Manager Confirms That Van Halen Were Plotting a Reunion with Michael Anthony

Whispers that Van Halen were plotting a reunion with bassist Michael Anthony have been swirling since at least the end of 2018, when David Lee Roth claimed that the band were planning a huge show at Yankee Stadium for the summer of 2019. That admission soon turned into a full-blown rumors that the group was actually plotting an entire tour, in which Anthony would would be included. A few months later, Anthony revealed that although he hadn’t spoken to Eddie or Alex Van Halen in fifteen years, he had been contacted by Van Halen management about the reunion in October of 2018.

Needless to say, that never ended up happening. But in case Anthony’s word isn’t good enough for you, now mega-manager Irving Azoff, who repped Van Halen, has re-confirmed to Pollstar that this tour was in the works. In fact, Azoff suggests talks got further than just contacting Anthony:

“We had lots of stops and starts, but there was every intention of doing a summer stadium tour (in 2019), and as the cancer moved around, [Eddie Van Halen] was physically unable to do it.”

Azoff says the tour, which would have featured “major special guests like Foo Fighters and Metallica,” never happened because “the past couple of years [Eddie] he was really unable to record or play.”

Elsewhere in the same interview, Azoff discusses the possibility of previously-unreleased Van Halen music finding its way out into the world now that EVH has passed:

“Wolf[gang] and Alex [Van Halen] will go up to 5150, the studio in Ed’s house, but there’s been a lot of recording over the year. I can’t predict that for sure there will be anything new, but for sure they’re going to look at it.”

You can read the entire interview here.

Following Eddie’s death earlier this week, Michael Anthony posted the below tribute to the late guitar player, stating that he was “heartbroken” and had “no words” to express his grief:

[via Metal Injection]