Michael Anthony says he was part of the discussions regarding a possible Van Halen tribute project featuring Alex Van Halen, David Lee Roth and Joe Satriani.
During his appearance on The Mitch Lafon & Jeremy White Show, Anthony was asked by co-host Jeremy White if he was aware of the recent story making its rounds among the classic rock community regarding a possible Van Halen tribute tour, concert or series of concerts featuring Alex, Roth and Satriani. The story quickly went viral last month after former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted commented to the Florida’s Palm Beach Post that he was approached to be part of a possible Van Halen tour.
“The only thing that was kind of a surprise to me was the Jason Newsted thing, when he came out and said that Alex had talked to him,” Anthony said. “[That’s] interesting because I actually had been talking on a conference call with [manager/promotor] Irving Azoff, Alex and Dave last year so I don’t know what the Jason thing was all about.
“I spoke to Joe [Satriani] about it, and it was more just something [they were] kicking around,” he added. “Alex is still in kind of mourning or whatever you want to say so I don’t know if it was just nothing more than everyone talking. But I did have some talks with Dave and Alex last year so I’m not really sure where the Jason Newsted thing came out of because we had been discussing this for well over a year.”
Anthony concluded by saying he has no news to report regarding a tribute but he’s hopeful it’ll happen eventually.
“As far as right now, everything’s pretty quiet,” he said. “I hope something happens in the future. I think Joe was mentioning it in that interview he did that it’s more of like a celebration of the band and the music rather than calling it VAN HALEN. Obviously because, Eddie being probably the most integral part of the whole band, you can’t really call it Van Halen after that.”
Anthony also talked about Van Halen’s Live Without A Net concert video from 1986, the band’s 1998 album Van Halen III featuring Gary Cherone, recording “Me Wise Magic” and “Can’t Get This Stuff No More” with Roth for the 1996 Best Of Volume I album, whether or not we’ll ever see the release of a Van Halen concert from the Dave era and more in the video below: