Michael Anthony opened up about Van Halen’s 2004 tour with Sammy Hagar and its challenges in a recent chat with Ultimate Guitar. When asked about Hagar’s words about the reunion shows in his memoir and Eddie Van Halen’s condition at the time, the bassist shared:
“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.”
He went on:
“And it just wasn’t meant to be. I know Sammy was frustrated a lot of the time. And Eddie, he wasn’t really in any condition to do any real lengthy tour, not to get into the specifics.”
‘It Was Really Sad,’ Anthony Thinks
Summer Tour 2004 brought in almost 55 million dollars and became one of that year’s top 10 highest-grossing treks. Still, the shows received mixed reviews from critics, and videos showing Eddie drunk on stage spread on social media.
Anthony commented on the overall experience:
“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.”
The bassist is now set to join Sammy Hagar again for their upcoming ‘The Best of All Worlds’ tour. They will perform Van Halen classics in North America and Japan starting August 3.
