Former Van Halen bass player Michael Anthony says he has just one regret from his decades-long career in music.
Anthony, 70, was Van Halen's longest serving bassist – holding down the role from 1974 to 2006 and appearing on the band's first 11 albums.
The band's figurehead and iconic guitar virtuoso Eddie Van Halen died from cancer in 2020 at the age of 65. And with his passing, any chance of the various former members coming together to send Van Halen off with a bang disappeared.
That, says Anthony, is a major regret.
He tells Get on the Bus: "The only regret that I have is how things, unfortunately, turned out for Van Halen. It should have gone out with a fricking bang that shook the world, and it was more like a whimper, the way everything ended."
Despite life being like a "fairytale" when Van Halen were firing on all cylinders, the tensions between the members was often an insurmountable problem, Anthony explains.
And he says he and Eddie never worked it out before the guitarist's death.
He adds: "We had some issues, and I'm sure that if he had not passed when he did that we would've reconciled or we would've really calmed all that stuff down, because I did hear, and I've talked to Wolfgang about it, that they were planning on coming to all of us and putting together a big reunion tour with all of us.
"And at that point in Ed's life, I think he was a little bit more, like, 'Hey, the past is the past. Water under the bridge. But, unfortunately, it was not to be."
Eddie's son, Wolfgang Van Halen, replaced Anthony in the band and has since gone on the have success with his Mammoth project – while resisting calls from some fans to perform Van Halen songs.
