MICHAEL ANTHONY Doesn't Want The 'Drama' That Comes Along With Being In VAN HALEN

November 18, 2011

Joe Charupakorn of Premier Guitar recently conducted an interview with CHICKENFOOT/ex-VAN HALEN bassist Michael Anthony. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Premier Guitar: Michael, there's a rumor that you're the richest among the original VAN HALEN members. Is that true?

Anthony: [Laughs.] Well, everybody used to joke that I saved the first dollar that I ever made in VAN HALEN. I probably did somewhere. You know what?! My wife Sue and I, we just celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary in February. That might have something to do with it, because every guy in VAN HALEN is divorced a couple of them a couple of times. So, of course, that's going to tax their account a little bit.

Premier Guitar: Some people out there say CHICKENFOOT is in it just for the money, but you guys don't really need the money. Sammy [Hagar] made something like 80 million dollars selling a share of his tequila business.

Anthony: And that was just selling the first 80 percent. Once he sold the last 20 percent, I'm sure he made a good penny on that, too. The best part about CHICKENFOOT is that nobody needs the money. We've got nothing we need to prove to anybody. We wanted this to be a fun band and when we get in the studio it's just so loose, relaxed, and open. It's like the early days of VAN HALEN. Everybody's just throwing in their input and having a great time making music. We don't want any pressure and we said if any came up, we should just stop doing this.

Premier Guitar: Michael, if the situation presented itself, would you rejoin VAN HALEN?

Anthony: At this point in my life and career, I'm so happy with what I'm doing and I want to have fun making music. I don't want any drama. That whole drama thing in VAN HALEN, the way it ended up, I was like, "I'd rather make no money having fun playing music than make a shitload of money tearing my hair out." Maybe when I was 20, it would have been different, but not at this point. I want to keep my sanity.

Read the entire interview from Premier Guitar,.'

Photo below courtesy of Mad Anthony Cafe

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