FAIR WARNING
Michael Anthony opens up about long overdue phone call with Alex Van Halen
Van Halen News Desk — Former Van Halen and current Chickenfoot and The Circle bassist Michael Anthony was interviewed by the one and only Eddie Trunk on the latter’s new Trunk Radio show on SiriusXM channel Volume 106 on October 21, 2016. A recording of part of the interview has surfaced on YouTube via Sam Alvarado and was recently posted by the Van Halen News Desk.
Anthony spoke to Trunk about many subjects including the ill-fated reunion between Roth and the rest of Van Halen back in 1996, Van Halen‘s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and whether there is any unfinished business with Van Halen.
Trunk asked Anthony when was the last time that he had any exchange with Alex or Eddie Van Halen to which Anthonyreplied (as transcribed by Sleaze Roxx):
“You know what? This is pretty interesting Eddie. There’s a mutual friend of Alex‘s and mine. His name is Craig DeFalco and this is a guy who was a tech for me for awhile. He was actuallyEddie‘s tech — uh, I don’t know if it was the 2007 tour — but he teched for him for one of the tours and he stayed in touch with us, Alex basically. I am living; I’ve got a relatively new place out here at the beach in Southern California and this guy Craig, he had never seen my house so he came out. He had been on tour with Lenny Kravitz or someone doing… and had a break. So we went out on a boat. I was like ‘We’ll cruise around the bay. You know, you can check the place out.’ So you know as it goes, I had a couple of cocktails and next thing you know, we’re talking about the band, the good old days and all that stuff ’cause he did I think at least two or three Van Halen tours with me back in the ’80s and uh, so, next thing you know, I got him holding his iPhone up and I am shooting a video going ‘Hey Alex man. Just talking about the good times and you know, everything that is going on, I’ve got all these heroes of ours. People that we grew up listening to starting to drop left and right. It’s like Oh my God!’
And so later on, we’re at my house, er my buddy and myself — Craigand his phone rings and it was Alex. And he’s like ‘Tell Mike I said hi.’ Next thing I know, he’s handing me the phone and he’s like, ‘Here. Alwants to talk to you.’ And I’m like, ‘Whhhaaat?’ And this is, this is this past May [2016]. I hadn’t spoke to Alex in like ten years I think — ten, eleven years. And you know, nothing heavy. I didn’t want to get into anything about the band but you know, it was just great to talk. We talked for about 20 minutes and had a great conversation — just about life in general and [laughs] getting older and just what’s going around in the music industry you know. And it was actually really great talking to him.”
Read more transcribed content from Michael Anthony’s interview at SleazeRoxx
