Flashback: Van Halen Play ‘Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love’ at Wild 1984 Detroit Gig
Michael Anthony made pretty big Van Halen news earlier this this week when he revealed that he was approached last year by the band’s management about a reunion tour. A representative from David Lee Roth’s team also called him, and he was so confident it was in the works that he asked The Circle — his current group with Sammy Hagar, drummer Jason Bonham and guitarist Vic Johnson — to take a break during the summer so he could be a part of the supposed tour. “They never got in touch with us about any kind of a contract or any kind of a meeting to discuss or whatever,” Anthony said. “And the next thing I knew, the plug got pulled on it.”
The tour would have marked the first time that the classic lineup of Van Halen played together in public since the end of the 1984 tour. That was the peak of the gourd’s popularity, when singles like “Jump,” “Hot For Teacher and “Panama” were all over the radio and MTV. Check out this video of the band performing “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” at Detroit’s Cobo Hall on April 5th, 1984.
MTV was in the house shooting the gig because Van Halen fan Kurt Jefferis won their Lost Weekend contest and was flown out to party with the band that day. As you can see in the video, they bring Jefferis onto the stage during the song and throw a cake in his face before drenching him with champaign. The new documentary short Lost Weekend (which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year) reveals that things got far wilder backstage when the cameras were off and Jefferis drank Jack Daniels, snorted a few lines of cocaine and got into a shower with a naked groupie. “I blacked out, and the next thing I remember is waking up in a hotel room bed,” he said. “My head was killing me.”
Van Halen obviously aren’t on any sort of tour right now, with or without Michael Anthony, but David Lee Roth recently said he’s meeting with the brothers soon to talk about the future. And wherever Jefferis is these days, I’m sure he’d be happy to come backstage on the next tour for another round of fun.