In a brand new interview The Press-Enterprise, Michael Anthony recalled taking part in several shows on the 2002 co-headlining tour featuring VAN HALEN singers Sammy Hagar and David Lee Roth.

The “Song For Song: The Heavyweight Champs Of Rock’N’Roll Tour” found Hagar and Roth alternating opening and closing duties, with each playing a 90-minute set.

“It started out going well and then it didn’t go too well,” he said of the trek.

“I remember the first show I played, Sammy said, ‘Yeah, I think Dave is going to come out and join us,’ and Dave never came out of his dressing room and he became a recluse and I never really saw him.”

Anthony also talked about VAN HALEN‘s ill-fated 2004 reunion tour with Hagar, which saw the bassist signing a contract that drastically reduced his income for the tour. In addition, Eddie Van Halen was dealing with health issues, with Sammy later writing in his 2011 memoir, “Red: My Uncensored Life In Rock”, that the guitarist “looked like he hadn’t bathed in a week” when the two of them saw each other in the flesh for the first time in a decade.

“Eddie was in bad shape,” Michael said.

“We did 80 shows and had to pull the plug because it was just too much work. And I hated having to wake up the day of the show and think, ‘Which Eddie Van Halen are we going to get today? The Jekyll or the Hyde?'”