Van Halen Never Officially Offered Sheehan Position 2020 In Review

Michael Angulia | 12-15-2020

Video still of original interview

Van Halen Never Officially Offered Sheehan Position was a top 20 story of Feb. 2020: The Metal Voice have asked from an apology from Billy Sheehan after the former David Lee Roth band bassist accused the site of spreading "fake news" by publishing his response to an interview question where he was asked if he had even been offered the bassist position in Van Halen.

After his response generated headlines, Sheehan took to social media to distance himself from his answering. Calling the reports fake news and clarifying that he had never formally been offered a position in Van Halen.

The Metal Voice themselves took to social media to respond to the "fake news" accusation. They shared the interview clip and wrote, "@The Metal Voice reports FACTS. The evidence and proof are below in the text and in this video clip. Watch and you tell me.

"If a guest makes an error in what they said they should clarify what they meant not belittle the messenger no matter who they are. It's too bad we had such a good time with Billy doing the interview he was really nice and a fantastic bass player

"We not only talked about Van Halen we spoke about Sons of Apollo, Talas, David lee Roth and Mr Big as well in the full interview [link to video included at the end of the article]

"Even weeks before the interview we highly praised the new Sons of Apollo Album and we still remain HUGE supporters of the band

"Interview Billy Sheehan was asked the question by The Metal Voice, "Were you ever offered the position as bassist for Van Halen?"

He responded: 'Three times through the years. And I considered it a great, great honor. However, I'm torn, because I love Michael Anthony, and I think he's the best bass player for Van Halen. And as much as I would have loved to do that, I wanna see Michael in the band. And I'm not even sure why they asked me in the band, 'cause I think Michael is an awesome player and a great singer. Who knows what the situation was? But it was just a great honor to be associated with them in any capacity."

"When asked by The Metal Voice during which era of Van Halen he was approached about joining the group,

Billy Sheehan said: 'It was the tour after the 'Women And Children First' tour. I think it was 'Fair Warning'. We talked about it then. And then I spoke with [singer] Dave [Lee Roth] about it also. I mostly spoke with [guitarist] Eddie [Van Halen], and I [talked to] Dave about it too, I remember, in Toronto, Canada. I came up to see them play from Buffalo. And then, at the end, [on the] '1984' [tour], I remember Ed took me onstage to show me the stage setup, and we talked about it then. ... The last time that it went down, I went up to Eddie's studio when I lived in L.A. a few years back, and jammed with him and [drummer] Alex [Van Halen] for a while. And we thought about doing something then. But it didn't happen.'

"Signed
"This little website

"PS It would be nice to get an apology". See the full post with the interview clip video here.