According to Nuno Bettencourt, Eddie Van Halen was planning on reuniting the original Van Halen lineup for a final farewell tour before he passed away.
Speaking to Total Guitar, the Extreme guitarist – whose name has been closely linked with Van Halen’s in recent months, following the release of Rise – spoke casually about the plans, specifically mentioning that Michael Anthony would also have been involved.
Recalling the time Eddie Van Halen visited him in the studio, Bettencourt revealed, “[Eddie Van Halen] was telling us, ‘Hey guys, keep it between us but I’m excited. The band’s gonna come together again, the original cast with Michael Anthony.
“‘We’re gonna do a tour and gonna go out the way we came in.’ This is really heartbreaking when I tell the story,” he went on, “but it’s amazing to know that’s what it was going to be.”
During his visit to the Extreme studio, Van Halen also showed the band some material from the then-unreleased debut album of his son, Wolfgang Van Halen – and said it was Wolfgang who had been the main party in approaching Anthony for the tour.
In a recent interview with SiriusXM, Bettencourt once again discussed Van Halen’s plans for a potential farewell tour: “I'm like, ‘Amazing. Overdue, way overdue,’” he recalled. “[Van Halen] was even saying, like, ‘You know Wolf, he's the one who's like, he's reaching out to Michael.’ It was like a really cool thing, right?”
It’s not the first time Anthony’s name has cropped up in the news recently, with the band’s former bassist revealing the existence of a huge archive of unreleased Van Halen material.
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As it happened, when Van Halen visited Bettencourt in the studio the virtuoso was recording Rise – a fiery display of electric guitar mastery that showcased Bettencourt’s new sense of self-responsibility “to keep guitar playing alive” following Van Halen’s passing.
He didn’t, however, let Van Halen hear his work in progress. “He’s like, ‘You guys working on an album?’ I'm like, ‘Yeah, I’m up in the studio, but I don’t want you to come up and hear it yet. When it’s done will you come back and hear me?’ Stupid now in retrospect, not letting him come up and listen, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
Though a reunion tour sadly never materialized, extensive discussions for a Van Halen tribute tour have taken place over the past year. News of such plans first broke back in April 2022, when Jason Newsted revealed he’d been approached to join Alex Van Halen and Joe Satriani for the event.
Numerous developments have since arrived, the most recent of which seemed to confirm a tribute tour would never take place, with Sammy Hagar claiming Alex Van Halen won’t return his calls regarding the shows.
Total Guitar’s full interview with Nuno Bettencourt will be available in issue 372, on sale June 2.
