A legendary man with a legendary band, Van Halen is responsible for some of the greatest songs in rock music. But what are you missing from the group's long history? If you're a real fan, this is what you need to know.
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00:00A legendary man with a legendary band, Van Halen is responsible for some of the greatest
00:05songs in rock music.
00:07But what are you missing from the group's long history?
00:09If you're a real fan, this is what you need to know.
00:13You probably can't tell, but Michael Jackson's infectious Beat It was his first ever attempt
00:17at a rock song.
00:19But the King of Pop's ode to street life might have never charted at number one on the Billboard
00:23Hot 100 if it wasn't for the memorable work of hard rock guitarist Eddie Van Halen.
00:28In 1982, the anti-disco movement was strong, so Jackson and his producer Quincy Jones were
00:34looking for something that would give him a harder edge and set his next record apart.
00:39Jones tasked him with penning a rock song in the mold of the Knack's mega-hit My Sharona
00:43for his upcoming album Thriller.
00:45Who might you enlist if you're a legendary pop superstar dipping your toe into the rock
00:49genre?
00:50For Michael Jackson, it was none other than legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen.
00:55Wow, Van Halen, who else?
00:57Eddie Van Halen's iconic guitar riff is now known as the centerpiece of Beat It, but when
01:02Quincy Jones approached Van Halen to record the track, he thought it was a joke.
01:07According to Stereogum, Eddie Van Halen reportedly hung up on and cursed at Quincy Jones four
01:11times before realizing it wasn't a prank call.
01:15While Eddie Van Halen usually avoided taking any side gigs while working with his band
01:19Van Halen, he agreed to the collaboration, but he had two rules.
01:23Van Halen wouldn't be credited, and Jackson wouldn't tell the rest of his bandmates.
01:28As Thriller and its hit Beat It climbed the charts, Eddie Van Halen was shocked to see
01:32it outpace his band's own album 1984.
01:35Van Halen later told CNN in 2012,
01:37"...I said to myself, who is going to know that I played on this kid's record, right?
01:41Nobody's going to find out.
01:43Wrong.
01:44Big time wrong.
01:45It ended up being record of the year."
01:47Then Eddie Van Halen found himself perusing a Tower Records store in Sherman Oaks, Los
01:52Angeles when Beat It came on over the stereo.
01:55Some nearby customers mused that the song's guitar solo sounded almost exactly like the
01:59playing of Van Halen himself.
02:01He reportedly tapped the record store kids on the shoulder and fessed up that it was
02:05him.
02:06Naturally, his bandmates caught wind of Eddie's contribution, even if he went uncredited on
02:10the album.
02:11He offered his Van Halen bandmates a few excuses for his pop interlude.
02:15"...I just said, you know, busted.
02:17Dave, you were out of the country.
02:19Al, you weren't around.
02:20I couldn't call anyone and ask for permission."
02:22Van Halen's street cred was safe.
02:25His bandmates let it pass, but not without first razzing him about one huge mistake.
02:30Turns out, Eddie Van Halen had never asked to be paid for what was now the number one
02:34song in the United States.
02:36He had agreed, in the end, to play on the track, perform a guitar solo, and rework the
02:40arrangement for the entire track.
02:42While Eddie Van Halen's 20-second guitar solo on Beat It seems to transcend all space and
02:48In fact, it only took the legend half an hour to record.
02:51Of course, not without rearranging the entire song first.
02:55According to CNN, Quincy Jones told Van Halen to do, quote, "...whatever you want to do."
02:59"...That is why we need Eddie Van Halen."
03:02After an initial listen to the rough track, Van Halen chopped different sections of the
03:06chorus and reworked the middle of the song, and then promptly recorded two masterful blazing
03:11guitar solos on top.
03:13Instead of thinking that Van Halen had butchered his new track, Michael Jackson was grateful
03:17for the contribution.
03:18Van Halen recalled to CNN that Jackson told him he made the song that much better.
03:22"...then Michael came in and said, I hope you don't mind I changed your song.
03:26And he listens and goes, no, I really like that high-fast stuff you do."
03:31Eddie Van Halen's hand in the crossover hit soon took on a mythic quality.
03:35In the final cut of the track, you can hear a knocking sound right before Van Halen's
03:39guitar solo shreds through.
03:41As Stereogum points out, many fans attributed the knock to Eddie Van Halen, possibly drunk
03:46and impatient to be let into the recording studio.
03:49But that part of the legend is supposedly just legend.
03:53It hasn't been good times all the time for Van Halen.
03:55They've endured lineup changes, the consequences of a rock-and-roll lifestyle, and plenty of
03:59health scares.
04:00Here are some of the most tragic moments in Van Halen's history.
04:04While Van Halen was named after brothers Eddie and Alex Van Halen, their breakout star was
04:08colorful lead singer David Lee Roth.
04:10He was always good for a quippy quote, bouncing around on stage, and mugging for the cameras.
04:15But then in 1985, he left the band, a year after the release of their most successful
04:20album, 1984.
04:21Why'd you leave?
04:22Why did I bail?
04:23I'm a workaholic.
04:24I like to travel, I like to go on the road."
04:29That left the rest of Van Halen scrambling to find a new lead singer to keep that gravy
04:33train rolling.
04:35Several of the band's initial choices turned down the gig, which eventually went to hard
04:38rock solo artist Sammy Hagar.
04:41Patti Smith of the band Scandal was one of those choices.
04:44She told Delaware's News Journal in 2014,
04:46"...they had asked me not to talk about it in interviews at the time because they didn't
04:50want Sammy Hagar to feel like he was the second choice."
04:54Another interesting selection that could have been was the honey-voiced Daryl Hall of Blue
04:57Eyed Soul duo Hall & Oates.
05:00When Hagar was a guest on Hall's show Live at Daryl's House, he asked Hall about the
05:04rumor that he'd been asked to join his old band, which Hall confirmed.
05:09Not long after the stressful departure of Roth in 1985, Eddie and Alex Van Halen endured
05:14a far more taxing ordeal.
05:16Their father, Jan Van Halen, suffered a heart attack in May 1986 and then died in December
05:22of that year at the age of 66.
05:24In a 1988 profile in Rolling Stone, Eddie indicated that a problem with alcohol contributed
05:30to his father's death.
05:31His passing, as well as the time Eddie was forced to stay in the hospital for tropical
05:36fever, made him take a long, hard look at himself.
05:39As he put it,
05:40"...that kinda made me look at things a little different.
05:43Imagining being in there for an O.D. or alcohol, like my dad died from, it kinda wised me up."
05:49Their father's death shook Alex as well, who enjoyed a reputation as the hardest partier
05:53of anyone in the band.
05:55He also quit drinking around 1986 and admitted that he didn't want to end up like The Who's
06:00Keith Moon or Led Zeppelin's John Bonham, two other legendary rock drummers who died
06:06from complications from excessive alcohol consumption.
06:09Eddie Van Halen
06:10Bassist Michael Anthony's relationship with Eddie Van Halen started to suffer in the late
06:1490s, when the band parted with Sammy Hagar and briefly united with David Lee Roth.
06:19Hagar had started a new band called Planet Us and had asked Anthony if he'd like to join.
06:24Van Halen took that to mean that Anthony had to quit.
06:26Flash forward to 2004, when Van Halen wanted to tour with Hagar, and they asked Anthony
06:31to get the jilted singer to sign on.
06:33However, if Anthony wanted to be a part of it, he'd have to sign away his legal rights
06:37to Van Halen's band name and take a pay cut.
06:40"...it's really irritating to see them go after Mikey.
06:43Mikey didn't do anything, ever, to Van Halen.
06:46Mikey was the most loyal guy in the band."
06:49Three years later, Van Halen hit the road again, this time with Roth but without Anthony,
06:54who found out about the tour when it was reported in the press.
06:57The band's newest bassist was Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie's teenage son.
07:02On top of that, Eddie refuted Anthony's version of the events to Rolling Stone, saying,
07:07"...when Hagar left the band, Mike went with him.
07:10Then when we get back together with Dave and all of a sudden he wants back in, it's like,
07:14nah dude, you quit the band."
07:15But that wasn't how Anthony saw it.
07:17He told MusicRadar in 2009 that he simply never quit Van Halen.
07:22Van Halen has a reputation for being a nightmare on tour, and with that in mind, perhaps the
07:26most famous bit of Van Halen lore is the no-brown M&M's rule.
07:31The band's 1982 rider included a stipulation that their backstage bowl of M&M's must be
07:36totally free of any brown candies.
07:38This wasn't Van Halen acting like a bunch of divas, however.
07:42In 2012, David Lee Roth explained that the band's touring show was difficult to set up
07:46in a timely manner because the crews in each town were inexperienced with assembling a
07:50massive rock and roll setup.
07:52So Roth asked his managers to place a clause in the rider banning brown M&M's.
07:57If he spotted the candies in the bowl, it provided proof that the promoter hadn't read
08:01the rider and the band would have to do a serious line check to make sure all of the
08:05stage equipment had been installed safely and correctly.
08:08If people didn't pay attention to the contract, that led to some bad consequences.
08:13For example, at Van Halen's 1980 show in Pueblo, Colorado, when Roth went backstage and found
08:18brown M&M's, he absolutely destroyed the dressing room.
08:22As it turns out, he had every right to be mad that the promoters hadn't carefully read
08:26the contract.
08:27In addition to the M&M's, the arena's shock-absorbent floor couldn't handle the weight of Van Halen's
08:32gear.
08:33Even though the floor's requirements were laid out in the rider, organizers ignored
08:37that section, too, and tens of thousands of dollars' worth of damage was done to the area
08:42floor.
08:43In their 70s and 80s heyday, the members of Van Halen would play a concert in the evening
08:48and then they'd go out and party afterward.
08:50Everyone that is, except Eddie Van Halen, who would stay back in his hotel room to write
08:54songs, work on guitar riffs, and ingest copious amounts of vodka and cocaine.
08:59In 2015, he told Billboard,
09:01"...I would use them for work.
09:03The blow keeps you awake and the alcohol lowers your inhibitions.
09:06I was an alcoholic and I needed alcohol to function."
09:10Of course, this sometimes backfired, as Eddie once got so wasted that he couldn't even play.
09:15His descent into addiction began at a very young age.
09:19He started drinking and smoking when he was 12.
09:21During his high school years, he would even get drunk before showing up to class.
09:25In 1988, he told Rolling Stone about the alcohol-related death of his father that led him to kicking
09:30booze, but the sobriety didn't last.
09:33By 2004, he'd turned into, as he told Billboard, an angry drunk.
09:38Three years later, he checked himself into a rehabilitation center, which precluded him
09:42from attending Van Halen's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
09:46So many rock stars have married famous actresses that it feels like it just must be the natural
09:50order of things.
09:51In 1980, 20-year-old Valerie Bertinelli, at the time one of the stars of the popular sitcom
09:56One Day at a Time, met guitar master Eddie Van Halen backstage at one of his shows.
10:02The pair then married in April 1981, just eight months after they became a couple.
10:06Why did that feel like the right move for you back then to get married at the age of
10:1020 to a rock and roll star?
10:11I was madly in love, madly in love.
10:13I just adored him.
10:16Unfortunately, drugs go hand-in-hand with rock and roll, and they were also part of
10:20this rock and roll marriage before it even started.
10:23Bertinelli revealed in her memoir, Losing It and Gaining My Life Back, that as she and
10:27Van Halen filled out a pre-marriage questionnaire sent by their wedding officiant, they were
10:32holding vials of cocaine.
10:34Not long into the marriage, both spouses started to stray.
10:38Bertinelli discovered evidence of Van Halen's infidelity when she heard him on the phone
10:41talking about how he wanted out of the marriage.
10:44She filed for divorce in 2005, four years after the two of them had separated.
10:49In March 1995, Van Halen hit the road for a long stretch of concerts in support of their
10:54album Balance.
10:55Eddie Van Halen nicknamed it the Ambulance Tour because both he and his brother were
11:00playing through significant pain, while Alex Van Halen ruptured three vertebrae in his
11:04neck and had to wear a not-very-rock-and-roll neck brace for the duration of many shows.
11:10Eddie was dealing with tremendous pain in his hip due to avascular necrosis.
11:15The guitarist delayed hip replacement surgery for years, until he finally went under the
11:19knife in November 1999 when he was just 44.
11:23He got his brand new bionic from Dr. John R. Moreland, orthopedic surgeon to the stars,
11:28who performed similar operations for Liza Minnelli and Elizabeth Taylor.
11:32Clearly, there's almost always a painful price to being an aging rock star.
11:37Eddie Van Halen was once a habitual chain smoker, and all the cigarettes he went through
11:41during recording sessions weren't exactly pleasant for his bandmates.
11:45Sammy Hagar described the situation to Ultimate Classic Rock,
11:48"'I would come home, midnight, one o'clock in the morning, and I would stink so bad with
11:52all my long hair, hair just absorbed cigarettes, and my clothes.'"
11:57Van Halen eventually gave up smoking in favor of vaping, a necessary concession considering
12:02that a third of his tongue was surgically removed in 2000.
12:06The cancer also spread to his throat.
12:08In November 2019, he was briefly hospitalized for a health issue relating to the cancer,
12:13as he was suffering from abdominal pain, an adverse reaction to some of his cancer drugs.
12:18Van Halen has an interesting theory about the cause of his ongoing health crisis.
12:23Years of smoking aren't to blame, instead, it's work-related.
12:26He told Billboard in 2019,
12:28"'I used metal picks.
12:30They're brass and copper, which I always held in my mouth, in the exact place where I got
12:34the tongue cancer.
12:35Plus, I basically live in a recording studio that's filled with electromagnetic energy.'"
12:41He faced another major health scare in 2012.
12:44On August 29th, a message posted to the Van Halen Facebook page read,
12:48"'Eddie Van Halen underwent an emergency surgery for a severe bout of diverticulitis.
12:53No further surgeries are needed, and a full recovery is expected within 4-6 months.'
12:58Symptoms like constant abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, fever and constipation plagued Eddie,
13:04and severe cases require corrective surgery.
13:07That's what happened to Van Halen.
13:09Sadly, the condition got even worse for the eruption guitarist.
13:12He spent an extra three weeks in the hospital after his surgery because of a few blown stitches,
13:17leading to an infection in his intestine, a portion of which had to be removed by doctors.
13:22Van Halen spent months recovering at home, forcing the cancellation of the rest of his
13:26band's 2012 tour dates.
13:29In the early 1980s, Alex Van Halen was briefly married to a woman named Valerie Kendall.
13:34Eventually, the two broke up, but that wouldn't be his only divorce.
13:38In 1984, he married Kelly Carter.
13:41Their union ended in 1996, but there were even more legal headaches to come.
13:46In 2013, ELVH Inc., the band's intellectual property company, sued Kelly Carter, or, more
13:53accurately, Kelly Van Halen.
13:55Over a decade after her divorce, she was still using Van Halen as her professional last name.
14:01She started a construction, fashion, and interior design company named Kelly Van Halen, which,
14:06according to ELVH, constituted trademark infringement.
14:10The company also complained that putting the name Kelly Van Halen on a line of blankets,
14:15bathing suits, and armoires was confusingly similar to the sound, appearance, and commercial
14:20impression of Van Halen the rock band.
14:23After years of legal battles, all parties settled the matter out of court.
14:27Eddie Van Halen and Dimebag Darrell Abbott were phenomenal guitarists the world was sad
14:32to let go.
14:33Dimebag Darrell was tragically shot in 2004, while Eddie Van Halen struggled with throat
14:38cancer for years before the disease eventually took his life on October 6th, 2020.
14:44Both came from prominent rock bands, and both knew of each other's talents.
14:48Dimebag had been a fan of the entire Van Halen crew for a long time.
14:51It was pretty mainstream heavy metal for me, you know?
14:54Like Iron Maiden, Van Halen, Black Sabbath, of course, s----, you know, s---- like that.
15:00Meanwhile, Eddie Van Halen had embraced his fellow guitarist.
15:03Van Halen and Dimebag Darrell had only known each other for a few weeks before Dimebag
15:08Darrell's tragic onstage murder at the hands of a gun-wielding fan.
15:12But Van Halen clearly came to respect both Darrell Abbott as a person and Dimebag Darrell
15:17as a musician.
15:18There isn't much else that could explain how the two of them got so close in such a limited
15:22amount of time.
15:24The two guitarists were each part of a pair of brothers playing guitar and drums in their
15:28bands.
15:29Eddie Van Halen and Alex Van Halen were the founding members of Van Halen, while Dimebag
15:33Darrell and Vinnie Paul Abbott both played for Pantera and Damageplan.
15:38Both sets of brothers were quite close to each other, and, according to Vinnie Paul,
15:42hit it off right away when they met each other.
15:45Vinnie Paul told Team Rock that the last words he and his brother said to each other before
15:49Dimebag's tragic death were,
15:51"'Van Halen.'"
15:52It was a mantra of theirs that reminded them to, quote,
15:55"...let it all hang out and have a good time."
15:57Vinnie Paul also talked about the first time Dimebag met Eddie Van Halen.
16:02They hung out with Van Halen while they were setting up and doing soundtrack for one of
16:05the band's shows, and Dimebag was ecstatic.
16:08Vinnie Paul recalled Dimebag's words for Ultimate Classic Rock after the encounter,
16:12"'My brother looked at me and he goes, man, you know what?
16:15If this plane was to go down in a crash right now, I'd be okay with it.
16:19I finally got to meet the dude that made me want to play guitar.'"
16:22According to his girlfriend, Rena Haney, Dimebag had offered to pay $30,000 for a striped guitar
16:28from Eddie's collection.
16:30But Eddie turned down the offer, telling Dimebag that he'd make a special one for him instead.
16:35After Dimebag Daryl's death, Vinnie Paul and Rita Haney were discussing which guitar to
16:40bury Dimebag with.
16:41He'd already had a special casket donated by the band Kiss, so a fitting guitar was
16:46next on the docket.
16:48Eddie Van Halen called and said he'd pick one out just for Daryl, according to Ultimate
16:52Classic Rock.
16:53Everyone was expecting a replica guitar of the same type that Haney said Dimebag had
16:57discussed the night he met Eddie.
17:00Instead of the red and white colors, Haney requested yellow and black.
17:04Haney told Van Halen,
17:05"[Daryl always said that the yellow and black was your toughest guitar.]
17:09Well, there was no way Eddie was going to let Dimebag Daryl rest in peace with a newly
17:13striped guitar that had never seen any real action.
17:16He had other plans."
17:17Eddie came by the day of Dimebag Daryl's funeral with the guitar in hand.
17:22It was indeed the yellow and black that Haney had requested, the same iconic guitar he held
17:27on the back of the Van Halen 2 album.
17:29He puts his guitar in the casket with Daryl.
17:31It's the guitar off of Van Halen 2, you know, the black one with the yellow stripe, I mean,
17:34it's the guitar."
17:35Reportedly, he told Haney, quote,
17:37"'An original should have an original.'"
17:40Van Halen refused to view Dimebag during the ceremony so that he could remember the late
17:44guitarist how he had known him in life.
17:46Eddie Van Halen then told Dimebag's friends and loved ones,
17:49"'I'm here for the same reason as everyone else, to give some love back.
17:54This guy was full of life.
17:55He lived and breathed rock and roll.'"
17:58Ah, the 80s.
17:59A decade that couldn't quite decide what it wanted to be when it grew up.
18:03It was self-referential, outlandish, and a little ashamed of its roots.
18:07Disco was roundly derided, despite selling millions of dance tunes.
18:10And while video didn't actually kill the radio star, MTV was playing little short films wrapped
18:15around music singles, and lots of people took notice.
18:18Witness Van Halen
18:19The band composed of brothers Eddie and Alex Van Halen on guitar and drums, respectively,
18:24with Michael Anthony playing bass and David Lee Roth as singer-frontman showman Hare.
18:29The band gelled in 1974 and cut an album four years later with financial backing from Kiss's
18:34Gene Simmons, according to Biography.
18:37And it sold well.
18:38But the real success, and presumably the real money, came with 1984's 1984, which included
18:44such chart-smashing cuts as Panama, Jump, and Hot for Teacher, the subject of today's
18:49lesson.
18:50Music videos were amazingly effective for selling recordings.
18:53Some had practically nothing to do with the song itself — look up Men Without Hats'
18:57safety dance from 1982 if you don't believe us — while some made at least a passing
19:01attempt at a narrative.
19:02They also provided an excuse for the band to hang out with very attractive people, like
19:06in Hot for Teacher.
19:07Roth is credited with co-directing the video, along with Pete Angeles, director on the band's
19:12videos for Jump and Panama, says Song Facts.
19:15The video begins with Waldo, the already awkward new kid in school who's terrified.
19:20Then, the teacher walks in, who turns out to be, well, attractive by most standards.
19:25The woman playing the teacher with dance moves was Lillian Mueller, a native of Norway who'd
19:29already had a decent MTV gig, says Ultimate Classic Rock, as part of Rod Stewart's Do
19:34You Think I'm Sexy six years earlier.
19:37Mueller had started as a model in Western Europe, appearing, according to her website,
19:41in the pages of French Vogue and Modeling in London.
19:44That led to yet another bit of pop culture infamy.
19:47Mueller was named Playboy's Playmate of the Year in 1976.
19:51Her website relates that Lillian went on to become the most featured Playmate of the Year
19:55in the magazine's history, scoring nine covers from 1975 to 1999.
20:01As for her Hot for Teacher performance, a Guitar World article from 2012 quotes Mueller
20:05this way,
20:06"'I was in my early thirties at the time.
20:08I was a little old for the role.'
20:10That didn't seem to stop anyone."
20:11Loudwire relates that 1984 has sold something like 20 million copies, and the official video
20:17on YouTube has amassed north of 17 million views.
20:20The Hot for Teacher video also has children standing in as young versions of Van Halen
20:25members, reportedly a stroke of dramatic genius from Angelus.
20:29Waldo himself had little help in his characterization.
20:32The boy's voice was supplied by longtime Saturday Night Live veteran Phil Hartman.
20:36"'I hope you find some friends this year.'
20:40"'Oh, Mom, you know I'm not like other guys.'"
20:45There's some dancing involved, of course, including choreography performed by the band
20:49under a disco ball.
20:51Musical ability doesn't necessarily translate onto the dance floor, however.
20:55Drummer Alex Van Halen couldn't get the moves down, and is pretty much out of step throughout
20:59those shots.
21:01Mueller went on to score guest roles on American television for several years, including appearances
21:05on the original Magnum, P.I. and Fantasy Island, along with a couple of supporting
21:10roles in films, before moving into a new career arc.
21:13She studied at the Actors Studio in Hollywood before launching her brand as a motivational
21:17speaker.
21:18"'My life now is very much about helping people, you know, keep their youth, keep their health
21:23and looking radiant.'"
21:25She then returned to Norway for more television work, including that country's version of
21:29Dancing with the Stars.
21:31According to her website, she's published a couple of books, including her autobiography
21:35and a volume of advice on personal health for people over the age of 40, all while raising
21:39a daughter as a single parent.
21:41She claims she's never consumed alcohol and has been a staunch vegetarian since her mid-20s,
21:46which perhaps led to her Sexiest Vegetarian Over 50 title in December 2010 from People
21:51for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
21:53Seems like she still has a few things she could teach us.
21:56How could two men who made such magic together in the studio and onstage have so much animosity
22:01toward one another over the course of more than 40 years?
22:04There is no stereotypical band origin story here in which young friends came together
22:08for the love of music.
22:09According to Van Halen Newsdesk, Roth was only invited to join the group because, unlike
22:13Eddie Van Halen and drummer Alex Van Halen, he came from money and already owned his own
22:17sound system.
22:18Eddie was the band's lead singer as well as guitarist.
22:21He didn't have the best voice, but he didn't love Roth's voice, either.
22:24Apparently, the sound system was too much for him to resist.
22:27Roth joined the group in 1973 and immediately tried to change things up.
22:31While most of Van Halen loved and wanted to play straight-up heavy metal, Roth was
22:35also a fan of Motown, the Beach Boys, and funk.
22:37The radio-friendly metal of Van Halen would have been impossible without what each other
22:41had to offer.
22:42Eddie Van Halen, with his stunning finger-tapping technique, guitar hero riffs, and serious
22:46gift for songwriting, and David Lee Roth, with his over-the-top charisma, showmanship,
22:50and vocals, they were both arguably the best at what they did, which perhaps contributed
22:54to the friction between them.
22:56According to associate professor of history and Van Halen scholar Greg Renoff, Roth and
22:59Van Halen had entirely different ideas about how to be in a rock band and how to succeed
23:03in the music business.
23:04Renoff explained,
23:05"[The Van Halens were content making good money playing shows in the Pasadena area that
23:09they would promote themselves, while Roth pushed them to audition at clubs and expand
23:13their reach."
23:14Roth also wanted the band to look more like rock stars and glam up their concerts with
23:17stage clothes.
23:18This push and pull of personalities and musical philosophies ended up defining the band's
23:22sound and image.
23:23Renoff further elaborated on the group's chemistry.
23:26Of course, they never would have made it without Eddie writing the songs and without their
23:29talents, but Roth was the guy who said,
23:31"'Look at me.'"
23:32Throughout the years, both Van Halen and Roth always spoke openly about their differences
23:35with each other.
23:36When Roth appeared on Marc Maron's WTF podcast, he described his early relationship with the
23:40Van Halen brothers as,
23:42"...cross-town adversaries who hated each other with a vengeance."
23:45Roth went on to summarize the Van Halen style as,
23:47"...artisanal, super-small-batch scotch craft."
23:50If we're running with that metaphor, one could say that Roth is a giant frozen banana daiquiri
23:55topped with several maraschino cherries, a few cocktail umbrellas, a novelty silly straw,
23:59and an extra floater of rum.
24:01When Roth appeared in The Opie and Anthony Show in 2013, he mentioned that there was
24:05tension between him and Van Halen from the very beginning.
24:08"...conflict was immediate."
24:09From day one.
24:10Oh, really?
24:11"...sustained from day one."
24:14For 35 years, off and on.
24:16In a 2015 Billboard interview, Eddie Van Halen made a few cutting remarks of his own about
24:20Roth.
24:21He said,
24:22"...three of us are in this band, and three of us like rock and roll, and one of us likes
24:25dance music."
24:26Van Halen went on to say,
24:28"...Roth's perception of himself is different than who he is in reality.
24:31We're not in our 20s anymore, we're in our 60s.
24:34Act like you're 60."
24:35Despite their musical and personal differences, Van Halen admitted, however, that the fans'
24:39expectations included Roth.
24:40I think it's now built into people's DNA that it just won't be Van Halen if it's not Roth's
24:45voice.
24:46In addition to his legacy as the man who changed the electric guitar forever, Van Halen also
24:51served as a pop culture touchstone, inspiring everything from a claymation guitar-playing
24:56hamburger in 1985's Better Off Dead to Bill & Ted's air guitar riff, Handshake, and their
25:02dream of recruiting Eddie to play in Wild Stallions in 1989's Bill & Ted's Excellent
25:07Adventure.
25:08Well, how can we have decent instruments when we don't really even know how to play?
25:12That is why we need Eddie Van Halen.
25:15There are also several references to Van Halen in 1985's Back to the Future, including a
25:20scene in which Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly has gone back in time to the 1950s to impart
25:26some information to his nerdy teenage father.
25:29To make his point, and scare teen dad into listening to him, Marty dons a hazmat suit,
25:33pulls out a cassette tape labeled Edward Van Halen, and awakens his father with some distinctly
25:391980s guitar riffs.
25:41["SILENCE, EARTHLING!"
25:43["MY NAME IS DARTH VADER"]
25:51The music from the Edward Van Halen tape sure sounds like the work of Eddie Van Halen, but
25:56was it actually him?
25:57In 2012, TMZ finally got the answer to this question once and for all.
26:02A TMZ reporter-slash-obvious-Van-Halen-fan followed the band through an airport and onto
26:07an escalator to ask Eddie about the alleged cameo.
26:10The reporter took the opportunity to clear up the Back to the Future trivia once and
26:14for all, asking if it is indeed Edward Van Halen on the cassette tape.
26:18Eddie confirmed with a calm, matter-of-fact, yeah.
26:22When asked what music he was playing, Van Halen admitted that he was just, quote, playing
26:26a bunch of noise, typical modesty from the man who often let his guitar do all the talking,
26:31and also not entirely true.
26:33The bunch of noise has a name, and was even used in another movie.
26:37According to Van Halen Newsdesk, it's a song called Out the Window, and it also appeared
26:41in the 1984 film The Wildlife.
26:44According to IMDb, the movie is an 80s teen romp written by Cameron Crowe with the tagline,
26:50"'After the hottest summer of their lives, getting back to basics was easy.
26:54Getting back to normal was the hard part.'"
26:56Upon its release, The New York Times called it, quote, something like a sequel to 1982's
27:01Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
27:03Meanwhile, for Ultimate Classic Rock, Eddie Van Halen scored the entirety of The Wildlife,
27:08including Out the Window.
27:09His original musical role was supposed to be small, but he ended up, quote, recording
27:14searing guitar riffs over drum machine tracks that appear throughout the movie.
27:18The score was never officially released, and just one Van Halen song, an instrumental called
27:23Donut City, appeared on The Wildlife soundtrack.
27:26This didn't seem to bother Eddie Van Halen, who said, quote,
27:29We were concerned about doing stuff for the film, not selling a record.
27:32Later, Eddie incorporated pieces of The Wildlife's score into several Van Halen songs, including
27:38Right Now and Feel So Good.
27:41With David Lee Roth on vocals and Eddie Van Halen on guitar, Van Halen jumped into the
27:45music scene in the late 70s.
27:48But just a few years later, Roth jumped right out of the band as they peaked.
27:51Here's why David Lee Roth really left Van Halen.
27:54When you have a band named after you like Eddie Van Halen does, you probably want to
27:58have a say in the direction your group is headed in.
28:01That became more and more clear as the band's popularity surged.
28:04Roth wanted to keep things loose and fun, while Eddie wanted to become more diverse
28:07and music-oriented.
28:09The friction really came to a head during the tour for their massive hit album 1984.
28:14Once Roth departed, the barbs flew.
28:16When Eddie discovered that Roth was working on a movie prior to his Van Halen departure,
28:20he publicly said,
28:21Dave left to be a movie star.
28:23He also revealed that Roth even boldly asked if Eddie would write a film score for him,
28:27so it's probably fair to say that being in a band with Eddie Van Halen may not always
28:32be rainbows and sunshine.
28:33For Edward and I, there is a lot of whatever that chemical is in guys.
28:40When Van Halen toured in 1978 as Black Sabbath's opener, they were on the upcrest of their
28:45meteoric rise.
28:47Sabbath, however, was declining, both musically and physically.
28:51Drugs were partly to blame.
28:52What Van Halen could have learned from that cautionary tale was presumably obscured by
28:56their own substance excesses.
28:58One instance saw Roth and Ozzy Osbourne having a cocaine duel that ended with Ozzy missing
29:03for hours and a canceled gig.
29:05Additionally, Van Halen became known for chugging Jack Daniels from the bottle during their
29:09shows.
29:10Other members of the band, like Eddie, would treat their burgeoning addictions more quietly.
29:14He would often get drunk or do coke privately and use those as his muses.
29:19Thus, even the habits of their substance abuse magnified their inherent differences.
29:23Roth was the type to get drunk on stage and hit on girls, while Eddie was the kind to
29:27sit under the influence in his room with his guitar.
29:30Eddie Van Halen constructed the studio of his dreams for the band in 1983 with the help
29:35of producer Don Landy, who helped engineer the first few VH albums.
29:40He called his studio 5150, and every album the band did from then on was recorded there.
29:45That included 1984, the album that propelled the band into superstardom.
29:49But that album, and the circumstances surrounding the band at the time, would help push Roth
29:54to quit the band, and the actual studio itself was a major reason for his decision.
29:59Roth believed Eddie had too much control over the overall creative process in the studio,
30:03and it turns out that's partly why Eddie built it.
30:06He hated the way previous Van Halen producer Ted Templeman made a record.
30:10Templeman loved having the band do cover songs while Eddie wanted to make his own music.
30:14The producer turned a beloved riff of Eddie's into a cover of Dancing in the Street, which
30:19was the last straw for Eddie.
30:21He no longer wanted to be known for singles or other people's hits.
30:24Although Templeman would still help with the making of 1984, it was clear to everyone that
30:28he was operating in Eddie's house now.
30:31One person who was hearing a lot from Eddie's side of things was Kiss bassist Gene Simmons,
30:36who actually got the band their first big break.
30:38Eddie kept telling his mentor how he and Roth were increasingly at odds, and around 1982,
30:43things apparently got bad enough that, according to Simmons, Eddie began asking to join Kiss.
30:49Simmons said that he persuaded him that it wouldn't be a good fit, though.
30:52Kiss guitarist Paul Stanley says it never came that close to actually happening, but
30:56they both agree that Eddie and David were not getting along at all, and it was becoming
31:00public knowledge.
31:01The rumors of Eddie nearly joining Kiss are something Eddie downplays, saying that even
31:05if the notion had been brought up, he likely would have been joking or under the influence.
31:10However, in Roth's autobiography, he seems to think it was a very real episode, and that
31:15Simmons was actively trying to recruit Eddie for Kiss, even before 1982.
31:20When Eddie jammed with Simmons once in 1977, several of those jams became Kiss songs, and
31:25Simmons even made Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley learn one of Eddie's solos note-for-note for
31:30an album.
31:32Roth already had a successful solo debut EP under his belt, 1985's Crazy from the Heat,
31:37before he decided to leave Van Halen.
31:39But the singer had his sights set on something bigger than music.
31:43He wanted to dip his toes into acting, and judging from his charismatic music videos,
31:47he might have been able to pull it off.
31:49He already had a movie project in mind, a semi-autobiographical tale of a rock star
31:53named Dave who gets into all sorts of shenanigans with his manager on the beaches of Dongo Island.
31:59Think Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but with bikinis.
32:02Roth even kept Eddie Van Halen in mind to do the soundtrack, before the band folded
32:06officially in the summer of 1985.
32:08Eddie declined the offer.
32:10Still, storyboards were drawn up and a cast was assembled to begin production.
32:14Sadly, CBS, with whom Roth had the movie deal, was changing things up and canceled production
32:19of several upcoming movies, including Roth's pet project.
32:23He sued CBS and pocketed a settlement, but the movie was never made, and it was too late
32:28to save his relationship with Van Halen.
32:31In the days immediately following Eddie Van Halen's death, the big news was that former
32:35Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar quietly buried the hatchet with his ex-bandmate in early
32:402020.
32:41During an appearance on Howard Stern's Sirius XM show, he opened up about how his relationship
32:45with Van Halen had become a, quote, love-fest since they got back in touch.
32:50But they didn't want to get fans' hopes up for a Van Halen reunion that was likely never
32:54going to happen, so they kept it quiet.
32:57Sadly, Hagar also talked about how Van Halen had apparently become too weak to reply to
33:02his texts during the final month of his life.
33:04He said,
33:05"'He stopped responding to me a month ago, and I figured it wasn't good.
33:09I reached out one more time last week, and when he didn't respond, I figured it was a
33:13matter of time.
33:15But it came way too soon.'"
33:17Two months after his interview with Stern, Hagar spoke to Variety and dropped additional
33:21information on the bittersweet reconciliation with Van Halen.
33:24According to the veteran musician, comedian George Lopez helped the two get reconnected.
33:29He was the one who gave Eddie's contact information to Hagar and informed him that the guitarist
33:34wanted to reach out.
33:36While Hagar reconciled with Van Halen, unfortunately, former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony,
33:41who last played with the band in 2004, did not.
33:44Before Anthony's final tour with the group, he supposedly had to sign away his rights
33:48to Van Halen's name and logo and take a pay cut.
33:51Eddie had previously asserted that Anthony left the band of his own volition, but Anthony
33:55told MusicRadar in 2009 that he, quote, never quit.
33:59In January 2021, Anthony revealed that he and Van Halen hadn't spoken for several years.
34:05At the time of Halen's death, he said,
34:06"'It kind of bothers me, because we had some issues that were never resolved.
34:10But, I mean, what can you do?
34:13We were on track for a reunion.
34:15I'm really sad that it never happened.
34:16But, you know, life and the show goes on.'"
34:20The reunion Anthony was referring to was the Kitchen Sink Tour, an endeavor that was first
34:24cooked up in 2018 by Van Halen manager Irving Azoff.
34:27There were plans for Anthony and former vocalists Hager and Gary Cherone to perform on the tour,
34:33but the shows never took place due to Eddie Van Halen's declining health.
34:37The fact that Eddie Van Halen had battled different types of cancer for about two decades
34:42before his death was well-documented.
34:44Initial reports following his passing noted that he had died of throat cancer, and that
34:48back in 2000, he had been diagnosed with tongue cancer.
34:52He blamed this condition on his habit of holding metal guitar picks in his mouth.
34:56However, TMZ obtained a copy of the guitarist's death certificate in December 2020, which
35:02revealed that his immediate cause of death was a stroke.
35:05He was also suffering from skin cancer of the head and the neck, as well as atrial fibrillation,
35:10which increases the risk of stroke by causing an irregular heartbeat.
35:14TMZ also released certain information that was supposed to remain private, including
35:19plans for Eddie's memorial.
35:20The late rocker's son, Wolfgang Van Halen, took to social media to blast the publication
35:25for revealing such details without his family's permission.
35:28"'If you f**k with family, especially my father who is unable to defend himself, you f**k
35:34with me.
35:35It's my job to do so now and I'll never stop.
35:37So if you've got a problem with that, you can either learn how to get over it or unfollow
35:41me.'"
35:42Van Halen and Mammoth WVH couldn't be more different in terms of sound.
35:46"'I guess I just lucked out that the music that comes from my heart doesn't sound like
35:52it's ripping off my family lineage.'"
35:54Still, Mammoth WVH is one of a handful of proudly old-school rock acts in an era of
35:59music dominated by genres other than rock and roll.
36:03And it's not surprising that Wolfgang Van Halen picked up quite a lot from his old man
36:07in terms of musical influence.
36:09But not too much.
36:10Wolfgang told Ultimate Classic Rock,
36:12"'He never really tried to push me into any direction.
36:15I think the only thing he really introduced to me was ACDC.
36:19The album Power Age was a big bond for us.
36:23That was my dad's and my favorite song.
36:25But from there, I kind of developed my own taste."
36:28Eddie Van Halen frequently claimed that Peter Gabriel's 1986 album So was the last record
36:34he had ever purchased.
36:35Wolfgang backed it up, telling Ultimate Classic Rock that Eddie loved the album so much that
36:40it was the only one he truly insisted his son should listen to.
36:43And it looks like Wolfgang feels the same way, as he considers So to be one of his all-time
36:48favorite albums.
36:50Perhaps the most notorious Van Halen situation was the recurring disappearance and reappearance
36:55of lead singer David Lee Roth.
36:57David and Eddie had a famously fractious relationship.
37:00The lead singer always wanted to be the rock star at the center of everyone's attention,
37:04while the guitarist was more about the music than the trappings of fame.
37:07Tensions ramped up between the two during the making of the 1980 album Women & Children
37:12First, particularly when it came time to shooting the album cover and inset photos with provocative
37:17fashion photographer Helmut Newton.
37:19For Cue Point, the Van Halen brothers, quote,
37:21"...viewed this whole episode as an effort by Roth to hijack the band's image for the
37:26new album, and disliked working with Newton."
37:29Another photographer ended up shooting the cover and insets, but a Newton portrait of
37:33Roth was made into a poster that was tucked into the first million copies of the album.
37:38The rest of the band was displeased.
37:40Despite the dust-up over the photography for Women & Children First, the band seemed to
37:44know that it had something special going on, creating two more albums before their most
37:49iconic of all, 1984's Nineteen Eighty-Four.
37:52By the time the band was ready to record, Eddie Van Halen had finished constructing
37:56his personal music studio with engineer Don Landy, which he named 5150 Studios.
38:01Eddie was unhappy with the number of cover songs on the 1982 album Diver Down as well
38:06as the influence of producer Ted Templeman, per Ultimate Classic Rock.
38:10He reportedly wanted more control, and to quote,
38:13"...show Ted that we could make a great record without any cover tunes and do it our way."
38:17According to Van Halen, 1984 was
38:20"...me showing Ted how you'd really make a Van Halen record."
38:24Eddie was the driving force behind the single Jump, which is probably Van Halen's most beloved,
38:29well-known song, as well as their only number one hit.
38:32Eddie was particularly keen on the song's synthesizers, which David Lee Roth disliked.
38:37According to Van Halen,
38:38"...when I first played Jump for the band, nobody wanted to have anything to do with
38:41it.
38:42Dave said that I was a guitar hero and I shouldn't be playing keyboards."
38:46Roth then later tried to respond by enforcing his personality on the band's videos, wanting
38:51to make a video for Jump featuring him in a wide range of rock star moments, reports
38:55Ultimate Classic Rock.
38:57It didn't happen.
38:58Roth directed the video, but it simply features the band performing on stage.
39:02Despite the success of the album, video, and single, Roth was unhappy, as the success of
39:07the album seemed to put Van Halen in creative control of the band.
39:11Roth left Van Halen after a 1985 summit meeting in which he announced that he couldn't work
39:15with the band anymore.
39:17Eddie responded by announcing,
39:18"...I'm looking for a new lead singer.
39:21It's weird that it's over.
39:22Twelve years of my life putting up with this bulls—t."
39:25Little did he know that it was far from over and that he and Roth would spend many more
39:29years breaking up and getting back together.
39:31Per Ultimate Classic Rock, Sammy Hagar replaced David Lee Roth and stayed with Van Halen for
39:3511 years, during which the band hit its first number one album on Billboard with 1986's
39:42followed by the successful OU812 and For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.
39:46The Van Hagar era came to an end when Hagar either quit or was fired from Van Halen.
39:50"...the tour ended, I walked off stage and went that way, Eddie went that way, Mike went
39:55that way, Al followed Eddie."
39:57The band teased a Roth reunion at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards, but he only returned
40:03for two new songs for 1996's Best Of Vol. 1.
40:08For a brief moment, it looked like Mitch Molloy would step up to the mic, but instead, Xtreme's
40:12Gary Cherone took the lead singing position for two years and one album, 1998's Van Halen
40:183.
40:19After Cherone was let go, Sammy Hagar came back for his own two-song reunion in 2004
40:24as well as a tour.
40:25The tour went badly, and Hagar was out again.
40:28The final version of Van Halen came together in 2007, with David Lee Roth once again getting
40:33back behind the mic and Eddie's son Wolfgang Van Halen stepping into the bassist role that
40:38had previously belonged to Michael Anthony since 1974.
40:42The band recorded the album A Different Kind of Truth in 2014 and toured for the last time
40:48in 2015.
40:50Van Halen was one of the greatest rock and roll acts of the 1980s, but not everyone loved
40:54the band's instantly recognizable style and one-of-a-kind guitarist.
40:58Whether they didn't like the music or they didn't like the man, these musicians weren't
41:02crazy about Eddie Van Halen.
41:04One of the most influential and skilled guitarists to come out of the 1960s and early 1970s was
41:09Jerry Garcia, the chief musical architect of the Grateful Dead.
41:13One of the most impressive electric guitarists of the 1970s and 1980s was Eddie Van Halen,
41:18the exceptionally proficient centerpiece of the hard rock foursome Van Halen.
41:22While both are among the most famous and acclaimed guitarists of all time, their musical approaches
41:26and techniques couldn't be more different.
41:29Van Halen's ultra-fast riffs didn't exactly impress Garcia, who publicly declared that
41:34he didn't listen to their records during a 1985 interview with Frets magazine.
41:38He elaborated,
41:39"'I can hear what's happening in there.
41:41There isn't much there that interests me.
41:42It isn't played with enough deliberateness, and it lacks a certain kind of rhythmic elegance
41:47that I like music to have, that I like notes to have.
41:50There's a lot of notes and stuff, but the notes aren't saying much, you know?'
41:53Garcia wasn't the first or last person to call out Van Halen's signature style.
41:58"'It's music theory, not music fact, and there are no rules.'"
42:01In 1977, Fleetwood Mac released Rumors, a soft rock opus about the band members' romantic
42:07squabbles that went on to become one of the biggest-selling albums of all time.
42:11The year after, Van Halen released its self-titled debut, a loud and heavy collection that rocketed
42:16the band to the top of the rock world.
42:18Fleetwood Mac's lead guitarist, Lindsey Buckingham, declared his style of play, which pulled heavily
42:23from folk music and banjo-picking methods, to be antithetical and superior to Eddie
42:28Van Halen's two-handed technique.
42:30In 2012, Buckingham told Guitar World Acoustic that he found Van Halen's style to be far
42:36too showing, saying,
42:37"'I've always believed that you play to highlight the song, not to highlight the player.
42:41The song is all that matters.'"
42:43Buckingham got a bit more pointed as he called out Van Halen directly, continuing,
42:47"'There are two ways you can choose to go.
42:49You can try to be someone like Eddie Van Halen, who is a great guitarist, a virtuoso,
42:54yet he doesn't make good records because what he plays is totally lost in the context of
42:59this band's music.'"
43:00In June 1980, Van Halen played a show in Leicester, England, the same night the progressive rock
43:06band Rush was in town.
43:08Rush rented out a bar to celebrate, and Van Halen's road crew crashed the party.
43:12Van Halen singer David Lee Roth told Cream in 1981,
43:15"...they cleaned the place out, which put their guys on edge a little bit."
43:18Nevertheless, Rush bassist Geddy Lee let the members of Van Halen into the bar and
43:23talked with Eddie Van Halen.
43:24Things didn't end well.
43:26Roth continued,
43:27"...they'd both been drinking a little bit, and Geddy was playing some Rush tapes on a
43:30tape recorder.
43:31He said something to Ed and Ed's beer got into the tape recorder.
43:35That caused a little friction."
43:36A year later, Lee and his bandmates tried to have their revenge.
43:39Rush opened for Van Halen in Las Vegas in 1981, and ended up telling the venue not to
43:44let anyone associated with the headliner in to see Rush play.
43:48The band's crews talked it out, and Rush relented, allowing a few guys to see their
43:52part of the show.
43:53Late that night, after both bands played their sets, Lee approached Eddie Van Halen in a
43:57casino with his hand out, seeking to make amends.
44:00Instead, he got slammed to the ground.
44:02Roth recalled,
44:03"...one of our security guards didn't have the vaguest idea in hell who he was, and he
44:07came up and body-tackled him."
44:09Two fast-fingered electric guitar kings reigned over early 80s hard rock, Eddie Van Halen
44:15and Randy Rhoades, the lead guitarist for Quiet Riot and Ozzy Osbourne.
44:18Van Halen and Rhoades seemingly resented one another, while also possibly learning from
44:23one another.
44:24Van Halen claimed some amount of responsibility for Rhoades' style, once saying,
44:28"...he was one guitarist who was honest anyway, because I read some interview he did and he
44:32said everything he did he learned from me."
44:34Van Halen may have been referring to a 1982 interview with Guitar World, in which Rhoades
44:39said,
44:40"...as of yet I don't think I have my own style.
44:42For instance, I do a solo guitar thing in concert and I do a lot of the same licks as
44:46Eddie Van Halen.
44:47Eddie is a great player, but it kills me that I do that."
44:50Forty years later, Osbourne cleared the air for Rolling Stone, refuting Van Halen's take.
44:55As he put it,
44:56"...I heard recently that Eddie said he taught Randy all his licks.
44:59He never.
45:00To be honest, Randy didn't have a nice thing to say about Eddie.
45:03Maybe they had a falling out or whatever, but they were rivals."
45:06Nevertheless, Van Halen tried to be respectful following Rhoades' tragic death at the age
45:11of 25.
45:12"...He might be up there jamming with Bonham and everyone else."
45:15Hip-hop blew up in 1988, with N.W.A. releasing their controversial LP Straight Outta Compton
45:21and pop rapper Tone Loke unleashing Wild Thing.
45:24The latter reached number two on the Billboard pop chart and became the first rap single
45:28to sell more than a million copies.
45:30Tone Loke and producer Matt Drake built the song around a sample, the gritty guitar riff,
45:34from Van Halen's 1978 single, Jamie's Cryin'.
45:38The legalities and protocols for sampling in hip-hop hadn't yet been fully established,
45:43and neither the rapper, the producer, nor the record label had gotten permission from
45:46Van Halen to utilize Jamie's Cryin' in Wild Thing.
45:50The band filed suit and would ultimately settle out of court, receiving about $200,000.
45:55That didn't quite satisfy Eddie Van Halen, who, long after the case was over, confronted
46:00Tone Loke during a chance encounter.
46:02Tone Loke told Billboard,
46:03"...I ran into Eddie Van Halen one time.
46:05He was uptight and a little tipsy, claiming that I took money from him.
46:08I don't think he really believed that, but maybe he did because he was tipsy, and you
46:12say what you feel when you're in that zone.
46:15Maybe he didn't get the proper royalties for it.
46:16I don't know.
46:17He's lucky I didn't sock him in his jaw."
46:20After the early 2000s departure of guitarist Wes Borland from the nu-metal group Limp Bizkit,
46:25a record label employee recommended that the band's frontman Fred Durst link up with Eddie
46:29Van Halen.
46:30According to Andrew Bennett in his book Eruption in the Canyon, 212 Days and Nights with the
46:35Genius of Eddie Van Halen, the two agreed to hang out and jam together at Durst's house
46:39in Beverly Hills.
46:40It descended into a well-attended party atmosphere.
46:43But when people began smoking marijuana, an irritated Van Halen abruptly departed without
46:48even packing up his guitars and amplifiers.
46:50A day later, Van Halen called Durst to arrange for a time when he could pick up his equipment.
46:55Durst didn't respond to Van Halen's requests, so the guitarist decided to retrieve his belongings
47:00in a much more aggressive way.
47:02He drove an assault vehicle that he'd purchased from an auction to Durst's home, and when
47:06Durst came to the door, Van Halen held a gun to the musician's face, demanding the return
47:11of his gear.
47:12While one of Durst's helpers scrambled to get Van Halen's stuff, the guitarist smoked
47:16a cigarette and continued to point the gun at him.
47:19Thankfully for everyone, the incident ended without further escalation.
47:23There were plenty of tumultuous lineup changes in Van Halen in the 1990s and 2000s.
47:28Sammy Hagar was out, then David Lee Roth returned.
47:31Then they were both out briefly in favor of their legendarily ill-fated replacement Gary
47:36Cherone, and then Roth came back again.
47:38Other rock stars took sides in the lengthy feud, including Dee Snider, frontman of the
47:42glam rock group Twisted Sister, who proclaimed himself to be firmly in the Hagar camp.
47:47He blamed Eddie Van Halen for all the messiness, and revealed some of his less-than-flattering
47:51opinions about the guitarist.
47:53Snider told Ultimate Classic Rock in 2015,
47:55"'Sammy's the real deal.
47:57He's talented, and he's a badass."
47:59Snider revealed that during one of Hagar's stints with the band, Eddie Van Halen instructed
48:04a crew to build walls in arena backstage areas so he wouldn't have to interact with the singer
48:08more than absolutely necessary.
48:11Snider admitted that the guitarist wasn't eccentric, to say the least, saying,
48:14"'Eddie's out of his mind.
48:15I don't know.
48:16Has anybody seen the thing where he just showed up and started jamming with some Mexican band
48:20in the restaurant and his boots were so destroyed that his toes were hanging out and his toenails?'
48:25That was par for the course, according to Snider, whose son saw Van Halen play at a
48:29school in the 90s as a favor to a student's parent.
48:32Snider quipped,
48:33"'He said that he looked like a homeless person, and I've heard that from so many people.'"
48:37You know Jump, you know Panama, but did you know Eddie Van Halen could rock as hard with
48:41a power drill as he could a guitar?
48:43Here's everything you didn't know about Van Halen's iconic guitarist.
48:47When Eddie Van Halen emigrated to the U.S. from the Netherlands in 1962, English was
48:52not his first language.
48:53He and his brother Alex endured all kinds of bullying at the hands of school kids who
48:57saw them as different due to their background.
48:59During a 2015 audience Q&A at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington,
49:04D.C., Eddie described his first day of school in America as absolutely frightening.
49:09They would tear up my homework papers, make me playground sand.
49:13Unfortunately, the Van Halen brothers had also experienced something similar in their
49:17homeland.
49:18They'd suffered racist abuse in Europe as the children of Dutch and Indonesian immigrants.
49:21Across the pond in sunny California, the language barrier only gave more fodder to their bullies.
49:26The school, Eddie said, was still segregated at the time, and because he and his brother
49:30couldn't speak English, they were considered a minority.
49:33Today, Eddie Van Halen is known as one of the great guitar heroes of the 70s and 80s,
49:38but he actually began his musical journey on the piano.
49:41Both Eddie and Alex were instructed in classical piano from a young age, and Eddie won several
49:45consecutive piano competitions after the Van Halens arrived in Southern California.
49:49In a 2009 interview with Forbes, he said,
49:51"...I took piano lessons from the age of six when we lived in Holland.
49:55When we moved to America, it was just the typical thing except I was really good at
49:58it.
49:59So was my brother.
50:00I actually won three years in a row at Long Beach City College."
50:03In the end, Van Halen turned to the drums, and then the guitar, after hearing the Dave
50:07Clark Five.
50:08"...Immediately we said, okay, enough piano."
50:10His piano skills came in handy in the long run, however.
50:13He contributed keyboards to several of his band's hits, such as Jump and Right Now.
50:18Eddie Van Halen was always open about the fact that he never learned to read sheet music.
50:22This might seem strange for a professional musician, but it's also been true for a number
50:26of other legends over the years, including Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and all four Beatles.
50:31Van Halen had a finely trained ear that helped him mimic the sounds he heard and translate
50:35them to guitar.
50:36He had learned to do this when he took piano lessons as a young boy, playing by ear and
50:40watching his instructor's finger movements to map out his performances.
50:43According to Van Halen, he did this so effectively that he was able to pull the wool over everyone's
50:48eyes.
50:49Speaking to Forbes, he said,
50:50"'Nobody ever knew that I couldn't read music.
50:52I fooled everyone cause they always tripped.
50:54They're going, how come you're not looking at the sheet music?
50:57I was just blessed with good ears.'"
50:59During Van Halen's rise to stardom in the late 1970s, Eddie Van Halen had a unique nickname
51:04among his bandmates, Vard.
51:06According to David Lee Roth, the backstory behind the name was one of family ties, coined
51:10in honor of Van Halen's mother, Eugenia.
51:13However, Van Halen's special nickname served a different purpose when the Rock outfit was
51:16out on the road together.
51:18In conversation, it helped Roth and the rest of the band differentiate the guitarist from
51:22Roth's security guard at the time, who was also named Ed.
51:25"'His mother used the Dutch expression, or Dutch, uh, the way she said it was Dutch.
51:31Ed Vaart.
51:32Ed Vaart.'"
51:33While unknown to Van Halen fans upon its release, it later emerged that Eddie Van Halen
51:38had played drums on 1998's Van Halen III, the band's only album with Gary Cherone as
51:43lead singer.
51:44Alex Van Halen, the band's mainstay drummer, didn't contribute to the album as he was going
51:48through his second divorce at the time.
51:50In a respectful nod from Eddie, however, Alex is still listed as the drummer in the album
51:54credits.
51:55But the album's producer Mike Post made no bones about Alex's absence when asked about
51:59it in 2024.
52:00Speaking on an episode of The Hustle podcast, Post explained that Alex was drinking to excess
52:04during his messy divorce, the impact of which came to a head during a recording session
52:08at Eddie's recording studio.
52:10Post recalled Eddie saying,
52:11"'Well I want him to think about himself and his family and to get straight and to figure
52:16things out and get his divorce finished.'"
52:19It might sound crazy now, but Van Halen almost changed their name mid-career.
52:23The proposed name change was pushed by the group's record label, Warner Bros. Records,
52:27when Van Halen first swapped lead singers in 1985.
52:31Original lead singer David Lee Roth had left Van Halen to pursue a solo career, and Sammy
52:35Hagar became the outfit's new singer.
52:37Certainly, it would have been a risky move.
52:39Speaking about Eddie and Alex's reaction to the idea, Michael Anthony later recalled,
52:43"'We're at Warner Bros. and they're yelling going, hey, hey, this is our last name, this
52:47is our careers, you know, and we're, this is it, Van Halen.'"
52:52Put on Van Halen's 1991 studio album for unlawful carnal knowledge, and you'll hear
52:57something strange.
52:58The opening track, "'Pound Cake," begins with something that sounds like an overpowered
53:01dentist's drill subtly morphing into Eddie Van Halen's unmistakable shredding.
53:06That's because the sound indeed comes from a drill — a power drill, to be exact.
53:10While experimenting in the recording studio, Eddie and his audio engineer devised this
53:14aggressive, uncharted guitar sound by having Eddie play his guitar with a power drill — specifically
53:19by placing the tool close to his guitar's pickups.
53:21What came out of the speakers is now considered a canonized rock intro among the Van Halen
53:26faithful, subsequently calling the experiment a goofball little thing.
53:30Eddie addressed his power drill playing in Kevin Dodd's book Edward Van Halen, a definitive
53:34biography.
53:35He explained,
53:36"'The motor of the drill got picked up by my guitar pickup, just like a microphone.
53:39I turned my volume on, and it sounded like kick-starting your engine.'"
53:42In 2015, Eddie revealed that the drill had been left sitting around by the studio maintenance
53:47technician, which led to Eddie picking it up and putting it to use.
53:50He even used the same drill when Van Halen played the song in concert.
53:54Eddie's son, Wolfgang Van Halen, is now the leader of his own rock band, Mammoth WVH,
54:00so named in honor of Wolfgang's father and Van Halen's music.
54:03When Van Halen was still a fledgling act in Southern California in the early 1970s, one
54:08version of the band went by the band name Mammoth.
54:11Wolfgang added his initials to the name for a slight twist to make it his own.
54:14In a 2021 interview with Billboard, he said,
54:16"...since I was a kid, my dad would tell me the story of the band, and that it was
54:20called Mammoth.
54:21It was a three-piece with dad singing, so that's another connection I have with it.
54:25Just growing up, I was like, that's the coolest name.
54:27When I grow up, I want to call my own band that.
54:30And here we are."
54:31Aside from being close as family, Eddie and Wolfgang are also close musically.
54:35In 2007, when he was still only 16, Wolfgang replaced Michael Anthony as the bass player
54:40in Van Halen.
54:41The band essentially disbanded in 2020 following Eddie's death.
54:44Wolfgang premiered his new band later that same year with a debut single, Distance, which
54:48was dedicated to the memory of his dad.
54:51When Eddie Van Halen died, he left a hole felt across the music industry.
54:55Despite their painful loss, Van Halen's family has gone to great lengths to honor the guitarist's
54:59legacy.
55:00On October 6, 2020, Eddie Van Halen died at Providence St. John's Health Center in Santa
55:04Monica due to complications from cancer.
55:06He had formed Van Halen with his brother Alex on drums, singer David Lee Roth, and Michael
55:10Anthony on bass in 1974.
55:12They began to climb to the top of the rock charts in the ensuing years, with Eddie's
55:16unique guitar style taking center stage.
55:18While Van Halen's career progressed, Eddie married actor Valerie Bertinelli in 1981,
55:23and the pair had a son named Wolfgang in 1991.
55:26Van Halen's lineup underwent many changes over the years, and Wolfgang eventually replaced
55:30Anthony on bass in 2007.
55:32The band officially broke up following Eddie's death, after permanently changing the music
55:35industry in their nearly five-decade career.
55:38The guitarist first developed tongue cancer in 2000 and had part of his tongue removed.
55:43Others deemed Eddie cancer-free two years later, but in 2017, he developed stage 4 lung
55:47cancer, and in 2019, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
55:50Ultimately, the cause of his death was a stroke, but he reportedly had several other contributing
55:55factors, including multiple cancers, pneumonia, and an erratic heartbeat.
55:59After he passed, his family had pizza, one of Eddie's favorite meals, in the hospital
56:02room to honor him.
56:04Wolfgang was by his dad's side when he died.
56:07As he recalled in an episode of Behind the Music, he was holding his father's hand as
56:10he passed.
56:12I just felt the warmth of his hand on my face until I couldn't feel him anymore."
56:19Wolfgang went on to say that Eddie's last words to him were,
56:21"'I love you.'"
56:22"'I was very happy.
56:23I was able to spend every second with him that I could.'"
56:26Wolfgang announced his father's passing in an Instagram post, writing,
56:29"'He was the best father I could ever ask for.
56:32Every moment I've shared with him on and off stage was a gift.
56:35My heart is broken, and I don't think I'll ever fully recover from this loss.'"
56:3822 days after Eddie's death, his family had his body cremated at L.A.'s Forest Lawn Memorial
56:43Parks and Mortuaries.
56:45One of Eddie's final wishes was for his ashes to be scattered off the coast of Malibu, a
56:49place he used to live.
56:50Wolfgang honored his father's wishes and scattered the cremains in the Pacific Ocean, but he
56:54didn't scatter all of them.
56:55Instead, he had a necklace made that features his father's thumbprint and contained some
56:59of his ashes as well.
57:01"'He's hanging on my neck.
57:05Every show I've ever played, he's with me all the time.'"
57:08It's unclear if Eddie knew what his son planned to do with part of his remains.
57:12Regardless, following the final breakup of Anne Halen, Wolfgang has focused on his music
57:16career with his solo project, Mammoth WVH.
57:19He released his second full-length album, Mammoth 2, in 2023, and continues to tour
57:23extensively.
57:24While Eddie didn't live to see his son's success as a solo artist, he's onstage with his successor
57:28every time Mammoth WVH performs, thanks to that necklace.