Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony was recently interviewed by Steve Gorman - former drummer for The Black Crowes - on Steve Gorman Rocks!, a syndicated FM radio show designed for classic rock stations.

When asked how much work had been done (in 1985) before it was obvious that Sammy Hagar was going to be the new singer for Van Halen, Anthony replied: "We played probably for about ten minutes tops, and we knew that we had something happening. We had a couple of songs that would end up on the 5150 record; I think they were 'Good Enough' and… there was another one; there was a couple of them that were pretty much written. And Sammy... we played it for him, and we said, 'Just sing. Just sing something.' And there were bits that he actually sang that ended up - and I kid you not - on the album. The chemistry was just such, like, 'Wow!'"

However, according to Anthony, not everybody was as enamoured with Hagar as the band was. "Here we had everybody - (our record label) Warner Brothers, our management, our lawyers - going, 'Oh my God. David Lee Roth's gone.' Warner Brothers wanted us to change the name of the band. Because they had a feeling if Dave ever returned... they thought that was such a strong identity. I remember Eddie (Van Halen - guitarist) and Alex (Van Halen - drummer), we were at Warner Brothers, and they were yelling, going, 'Hey, hey, this is our last name. This is our careers. And this is it - Van Halen.'"

Sammy Hagar recorded four studio albums with Van Halen - 5150 (1986), OU812 (1988), For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991), and Balance (1995) - all of which hit #1 on the U.S. chart.

A year ago, in April 2020, Sammy Hagar & The Circle covered the aforementioned "Good Enough" as part of their Lockdown Sessions. Joining Hagar and Anthony in The Circle are guitarist Vic Johnson and drummer Jason Bonham.