VHND’s exclusive interview with Michael Anthony, Parts 5 & 6
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
Here’s the next two parts of our exclusive interview with Michael Anthony, conducted last month in Cabo. Parts 1 & 2 were posted a couple weeks ago, here. Parts 3 & 4 were posted last week, here. The final two segments will be posted in a few days. Enjoy.
Part 5: The Internet, the Newest VH Books, Basses:
Part 6: Hot Sauce, Mad Anthony Xpress:
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November 25th, 2008 at 8:01 am
THE MICHAEL ANTHONY INTERVIEW WAS GOOD EXCEPT FOR THE FACK THAT HE KEEPS RAGGIN ON DAVE! COME ON,THAT SHIT IS OLD! MICHAEL SAID THAT DAVE WAS OUT ON THE ROAD MAKIN A LIVING ON THE VH LEGEND…WELL GUESS WHAT ANTHONY,THEIR ARE PEOPLE OUT THERE WHO WANTED TO SEE DAVE DO THE VH STUFF! VH WERE LEGEND WITH DAVE NOT SAMMY!!!
November 25th, 2008 at 8:30 am
Dude, there are also people out there who can find the caps lock key….and enough Dave V Sammy BS (like this will put a stop to it…) Seriously.
November 25th, 2008 at 8:46 am
Spring 2011 at the LA Forum:
DAVID LEE ROTH
EDWARD VAN HALEN
ALEX VAN HALEN
MICCHAEL ANTHONY
The greatest band in the world, tyhe mighty VAN HALEN !!!!
November 25th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Mike is nothing but class. This is the guy you want to sit and have beers with.
Most interesting parts were that he’ll hit the various websites (always wondered if some of these guys we keep in high regard actualy pay attention to what’s being written/said) and the Mad Anthony Express bit.
I don’t care which group of musicians Mike’s working with, he’ll have my respect and support. It’s all good when it comes to Mike.
MA=VH
November 25th, 2008 at 10:25 am
i cant wake up without vh– be it dlr,sam,gary– and the one common denominator is:
ed
al
mike
.
November 25th, 2008 at 11:28 am
I really hate to rag on Mike, ‘cos he brought a lot to Van Halen, and I like the guy, but I’m also really sick of the bad mouthing Dave is getting. All this crap about ‘if Dave is going out with his COVER band playing Van Halen tunes, why can’t I.’ Well, cos Dave wrote half the damn tunes, that’s why - words and melodies. Take them off the songs and what you have is a bunch of instrumentals.
People often say that all Dave ever did was do cover tunes after Van Halen, which is bull. Go to the ASCAP database of songwriters and you’ll see something quite interesting. In his entire career Dave is credited as writer on 115 songs (obviously not counting the cover tunes). Look at Eddie and it’s 120 in his career. Anybody that read the extracts of that Hagar biography that was pulled, knows that one of the reasons he became unhappy was that Alex and Mike got a cut of the songwriting royalties. It was Roth and Ed and then Sammy and Ed writing the tunes.
Dave kept working and writing new stuff and was out there playin even when the returns were diminishing. What did Ed and Al do when the fans weren’t interested (after VH III)? They stopped releasing suff.
Without Dave’s drive and ambition and nose for publicity the band would never have been what it was. Not in a million years.
November 25th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
I think Mike knows DLR a little better than anyone here. I personally find DLR to be an horses ass. When are you DLR apologists going to realize the guy has no talent who was the primary divisive influence in the band? Greatest frontman ever? I would say that job was made a hellva lot easier with Eddie, Alex and Mike.
November 25th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
what a class act, you can’t even hate this guy if you tried. On a side note to robertfludd Just cause dave is credited with 115 tunes doesn’t mean that they are all good, I heard a couple of turds that he wrote. And I didn’t realize that that dave and sammy where such prolific songwriters that they wrote al’s drum parts for him, and mikeys bass lines. Those guys had it easy.
November 25th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Sammy fans are sooo soft . They love sweet love ballads . How do you know when its love ? when Daves singing thats how! Kick ass rock n roll . Thats what dreams are made of. Dave in classic Van Halen thats all folks!! Mickeys alright but I can live with out him ! Right Now we need some Dave Right now I neeed some Eddie !
November 25th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Geez, enough already. What’s next, a 12 part interview with Gary Cherone? BOOOOOORRRRRIING.
November 25th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Van Halen with Dave ==> It’s all there is. Feel good metal. It’s just fire, chemistry, powerful kick ass rock! Great show, lots of fun too!
Van Halen with Sammy ==> Nice listenable music…
November 25th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
i m 56 yrs old.loved vh but did not buy 1st lp til sammy.he took the band forward. dave too limeted vocally.if u ever met dave u would grow tired of him in about 1 min.dave made great stuff with vh but sammy made it better. mike is the constonant to it all.what a class guy.he and sammy keep rocking while al and ed sleep.
November 25th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
I’ve been a Halen for 30 years and really love MA, but this ripping on Roth is getting old. You know, Anthony, Roth and Eddie MADE you; it certainly wasn’t that crap (OU812/Balance etc…) that you made with Hagar.
I followed VH with Hagar because of Eddie and loyalty to the band, but let’s be honest, every Halen fan was waiting for a Roth reunion as early as post-For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1993).
Roth, “living off the VH name?”. We wanted to see ‘Runnin’ With the Devil” the way it’s supposed to be sung, not by that hack Hagar on the 2004-Train-wreck of a tour. DLR wrote all of the lyrics and brought an unmatched personality to the band. Roth and Eddie MADE the name Van Halen. End of story!
Now, since the new AC/DC album is average, the Metallica album was very good (but not great), and the new Guns N’ Roses album is very mediocre, the only album that rock fans can look forward to is the new Van Halen in 2009. Roth will not let us down.
November 26th, 2008 at 1:48 am
iain5150 - ah, but that’s where things get complicated. Songwriting credits are registered on the basis of the elements of the song that appear on the sheet music - this is how ASCAP and performing rights organisations have always operated. So credit is not automatically assigned on the basis of things like bass lines and drum parts, because these are not so-called ‘written’ parts (i.e., they don’t appear on the sheet music for the songs). That doesn’t mean this is fair, or that bass and drum parts are not important - everybody knows they are. Session musicians never get songwriting credits when they come up with bass lines and drum parts, which they do all the time. The point is that if you take away the bass and the drums, you can still sing the songs - that’s Dave contribution (words and vocal melody). Take away everything but the guitar - leave Eddie’s parts - and you can still recognise the song. But you can’t always recognise a song that easily from the bass parts or the drum parts. Look at Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’ - he is the credited writer, but I doubt that he came up with much more than the idea for the main riff, the words and the vocal melody. He never told Eddie what to play, and I bet he didn’t tell Steve Lukather or the other musicians what riff and parts to play.
VH only split songwriting royalties four ways because they were a tight-knit gang in the beginning. Sure, Dave wrote some real duds in his time, but so did Eddie. An so did Hagar - so does everyone if they keep going for long enough. The point I was making is that Dave KEPT at it. Why didn’t Mike make a solo album? Easy, ‘cos he’s not a songwriter. That’s no slight on Mike, because he was great in VH and was crucial to what the band was and how it sounded. But let’s give credit where it is due - the band as a creative songwriting unit was Eddie and Dave. Eddie has explicitly said this interviews (look at the Steve Rosen interviews from the Dave era).
November 26th, 2008 at 5:23 am
Very well thought out and put Robert.
November 26th, 2008 at 6:51 am
DLR as a songwriter? I would suggest picking up the VH Book that came out last year (in which Mike talks about in these interviews) and read what Ted Templeman had to say about DLR songwriting abilities. It’s right there for everyone to see who thinks DLR is/was a good songwriter.
November 26th, 2008 at 11:37 am
the only thing Eddie did for beat it was the solo. he didn’t write anything. he didn’t even write the solo, according to him he just went into the studio and winged it. How do I know? I read it in a Guitar World…it was either a VH tribute (with collected interviews, I have one for Zep too) or just an interview from a reguluar monthly. I don’t know what Beat it credits look like, but I know what Ed said he did.
And DLR was/is an energentic frontman. Sammy was/is a musician and singer. There’s a difference people, deal with it.
November 26th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Bring all the singers back let them all tour together and give us one great show.
November 26th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
3 singers and 2 bass players…
why not?
November 26th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Mike,
Thanks for takin the time to do these interviews…Everybody has a right to their own opinions and that is cool. I am not knocking anybody here…I for one enjoy these interviews and could care less about some of the comments made. I think Mike is only doing these interviews because he cares about the fans…Michael Anthony is a CLASS act…if you haven’t figured it out by now go watch the Van Halen RRHOF
induction ceremony….Thanks for the music you have made with Van Halen, and we look forward to more great music & tours with the RedRocker!!!!! I’ve been a
Van Halen fan since ‘79 and the 07′ tour was great but just wasn’t the same with out you…My g/f has been bit by the ole’ Cabo Wabo….So now you know where we’re headin’ :o)
November 27th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Well, well, well. Out of those hundreds of comments asking Mike questions. Nobody thought to ask Mike an in depth question about the way Van Halen wrote songs. Alright Jeff, get Mikey on the phone!
-Kenny from Ohio