Van Halen's Michael Anthony: The Complete 1981 Interview (HD Audio)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2023
- In 1974 bassist Michael Anthony joined the Van Halen brothers in the band that bears their family name. By the time of our interview seven years later, he was regularly delighting concert goers with an extended bass solo that climaxed with his jumping on his bass. Most of the time, though, he played a supporting role. As Eddie said at the time of my interview with Michael, “Mike Anthony is a damned good bass player. When my brother Al and Mike are playing, it’s an open world for me. I can do whatever I want. They’re right there backing me up, feeding me.” Michael’s harmony vocals were essential to the classic Van Halen sound.
Shortly after recording Fair Warning, Michael agreed to do a wide-ranging interview on his role in the band. Our conversation took place on July 22, 1981. As you'll hear, we discussed his musical upbringing, instruments, the evolution of his extended onstage solo, and the limitations of playing hard rock. He explains how Van Halen arranges songs in Dr. Roth’s basement and the role producer Ted Templeman plays in this process. Michael also covers his favorite recordings with Van Halen and the benefits and pitfalls of success. We wrapped up the conversation with his advice for young players. An edited print version of this appeared in the October 1981 issue of Guitar Player magazine.
In all, Michael played bass on Van Halen’s first 11 albums. In 2006 he was permanently replaced by Eddie’s son Wolfgang. After that, he worked with former Van Halen vocalist Sammy Hagar in Chickenfoot, featuring Joe Satriani on guitar. He currently plays with Sammy Hagar and the Circle. You can follow his exploits by visiting his official Mad Anthony Café website at madanthonycafe.com/.
I hope you enjoy this unique recording, and be sure to check out the other historic Van Halen interviews on the Talking Guitar TH-cam channel. To help us continue producing podcasts, please hit that donate button and send some cheer our way: paypal.me/TalkingGuitar.
A special thanks to engineer/producer Nik Hunt for enhancing the sound of the 42-year-old master tape and to Michael Anthony for approving our posting it. For more guitar-intensive podcasts and articles, visit my online Talking Guitar magazine at jasobrecht.substack.com/. #vanhalen #michaelanthony #eddievanhalen #edwardvanhalen #jasobrecht #talkingguitar #nikhunt #guitarplayermagazine
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Michael's background vocalsare essential to the Van Halen sound.
Yep and his bass playing was a perfect fit in Van Halen. He’s a great rhythm bass player. He sits right in the pocket and keeps the song moving. He didn’t get in Eddie’s way but held down the bottom end. While Wolf is an incredible talent, sometimes he’s overplaying would muddy the sound and take away from the groove of the songs, especially the earlier tunes like Dance The Night Away and Beautiful Girls. Those songs have pep in their step and with Wolf they were too powerful.
@@Iknowthelaw13 An interesting comparison
Wow, he sounds so down to earth, and he was still only 26. Great interview, thanks.
The background engine of Van Halen and a genuinely lovely guy. You never hear a bad word against Michael.
Except from the members of VH.
Only Van Halens talked trash about him when he left the band. Yes, the brothers were as talented as they were butthurted pricks.
Always a great and humble guy.
Thanks so much for making these gems available to everyone! Big thanks Jas!
As a kid I thought I read every interview but I never saw this one and I love it ! Always wondered about the always great ..Michael Anthony!
Let's be honest...it's that voice.
Just continuing to blow my mind!
Michael is the most underrated bass player, background vocalists and pros in rock history. 💀🔥
Noone UNDERRATES HIM. ONLY YOU.
Thanks again for sharing these wonderful interviews! Michael Anthony ROCKS! 🤘
Mike is the man! His bass and back-up vocals made those early VH albums with DLR, as obvious by how bad "A Different Kind of Truth" sounded without him.
ADKOT is awesome. Yes, Mike’s harmonies would make it even better - and being an original member would’ve made it even better - but Wolf’s a better bass player.
Great interview.
This stuff is amazing Jas!!!
M. Anthony Was A Great Background Singer & Knew How To Bang That Bass To Fit In With Ed Running Around & Roth Doin His Song & Dance, While Alex Had The High Hat"s !!!!, My Opinion Woman & Children Was The Best !!!!! So Damn Ahead Of It"s Time !!!!
Love EVH but I'm calling b.s. on his quote about showing Mike how to play bass. lol
Mike said himself he picked up a bass himself starting around junior high school. He learned the art of bass playing from that age. He’s not a guitar player who played bass instead. He’s a real bass player. Ed said as much in like 79. It’s why the best VH songs have Mike playing in his element instead of Ed forcing him to the sidelines or playing bass himself. It’s a different specialty.
Well, Sammy Hagar said the same thing in his book, and they are buddies. I think you're exaggerating what was said. What actually was said is more believable. Eddie had to show him how to play certain songs. He would take the bass, play something, and say "this is what you should do here to go with what I am playing". I've played professionally and saw more than once our guitar player show the bass player parts. It's natural. Ted Templeman and Hagar both said that not only did Eddie teach Mike how to play certain things, but there is music on early albums that what we hear was actually Eddie, but they kept it secret. What I have picked up reading between the lines, reading and listening to interviews, Fair Warning has some moments where it's Eddie playing.
Additionally, Mike never denied what Eddie said. He downplayed it a bit, taking an angle that he taught himself. But he never denied Eddie would teach him parts.
Michael Anthony was screwed by the Van Halen Brothers, he's owed an apology.
Van fucking Halen.
Thanks for sharing! I think Mike was born in 1954 though, not 1955... wonder why he said 1955? 😆
It was DLR's idea to convince the band members to say they're 2 years younger than they are. Michael is still maintaining the ruse in '81
Has Michael ever said what led him to do the iconic mouth-pluck (not sure what the correct term is) for the opening to Runnin' With the Devil? Wondering if it was his own idea or a suggestion from somebody in the band or elsewhere. Or possibly part of another song from their cover days, which he then used for RWTD.
I'm not sure what you're talking about. What you're probably hearing is Edward Van Halen picking some notes behind the nut on the guitar not Michael Anthony's bass at all
@@RGZ112 To be clear, I'm referring to what Mike's doing 13 seconds into this '78 video: th-cam.com/video/i5txwFv-zYM/w-d-xo.html
@@funhistory interesting, but I doubt that's what he actually did on the album. That was strictly for show. It looks like in the video that his teeth are not even touching the strings anyway
Definitely not what he's doing on the record. Might've done it live. Jimi Hendrix played with his teeth as did others before him. Definitely for show.
@@RGZ112 he did it live period
I never noticed Bruce Lee was standing in for Al!
It's weird to hear that Ed ever had good words for Mike…. he said so many bad things about him… He went so far as to say that he was not a musician
As time wore on and the years stacked up, Eddie became more and more bitter at the financial situation/agreement that was set up in the early days of the band. Who knows why they did that. But each member got a 25% writing credit for each song published. For example: Eruption is 100% EVH's work. No lyrics and not much else. Just guitar. It was his warm up riff. But all four members are credited for writing it just like on all the songs. This wore on Ed. Michael Anthony was a great bass player and an amazing performer and musician, but was not a major creative force in the band. Ed wrote the music in collaboration with the singer(s). It just continually rubbed Ed the wrong way album after album. Ed took out his frustration in the wrong way, but that's the source of it all. If MA was not a good musician and performer there is no way in hell EVH or Roth would've tolerated a hack. Ultimately, Ed was also trying to edge MA out of the band as he had a dream to go on tour with his son in the band. But MA had stated he was already not a legally official member of the band during the Van Halen III era with Gary. He agreed to a MUCH less paying contract than ever before and did it just for the fans. When the van Halen bros were strapped for cash and wanted to make a quick money grab, they did that 04 reunion tour with Sammy. The MAJOR sticking point in getting Sammy back for the tour was Ed didn't want MA back. My understanding was it ultimately came down to, Ed agreed to it, if MA got paid out of Sammy's percentage. Before the first show had been played, there was already acrimony and it all came back to money. The Cabo Wabo deal is a whole other story and debacle.
I agree with all you said but what bothers me is that even after all that he made those comments about Mike in the 2015 Billboard interview. I’m glad at least they had their manager call him in 2018 for the planned reunion but wish Mike and Ed had talked and cleared the air the way Sam and Ed did before he passed. Regardless I love EVH.
@@mindeloman I sometimes wonder how much of the songs Eddie actually wrote completely. I know he wrote all of those amazing riffs and provided the initial vehicle and inspiration for the songs, but according to Sammy and Dave in their books, they, the singers not only wrote all of the words but also wrote the melody to many of the songs. I think Ted also helped Dave flesh out the melody. It seemed that Eddie seemed to minimize the contribution of lyrics and melody to the overall song. Without the singers we are left with instrumentals like the Ripley tune. It has shape and structure but needed Dave to finally add melody and lyrics to turn it into the song Blood and Fire. Some of Eddie's keyboard tunes (Love Walks in) have the melody written into the riff but I really wonder how much of the melodies to the guitar tunes were written by Dave or Sammy.
The Performing Rights Society (Britain's version of ASCAP or BMI) actually appropriates 50% of publishing to the lyricist, 25% for Melody and 25% for arrangement, chord structure riffs etc. They do recommend that in band situations it is better to have a distribution of royalties appropriated for non writing members just for the sake of band politics( especially if those musicians are in the room when a piece of music or song is been written and arranged, as their presence is aiding in the music's creation.)
I have no idea who did what, but according to EVH he wrote the music, but I want to know who wrote the songs? I can only guess that all of the members contributed, but if Dave or Sammy had been real assholes, they could have argued for 75% of publishing, in cases where they were responsible for melody as well as lyrics.
@@mancuniancandidatem I saw in an interview that there were songs where Sammy and Ed worked out the melodies together. "Finish What You Started" was 100% joint effort. The way Van Halen was structured legally was each member owned 25% of the songs. Ed really grew to detest that arrangement over the years and is part of forcing Michael Anthony out. MA obviously contributed but only in a minor way but he was getting equally paid as everyone else. How would you feel if you wrote instrumentals and 3 other people and you get writing credit. Pete Townshend of The Who write complete songs with all parts done and in demo tapes. Then they would go into studio as a band and record them as The Who. This gave him full writing credit. The thing that always pissed me off was The Beach Boys. Bryan Wilson wrote everything but the lyrics. He was not a lyricist. So Dennis Wilson and Mike Love would contribute. But Mike would throw in random parts and get a wiring credit for a song he had little involvement. If you listen to "Wouldn't It Be Nice." Mike's contribution to that song is the outro with "good night with my baby....." He got a writing credit for that bullshit. Just stupid.
@@mindeloman I understand what your saying, as far as Eruption and instrumentals go. I know this is the age old problem with bands, and really percentages needs to be dealt with as soon as the band becomes a business entity from the get go.
I wonder though, how much of EVH's problem with MA was more due to some dark natured, possibly alcohol related insecurities, or even family orientated defensiveness, as opposed to money. He had everything and more. Lamborghini's, Ferrari's, A TV star Actress Wife, a Hollywood Hills Mansion, guitar companies and endorsements, as well as millions of fans and a majorly successful band. There is a good chance that if MA had never joined the band, never shown up to all of the rehearsals and commited the first half of his life to the band, then possibly fait would have never have delivered EVH the success that he achieved.
I'm just guessing here, but I also think, if MA had actually shown up to rehearsal with song ideas then they would have been immediately shot down and possibly, he might have been pushed out of the band much earlier. I think he always had to play a neutral character in-between the EGO's of the brothers and DLR (and Sammy) and that was partly why the band were able to be successful for as long as they were.
I know bands like U2 have a four way split on everything and I think it does wonders for longevity.
The opposite would be a band like Men At Work, whose first album sold 10, 000,000 copies, but by the time the band finished touring for their second album, they imploded over money squabbles.
You need to add a superchat thank you via YT for tips!!
makes you wonder why Ed continually shit all over Anthony after he gave up a majority of his royalties after 1984 per Noel Monk's book.
It’s not hard to crack. Ed was a drunk and was in over his head once he got his own studio. He thought he was the sole force in the band and everyone else was a hired hand. No surprise the music went slowly downhill once 5150 was built.
Michael had a better voice than Roth. MA could sing "Child in Time", Roth on his best day in his tightest pair of spandex or assless chaps could have never pulled that off....
yeah, but could you imagine him fronting Van Halen?
neither can I.............
@@pb12661 Roth was there for his image, hair and his flamboyant/gay personality...then he went bald and if became more evident that the guy was a shitty singer....
Why do you think your taste in singers is somehow the center of the universe? Roth obviously is the voice of VH. Mike could never sing those songs. I prefer Dave. Mike is good for high range backup singing. Difference is, I wouldn't be so retarded to claim my taste is best. It's art, not bowling.