Mammoth WVH founder Wolf Van Halen talked about how he started to play bass guitar and what he thinks about former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony by referring to the basses in Van Halen songs during his recent interview with Guitar World.
Michael Anthony had been Van Halen’s bassist from 1974 to 2006 whose performance as a bassist was always appreciated by the longtime Van Halen fans. However, the problems between him and Eddie Van Halen started when Sammy Hagar left the band for the second time as a part of the band’s reunion with David Lee Roth.
Then, Anthony began playing with Hagar and The Waboritas and Van Halen simultaneously which wasn’t approved by Eddie. His friendship with ex-Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar and private business entrepreneurs caused his departure from the band. Later, Eddie announced that his son Wolf Van Halen would replace Michael Anthony.
As a multi-instrumentalist, who learned how to play many instruments such as drums, basses, keyboard when he was very young, Wolfgang proved that he is very talented even though some fans still hate him since he replaced Anthony. In the recent interview, Wolf praised Anthony’s skills as a bassist saying that he is fantastic who ‘really locks in with the drums.’
Wolf stated in his interview that:
“It was shortly after I picked up the guitar, so it was probably around 13 or 14. I just started jamming for fun, with no intention at all of going anywhere, you know. I made a playlist of Van Halen songs and learned a bunch of them. My dad and I just started jamming on stuff, and we did that for months, just for fun, which is when I really started to get comfortable on the instrument.
Van Halen’s basslines really lend themselves to being able to interpret things your own way. They’re very locked into the groove, so you can find little fun moments to f’ck around if you will. Mike Anthony is such a fantastic bassist – he really locks in with the drums.”
It seems that Wolf Van Halen didn’t forget to give credit to Michael Anthony as the person who inspired him to learn to play bass guitar by practicing with Van Halen’s iconic songs, even though it was rumored that he made so-called evil plan to replace Anthony.
