Post by Hennison Macklemore III on Oct 1, 2020 20:47:24 GMT
Michael Anthony Sobolewski (June 20, 1954 - )
Years active: 1967-present
Country of origin: United States of America
Recorded Vocal Range: B♭2-D♭6 (A♯2-C♯6) - 3¼ octaves
Band history:
- 1974-2002 - Van Halen (bass, backing vocals)
- 1993-1996 - Los Tres Gusanos (bass, backing vocals)
- 2002 - Los Tres Gusanos (bass, backing vocals)
- 2002-2003 - Planet Us (bass, backing vocals)
- 2003-2006 - Van Halen (bass, backing vocals)
- 2005-present - Los Tres Gusanos (bass, backing vocals)
- 2007 - Mad Anthony X-Press (lead vocals, bass)
- 2008-2012 - Chickenfoot (bass, vocals)
- 2014-present - The Circle (bass, vocals)
- 2016-present - Chickenfoot (bass, vocals)
{Other bands (years/roles unknown)}
Recorded high notes:- 1967-? - Poverty's Children
- Black Opal
- Balls
- ?-1974 - Snake (lead vocals, bass)
C♯6/D♭6: "Somebody Get Me a Doctor" live at the Whiskey a Go Go 2015, "Wild Thing" live New Haven 1986
C6: "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" live New Haven 1986, "Big Foot" live Seattle 2012, "Get It Up", "Get Up" live 1986, "Immigrant Song" live Phoenix 2009, "Oh Yeah" live Phoenix 2009, "Turnin' Left", "Unchained" live Mansfield 2022
B5: "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" live at NAMM 2015, "Get It Up", "Little Dreamer" live at the Hammersmith Odeon 1978, "Man on the Silver Mountain" live Golden West Ballroom 1976, "Unchained" live Mansfield 2022
A♯5/B♭5: "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" live New Haven 1986, "D.O.A." live at the Cabo Wabo 2011, "Feel Your Love Tonight" live at the Hammersmith Odeon 1978, "Get It Up", "Hots on for Nowhere" live Golden West Ballroom 1976, "Ice Cream Man" live Golden West Ballroom 1976, "La Grange" live Golden West Ballroom 1976, "Man on the Silver Mountain" live Golden West Ballroom 1976, "Poundcake" live 2014, "Rock Candy" live 2007, "Soap on a Roap" live Phoenix 2009, "Somebody Get Me a Doctor" live Sydney 1998, "Source of Infection" live Troy 1988, "Summertime Blues" live Golden West Ballroom 1976, "Superstition" live 1976, "Unchained" live Mansfield 2022
A5: "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" live Fresno 1992, "Avenida Revolution" live Phoenix 2009, "Best of Both Worlds" live Fresno 1992, "Big Foot", "Chevrolet" live Pasadena High School 1975, "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You" live in Pasadena High School 1975, "5150" live Tokyo 1989, "Fools", "Get Up", "Good Enough", "Highway Star" live Phoenix 2009, "Judgment Day", "Last Child" live Golden West Ballroom 1976, "Light Up the Sky" live Fresno 1979, "Rock Steady" live Pasadena Hilton 1975, "Runnin' with the Devil" live at the Whiskey a Go Go 2019, "Source of Infection" live Troy 1988, "Summertime Blues" live 1978, "You Really Got Me" live Fresno 1992
G♯5/A♭5: "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love", "All Day and All of the Night" live Pasadena Civic 1976, "Believe Me" live 1977, "Best of Both Worlds" live 2014, "Big Fat Money" live Toronto 1995, "D.O.A." live at the Hammersmith Odeon 1978, "Feel Your Love Tonight", "Firehouse" live Bogart's 1976, "Francine" live 1976, "Happy Trails" MTV backstage 1984, "Hear About It Later" live 2007, "Highway Star" live Phoenix 2009, "In a Simple Rhyme" demo, "In for the Kill" live Pasadena High School 1975, "Jump" live 2012, "La Grange" live Pasadena Conference Center 1976, "Let Me Swim" live Golden West Ballroom 1976, "Let's Get Rockin'" live Golden West Ballroom 1976, "Light Up the Sky" live Fresno 1979, "Loss of Control", "On Fire", "Runnin' with the Devil" live at the Cabo Wabo 2011, "She's the Woman" demo, "Show Your Love", "Somebody Get Me a Doctor" live Golden West Ballroom 1976, "Sweet Emotion" live Gazzari's 1975, "Top Jimmy", "Voodoo Queen", "You Really Got Me" demo, "You're No Good" live 1979
G5: "Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers" live Golden West Ballroom 1976, "Good Enough", "Honolulu Baby" live Pasadena Convention Center 1976, "If You Can't Rock Me" live Gazzari's 1974, "Little Dreamer" live at the Hammersmith Odeon 1978, "Little Guitars" live US Festival 1983, "Might Just Take Your Life" live Gazzari's 1974, "On Fire", "Runnin' with the Devil" live at the Cabo Wabo 2011, "Show No Mercy" live at the Whiskey a Go Go 1977, "Walk Away" live Gazzari's 1974, "You Really Got Me"
F♯5/G♭5: "All Day and All of the Night" live Pasadena Civic 1976, "Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers" live Golden West Ballroom 1976, "Believe Me", "Chevrolet" live Gazzarri's 1974, "Last Child" live Golden West Ballroom 1976, "Loss of Control", "Runnin' with the Devil" live at the Cabo Wabo 2011, "Show No Mercy" live at the Whiskey a Go Go 1977, "Voodoo Queen", "We All Had a Real Good Time" live Gazzarri's 1974
F5: "Down the Drain" live Phoenix 2009, "Humans Being" live Tampa 2004, "Source of Infection" live Troy 1988, "Top Jimmy", "Turnin' Left"
E5: "Amsterdam", "Best of Both Worlds", "Big Fat Money", "Cabo Wabo", "5150" live Tokyo 1989, "From Afar", "Get Up", "Good Enough", "In 'n' Out" live Fresno 1992, "Love Walks In", "Man on a Mission", "Somebody Get Me a Doctor" live at the Whiskey a Go Go 2015, "Summer Nights"
D♯5/E♭5: "A.F.U. (Naturally Wired)", "Different Devil", "Dreams" live Nagoya 1998, "Dubai Blues", "5150", "Get Down Tonight" live Gazzari's 1975, "Honolulu Baby" live Pasadena Convention Center 1976, "Humans Being", "I Can't Drive 55" live 2014, "Immigrant Song" live Cabo Wabo Cruise 2007, "It's About Time", "Soap On a Rope", "Source of Infection", "Superstition" live 1976, "There's Only One Way to Rock" live 2014
D5: "All the Way" live Pasadena High School 1975, "Black and Blue", "Don't Tell Me (What Love Can Do)", "Feelin'", "Good Enough", "Fire in the Hole", "Hey Hey (Without Greed)", "I Can't Drive 55" live 2014, "I'll Wait", "Little Dreamer", "Loud", "Might Just Take Your Life" live Gazzari's 1974, "My Kinda Girl", "Oh Yeah" live Phoenix 2009, "Rock and Roll" live 2014, "Sexy Little Thing", "Spanked", "Sucker in a 3 Piece", "Summer Nights", "Summertime Blues" live Golden West Ballroom 1976, "Sympathy for the Human" quarantine session 2020, "Take Me Back (Deja Vu)", "There's Only One Way to Rock" live 2014, "Turnin' Left", "When It's Love", "When the Levee Breaks" live Philadelphia 2015, "Where Have All the Good Times Gone!", "Wild Thing" live New Haven 1986
C♯5/D♭5: "All the Way" live Pasadena High School 1975, "Alright Alright", "Big Foot", "Dirty Water Dog" live Tokyo 1998, "Divine Termination", "Down the Drain" live Phoenix 2009, "Dreams" live Nagoya 1998, "Drive My Car" live Gazzari's 1976, "5150" live Tokyo 1989, "Fire in the Hole" live Sydney 1998, "Future in the Past", "Good Enough", "Hear About It Later" live 2007, "Highway to Hell" live at the Cabo Wabo 2007, "Humans Being", "I Can't Drive 55" live New Haven 1986, "It's About Time", "Judgment Day", "Loss of Control", "Might Just Take Your Life" live Gazzari's 1974, "One More Time" live Valencia 1977, "Runaround" live Fresno 1992, "Soap On a Rope", "Sucker in a 3 Piece", "There's Only One Way to Rock" live New Haven 1986, "30 Days in the Hole" live 1976, "Trust Fund Baby", "Tush" live Golden West Ballroom 1976, "Up for Breakfast", "Up Next", "Why Can't This Be Love" live 2014, "Woman in Love"
C5: "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" live New Haven 1986, "All the Way" live Pasadena High School 1975, "Amsterdam", "Beautiful Girls", "Big Fat Money", "Bottoms Up!", "Can't Stop Lovin' You", "Dancing in the Street", "Different Devil", "D.O.A. live at the Cabo Wabo 2011, "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You" live Pasadena High School 1975, "Drop Dead Legs", "Eyes of the Night" live Pasadena Convention Center 1976, "Feels So Good", "Feel Your Love Tonight", "Firehouse" live Bogart's 1976, "Fools", "Francine" live 1976, "Get the Show on the Road", "Girl Gone Bad", "Gonna Take a Lot of Drugs", "Good Enough", "I Can't Drive 55" live 2014, "Immigrant Song" live Cabo Wabo Cruise 2007, "I'm the One", "In for the Kill" live Pasadena High School 1975, "In 'n' Out", "It's About Time", "Jamie's Cryin'", "Just What You Wanted" live 1977, "Last Child" live Golden West Ballroom 1976, "Lighten Up", "Light in the Sky", "Loss of Control", "Love Walks In", "Man on a Mission", "Might Just Take Your Life" live Gazzari's 1974, "My Kinda Girl", "Not Enough", "Now I'm Here" live Pasadena High School 1975, "Put Out the Lights", "Right Now", "Rock Steady" live Pasadena Hilton 1975, "Runaround", "Sexy Little Thing", "She's the Woman" demo, "Sinner's Swing!", "Somebody Get Me a Doctor", "Some Kind of Wonderful" live Pasadena High School 1975, "Source of Infection", "Spanked", "Sympathy for the Human", "The Dream Is Over", "The Seventh Seal", "Turnin' Left", "Up Next", "Voodoo Queen", "We All Had a Real Good Time" live Gazzari's 1974, "When the Levee Breaks" live 2014, "Woman in Love"
B4: "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love", "Alright Alright", "Amsterdam", "Babe, Don't Leave Me Alone", "Beautiful Girls", "Believe Me", "Blind in Texas" live at the Cabo Wabo 2011, "Bullethead" live 1977, "Cabo Wabo", "Can't Get This Stuff No More", "Can't Stop Lovin' You", "Bottoms Up!", "Come Closer", "Dancing in the Street", "Dirty Movies", "Down in Flames" live Nagoya 1978, "Dubai Blues", "Feels So Good", "Finish What Ya Started" live Fresno 1992, "For What It's Worth", "Free Man", "Future in the Past", "Hear About It Later" live 2007, "Heavy Metal" live 2014, "Hot for Teacher", "Ice Cream Man" live Largo 1982, "I Can't Drive 55" live New Haven 1986, "In for the Kill" live Pasadena High School 1975, "It's About Time", "Jump" live Fresno 1992, "Keep a-Knockin'", "Last Night", "Lets Get Rockin'", "Light Up the Sky", "Lighten Up", "Man on a Mission", "Me Wise Magic", "Might Just Take Your Life" live Gazzari's 1974, "Mine All Mine", "My Kinda Girl", "No Worries", "Oh Yeah", "Panama" live New Haven 1986, "Poundcake" live Fresno 1992, "Rock and Roll" live 2014, "Somebody Get Me a Doctor" live Sydney 1998, "Spanked", "Summer Nights", "The Dream Is Over", "The Full Bug", "The Shape You're In" live Hollywood 1977, "Top Jimmy", "Up for Breakfast", "Walk This Way" live Gazzari's 1975, "We All Had a Real Good Time" live Gazzari's 1974, "We Die Young", "Why Can't This Be Love" live 2014, "Young & Wild", "You're No Good"
A♯4/B♭4: "Alright Alright", "Babe, Don’t Leave Me Alone", "Bad Motor Scooter" live Phoenix 2009, "Beautiful Girls", "Big Trouble", "Bright Lights, Big City" live Baltimore 1980, "Dance the Night Away", "Different Devil", "Down the Drain" live Phoenix 2009, "Feel Your Love Tonight", "Finish What Ya Started", "Firehouse" live Bogart's 1976, "Fools", "Forced Entry" live Pasadena High School 1975, "Hear About It Later", "House of Pain" demo, "Ice Cream Man" live Golden West Ballroom 1976, "I'm So Glad" live Largo 1982, "I'm the One", "In a Simple Rhyme", "Jamie's Cryin'", "Keep Playin' That Rock 'n' Roll" live Gazzari's 1975, "Last Child" live Golden West Ballroom 1976, "Last Night", "Light Up the Sky", "Lighten Up", "Little Guitars" live US Festival 1983, "Little White Lie" live 2014, "Live for the Music" live Golden West Ballroom 1976, "Loss of Control", "Might Just Take Your Life" live Gazzari's 1974, "My Generation" live Phoenix 2009, "Now I'm Here" live Pasadena High School 1975, "Outta Love Again", "Panama", "Piece of Mind", "Poundcake" live 2014, "Rock Candy" live 2007, "Roll with the Changes" live at Cabo Wabo Cantina 2018, "Romeo Delight", "Runnin' Out", "Runnin' with the Devil", "Show No Mercy" live at the Whiskey a Go Go 1977, "Something Going Wrong", "Take It on the Run" live at Cabo Wabo Cantina 2018, "The Grind" live Gazzari's 1975, "There's Only One Way to Rock" live New Haven 1986, "Unchained" live Mansfield 2022, "Up Next", "We All Had a Real Good Time" live Gazzarri's 1974, "Wildfire" live Pasadena High School 1975, "Wild Thing" live New Haven 1986, "Woman in Love", "Women in Love..."
A4: "All Day and All of the Night" live Pasadena Civic 1976, "And the Cradle Will Rock...", "Ballot or the Bullet", "Beer Drinkers & Hellraisers" live 1983, "Bottom Line", "Cabo Wabo", "Can't Hang", "Chevrolet" live Gazzarri's 1974, "Dancing in the Street", "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You" live in Pasadena Hilton 1976, "Drive My Car" live Gazzari's 1976, "Don't Tell Me (What Love Can Do)", "Drop Dead Legs", "Feels So Good", "For What It's Worth", "Free Man", "Future in the Past", "Get Down Tonight" live Gazzari's 1975, "Get It Up", "Heroes", "Hey Hey (Without Greed)", "Highway to Hell" live at the Cabo Wabo 2007, "I Wanna Be Your Lover", "Judgment Day", "Jump" live 2012, "Just What You Wanted" live 1977, "Little Guitars" live US Festival 1983, "Loud", "Love Walks In", "Make It Last" live Gazzari's 1974, "Might Just Take Your Life" live Gazzari's 1974, "My Kinda Girl", "Now I'm Here" live Pasadena High School 1975, "One I Want", "One More Time" live Valencia 1977, "Panama" live New Haven 1986, "Somebody Get Me a Doctor" live at the Whiskey a Go Go 2015, "Some Kind of Wonderful" live Pasadena High School 1975, "Take Me Back (Deja Vu)", "Take Your Whiskey Home" demo, "Three and a Half Letters", "Top Jimmy", "Top of the World", "Walk This Way" live Gazzari's 1975, "When It's Love", "Without You", "Won't Get Fooled Again" live Fresno 1992
Recorded low notes:
F♯3/G♭3: "Bitten By the Wolf" live Phoenix 2009, "Little Dreamer" live Chicago 2007, "Three and a Half Letters", "Something Going Wrong"
F3: "D.O.A." live at the Cabo Wabo 2011, "Immigrant Song" live Cabo Wabo Cruise 2007
E3: "Now I'm Here" live Pasadena High School 1975
D♯3/E♭3: "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" live at NAMM 2015, "Happy Trails", "Humans Being"
D3: "Humans Being" live Atlantic City 2022, "Inside", "Man in the Box" live 2016, "Mine All Mine", "Without You"
C♯3/D♭3: "Humans Being", "Without You" live Sydney 1998
C3: "Inside"
B2: "Happy Trails" demo
A♯2/B♭2: "Could This Be Magic?"
{Questionable notes}
D6: "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" live Sydney 1998 - cracked note
A♯5/B5: "Get Up" - probable pitch-shifted note
.......................................................D6: "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" live Sydney 1998 - cracked note
A♯5/B5: "Get Up" - probable pitch-shifted note
*Blue marks soft falsetto notes.
*Green marks notes screeched in a raw false cord register.
*Italics mark non-melodic notes.
*Underlines marks notes in backing vocals or otherwise muffled/obscured in the song mix.
{Detailed bio}
Though a dedicated bassist first and foremost, Michael Anthony is perhaps one of the most distinguished and highly-regarded backing vocalists in all of rock music. His unmistakable vocal harmonies are cited by many as one of the key elements that gave Van Halen their signature sound, and he has continued to bring those impeccable backing vocals with him to any other project he's since been a part of, such as Chickenfoot and The Circle. While his catalog of lead vocal performances on full songs is unfortunately limited, that hasn't stopped him from demonstrating some truly stupendous vocal range - boasting a shockingly easy high range, with which he is consistently able to wail his way through the entire fifth octave and even into the sixth octave with power and control. It was admittedly pretty difficult to find any low notes by him, however, and as you can see, even after combing through his entire discography and hours of live material, I was only able to find a few notes F♯3 and below. Nonetheless, his total recorded range still surpasses three octaves, and his high range alone could put many full-time rock singers to shame.
Michael's career began in the early 70s, initially playing in a few small-time bands in the Arcadia, California area, such as Poverty's Children, Black Opal, and Balls. One of these early bands, Snake, featured him on bass and lead vocals, though there are no recordings available of it from what I've been able to find. During his time in Snake, Michael was introduced to guitarist Eddie Van Halen and drummer Alex Van Halen, a pair of brothers who were in a band called Mammoth. When Mammoth's bassist Mark Stone left the band in 1974, Michael took this as an opportunity to audition for the band, and became bassist for what would soon be renamed Van Halen. At this point, he stepped down from his position of lead vocalist, as the band had also recently hired frontman David Lee Roth to serve in that role, and Michael instead focused on providing backing vocals as needed. However, at this point in Roth's career, his vocal range was not considered his strongest suit - as he lacked a developed belting range beyond B4/C5, and he more lived up to the role of frontman with his energy, stage presence, and charisma than his actual vocal abilities. As a result, Michael's backing vocals became very prominent in helping build Van Halen's early sound, and helped balance out Roth's lack of fifth octave range with numerous high harmonies and call-and-response vocals (often with Eddie Van Halen singing lower harmonies below Michael's). In addition to this, Michael sometimes showed off how high he could wail and scream into the fifth octave on certain songs, occasionally even harmonizing with Roth's airier falsetto screams - such as can be heard in songs like "On Fire" and "Loss of Control". In live settings, he was even more prone to throwing random high notes in, and can be heard wailing up to notes in the G♯5-A♯5 area in many early Van Halen bootlegs and demos.
In 1985, David Lee Roth left Van Halen, and was replaced by Sammy Hagar of Montrose. Hagar possessed a much more extensive high range Roth, which changed the vocal dynamics of the band accordingly - while Roth had needed Michael's vocal harmonies to balance out his own limited high range, Hagar was able to sing well into the fifth octave on his own, and needed little in the ways of anybody else to balance out his range. Instead, he used Michael's backing harmonies to complement his own high lead vocal parts, which resulted in some true vocal insanity that the two of them were able create together. Examples of this can be heard at the end of the song "Get Up", where Hagar and Michael slide up together from a C5-E5 harmony to a sustained F5-B♭5 one, or "Judgment Day", where they scream sustained F♯5s and A5s in harmony together, and even replicated it live! The two of them also developed a strong friendship during this period of Van Halen, which led to the formation of their own side group Los Tres Gusanos in 1993, with Hagar on guitar and lead vocals, Michael on bass and backing vocals, and David Lauser on drums and backing vocals. This band played a combination of solo songs by Hagar, Van Halen tunes, and other covers, and performed at Hagar's Cabo Wabo nightclub intermittently until his departure from Van Halen in 1996. Los Tres Gusanos temporarily reformed in 2002, however, and then once more in 2005, and have continued to be intermittently active since then.
Following Hagar's departure from Van Halen, they were temporarily rejoined by David Lee Roth in 1996, and recorded two new songs together ("Me Wise Magic" and "Can't Get This Stuff No More" for the compilation album Best of - Volume 1. However, this reunion was short-lived, and Roth left the band again later that year, this time being replaced by Gary Cherone of Extreme. Around this time, Michael's role in the band began to gradually diminish, as Eddie Van Halen started to become dissatisfied with his bass playing, and instead recorded bass tracks himself on the majority of their next album - 1998's Van Halen III. Michael only played bass on three songs total, and sang fewer backing vocals than usual. However, after the album's release, Michael still continued to serve his role in full on the subsequent tour later that year - for which his role as a vocalist actually became more prominent. During this tour, Cherone made the brave undertaking of performing songs from the David Lee Roth era, the Sammy Hagar era, and his own era of the band, which proved taxing on his voice at times, as this was a number of different vocal styles to juggle every night. As a result, Michael was designated lead vocal duties for live versions of the song "Somebody Get Me a Doctor", and also sang small lead vocal bits on the chorus of "Dreams" to help out Cherone, who struggled to sing the entire thing by himself. This incarnation of Van Halen lasted until 1999, at which point Cherone left the band and they temporarily went on hiatus for a few years.
During this hiatus, Michael was allegedly fired from Van Halen for a short period in 2002, at which point he went on to tour as a live bassist for Sammy Hagar's solo band, The Waboritas. He and Hagar also formed a short-lived supergroup in 2002, called Planet Us, which also featured Journey members Neal Schon and Deen Castronovo on guitar and drums, respectively, and virtuoso solo guitarist Joe Satriani. This project was short-lived, however, and disbanded before releasing any recordings when Hagar was invited to rejoin Van Halen in 2003. Initially, Eddie did not want Michael to be part of this reunion, but Hagar refused to rejoin if Michael was not included as well. As a result, Michael was allowed back in the band, but was once again not featured for bass on any of the three new songs that this lineup recorded at the time - "It's About Time", "Up for Breakfast", and "Learning to See". Instead, Eddie recorded all bass parts himself once again, and Michael was only allowed to contribute backing vocals. The new songs were released on the 2004 compilation The Best of Both Worlds, and the band toured from 2004-2005 promoting it. In 2006, Hagar left the band a second time, and Michael was fired permanently. At this point, the remaining members of Van Halen reunited with David Lee Roth as their singer for a third time, and hired Eddie's son, Wolfgang Van Halen, to take Michael's place as bassist and backing vocalist.
Following his departure from Van Halen, Michael formed his own band, the Mad Anthony X-Press, in 2007, which toured as an opening act with Sammy Hagar in 2007. This band mostly played Van Halen covers, with Michael now handling lead vocals himself in addition to bass, and guitarist Vic Johnson and drummer John "JD" Douglas providing backing vocals for him. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find a few recordings of this band online, but I would be interested to hear more of Michael's lead singing with them. Following this tour, Hagar and Michael formed a new band Chickenfoot in 2008, which once again featured Joe Satriani on guitar, as well as Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. This band released two studio albums and a live DVD before temporarily splitting up in 2012. They reformed in 2016 and continued touring and releasing material in a limited capacity, but have been mostly inactive again since 2017, largely due to Smith's schedule limitations with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Instead, Hagar and Michael have since formed another new project in 2014, called The Circle, featuring Vic Johnson on guitar and Jason Bonham (son of Led Zeppelin's John Bonham) on drums. The Circle initially began as a band that played covers of Hagar's solo songs, Van Halen songs, and Led Zeppelin songs (as can be heard on their 2015 live album At Your Service), but have since gone on to write and record their own original material as well, which they released in 2019 on their studio album Space Between. It seems that The Circle is Michael's primary focus these days, it seems there is also some possibility of him doing more work with Chickenfoot. While Hagar has allowed Michael to take occasional lead vocal spots in each of these bands, I personally would still like to hear more of him taking a dedicated role as lead vocalist in a band, because he clearly has the ability to pull it off quite easily. His recent performances show that his voice has clearly held up almost spotlessly over the years, and he's still throwing strong upper fifth octave notes into live versions of songs pretty regularly, so it would be great to hear a solo album by him or a band that he sings in at some point!
Though a dedicated bassist first and foremost, Michael Anthony is perhaps one of the most distinguished and highly-regarded backing vocalists in all of rock music. His unmistakable vocal harmonies are cited by many as one of the key elements that gave Van Halen their signature sound, and he has continued to bring those impeccable backing vocals with him to any other project he's since been a part of, such as Chickenfoot and The Circle. While his catalog of lead vocal performances on full songs is unfortunately limited, that hasn't stopped him from demonstrating some truly stupendous vocal range - boasting a shockingly easy high range, with which he is consistently able to wail his way through the entire fifth octave and even into the sixth octave with power and control. It was admittedly pretty difficult to find any low notes by him, however, and as you can see, even after combing through his entire discography and hours of live material, I was only able to find a few notes F♯3 and below. Nonetheless, his total recorded range still surpasses three octaves, and his high range alone could put many full-time rock singers to shame.
Michael's career began in the early 70s, initially playing in a few small-time bands in the Arcadia, California area, such as Poverty's Children, Black Opal, and Balls. One of these early bands, Snake, featured him on bass and lead vocals, though there are no recordings available of it from what I've been able to find. During his time in Snake, Michael was introduced to guitarist Eddie Van Halen and drummer Alex Van Halen, a pair of brothers who were in a band called Mammoth. When Mammoth's bassist Mark Stone left the band in 1974, Michael took this as an opportunity to audition for the band, and became bassist for what would soon be renamed Van Halen. At this point, he stepped down from his position of lead vocalist, as the band had also recently hired frontman David Lee Roth to serve in that role, and Michael instead focused on providing backing vocals as needed. However, at this point in Roth's career, his vocal range was not considered his strongest suit - as he lacked a developed belting range beyond B4/C5, and he more lived up to the role of frontman with his energy, stage presence, and charisma than his actual vocal abilities. As a result, Michael's backing vocals became very prominent in helping build Van Halen's early sound, and helped balance out Roth's lack of fifth octave range with numerous high harmonies and call-and-response vocals (often with Eddie Van Halen singing lower harmonies below Michael's). In addition to this, Michael sometimes showed off how high he could wail and scream into the fifth octave on certain songs, occasionally even harmonizing with Roth's airier falsetto screams - such as can be heard in songs like "On Fire" and "Loss of Control". In live settings, he was even more prone to throwing random high notes in, and can be heard wailing up to notes in the G♯5-A♯5 area in many early Van Halen bootlegs and demos.
In 1985, David Lee Roth left Van Halen, and was replaced by Sammy Hagar of Montrose. Hagar possessed a much more extensive high range Roth, which changed the vocal dynamics of the band accordingly - while Roth had needed Michael's vocal harmonies to balance out his own limited high range, Hagar was able to sing well into the fifth octave on his own, and needed little in the ways of anybody else to balance out his range. Instead, he used Michael's backing harmonies to complement his own high lead vocal parts, which resulted in some true vocal insanity that the two of them were able create together. Examples of this can be heard at the end of the song "Get Up", where Hagar and Michael slide up together from a C5-E5 harmony to a sustained F5-B♭5 one, or "Judgment Day", where they scream sustained F♯5s and A5s in harmony together, and even replicated it live! The two of them also developed a strong friendship during this period of Van Halen, which led to the formation of their own side group Los Tres Gusanos in 1993, with Hagar on guitar and lead vocals, Michael on bass and backing vocals, and David Lauser on drums and backing vocals. This band played a combination of solo songs by Hagar, Van Halen tunes, and other covers, and performed at Hagar's Cabo Wabo nightclub intermittently until his departure from Van Halen in 1996. Los Tres Gusanos temporarily reformed in 2002, however, and then once more in 2005, and have continued to be intermittently active since then.
Following Hagar's departure from Van Halen, they were temporarily rejoined by David Lee Roth in 1996, and recorded two new songs together ("Me Wise Magic" and "Can't Get This Stuff No More" for the compilation album Best of - Volume 1. However, this reunion was short-lived, and Roth left the band again later that year, this time being replaced by Gary Cherone of Extreme. Around this time, Michael's role in the band began to gradually diminish, as Eddie Van Halen started to become dissatisfied with his bass playing, and instead recorded bass tracks himself on the majority of their next album - 1998's Van Halen III. Michael only played bass on three songs total, and sang fewer backing vocals than usual. However, after the album's release, Michael still continued to serve his role in full on the subsequent tour later that year - for which his role as a vocalist actually became more prominent. During this tour, Cherone made the brave undertaking of performing songs from the David Lee Roth era, the Sammy Hagar era, and his own era of the band, which proved taxing on his voice at times, as this was a number of different vocal styles to juggle every night. As a result, Michael was designated lead vocal duties for live versions of the song "Somebody Get Me a Doctor", and also sang small lead vocal bits on the chorus of "Dreams" to help out Cherone, who struggled to sing the entire thing by himself. This incarnation of Van Halen lasted until 1999, at which point Cherone left the band and they temporarily went on hiatus for a few years.
During this hiatus, Michael was allegedly fired from Van Halen for a short period in 2002, at which point he went on to tour as a live bassist for Sammy Hagar's solo band, The Waboritas. He and Hagar also formed a short-lived supergroup in 2002, called Planet Us, which also featured Journey members Neal Schon and Deen Castronovo on guitar and drums, respectively, and virtuoso solo guitarist Joe Satriani. This project was short-lived, however, and disbanded before releasing any recordings when Hagar was invited to rejoin Van Halen in 2003. Initially, Eddie did not want Michael to be part of this reunion, but Hagar refused to rejoin if Michael was not included as well. As a result, Michael was allowed back in the band, but was once again not featured for bass on any of the three new songs that this lineup recorded at the time - "It's About Time", "Up for Breakfast", and "Learning to See". Instead, Eddie recorded all bass parts himself once again, and Michael was only allowed to contribute backing vocals. The new songs were released on the 2004 compilation The Best of Both Worlds, and the band toured from 2004-2005 promoting it. In 2006, Hagar left the band a second time, and Michael was fired permanently. At this point, the remaining members of Van Halen reunited with David Lee Roth as their singer for a third time, and hired Eddie's son, Wolfgang Van Halen, to take Michael's place as bassist and backing vocalist.
Following his departure from Van Halen, Michael formed his own band, the Mad Anthony X-Press, in 2007, which toured as an opening act with Sammy Hagar in 2007. This band mostly played Van Halen covers, with Michael now handling lead vocals himself in addition to bass, and guitarist Vic Johnson and drummer John "JD" Douglas providing backing vocals for him. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find a few recordings of this band online, but I would be interested to hear more of Michael's lead singing with them. Following this tour, Hagar and Michael formed a new band Chickenfoot in 2008, which once again featured Joe Satriani on guitar, as well as Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. This band released two studio albums and a live DVD before temporarily splitting up in 2012. They reformed in 2016 and continued touring and releasing material in a limited capacity, but have been mostly inactive again since 2017, largely due to Smith's schedule limitations with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Instead, Hagar and Michael have since formed another new project in 2014, called The Circle, featuring Vic Johnson on guitar and Jason Bonham (son of Led Zeppelin's John Bonham) on drums. The Circle initially began as a band that played covers of Hagar's solo songs, Van Halen songs, and Led Zeppelin songs (as can be heard on their 2015 live album At Your Service), but have since gone on to write and record their own original material as well, which they released in 2019 on their studio album Space Between. It seems that The Circle is Michael's primary focus these days, it seems there is also some possibility of him doing more work with Chickenfoot. While Hagar has allowed Michael to take occasional lead vocal spots in each of these bands, I personally would still like to hear more of him taking a dedicated role as lead vocalist in a band, because he clearly has the ability to pull it off quite easily. His recent performances show that his voice has clearly held up almost spotlessly over the years, and he's still throwing strong upper fifth octave notes into live versions of songs pretty regularly, so it would be great to hear a solo album by him or a band that he sings in at some point!
{List of lead vocal performances}
Here is a list of the various songs that I've heard Michael sing lead vocals on, either for the entire performance or a portion of it:
Original thread by Virtuoso on TRP2, but thanks to Sandblasted for help finding a few notes, and to Zedd Squared and Baronessa for help identifying who's singing certain notes. Please note that due to the amount of this thread that is backing vocals, there is a bit of uncertainty about some notes being Michael or Sammy Hagar or Eddie Van Halen, but I used my best judgment based off tone recognition and who hits the notes in live versions. I also left some notes without underlines when they are technically sung as part of a "backing" vocal, but the backing vocal is mixed as loudly as the lead, so it may appear that there are more lead vocal parts documented than Michael actually has.Here is a list of the various songs that I've heard Michael sing lead vocals on, either for the entire performance or a portion of it:
- "Beer Drinkers & Hellraisers" various live performances 1976-1983 - shares vocals with David Lee Roth
- "Why Can't This Be Love" various live performances 1995 onward - originally sang the first half of the second verse in Van Halen performances of the song, and in this version sings the entire second verse as well as the scat-sung part up to C♯5 later in the song
- "Somebody Get Me a Doctor" various live performance 1998 onward - sings the entire song
- "Hear About It Later" various live performances 2007 - sings the entire song
- "Little Dreamer" live Chicago 2007 - sings entire song (incomplete clip)
- "Light Up the Sky" live Akron 2007 - sings the entire song (incomplete clip)
- "Rock Candy" live 2007 - sings the entire song
- "Highway to Hell" live at the Cabo Wabo 2007 - shares vocals with Ed Roland from the second verse onward
- "Immigrant Song" live Cabo Wabo Cruise 2007 - sings the entire song (incomplete clip)
- "D.O.A." various live performances 2007-2011 - sings the entire song
- "Runnin' with the Devil" various live performances 2007 onward - sings the entire song
- "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" various live performances 2007 onward - sings the entire song
- "Bad Motor Scooter" live Phoenix 2009 - sings the second verse
- "Jump" live 2012 - sings the entire song
- "Heavy Metal" live 2014 - sings the first half of the second verse
- "Rock and Roll" live 2014 - sings the second verse
- "When the Levee Breaks" live Philadelphia 2015 - sings the bridge
