was back. But then again, what if he created some crazy scheme where he wins their trust and loyalty back and then one day suggests they bring back Mike and since they trust him, they do so. Then, all of the MA bandwagon haters rejoice that the band is back and begin to talk shit about the kid--most jokes containing references to his weight and how he just couldn't cut it (no pun intended). So there you have it, folks, Dave's scheme to get the original band back together involves a few more years of pain from the fans.

Who hates Mike..?

This is the way it is.

There is still a opertunity four the original 4 to jam again and if so, so be it.

Being that Wolf is family makes sense to me. Plenty of fathers send thier kids to school to become part of the family business. Isn't that what is really going on..?

To some, it is a E-Taint'ment Brittanies Tittie got stuck in... wherever those thing get stuck..

A other than,(wolf/MA) bassist would it feel the same..? Too Me..?

I can't say .

Good News Everyone Ed is writing with DLR again and Ed has confirmed it.

[indeedido]

After Dave and Sammy toured together, I recall an interview with Mike saying he got drunk and went into Dave's dressing room and chewed his ass out for the failed reunion. Something to the effect that he needed to get his shit together or something. Also in the same interview I think Mike said he didn't want to do the reunion. Hmmmm