VIDEO FEATURE: VAN HALEN ROCK HALL PRESS CONFERENCE

Aerosmith say they’d like to see Guitar Hero games featuring The Who and Van Halen.

Earlier this month Van Halen was among a group of musicians inducted into the rock and roll Hall Of Fame. The band was inducted with The Ronettes, R.E.M., Patti Smith, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5. The biggest drama surrounded Van Halen. Singer David Lee Roth, guitarist Eddie Van Halen, and drummer Alex Van Halen were all absent from the ceremony.

Only Sammy Hagar and bassist Michael Anthony were on hand for the induction, and they shared their thoughts on the honor, the tour that was planned without them, and the absence of key members.

Part 1:
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rnDo you wish that you could straighten out tensions with Eddie and Alex?
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rn[Anthony] “You know what, I wish that would have happened before this because this night is so special. But you never know. With this band, you never know what’s going to happen. I know you all know that right now. I’m a never-say-never kind of guy.”
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rnIs a tour on? Will a tour still happen?
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rn[Anthony] “I really don’t know because I wasn’t going to be part of it anyway.
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rnWhy not?
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rn[Anthony] “You know, I don’t know. I’m here – I’m ready to play. Sammy and I are out there if people want to hear it. Sammy and I are out there.”

Part 2:
rn(To Sammy) Are you going to tour this summer since Van Halen probably isn’t touring?
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rnrn[Hagar] “Quite honestly with the 50-some shows that I did last year, I planned on taking this year off and just hanging with my family and traveling around. I haven’t done that for a long time. This just came up, and I kind of wish I would have booked a tour. But I’m going to tour from my birthday in October; I’m going to go through the rest of next year. And I’m sure Mike will be out there, unless Van Halen wants to do it. I’m not being funny. If we’ll all grew up – including me, and Mike and all of us – can all grow up, maybe all of us do it together. I’m down with that, any time, any place, anywhere. Let’s just hope that Eddie comes out of it the other side better than ever. That would make everything a lot easier.”
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rnWere you insulted that the new tour didn’t include you two?
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rn[Hagar] “Not at all. I totally encouraged the thing with Dave. I think if Van Halen has any moves that they should do in their lives for the fans right now is to do a reunion with Dave. We’ve done it with me – we’ve done everything we could possibly do. The fans need a Dave reunion. Then, like I said, if we all grow up, we can all be together and do it for real.”
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Part 3:
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rnrnWere you surprised Dave wasn’t here tonight?
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rnrn[Hagar] “Honestly, yes. I was sure that he was going to come busting through at some point.” [Anthony] “That’s Dave.”
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rnSammy, what was it like singing with Velvet Revolver?
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rn[Hagar] “I didn’t sing with them, but I really wanted to. The politics kept that from happening. That’s was the original plan, and that’s when Dave bowed out. If you want to know kind of what happened. He wanted to do this, and they didn’t want to do this. So they were going to pull out. They pulled out at one point, and then when Dave pulled out, they came back in. It was too late – we had already rehearsed with Paul Shaffer’s band. Paul Shaffer’s band was awesome.” [Anthony] “Velvet Revolver did a killer job.”
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