Michael Anthony has commented on Alex Van Halen’s decision to auction off his personal instrument and gear collection and why he wouldn’t be surprised if Alex never returns to the stage again.
Below is an excerpt from Anthony’s recent Ultimate Guitar interview contributed to the Van Halen News Desk by UG writer Greg Prato:
Although he’s not entirely sure why his former bandmate Alex Van Halen decided to quit music altogether, bassist Michael Anthony has an idea of why that may be the case.
After Eddie Van Halen’s unfortunate passing in 2020, Alex did plan to move on with the tribute act. This new band was supposedly to feature Joe Satriani on guitar, David Lee Roth on vocals, and, at one point, Jason Newsted on bass. However, now that some time has passed, it turns out that Alex doesn’t feel like doing anything about it anymore and has decided to sell all of his gear at an auction.
Recently, we sat down with Michael Anthony and asked him what he thinks about Alex’s decision to call it quits and sell his stuff.
Are you still in contact with Alex Van Halen? Why do you think he doesn’t want to perform music anymore?
“I haven’t spoken to Alex in a while, probably about a year. And I actually texted him on his birthday this month [May 2024], and I didn’t hear anything back from him.”
“But yeah, I was pretty surprised when I heard about this auction that he’s going to be holding in the beginning of June. Somebody had sent me the link to it, and it appears like he’s selling everything right down to his last drumstick. So, I don’t know. I really couldn’t tell you.”
“I know that he continues to grieve today over Eddie’s passing. And basically, Eddie was the only person that he actually ever played music with.”
“I never really knew Alex to be a person to go out and jam with other people or other bands. Unless Eddie was a part of it. Maybe he feels that… Since his brother’s gone, he doesn’t feel the desire to go out and play anymore. But I can only speculate. When I found out about this auction and started checking it out, it is pretty sad, because it truly means that it’s the end of anything that that could have been as far as tribute-wise, you know?”