Michael Anthony Shares The Song Eddie Van Halen Wrote To Cope With Grief

Van Halen will release a new box set ‘The Collection II’ on October 6th. The upcoming set will include newly remastered versions of four multi-platinum studio albums, along with a selection of rarities recorded between 1989 and 2004. Michael Anthony sat down with Sammy Hagar to discuss the meaning behind ‘Crossing Over.’ The guitarist explained:

“That song was written of a very good childhood friend of Alex and Eddie’s that they grew up with over here in the States who committed suicide. That was basically Eddie, I don’t know I guess that was kind of the way he was dealing with it, his grieving about it. He went in, he played all the instruments, just did it all by himself, him and Donn Landee.

Sammy joined and said:

“He [Eddie] played drums, bass, bunch of cool guitar stuff.”

Michael pointed out that the track is a ‘heavy one’ by saying:

“You heard that [the instruments], yeah there’s all kinds of layered guitar stuff that comes in into it and whatever but a very heavy track you could say.”

The Red Rocker went on to share his perspective on the song. He recalled the first time he heard the song and how it took on different meanings over the years. He expressed:

“It was before I even knew these guys and then we pulled that out and I put a vocal on it like 10 years later or whatever it was. That is a special ass song. Because first of all it was written about Ed and Al’s friend who committed suicide and then I wrote it about Ed Leffler, our manager who died and then it became about Eddie. Truth of the matter is that’s a deep track. That would be what you would call a deep track on every level.”

You can watch Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar talk about the remastered Van Halen Track ‘Crossing Over’ below. You can listen also listen to the the remastered version of the track below.