{"id":3957,"date":"2025-07-18T19:43:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T19:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/3957\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T19:43:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T19:43:08","slug":"the-who-album-that-eddie-van-halen-loved-so-much-that-michael-anthony-claims-he-could-play-it-note-for-note-probably-better-than-townshend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/3957\/","title":{"rendered":"The Who album that Eddie Van Halen loved so much that Michael Anthony claims he could play it “note for note, probably better than Townshend!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

We all know Eddie Van Halen<\/a> was a great appreciator of classic British rock bands \u2013 Van Halen\u2019s cover of You Really Got Me on their debut showed that. But according to Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony<\/a>, teenage Eddie was so obsessed with The Who, he could replicate Pete Townshend<\/a> note for note \u2013 even as a teen.<\/p>\n

In a new interview with Professor of Rock, Anthony recalls Eddie\u2019s impressive skills when he first auditioned to join for Van Halen<\/a>. \u201cWhen I jammed with Eddie and Alex that first time, they played some of their original stuff,\u201d the bassist explains. \u201cThey were going through these time changes and I\u2019m [thinking], \u2018Whoa! What a trip!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were great players,\u201d he continues. \u201cThey really impressed me\u2026 [Eddie] could play the whole Live at Leeds [The Who<\/a>] album, playing it note for note. It was just as good, if not better than [Pete] Townshend!\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than being intimidated by Eddie and Alex\u2019s talent, Anthony rose to the challenge. \u201cThey were putting me through time changes, and I was really digging it because it was something new to me,\u201d he admits.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Anthony would learn over 300 songs, both covers and original tracks, to keep up with the band. \u201cEvery day at rehearsal, I\u2019d be learning,\u201d he recalls. \u201cJust cramming songs in because we\u2019d be auditioning for little clubs around the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Van Halen grew in popularity, their dedication and talent would impress fans and peers alike. In fact, David Lee Roth<\/a> soon alerted Eddie to the fact that peers were listening in on rehearsals in the hopes of stealing ideas.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cFriends of his that play guitar would sit outside our little rehearsal garage and listen to us,\u201d Anthony says. \u201cThey\u2019d be out there listening to what Eddie was doing because they knew that he had something going on that they weren\u2019t doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

To avoid artists poaching ideas off of Van Halen, Roth came up with a ploy to disguise Eddie\u2019s talents. \u201cDave used to tell him, \u2018hey, when you play solos\u2026 turn your back to the audience because you don\u2019t want these guys to see what you\u2019re doing!\u2019\u201d Anthony explains. \u201cSo a lot of times Ed would do that!\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We all know Eddie Van Halen was a great appreciator of classic British rock bands \u2013 Van Halen\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[4624,64,63,134,136],"class_list":["post-3957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-artist","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}