FRONT PAGE: Sammy and MA talk

[NealIsGod]

Andrew posted some interesting stuff on the front page, lead story. Here's an excerpt. Go check it out.

Many tour reports suggested guitar legend Eddie Van Halen was out of sorts due to a storm of recent troubles including cancer, divorce and reports of heavy drinking. Whatever the problems, the tour was not resting well with Anthony, whose loyalty to Hagar strained his relations with the Van Halen brothers.
"I've always tried to skate around these questions," Anthony says. "But the fact of the matter is when we did the tour in 2004, Ed didn't want me there because of my relationship with Sammy. I sucked it up and took less pay, because I thought if it was the last time Van Halen went out and toured, and I wasn't part of it, I would really be upset.
"To sign on to do the tour, they made me relinquish any rights and claims I had to the (Van Halen) name, the logo, whatever. At this point, there is basically nothing going on as far as Van Halen goes. It's tough to say that, but I'm not going to sugarcoat anything any more."
Hagar says he is in the same boat as Anthony when it comes to forecasting the future.
"I wish Alex was my brother and I've said that to him many times," Hagar says, regarding the Van Halen drummer. "Ed and Al are tight as hell and you ain't going to get between them. When you're with them, you're an outsider so Mike and I were always buddying up when Ed and Al would start speaking (their native) Dutch and smoking cigarettes and getting in fistfights (laughs).
"I don't have a lot of faith in another Van Halen reunion. I'd be totally willing if everything was cool, but I'll tell you straight up, everything's not cool."

[Red13JoePa]

Yep, and all-around eye opening read by Andrew. COnfirms a lot of rumors heard. I can't believe what they did to MA. And if they thought the tour in '04 which was huge, would've been NEAR as successful w/ him (their bassist in a goddam quartet).....just no way.

Love the Sammy quote about them speaking Dutch, too.