Michael Anthony recently revealed in a chat with Sirius XM’s Eddie Trunk that during their time on the road together in 1978, Journey allegedly attempted to boot Van Halen off their joint tour ‘every week.’ Anthony reflected on his favorite tours with Van Halen, and singled out their joint tour as unforgettable:
“We were just freaking fired up so much that first tour in ‘78 with Dave [Lee Roth]. [It was a tour I’ll] never forget.”
At the time, Journey was the main band, Montrose was next, and Van Halen was the opener. As it appears, Journey couldn’t stand Van Halen’s ability to keep the crowd entertained. Anthony explained how Journey tried to kick them off the tour:
“They were trying to kick us off the tour every week on that one. But we were selling tickets. The record company kept going, ‘No, you can’t kick them off the tour.’”
Eddie Van Halen Hated Touring With Journey
In the early days of Van Halen, Eddie Van Halen found Journey to be quite different from the rockers he had imagined.
As Van Halen moved up to supporting bigger bands, Journey seemed like a good match, and they decided to go on tour in 1978. However, even though they had similarities, Journey wasn’t too keen on sharing the spotlight with Van Halen. Instead of a warm welcome, Eddie remembered them being petty whenever they shared the stage. He told Guitar World back in the 90s:
“We used to drive people crazy. For example, very early on, we were on a tour supporting Journey. They would never give us soundchecks and treated us like shit in general, so we liked to fuck with them any way we could.”
Listen to the interview with Michael Anthony here.