Michael Anthony says there's a "ton of stuff" in the Van Halen vaults that could be released

Van Halen group shot — (Image credit: Michael Ochs Archives)

Former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony says there's a significant amount of material in the Van Halen archive that has yet to see the light of day. Anthony was speaking with SiriusXM's Eddie Trunk.

"We're starting a bunch of the re-issue stuff with the Sammy (Hagar) years, with all his albums, and the first one that will come out will be the Right Here, Right Now live album that we did in 1992," says Anthony. "We're digging back into stuff. There's a lot more stuff at Ed's 5150 studio; Wolfie or Alex will start going through stuff there and see what there is. There's a ton of stuff."

Anthony also reveals that an archive of live audio from the band that's "almost album quality", including recordings made via the live mixing desk, as well as well as video footage dating back to the early 1980s.

"I know for a fact all like early tours we used to record every single show," adds Anthony. "That was just for the band so that we could critique ourselves after every show and and this went on for a few years. Like the first the first few tours we would record almost every show. And I'm sure, somewhere around Eddie's house, or Wolfgang's got them now, they've got a lot of these tapes."

Last month, Anthony told Trunk he was working on a new project.

"I wasn't going to mention anything about it, but there is a little side project thing that I've kind of been speaking to some people and might be doing a couple of things with,” Anthony said. “I don't wanna get ahead of myself and mention too much, but it might involve [Bon Jovi guitarist] Phil X and John Douglas, who you know as the [touring] drummer for Aerosmith right now."

Anthony's departure from Van Halen was announced in 2006 after more than three decades in the job, but three years later he returned with Chickenfoot alongside fellow Van Halen alumni Sammy Hagar, guitar wiz Joe Satriani, and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. More recently, Anthony has been anchoring another Hagar supergroup, The Circle.

Artists

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.