Michael Anthony looks back on Van Halen’s 2004 tour as one of those “what could have been” experiences.
During a recent interview with Ultimate Guitar’s Greg Prato, Anthony discussed the troubled Van Halen tour that took place 20 summers ago. It launched on June 11th, 2004, and lasted 80s shows until the plug was pulled. Here is the article Prato originally posted to Ultimate Guitar and shared with the VHND:
Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony reflected on the band’s 2004 tour and all the problems that they faced at the time.
All artists had their difficult times, one way or the other. As far as Van Halen goes, the 2004 tour, which saw them get back together with Sammy Hagar, was a tough one. The band’s internal problems and some of Eddie Van Halen’s personal problems resulted in somewhat disappointing performances. In short, audiences weren’t really happy with what they witnessed on the stage.
In our recent interview with Michael Anthony, just as he was preparing for The Best of All Worlds run, we reflected on the early 2000s and the tour that saw Van Halen in distress. When asked about it, Sammy Hagar’s recollection of the tour in his book, as well as Eddie’s state at the time, the bassist replied:
“Well, Eddie did have his demons back then, which I’m not going to get into because I don’t like to talk about that stuff. But, it was a tour that we should have gone around the world three, four times.”
“And it just wasn’t meant to be,” Anthony said. “I know Sammy was frustrated a lot of the time. And Eddie, he wasn’t really in any shape to do any real lengthy tour, not to get into the specifics.”
Despite the tensions and Eddie’s “demons,” they still managed to pull off quite a run. On the other hand, it could have been better, and the tour was supposed to go on for much longer. Michael concluded by adding:
“But we were lucky what we got out of it. I think we did like 80 dates or something like that. And then we just had to pull the plug on it. And it was really sad.”