“A flag bearer”: Sammy Hagar on the only innocent member of Van Halen
Any band breakup tends to be a hot mess before the dust even settles. Regardless of how many artists want to have clean splits with some of their musical comrades, it only takes a few mean-spirited jabs for someone to wash their hands of their old mates, dig up old dirt on them, or decide never to speak to them ever again. While Sammy Hagar admitted to being blindsided by Van Halen after being replaced by Gary Cherone, he felt that only one member of the band got away clean throughout the ordeal.
Then again, Van Halen’s power dynamic was always centred around Eddie. Even with a frontman as electrifying as David Lee Roth, no one really questioned the fact that it was Eddie’s band, and any creative decisions usually had to go through him if they had any hope of getting on a record.
And when Hagar joined, it seemed that everything would be alright, if only because ‘The Red Rocker’ was more mellow. He had that everyman mentality that Eddie was looking for, but after almost the same amount of time that Roth had been in the group, Hagar was thrown for a loop when he got a call that he was out of the group.
Then again, Eddie had a history of contentious relationships with both Hagar and Roth. Even though Hagar was out, Roth was back in for a split second until showing up at the MTV Awards in 1996, which led to one of the most uncomfortable award receptions in history where Eddie looked like he wanted to have a theatrical hook to drag ‘Diamond Dave’ offstage if he could.
All the while, Michael Anthony never really claimed to have any harsh words for either singer. Since he knew his gig as the one holding down the low end and breaking out the harmonies, he was always the unassuming guy who happened to be in one of the biggest bands in the world, and regardless of what would happen down the road, he was never going to get into that kind of drama.
Even when Hagar left, he admitted that Anthony became one of the noblest musicians the group ever had in his eyes, saying, “He was the only guy in the band that’s innocent in all this. Mikey has never been a part of the band as far as sharing in the profits or the creative side of it or anything. He’s always been the hired gun in the band and just didn’t have an opinion. But yet he was the guy that I can tell you right now was more of a flag bearer for Van Halen than anyone in the band.”
At a certain point, though, Anthony got a raw deal for his allegiance to Hagar. Despite never having a bad word to say about Eddie or Alex, the bassist would be replaced by Wolfgang Van Halen once they reformed with Roth in the 2000s, all while Eddie accused the former four-stringer of not being that proficient behind the fretboard.
While it probably stings not being a part of one of the biggest bands in the world, Anthony has rarely shown any resentment towards his old bandmates in the years that followed. If nothing else, getting Wolfie behind the bass and seeing him grow into one of the greatest up-and-comers today while Anthony still works with Hagar is a case where everybody wins to a certain extent.
