A rumored Van Halen reunion featuring all four original members has been the subject of a lot of speculation for months now. From what Michael Anthony said in a new interview, that reunion just wasn’t in the cards.
Anthony appeared on The Howard Stern Show today (April 9), and as transcribed by Blabbermouth, he said, “I was actually contacted by their management last October, to see if I would be interested in something.” However, Anthony would continue, “And that’s basically as far as it went. I think they were trying to put something together on their end, management was, and something broke down on their end and the plug got pulled.”
Despite plans not coming to fruition, Anthony did express he’d be interested in a VH reunion “…if it was done the correct way. You know, four guys up there just doing their thing.”
Rumblings of a Van Halen reunion tour first began thanks to an interview David Lee Roth gave to Vulture in December 2018. Diamond Dave was quoted as saying, “…You know, next time my rock band will be playing the same place that the Yankees play.”
When pressed for more details on playing Yankee Stadium, DLR initially said he “can’t say,” but he ended up stating, “Well, I don’t know how far this privacy actually goes. But the band is solvent. And I can say that I contacted colleagues about being part of the show —Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Jason Aldean, the Foo Fighters, [Eric] Church, and [Chris] Stapleton. And they all said that, if everything happens, they would certainly be involved.”
Whether all of this will lead to any tour whatsoever is still unknown. Either way, it’s pretty safe to say fans won’t be seeing the original Van Halen lineup on stage together any time soon.
Erica Banas is rock/classic rock news blogger that loves the smell of old vinyl in the morning.