Idolator

Has any band tried to erase a former member from its history as awkwardly as Van Halen's tried to do with Michael Anthony? First you had the whole "Photoshopping Wolfgang into the Van Halen I album cover" flare-up. Then came the revelation that Anthony's vocals would be replicated on tape during the upcoming tour by the "new band." Now, according to someone who actually sat through Superbad's credits over the weekend, the credits to old songs are getting makeovers as well:

A fan wrote us on Saturday with the following: "On every single Van Halen song (with exception to the three new songs on the Best of Both Worlds compilation, ) credits have always gone to Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, Michael Anthony, and the lead singer who is featured on the song (Roth/Hagar/Cherone). However, during the credits of the film 'Superbad', which features the song 'Panama', the song is only credited to the two Van Halens and Roth! Anthony continues to get snubbed by his former band as they attempt to erase him from the history of the band."

We looked a little further into this and discovered that Anthony has been removed from the credits for all of the songs from the band's Diamond Award winning album 1984 in the ASCAP database. The All Music Guide credits for the songs on the album include Anthony, Eddie, Alex, and Roth. However, Michael McDonald is missing from the credits for the track "I'll Wait". A check of other Van Halen releases still list Anthony as a co-writer.

Our copy of 1984 doesn't list writing credits (thanks Columbia House!) so we can't confirm this claim, but seriously, this witch-hunt for other examples of Anthony being erased from the Van Halen history books is a sign that things are starting to get more embarrassing than the "What version of LA Guns is touring this week" debacle.

Van Halen Angers Fans With Anthony Snubs [antiMusic]