Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / Alex Van Halen's Autobiography 'Brothers': A Discussion with Van Halen Authors Greg Renoff & Chris Gill [Episode 182]

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Alex Van Halen's Autobiography 'Brothers': A Discussion with Van Halen Authors Greg Renoff & Chris Gill [Episode 182] · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

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Nobody can challenge his relationship with his brother and he formed the band. I
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mean nobody else could say, oh, I played in the living room with
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Ed. We came over in the boat together. There's no one else who
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had that relationship, not Dave, not Sammy, nobody else's parents have passed.
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There's no one else who had that full scope from birth to death with
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Ed who We're totally boomed rock and roll. I mean gotta leave you.
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You're reading little Hens says it's time to rock and roll band rode up.
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I totally booked. Welcome back to book don Rock, the podcast for those
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about to read and rock online at bookdon rock dot com. You can find
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every episode there, along with links to listening platforms, exclusive videos, blogs,
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and the latest rockbook releases. One upcoming release is Alex van Halen's autobiography
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titled Brothers, to be published by HarperCollins. It's not due out until October
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twenty second, but the recent announcement of the book has rock fans, especially
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Van Halen fans, talking. Since his brother Edward's passing in October sixth,
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twenty twenty, Alex has remained mostly silent, aside from brief statements to commemorate
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his brother's birthday and his passing. Hosted to social media. We have yet
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to see or hear Alex speak. Instead, He's decided to break his silence
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with this book, Brothers, which will be told with the acclaimed New Yorker
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writer Ari l Levy. Will be on sale through the Van Hilen Store at
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vanhilenstore dot com with the collective al item included. Preorder details coming later this
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year, but you can get on the Vane Helen Store wait list now.
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I've asked two special guests to join the podcast to talk about the upcoming book
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by Alex. We have Greg Renoff and Chris gil. Greg Renoff is the
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author of the critically acclaimed books Van Hilen Rising, How a Southern California backyard
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party band Saved Heavy Metal from twenty fifteen and Ted Templeman, a platinum Producer's
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Life and Music from twenty twenty. Along with author Brad Telinsky, Chris Gil
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wrote the twenty twenty one book Eruption Conversations with Edivan Halen. Along with Brad
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Telinsky, Chris Gil wrote the critically acclaimed twenty twenty one book Eruption conversations with
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Edy van Halen. In this episode, we discussed Alex's upcoming book, What
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do they expect to read in the book, what do they hope to read?
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What will he have to say about his former bandmates David Lee Roth,
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Sammy Hagar, and Michael Anthony. We also speculate as to whether or not
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we'll ever see Alex van Halen perform on stage again. A playlist a van
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Halen can be found on the show notes page. But first, Greg Rnoff
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and Chris Gil Chris and Greg, thanks guys for being on the podcast Last
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Minute the Best Way album. Yeah man, this is really last time.
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Wednesday, the Van Hilen news desks, we put up the exclusive description of
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the book and I just right away emailed Greg and then the next morning,
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early next morning, email Chris. Can you guys come on and here we
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are. It's Friday night, we're doing this. I mean, wow,
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so many questions running through my mind. So excited to hear the news of
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this book. It's eight months away, which I have to remind myself now,
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like, oh, this is exciting, but we have to wait eight
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months. But let's start there, Like, are you guys surprised because We
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haven't heard from Alex since Ed's passing in October of twenty twenty and except for
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some social media posts on Ed's birthday in the anniversary of his passing. Are
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you surprised by this news that we'll start with you, Greg, I mean,
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I think in a vacuum. Yeah, it's surprising to me that he
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did a book. I mean, if you had asked me, like ten
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years ago, was alexand Hill never going to write book? I would probably
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said there's no way he's ever going to write a book. When I was
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working on Van Halen Rising, I did hear feedback that had come from from
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the camp that the brothers there was at least this couple statements that one day
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At and ale are going to write a book together. That was the sort
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of the response when I asked, wasn't directly to me, was basically filtered
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to me that we're going to write a book one day now. I never
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really took that seriously, thought that was just sort of an aspirational plan out
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that they were ever going to sit out to do it. I just thought
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that was sort of hard to believe that that ever could happen, just because
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we know Van Halen's relationship with history and sort of preserving the legacy the band
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hasn't always been the most forthright. So again, I have no idea if
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that was just a one off statement that was made or this was actually a
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real plan. But yeah, I mean I'm surprised that Alex carried it all
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the way through to the finish line. I mean, I would imagine,
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I say that only thinking that about how painful it would have been. I
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would imagine even if you started a book like this and you had a book
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deal, just to have to sort of now only a few years after your
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brother died, have to sort of memorialize that and think about that and live
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through all those experiences again. You know, it could have been something that
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maybe he could have started and could have put aside or not carried through to
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the end. But to have it actually be done an Outstan Haleen biography is
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yeah. I mean, it certainly was something that came as a pleasant surprise,
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so to speak, that it was coming out and Chris we were talking
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off the record, just how I he's got the sense that al when it
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comes to public statements, he's very measured in what he's going to say.
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So in that sense, I'm not surprised by this, but still still wow,
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a book. So Chris, what was your reaction when you heard the
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news, Well, yeah, it was a big surprise, you know,
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just knowing I you know, myself and Steve Rosen both harangued Ed about doing
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an official biography just on ad of course, and even I wanted to do
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a book with Ed on just his guitars, on his guitar collection, and
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Ed was just always against the idea of any type of books. He just
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wasn't really down with it. So I find it interesting that him and Alex
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maybe had entertained the possibility of doing a book together. So that that's fascinating.
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It's even more fascinating to see this coming from Alex. But it makes
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sense now considering time and perspective, and I think they have seen, you
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know, these books that have come out, and I do think that Alex
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wants to get his spin on things, especially you know, considering Dave's book.
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You know, it came out quite a while ago. Now it's ancient
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history, it's a testament. But sam U's had a couple of books,
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you know, Valeries had her books and everything, and I think Alex feels
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the need to get a little word in edgewise as well. So the other
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thing I was surprised about was just the publisher, HarperCollins, because having worked
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in the book industry and knowing what the different book publishing companies are like,
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I know that HarperCollins tends to prefer to have dirt, you know, in
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their biographies. They like a little controversy and everything. So that was kind
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of interesting. But I think that's a little bit tempered by the choice of
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the author that they had work on the book with with with Alex right,
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ri l Levy from The New Yorker From the New Yorker, interesting choice.
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Yeah. One thing that stood out to me in the in that exclusive description
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of the book it was released this week to The v Agen d was the
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line that says, there has never been an accurate account of Edward and Alex
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or the band, and Alex wants to set the record straight on Edward's life
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and death. And I've i mentioned that a few times. Those words came
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out of the mouth like, yeah, it's time for Alvias set the record
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straight. And I think about like the late nineties into the two thousands,
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when ed was taking a lot of hits, a lot of hits. He's
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lazy, sitting around doing nothing, and then we find out he's got cancer
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and he's got a lot of stuff going on. So what do you make
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of that statement? Like, are there specific areas of Ed's life you would
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love to hear? I want to speak in particular, because I don't think
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it was targeting, you know, people like Greg and myself, you know,
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I'm sure we're kind of thrown in there. I'm sure that he wants
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this, and it's part of it's just the marketing. They want to sell
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the book, and I think it's going to be a nice extra chapter.
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And some of the materialists out there, I will say this Greg's book is
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like the Bible. It's infallible. I when Brad and I were working on
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Eruption, I constantly refer to that and I couldn't find any mistakes. You
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know, It's that the fact checking there is immaculate, and the research work
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is immaculate. It's well done. So I don't think that any Greg's story
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really needs to be set straight. Alex might have a little different perspective on
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it, as people often do. As you often find you know, it's
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like Rachamon, you know, or something like that, where you know,
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you talk to seven different people, you get seven different stories, and we're
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gonna get Alex's story, which is great. But you know, and with
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the book that Brad and I did, we were very very meticulous about checking
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things. And you know, there's stuff I've even come to light since that
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I'd like to go back and correct. But I will say this, We
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ran the book by the family. We presented it to him before it came
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out and gave them the full opportunity to make any corrections or changes or deletions
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that they wanted to do, and they didn't. After the book came out,
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they did ask to have one thing taken out, which we did in
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the paperback, so they've seen it. It's been approved, and I can
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say, like my interviews with Ed were all approved by ED. Every single
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word that he said was approved by ED. So ED had the chance numerous
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times to set the record straight. So I have the problems with us.
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I think the problem is more with the Sammy book, with val stuff,
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you know, even with Dave and whatever, and in some of these other
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books out there are a bit hap Paszard. It's a little frustrating to see
9:24
some of these new van Haalen books that come out and you find like,
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oh, well that date doesn't work, that's impossible. Or we even have
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stuff like when Ace Frehley went on Chris Shifflett's show recently and said like,
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oh, Eddie, I think I inspired Eddie's tapping because he was there in
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the pit at Madison Square Garden. And there's no possible way Ed was in
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the pit at Madison Square Garden because, first of all, when Ed was
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working with the guys and Kiss, that was in November or December, I
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think it was more November of seventy six. They were on a break.
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The first time Kiss played Madison Square Garden was February eighteen of nineteen seventy seven.
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Guess whe van Halen was playing a blowout at the Pasady in the Civic,
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you know, And we know that because we have photographic evidence. We
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had the picture of the Frankenstein unfinished body for the very first time that it's
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been seen in photos. We know that. And then they played again,
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you know, at Madison Square Garden. This is what I think happened with
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Ace, you know, a space case. So whatever I think he confused
10:24
Billy Squire with Eddie because we know what happened, you know, is that
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awk Coin signed Piper, which is Billy Squier's band. And guess what the
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second time that he has played at Madison Square Garden, who was the opening
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act, Piper who was probably in the pit, Billy Squire, who looks
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like at E. Van Halen, Billy's QUI yes, before the Van Halen
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album came out, but was already in the can. They were back in
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La whatever. Ace, dude, I'm sorry and I'm sorry. The same
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thing goes for Brian Ma. I don't want to get too far off the
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subject, but Brian May the same thing. He says like, oh,
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it's late. You know. Eddie told me I think Ed was being nice
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when he was over there in England and a little bit of starstruck, you
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know, on the first tour over in England, he meets Brian May and
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tells him, Oh, yeah, I think he's just being nice, you
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know, saying like, yeah, it's late inspired me. But you know,
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Here's the world didn't come out until what November of seventy seven, and
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the first Van Healin album was already in the can. Oh it couldn't have
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happened. Sorry, but that's that's the kind of thing I worry about this
11:22
book is that with Ariel. I think she's a great writer and everything like
11:26
that, but I don't know if she's like a hardcore band Helen fan,
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that she's going to question these things. I did that with that. You
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know, Ed would say something and I'd question him. He tell me about
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a certain time or certain people being together and stuff like that, and I
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would go and look stuff up, you know. And I actually had to
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cut some stuff out of the book because I found out later that Ed told
11:45
me about all I was partying with these two guys, and it's like,
11:48
well, that's impossible because this guy was on tour on one side of the
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country and then this other guy was in the same place with you. But
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that couldn't have happened. There's a photo that Neil's Lowsauer took of Ed.
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The guitar is like a it's a snake. It's like a bull constrictor.
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Right, What when was that from? Chris would probably tell you it's so
12:05
cool. About seventy nine, I think, oh gosh, you're trying to
12:13
remember the name of the guy I actually had a picture here, but that
12:15
was basically it was an explorer body and this guy he knew that was like
12:18
a furniture maker carved it for him and everything and play it live. He
12:24
did. It's it's memorialized in the if you look at the Presdent nineteen seventy
12:26
nine super eight footage, which is all over YouTube, which is incredible.
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When Ed plays a ruption, he's playing it and miss it, you can
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see it. Yeah, it's kind of incredible like that that show. He
12:37
actually brought it out. Wow, all right, so that yes, sidebar.
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Yeah, let's get back. So Greg set the record straight. What
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do you make of that? I mean, I think he should set the
12:43
record straight. Whatever it is. I mean, I think, Look,
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I think I'll just speak for my own book. You know. I tried
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to write a book that drew in as many voices as I could have people
12:54
who sort of were around those guys saw things happen, along with the interviews
12:58
that Ed and Alan, Dave and everyone else connected with the band had done.
13:01
Talked to Mike, talked to Templeman, Marshall Burrell, people people like
13:05
that who were and interviewed them Don Landee extensively about their relationships with Van Halen,
13:11
but only Alex can tell the story of his memories of Holland coming over
13:18
to the United States, growing up with Ed, when the only two who
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really spoke Dutch. I assume in that neighborhood and that that very unusually tight
13:26
brother friendship, that they they had brother brother relationship, and so I mean,
13:31
it should be the most accurate book ever on Ed in the band because
13:33
he was in the band with with Ed, and so you know, I
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was his brother. I'm not gonna I'm not even going to entertain the idea
13:39
that that he's going to spend time in that book fact correcting any other one
13:43
other book. I mean, I think I think Chris is right that more
13:46
most more likely is going to be like he'll tell his story and then along
13:48
the way it's going to be like, oh, ex, important person in
13:52
the band's you know, band's orbit says this, this is not true,
13:56
you know, or I don't agree with this, And I don't think it's
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gonna be that directed. It'll be like, you know, some people remember
14:01
it this way, and I'm sure she'll handle it appropriately. It's not going
14:05
to be like a screed against other people. It's just going to be you
14:07
know, alex is going to tell her something and she's going to be,
14:09
like, you know, wording it in a way that that says that's not
14:13
accurate. I don't remember it that way, or I don't I don't agree
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with that. I mean, I would be based on what I know about
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her writing, I'd be very surprised if this is any sort of a book
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in the in the sort of the the category of some of the other rock
14:26
biographies that have sort of been sort of hands you know, no holds barred
14:31
this type of stuff. I mean, I can't even imagine it's going to
14:33
be anything resembling that, but you know it will be from my perspective,
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the most I would hope level headed of the of the books that we've gotten
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from people who have been in Van Halen, right, I would hope that
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meaning Dave and Sammy. No offense against Sammy, no real offense against Dave.
14:52
I mean, obviously Dave's book was just sort of a you know,
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it's kind of screaming consciousness book. I think Sammy had a great co writer
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and say we did his work, I think in trying to tell the story
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from his perspective, but again, I think, you know, there was
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even Sammy will admit now there was a lot of venom. He had a
15:09
lot of anger against Ed, and he was really when he wrote that book,
15:11
he was enraged at Ed. And really, I think, I don't
15:18
want to say took liberties, but really probably said a lot of things that
15:20
I know that he said in retrospect that he shouldn't have said. I'm hoping
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Alex will be more measured and more balanced, because honestly, nobody can really
15:26
challenge his you know, nobody can challenge his relationship with his brother and he
15:31
formed the band. I mean, nobody else could say, oh, I
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played in the living room with Ed, we came over in the boat together.
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I mean, I don't have to belabor this point. There's no one
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else who had that relationship, not Dave, not Sammy, nobody else's parents
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have passed. There's no one else who had that full scope from birth to
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death with Ed. Yeah, that's going to be fascinating. Are there any
15:50
holes that you hope that he fills? Greg, like any did you reach
15:52
any dead ends or when you were writing the book Van Hillen Rising, like
15:56
any areas of those early years that you know it fell short on that.
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I hope he talks about this well real quick, and I wanted to get
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Chris's take on this. I think one of the things I was always interested
16:07
in it was that when people talk to me, whether they are people own
16:10
clubs, who are promoters, you know, they said like Alex was like
16:14
the muscle and Dave did all the talking basically like that. You know,
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if the money didn't come, Alex would kind of walk over and be like,
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it's time to pay. And Alex was a very intimidating guy and people
16:22
would pay, and whereas Dave would be the guy who would do a lot
16:26
more of the sort of the talking about getting gigs. There's great anecdote from
16:30
Mark Kendall of Great White who encountered Dave. I believe it Walter Mitti's he
16:36
loves to tell the story that he let you know, Dave was on the
16:37
phone and using the Walter Madi's phone, as I recall, and he's like,
16:41
yeah, I just get on the horn, man, I just get
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the gigs and stuff like that kind of talking. That he was the guy
16:45
who like did a lot of the legwork. But it would be interesting here
16:48
how that band operation worked, you know, beyond just moving the gear and
16:52
getting the gigs, but sort of how he saw the power dynamic within the
16:55
band and in terms of set lists and how all this sort of played out
17:00
early on and then of course all the way through up through. But that
17:02
would have been something that I would be would have loved to ask Alex about
17:03
that, like, how did he see that yeah dynamic with Dave the book
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Down Rock Podcasts will be back after this. There's a quote from the description
17:15
of the book from Alex as I was with him from day one. We
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shared the experience of coming to this country and figuring out how to fit in.
17:22
We shared a record player, an eight hundred square foot house, a
17:25
mom and dad, and a work ethic. Later, we shared the back
17:26
of a tour bus, alcoholism, the experience of becoming famous, of becoming
17:32
fathers and uncles, and of spending more hours in the studio than I've spent
17:34
doing anything else in this life. We shared a depth of understanding that most
17:38
people can only hope to achieve in a lifetime. So, Chris, you
17:42
and Brad to Linski spent a lot of time talking with that, and you
17:45
were at fifteen and fifty, you certainly know about the hours Ed and Al
17:49
spent in the studio, was like the I always have this and I picture
17:52
in my head that they were there for like, you know, a whole
17:55
week straight, like never coming out you pretty much. That's pretty accurate,
18:00
even had just experiences which I had now now thanks to Google Translate, I
18:03
have to go back because there'd be times in the minimui of the interview where
18:06
I would call, you know, and Ed would pick up the phone and
18:08
it would just immediately go to this conversation in Dutch. Of course I don't
18:11
get side of things, but I want to hear what they were talking about.
18:15
Now I can translate it thanks to the technological writers translate. But yeah,
18:19
that was you know Al. Really That's the thing Al's perspective is is
18:25
golden, you know, and for him to do this is a great thing,
18:26
especially after all these years of silence and the fact that he does get
18:30
overlooked for a lot of interviews, in the fact that he just doesn't do
18:32
that many interviews. We tried to interview him for the book as well,
18:36
you know, we got Michael, you know, we didn't really want to
18:38
talk with Sammy or Dave because we felt that their books already told their side.
18:42
We wanted to talk with the other people you know out there, And
18:45
the other problem is when you talk with singers, it tends to go from
18:48
We wanted to focus on that, and singers tend to focus on themselves,
18:52
so we wanted to avoid that that situation altogether. But Alex was definitely high
18:56
on our list, you know, of people we wanted to talk to.
18:59
Unfortunate, after Ed died it was just radio sounds. Both him and Wolfgang
19:03
just didn't want to do it. But how much Christ, how much time
19:07
did you spend did you talk Alex off the record all like when you were
19:11
there talking to Ed? Like, did you chat with als? I mean
19:15
I talked with Alex, Yeah, I died talked with Alix several times at
19:18
fifty and fifty definitely, you know, so I've I've talked with him about
19:22
a few subjects here and there and stuff. No no long in depth interview,
19:26
but sometimes he would fill out you know, a few little details here
19:29
and Aaron some things. But but yeah, they were really he was there.
19:33
I mean that's you know, the whole nineteen eighty four thing was really
19:37
you know, I mean, Mike was there a lot too, but Alex
19:41
was really there. You know, It's really it was really Ed and Al
19:45
was the Ed and Al show. They were the tight brothers. They were
19:47
the guys who were hashing out stuff together, you know, and working until
19:51
the small hours. You know. Mike would go home and bail, you
19:52
know, and go go to his life. And that's kind of unfortunately why
19:57
I think the tables turned on Mike a bed because he didn't share that crazy
20:03
manic van Heilen work ethic that he talks about. I mean, it's it's
20:07
insane. It's they are really really dedicated to their craft. They were you
20:12
know, and they put in the time and then some and it's it's a
20:15
hard thing for anybody to do. But when it's your family like that,
20:19
and it's just it's your life. They got frustrated with Sammy right when Sammy
20:23
had his child exactly. Well that's the thing, and that's you know,
20:26
and that's that. I think that will be the one part of the book
20:30
that I'm going to want to see. I mean, I think we think
20:32
we pretty well know what happened then, but it would just be interesting to
20:34
get Al's perspective on that. Because Al played a big role in that too.
20:41
I mean I talked with that about that, and I knew about him
20:42
being frustrated about the lyrics. Especially Amsterdam really bummed him out, you know,
20:48
and you know it was just it was, you know, even just
20:52
right after Balance came out, and you know, we just had a private
20:53
moment there and I have it. You know, we we're doing the photo
20:56
session and there's stuff off the record and he fiddling around the guitar and he's
21:00
just like, oh God, and those lyrics. You know, it's just
21:03
like, you know, we're Dutch, we're from there, We're from Hamsterdam.
21:07
It's like, you know, I tried to get him to do something
21:08
else and he wouldn't, you know, and it was just like and he
21:11
just gave up, you know, and he was really frustrated. Balance.
21:15
I always get this wrong ballachun theoreum or however you pro instrumental, but I
21:19
think intended to have lyrics. I think it was one of them, or
21:23
maybe not that I know, I don't think he was actually I think that
21:26
was always kind of one of those things that it just he was fine with
21:29
it being instrumental. In fact, I think he almost kind of he kind
21:32
of well at that point, I think he welcomed it being an instrumental because
21:36
he was becoming increasingly frustrated with Sammy's lyrics. Well, it's why. It's
21:40
why I say he should have put out an instrumental album. I learned to
21:44
ask him about that then, and but he just did. That wasn't his
21:47
thing. You know, van Halen was a band and it was just you
21:48
know, he he to him. It's like van Halen was a solo record,
21:52
ye, right, and he did. He didn't want to do the
21:55
Sautry anything. We spoke specifically about that, especially the balance puriit debts was
22:00
not anywhere near any anything. Well interesting, I'm glad that he didn't do
22:04
it because he didn't want to do it. I just you know, would
22:07
have bummed me out as if he wanted to do it and would have had
22:10
a blast doing it and just didn't be for commercial reasons like, oh,
22:11
it's not going to sell as much without a singer. You're like have some
22:15
fun, you know. Yeah, But if it didn't matter to him,
22:18
then that's cool. Greg. Did you talk or try to talk to Alex
22:22
at all for the book or did he ever reach out to you after the
22:23
book came out. No, I never heard from Alex. I I requested
22:27
an interview with it with with Ed and then I sort of got that message
22:33
filtered back. But I never actually tried to approach I don't even know if
22:36
I would have known a way to approach Alex. I mean, I wrote
22:37
through Janey, and Janie wrote me back a very nice, polite response saying
22:41
it's not available for interviews, you know, best of luck. She was
22:44
very nice. But you know, I knew that if Edison's going to say,
22:47
there's zero chance Alex is going to say yes. So there was you
22:48
know, there was no point in going back to the well on that one.
22:52
But no, I you know, the only one I've ever heard from
22:56
is Mike, who's been complimentary about my book and said a nice things,
23:00
which has been very very heartwarming to me and reaffirms my great love for the
23:03
man. And I know I never met him. So yeah, I had
23:07
a feeling. But we wanted to ask because I'm sure people wonder, right,
23:10
did you try to talk to them? I'm sure they loved those but
23:12
I'm sure they loved both of your books. I mean, I can't imagine
23:15
why they wouldn't. I don't think they're going to set the record straight on
23:18
either of those books. But I think I'm going to go back from the
23:22
camp. So it's it's you mean, I know they read it because we
23:25
sent it to them and said, you know, there's anything. I don't
23:27
know how closely they read it, but it was definitely put in front of
23:32
them and everything, and they won't endorse it. That's the unfortunate thing.
23:34
If they would, I sall probably about twenty times more copies. But well
23:40
for you, they should think you guys bought your heart and sold to that
23:41
book. I mean, that's the thing. It's like they should, they
23:45
should appreciate it. They want to push back initially when you know, because
23:49
I mean it was barely gosh, it was not that long after. It
23:52
had passed barely a month, and I spoke with some people in the camp
23:56
and they just they were kind of taken. It's like, I'm sorry,
24:00
you know, but this is just going to strike while the iron's hot,
24:03
and we've got you know, we went from no interest in a book on
24:07
Ed to several companies pounding on our door literally within days after Ed died because
24:12
they knew that Brad and I were working on a book that we had an
24:15
agent, and we spent two years before it had passed away, actually pitching
24:18
this book around various publishers and no one was interested. Wow. Wow.
24:25
Two days after Ed died, all of a sudden, our our agent's phone
24:29
was ringing off the hook, you know, and we got fortunate to have
24:33
a bidding battle of sorts you know, that went on, But it was
24:37
it was just felt a little icky because it's like, gosh, it's barely
24:40
cold. Yeah, yeah, And I felt bad telling him that, but
24:44
I we also knew it was our responsibility, and we said, if anyone's
24:47
going to do it, we're going to do the respectful job with with with
24:52
Ed. We're going to appreciate him as a musician. You know, we're
24:55
not going to go after miss the guy who married Valerie Burtnelli, you know,
25:00
going to focus on his songwriting and his guitar playing and his guitar design
25:03
and all those things that were you know, so crucial to I mean,
25:07
that's that that was his life, you know. As as he's said off
25:11
and you know, it's like you know, and I'm sure this will probably
25:14
be an Alice book, you know, als going off being a horn dog,
25:17
you know, and in their high school days, you know, and
25:21
Ed would stay at home practicing guitar, you know, and Alex would come
25:25
home stinking, drunk, smelling like a barnyard or whatever, you know,
25:30
and there would be Ed still playing guitar. You know, that guitar was
25:34
really his first and I won't say it was his biggest love because his son
25:41
Wolfgang definitely ranks up there. So but yeah, but I think it would
25:45
be great to get Alice's perspective though on that stuff. I'm also very much
25:48
looking forward to the very early days there, you know, their elementary school
25:55
days and stuff, cause we have, like you said, but we don't
25:57
really have a whole lot a depth, especially you know, from their perspective.
26:02
I mean, you know, we didn't really talk about that much with
26:03
with Ed anyways, because we always had to focus on usually the new records
26:07
and the new guitars and all that type of stuff is more in the present
26:11
than that much digging in the pass, which Greg thankfully filled a lot of
26:14
those holes in because a lot of us wondered about that stuff. But I
26:18
think that's going to be the most fascinating thing to me, and I think
26:21
he also mentions about his death because you know, though those final years were
26:26
really tough because I just backed off, you know, As I've mentioned in
26:30
the book, I was supposed to do an interview with Ed in around March
26:34
April twenty nineteen, and it got canceled. And I just knew, not
26:40
depressed, because it's one of those things that you know, you just don't
26:45
push. You know, there's a private time, there's a time where you
26:47
just don't, you know, And Ed had never canceled an interview on me
26:49
before. That was the only time, so I knew it had to be
26:52
something bad, you know. And of course you come to find out to
26:55
get piece things together, and we had to do that for the book.
26:57
But you know, because I couldn't go to Wolfgang, because I couldn't go
27:00
to Al, I couldn't go to Jane Janey was really and still is basically
27:07
can't can't say anything. Ye So but you know, where do you get
27:12
the facts? You've got to rely on these other sources and everything. So
27:15
I'm curious to hear what really was going on with Ed. What were those
27:19
you know, from twenty fifteen onwards. We have little stuff, I mean,
27:25
you know, He did some interviews in twenty sixteen, but it was
27:26
all guitar industry focused stuff in international type of stuff, and he also did
27:32
the the one Billboard interview, which he ended up regretting. Later he told
27:36
me, you know, he did a lot of that where he'd have second
27:38
thoughts about stuff. You'd speak frankly while you're in the room with them,
27:41
but then after he led us sit around for a while, I was like,
27:42
uh, I shouldn't have done that, you know, especially with Dave.
27:45
Dave was always a very touch and go type of situation. They were
27:48
always walking on eggshell's with him to keep him happy. So that that'll be
27:53
interesting to see a little bit of Alice's perspective on that and see how much
27:56
he goes down that that path. Yeah, I thought of you, Greg
27:59
when Ted Templeman talked about the last days or weeks. Ted talked to Rolling
28:03
Stone and he may very well have shared this with you too, that that
28:08
the end is just like I can't even talk about it, you know,
28:12
just fit to see him physically, and it was just so difficult for him
28:17
to have to to see. Yeah, that's that the Ed visited Ted.
28:22
I think it was I think It was in October, about a year before
28:26
he passed, maybe November, and that's the visit that Ted came into.
28:30
Excuse me. Ed came into Ted's condo and picked up Ed's Ted's nineteen sixties
28:37
era no fender, whatever the guitar was. It was like a Mustang I
28:42
think it was, and it was like trying to play it and Ted was
28:47
like, ah, that's I've had that since the sixties. It's it's it's
28:48
way out of tune, and it's it's doesn't isn't working, And you know,
28:52
I was like, got a screwdriver, got a screwdriver. That's where
28:55
he like he actually set up, you know, which is very very touching,
28:57
and Ted was very touch but they actually took the time to like set
29:00
up as a screwdriver, fixed the guitar and like to did and goes here
29:03
you go, here you go, here you go. Yeah. I think
29:07
I think there was definitely a sense from what I've kind of gathered, that
29:14
Ed was trying to you know, they probably knew his time was numbered,
29:17
you know, if days were numbered, and was trying to sort of I
29:18
don't want to say make amends with people necessarily, but just see people he
29:22
hadn't seen I don't I don't think there was any need to sort of,
29:23
I don't I known Ted didn't feel like I had to like apologize for anything
29:26
or anything like that. It just felt like he was just thrilled that he
29:29
could get to see him and and visit with him. And I know that
29:32
that was you know, very very meaningful to to Ted. But yeah,
29:37
I mean it was it was tough. I know that he was getting text
29:40
messages at the end and just sort of you know, you sort of could
29:42
get the sense that it was he was, you know, he was not
29:45
well, and you know, he wouldn't hear something, then he'd hear something
29:48
back, and just you kind of, you know, it was just a
29:51
tough, a tough thing to sort of have that. I know that for
29:55
you know, Ted knew that Ed was getting the best possible medical pair through
29:57
Irving A's off and everyone else was a and I mean there's no need to
30:00
but Ted was like, you know, saying I wish something I could do
30:03
Basically, you know, he kind of he kind of knew that Ed was
30:07
very ill and just wanted to do something to try to help him. But
30:08
knowing that he was in the best cans, possibly the best doctors, the
30:11
best of everything else. You just feel helpless, right, you just can't
30:14
can't help somebody. I wanted to add one a quick thing to build on
30:17
what our conversation, which is that I really do hope too that we learned
30:22
about Alex is drumming. I mean, I know Alex has done some you
30:23
know, drum magazine interviews over the year, but it would be really interesting
30:26
if he spent time basically like talking about his theory of drumming, not like
30:30
you know, you know, necessarily a super technical thing, but you know,
30:33
kind of maybe the kind of discussion that would would give people a sense
30:37
of where he got a sense of rhythm from beyond beyond other drummers, how
30:41
he sees the relationship between his musically with his brother. Again, that may
30:47
be difficult to fit into this type of book. I don't know, and
30:49
I don't mean like sort of a chapter in the middle that's sort of like
30:52
this doesn't fit at all, but along the way sort of talking about Ed
30:55
and I built our rhythmic connection through these things, and you know, I
30:57
really you know Ed counted this way when I played drums and from playing guitar,
31:02
I knew that whatever like Edward hop on the drums and like that sort
31:06
of like insight into the van Halen telepathy that was always talked about there that
31:11
Ted talked to me about. And we all know that, like Ted said,
31:12
they would make the same mistake, like he'd be like it was amazing,
31:15
like make the same mistake because they were almost it's like sense what was
31:18
going to happen next? Amazing where they did it? Share the right insight
31:22
would be really really important. I think, yeah, you know, we
31:26
all know that it's the dirt that that could end up selling and get the
31:30
headlines of the publicity. But I'm with you, Like, if he wants
31:33
to talk about every single song they recorded, by all means, start with
31:37
the first song, go right up until the last, you know, I
31:41
would I would absolutely love that. I mean, I just want to say
31:44
on the record, I mean, I'd love to hear Christians. I would
31:45
be extremely surprised if it was anything resembling Damny's book, for his instance,
31:51
in terms of that type of like well that's yeah, I was score settling,
31:55
like in score settling. I mean, I would just say that I
31:56
would be personally shocked. But again, who knows. I mean, it
32:00
could entirely be like that. I mean, there's certainly I would imagine that
32:02
Alex has plenty of reasons to have plenty of things he wants to say pointedly
32:07
towards certain people who have been saying things for a lot of years. So
32:09
but I would be personally surprised based on the choice of co author and sort
32:13
of just I think the way Alex has presented himself, which he's basically not
32:17
said anything to stuff that like, I think most people would just call up
32:22
Rolling Stone or call up you know, get on the radio and say cal
32:24
Howard starting to be like this person said this, this is not true or
32:28
whatever. I yeah, I think that the writer that they chose. I
32:30
mean, it's interesting because I don't think it's going to be very music nerdy
32:32
at all. I think it's going to be very touchy feely. As I
32:37
said, you know, Alex is a macho guy, you know, and
32:39
we've got a very feminine voice through Ariel Levy Levy here, so I think
32:46
it's going to temper it. Like I said, I think some of I
32:49
think some of Alex's exploits are going to be toned down. If you're even
32:52
there at all. But yeah, I don't know. I think we'll get
32:58
it into more general I think it's more I'll they're looking at a much more
33:00
general audience out there, so I think we're not going to get so much
33:05
of that technical nuts and bolts type of stuff. I think we'll get in
33:07
more wider, broader general terms, which is is fine. I guess you
33:15
know that maybe that can we can if Alex likes his experience, maybe we
33:19
can get him to do another book. Are Yeah, well, speaking of
33:22
that, though, you think about these movies like the Bob Marley move that's
33:24
out now, and there's been so many, but you know, Hollywood is
33:28
they're looking for. To me, the movie story is these two kids that
33:34
come over without a two pennies to pinch together from you know, another country,
33:39
and here they are in Pasadena with their parents. They got no money
33:43
and it's like they made it. Like there's just this amazing success story.
33:46
Like to me, there's your movie. There's your Hollywood movie. I mean,
33:52
the Van Halen fans would go and see it, of course, but
33:53
then you know how they want to cast a wider net in Hollywood. Well
33:57
there you go, that's the story. Well, It's funny say that because
34:00
I know some attempts to pitch a story, but it's a it's more like
34:06
Dave, you know, and in the band Dave and Ed in particular.
34:12
And I think that Alex's story is much more interesting, heartfelt, more touching
34:21
script than the usual two guys who don't get along together. I read a
34:28
treatment by somebody who's in the business and it kind of left me, first
34:34
of all, because I'm just a fact guy, and it had so many
34:37
distortions, and it's just just typical of all these bios do, where they
34:40
take this thing and that thing and they distort it and they've changed the time
34:44
frame and they do this, and they do that fit the storyline that they
34:46
have that they want to tell. And it really bummed me out because I
34:50
said, this is just right off the bat, the very first scenario that
34:53
they the scriptwriter, the guy did the treatment did was just like this ain't
34:58
gonna fly by the hardcore Van Helen fense because they know that shit didn't happen,
35:04
you know. So I think that would be interesting, you know.
35:07
I think I think that Alex E. Sting actually would probably be I think
35:12
there's a movie lurking there. I haven't even read the book yet, but
35:15
I think you know, once I saw this, I said, oh,
35:16
there's the van Halen film that we want to see. Absolute relationship. It
35:22
is the immigrant story, you know, it is the the Horatio alger Go
35:27
West young man, you know type of story, success story. And the
35:31
way it ended, like Eddie pulled himself out of that period you know,
35:36
of addiction and comes out of it. And it's because again going back to
35:40
family because of his son. Yeah, comes out of it, you know.
35:44
And he finishes that last tour he just sounded amazing, looked great,
35:47
and it's like that's the way he goes out. Yeah. Change. I
35:52
saw Ed's personality because I you know, I had interviewed him first and you
35:55
know, around the Balance period, during the Balance period basically just before Balance
35:59
came out November. But you know, I saw him go into that decline
36:04
and it was really heartbreaking, you know, and just to see him pull
36:08
himself out of it was such a relief because you know, I did watch
36:13
him go through the failed attempts at rehab and spoke with him a lot then
36:17
and his struggles with it, and you know, it was I will say
36:23
this in Janie's behalf. Janey really did the work that the rehab people couldn't
36:28
do with him, that nobody could do with him that, you know.
36:30
I know Wolf played a big brule in that too, and that and it
36:35
was just like, you know, his love for Wolf is that pulled him
36:38
through as well. So though those two things, Wolf and Jane basically saved
36:43
his life and gave us another at least a decade sure of him being around.
36:47
We love that Eddie smile, but he had a different smile with with
36:51
Wolf in the room is a different smile, Like, yeah, just with
36:55
him, you know, I hung out with him in Atlanta at the hotel,
37:00
you know, and just you know, in the suite and everything like
37:02
that, and just to see them, you know, just informally with I
37:07
mean I saw him often informally with each other, you know, but especially
37:10
as he was a bandmate as well as his son and everything, there was
37:14
just just a bond that you don't really see with many parents and their kids.
37:20
Well, for Alex, he was able to get sober and eighty six
37:24
right, Probably this will be an interesting thing because you know, what we
37:30
know about Alex's struggles is that it was he didn't just kick it once.
37:34
He went through his ups and downs just like Ed did. He was on
37:37
and off as well. So I hope that he's a little bit more honest
37:40
about that. And God, I know they fought, you know, and
37:45
that has to be in there because as much as they did, it's like
37:47
any brothers who love each other, they also fight as hard as they love
37:51
each other. And they had some real bouts. With Alex getting sober.
37:57
How hard that was for him, Like I wish my brother could ticket,
38:00
Like I did you know that? That must have been harder. Yeah,
38:02
well, I think that's the thing is that they were kind of out of
38:05
sync as well. You know Ed was sober when you know Alex wasn't.
38:12
Kind of there was this kind of this thing going on, you know,
38:14
where they were kind of going in different directions and everything. You know.
38:17
In our book, this was an interesting thing because Gary Sharon said one of
38:21
the first things he had to do he joined Van Halen was show up in
38:24
an intervention for Alex. Wow. You know, it's like, I don't
38:29
I have not even known the guy a couple of days, and here I
38:31
have to go to this intervention, you know, and kind of do the
38:37
airing of grievances that they call for in these things, you know, and
38:39
it's like, I don't have any grievances with this guy. I don't even
38:43
really know, Like what am I doing here? You know? Wow?
38:46
Wow? Yeah, wow. Welcome to the band. Yeah, welcome to
38:51
the band. Welcome to the world of band Helen, you know, right,
38:54
jumping to the fire. The book done. Rock Podcasts will be back
38:59
after this. Greg red Off, author of the critically acclaimed books Van Halen
39:04
Rising, How Southern California Backyard Party Band Saved Heavy Metal from twenty fifteen and
39:08
Ted Templeman, a Platinum Producers Life and Music from twenty twenty. Chris Gill,
39:12
co author with Brad t. Linsky, of the twenty twenty one book
39:15
Eruption Conversations with Eddie van Halen, and those books. You will not find
39:20
a better book on van Halen than these, and actually all three are available
39:23
free plug at the van Halen Store vanhlenstore dot com, which is where you
39:28
can get on the waiting list for Al's book. October twenty second, it's
39:32
called Brothers don LANDI Greg, you guy, how did you get Don Land
39:37
dated? Well, I'm assuming this is through ted, right. I mean
39:39
that that opened the door because Don Lindy is a very quiet guy, reserve
39:45
doesn't like to do interviews. You did those extensive interviews with him for tape
39:50
Op magazine that was phenomenal. So yeah, how did you land that interview?
39:55
And I just asked him, I of corsepond with him on occasion,
39:58
and I said, you know, over the years we had corresponded and he
40:01
had told me various tidbits. I mean, working with Neil Diamond, working
40:05
with Van Morrison, Jackie Oshan and all this, you know stuff that for
40:09
instance, you know, he was one of the first sessions he ever worked
40:12
on, which we talked about in the first part of the interview, is
40:14
that he was a second engineer at TTG Studio where Jimmy Hender supported and the
40:17
doors worked on Waiting for the Sun. And that was the one of the
40:22
first weeks that Don was there that Jim Morrison poured a beer inside the console
40:27
and shortened it out where Don was in the room to end the session,
40:30
and Don thought he was going to get fired. He's like, oh,
40:30
that's been fun, fun running the business. You know. I heard these
40:34
stories and I was I just approached Don and said, look, I said,
40:37
I want to basically to preserve these stories and just sort of I'd love
40:42
to do an interview with you. He had seen a couple of other interviews
40:45
with tapeop. I said, you can basically anything you don't want to talk
40:47
about, we don't have to talk about. And I think approaching him with
40:52
the understanding that he isn't really interested in weighing into a lot of the stuff
40:55
that people probably in our van Halen world are just and like weighing into.
41:00
It's just that's that's something that I know intuitively from just talking with him.
41:06
He's you know, he's a quiet person and he's classic engineer. I mean
41:08
some are different. Andy John's is very boy stous, very loud, very
41:12
very you know, type A, and and Don is very very quiet and
41:15
sort of preserved. And I think approaching it that way and just letting him
41:22
be on the record about things he wanted to be on the record on and
41:23
just sort of you know, asking him questions that were I thought specific enough
41:29
to kind of get at some of the things I wanted to get out,
41:30
for example, like what concerts that Don had recorded, for example, and
41:35
about Mike playing bass, and whether or not Mike played bass on every van
41:39
Halen song, most van Halen songs. Kind of getting at those things without
41:43
going head on to some of the stuff that I think he you know,
41:45
he just doesn't. He just isn't interested in. You know, he's enjoying
41:49
his quiet retirement and you know, and doesn't want to become sort of part
41:53
of some sort of a quick social media circus with stuff people going around about
41:59
that stuff. So I wonder how much Alex we'll talk about Don Mandy in
42:02
the book Relationship A lot, Yeah, I hope a lot. I mean,
42:07
I think I would just say that Don was there from nineteen seventy seven
42:13
to nineteen eighty eight where he parted ways with those guys and worked on every
42:16
pretty much every single session. I think every single session they did, every
42:22
single session that van Halen did. I know that Don had to step away
42:25
from recording in nineteen eighty his house was flooded but during a month slide,
42:30
and so he did not do every album that Ted did in nineteen eighty.
42:32
But I'm fairly certain he did every single session Eda Now did in the studio
42:37
from nineteen seventy seven on till his last day of fifty and fifty. Yeah,
42:43
he's part of Oh you Wit Went Too fifty and Eli Went Too,
42:46
which I always forget. I always feel like I just think of him as
42:49
the Dave era guy, Chris. How important is Don Landy to the sound
42:52
of Van Halen? Oh? Very key, you know. I mean,
42:58
if anything, I always say this, it's like it's the most genius thing.
43:00
The best thing that happened to Van Helen was that Ted Templeman found them
43:07
and had Don Landy working with him, And the fact that they decided to
43:10
leave things alone on that first record, to just let them go and do
43:15
their shit, you know, just lay down there, you know, because
43:19
we all know about what happened. We've heard the demos with Gene and how
43:22
Stiff, and they don't have that Van Helen swing. You know that that's
43:28
the fact that they just like just to do this and they didn't want to
43:30
gloss it up too much. They didn't want to do too much separation.
43:34
Well, I was just reading about somebody else recently that, you know,
43:37
where they used a very similar, very very live approach. Oh. Stevie
43:42
rayvonn the first Stevie rayvon album, a very similar type of approach to that,
43:45
you know, and it's like, yeah, sometimes I think with new
43:50
artists sometimes, especially if they're a good live band already, just let them
43:53
do that. Don't try and polish them too much and do this. Let's
43:59
give them what they are. Let's get the honest story first. If they
44:02
want to grow into it, like like Ed did by the time of Fair
44:06
Warning, if they want to grow into the studio as an instrument, great
44:09
they can do that. Let them, let them come into that naturally.
44:13
Don't put them in and all of a sudden expect them to turn out Sergeant
44:15
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band right off the bat, you know, unless they're
44:19
that type of band like Jellyfish or something like that, and then great,
44:22
go for it, you know. But I think that was just genius.
44:25
Yeah. I had a very very brief moment about it was six or oh
44:30
seven where I reached out to Dawn. I didn't even speak with them.
44:34
I think I sent him some emails just basically for fact checking about the first
44:37
record, to confirm a few little things about like the microphones used on Ed's
44:43
cabinet and what's set up he had and that sort of stuff. Because I
44:45
hadn't remembered a lot of stuff, but I just wanted to hear from somebody
44:49
else because and he basically politely confirmed some things and gave me a few little
44:54
details. And that was the end of the story. And I really wish,
44:58
you know, I could have gotten more. But then when Brad and
45:00
I were working on the book, we tried to find him and we couldn't.
45:01
We heard so many rumors out there. We heard that he's under witness
45:06
protection because we know people were looking for them. We couldn't find him.
45:09
You know, it's like what happened to Don Andy, Like he's the man
45:14
who he's like this this phantom out there. We really only had six months,
45:19
unfortunately, to pull all this extra stuff together for the book, because
45:22
that was it was six months started to end of the writing process that we
45:27
had, which is just nuts. I can't even think how we did that
45:29
now. I don't even know how. I mean, it was COVID time,
45:30
so I guess we weren't doing anything else, so that was the one
45:31
benefit of it. But yeah, Don is just he's such a key member.
45:37
He you know, really, you know, especially for those first eight
45:42
records, you know, very much like a fifth member. I don't I
45:45
hate to stay with like the fifth Beatle or whatever, the fifth fan healin
45:47
member, but he he was a key part of that. That that chemistry
45:52
though, and capturing that and knowing, you know, how far to push
45:55
things and when to just let things be. So that's what's great about Van
46:00
Allen is that they're not a perfect band, you know, and that's it's
46:05
very tough for somebody in the creative arts to kind of just say that's that's
46:09
okay. Though. You know, if those who are listening haven't read the
46:15
article yet tape Op magazine, you could just find it. But also the
46:17
van Halen parts of it were put up on vhend dot com too. So
46:22
I want to wind down with a few more questions, and they have to
46:24
do with whether we will see Alex again. So before I ask if you
46:29
think I'll ever play again on stage, do you think he's going to do
46:31
a press tour for the book like Geddy Lee or will Ariel Levy kind of
46:37
handle all of that? What do you think? I don't see Ariol doing
46:42
much press, if any To be honest about this, I think if anyone's
46:45
going to speak about the book, it's going to have to be Alex you
46:49
know, I don't know. I think he's probably going to do a couple
46:52
higher profile things. Unfortunately, I don't think he's going to do any podcasts
46:57
or any of that stuff. Although with this wonderful world of Van Halen fans
47:00
who've been introduced to since the book came out, I love all you people.
47:05
I love you all. But yes, by the way, you're obsessed
47:07
the show. Shout out to those guys. That was a great nineteen eighty
47:12
four fortyniversary. I'm glad you mentioned that because I wanted to give a shout
47:15
out to those guys. Yeah. Absolutely, I love them all, you
47:17
know. And Jeff Goebbel, who writes for you guys love Jeff, you
47:22
know, you know, big fans and stuff. And then they keep us
47:25
on our toes and they dig up stuff and they help make some of my
47:29
job a little bit easier because they find some things and every now and then
47:31
that just make it go wow, you know. And who was there was
47:36
one guy on Instagram that had posted the ad for the star Wood on February
47:42
second and third. I looked all over for that and it shuts up.
47:46
Finally, after all these years and it's like there, it is, there,
47:51
it is. I love it. Yeah, we are a hardcore and
47:53
I love Chris. You were talking about it was a rainy night when they
47:57
when when when first saw vent Hill, it was raining out Greg. I
48:04
de coded that big part because I was working on the book, you know,
48:07
I'd read Gregs. I mean, god, it read Greg's book,
48:09
you know, and it was like, but I just wanted to find for
48:12
myself and it's like this rainy night detail just bothered the fuck out that true.
48:15
Yeah yeah, yeah, that ad, that ad is in the La
48:19
Times. I have that at dan Hill and Rising. Yeah, so I
48:21
assume that person got it out of my book. But yeah, that was
48:24
when I found when I found. The first thing I found was in the
48:29
Free Press that said van Halen has signed a deal. I signed a contract
48:31
with Warner Brothers based like in a preliminary contract with Warner Brothers. I was
48:35
like, that's it, that's it. Then I went back and I went
48:37
through all the star Woard ads I could find, and you could see the
48:40
two nights that were listed, the second and the third of February, and
48:44
that was basically you know whatever. A week later in the Free Press that
48:46
mentioned it. Yeah, there was no rainy night. I did the same
48:50
thing. I read the weather reports in the in the La Times. I
48:52
mean, I think about the time I spent on the book. People were
48:53
like, oh, you know, writing books must be so lucrative, and
48:57
you think, like, yeah, you divide it by the number of hours,
48:59
and Chris you know this, you know, since on the hour it's
49:01
like, oh yeah, it's for blow minimum wage. This podcast, this
49:07
podcast devoted to authors because I I want to help you guys sell books,
49:10
because it's like the work that goes into it. You know. I'm a
49:14
short distance writer, Like I could do articles. I've always written articles,
49:17
sports articles and music books. I mean, you guys, I do want
49:22
yeah, I do want to float this one idea which I think I think,
49:27
yeah, the book tour. I have trouble envisioning the getty Lea style
49:30
book tour. I think it's possible they're, you know, one of the
49:34
things. Maybe maybe they're sort of promotional videos that are done basically produced by
49:39
HarperCollins of Alex talking. I can imagine that sort of like on YouTube,
49:44
like maybe like you know alexever three five minute videos of Alex talking about his
49:50
brother or whatever to promote. I could see that also. I mean,
49:52
I think when I first thought about this, I thought no way, And
49:55
now the more I think about it, I'm thinking it's possible. I mean,
49:59
I I think, to me, Stern is maybe the only person in
50:01
the sort of rock realm who could possibly land an interview with him. I
50:06
think Stern's interviewing style obviously has changed radically. That film was years and years
50:09
and years ago. I don't know what Howard's relationship is with Alex, if
50:14
they ever were friendly, or if Alex doesn't like him, And again I
50:16
have no idea they could be like best friends, or that there could be
50:19
some beef there who knows, or totally neutral, which I could be too.
50:23
To me, that would seem to be probably the highest profile sort of
50:27
rock style interview, all respect to Eddie Trunk and everyone else. Eddie would
50:30
be great too. I just, I just I can't imagine Alex going under
50:35
the microscope of that type of an Eddie Trunk, who I think would do
50:37
a great job interviewing and would be a perfectly reasonable person in a vacuum to
50:40
interview Alex for his book. I just I find it hard to believe that
50:44
Alex would sort of sit there under that type of scrutiny where I think maybe
50:50
there might be more of a sense that Howard might just sort of stick stick
50:53
on the script, so to speak. I don't get I'm not trying his
50:55
class as pursions than anybody min Joe Rogan. I mean, you just think
50:59
about the different possibilities. I just have a hard time of seeing Alex sitting
51:02
there with someone like a Rogan or someone else who's going to ask, you
51:07
know, Eddie knows the stuff and Eddie's gonna ask the questions that we want
51:09
to know. Maybe Alix doesn't want to, so you'd rather just sat out
51:13
like a war of a surface. And I mean that this is a controlled
51:15
setting. Yeah, he does videos, it's a controlled setting. I think
51:20
I think knows what the question see Stern being a possibility, uh, Stern
51:23
being one possibility, and I think Jimmy Kimmel would be the other one.
51:25
Oh yeah, can't there we go Okay, So I think those those two
51:30
would be the most would be That's that's the most. I think that's the
51:31
number one. That's a great, a great point. Yeah, I think
51:34
that's probably the number one priority. Yeah, I just and again that's I
51:37
don't want to believe the point, but just imagine sort of you know,
51:40
so in nineteen eighty six, you guys, I just I don't know if
51:43
he's going to want to have that sort of like you know, he's not
51:45
gonna want that. Yeah, I can't see him wanting that. We want
51:49
that. I want I want to. I wanted to sit down with Eddie
51:52
and have Eddie or someone else like who really knows the stuff, kind of
51:53
go over it, you know, like blow by blow like that, what
51:57
happened then? What happened? You know, I don't I have trouble even
52:00
that would be on the on the radar prolex. Yeah, I think he
52:04
wants that more control type of thing. I don't think he wants some of
52:07
these more you know again, some of these these more touchy things where he
52:10
may find himself backed into a corner or saying something he might later regret.
52:15
That's just that's the very measured Van Brothers type of approach. And I mean
52:20
really quick. I mean Ted didn't want that, right. Ted did almost
52:22
no press for the book. He did, yes, sah, because that's
52:25
what I was. You did most of the press. Yeah, I mean
52:29
he did some print interviews, but he really didn't want like he didn't want
52:31
to sit there and have someone say so when you know, when you didn't
52:36
want to produce van Halen, like what did Ed say to you? Like
52:38
he didn't he didn't want that type of like where he didn't want that.
52:42
He had written the book, he'd gotten on the record about what he wanted
52:45
and I don't think he wanted to because I don't think. I think in
52:47
all honesty, he didn't want to say something that could be misconstrued. He
52:52
really I think that was really what he just wanted to be, you know,
52:55
just not be have something parsed into sort of something that you know,
52:59
you guys don't have to go right. The big question is do you think
53:01
we'll ever see Alex van Halen on stage again behind the drum kit and will
53:07
it be in the form of van Haillen tribute or has that ship sailed?
53:10
Well, I can tell you what I know, and the ship is sailed
53:14
from everything that I've heard out there, and I can't. I can't go.
53:17
I wish I could. I wish I could tell people more, you
53:21
know, But the sad fact of the matter is there's been attempts. You
53:25
know, we we we've heard leaks of stuff. You know, there's been
53:30
attempts on Alex's side, there's been attempts on Wolfgang's side. They both earnestly
53:38
want to do a proper tribute, and there are other forces at play that
53:47
have made that essentially an impossibility. I didn't think Wolfgang was interested in that.
53:52
I think that's interesting to hear. Well, it's but I can't say
53:59
too much. Yeah, yeah, you know, but I will say,
54:01
you know, look at what you know, the Tailor Hawkins tribute. You
54:09
know, that was probably very similar to what Wolfgang had in mind, and
54:17
that was an impossibility. So yeah. The other thing I would to say
54:24
real quick is that is that I mean physically, I mean, I don't
54:28
know. Yeah, I mean, I I wonder drumming is such a physical
54:31
activity, and I just I wonder how Alex is feeling physically. I just
54:35
imagine all those years on the road. It might be it might be tough
54:38
to imagine like doing it like again on one off show or something like that.
54:40
But I'm trying to do a tour. That might be part of the
54:43
calculation too. It's just like, you know what it's not worth it physically
54:45
because it's going to be tough. I mean, I can't I can't run
54:50
like I ran twenty years ago. I can barely run like I read three
54:52
years ago. You know, so we all get older. It could be,
54:53
you know, a physical situation too of just the I know that there
54:59
have been I take it there have been some talk about trying to do some
55:01
shows with Dave, and there was with Satriani, and there was going to
55:05
be more than one show. It sounded like, I don't know if that's
55:07
the other thing too. It's sort of like, you know, it just
55:09
physically, it might be a lot a big a big left, a big
55:13
left for a drummer, you know, singers, guitar players, guitar players
55:15
really probably a basis out of the easiest right. They sort of can just
55:17
do their thing. But as you with the drumming of courses, we know
55:20
that it's such a physical activity. It's it could be, could be difficult.
55:23
Whatever he wants to do. Man, it's it's all good as long
55:27
as he's doing okay, because it's like he's never played with anybody else but
55:30
his brother. So I think I think Mike Anthony said that it's like,
55:34
I think that it just doesn't feel right for him to be I agree.
55:37
And that's that's the big point I think, too, is that why I
55:38
don't think we're going to see him, you know, very much, because
55:43
that's that I think. That's that's what I'm hoping to see from this book,
55:45
is the fact that I mean, he really they were a team,
55:49
you know, they were inseparable. Ed he did go off and jam a
55:51
few times and do some stuff here and there and everything like that, but
55:54
by and large, the focus was the brothers. I just I think it's
55:58
got to be emotionally tough, how that dead Ed's gone behind the drums.
56:01
I'm sure if he just sits behind a kit, a flood of feelings comes,
56:07
and it really has to be the right circumstances. And I think,
56:09
you know, that's I think why the ent tribute didn't happen, because it
56:13
had to be all about the love. You know. It couldn't be about
56:17
I want this on the writer, you know, I want this, I
56:20
want that, you know, me, me, me, me me,
56:22
you know type of stuff. It had to be about the love. It
56:25
had to be about Ed, you know, and some people can't do that.
56:31
You between the lines. That's all I can say. Right, guys,
56:36
thanks so much for doing this again last minute. I we have to
56:39
wait eight months now, Can we do this on a weekly basis, a
56:45
weekly basis leading up to the release of the book. We're going to say
56:47
all these things, and then the book's going to come out and we're going
56:50
to be completely wrong. It's in the Book of Nursery rhymes exactly exactly like
56:55
you Chapter one day, Chapter two, Sammy, you know, the rest
57:00
of the end. I'm not completely sold on the cover image. I hate
57:06
to say Alex looks good. He looks tough, but it almost tells me
57:10
like what's going to be in the book, because Alex is hiding behind a
57:13
pair of sunclass and I was thinking or sad or something. It's really not
57:19
the I don't think it's the most flattering picture of Ad. A lot of
57:22
great deals lows hour shots. Yeah, I've seen that shot before, but
57:28
I just it's like Ed looks just it's not I'd like to see beaming,
57:32
smiling Ad. You know, it's a very it's a very weird expression on
57:36
his face. And I just well, I thought I thought the black two
57:39
is I it was sort of suggest that maybe it's, you know, meant
57:43
to be like kind of an expression of morning. Still, I don't know
57:45
that, you know, I don't know that, but that's sort of sort
57:49
of left out to me. That was very Yeah, the black, black
57:52
and white though, is it's very much a theme. I mean, if
57:54
you go to the you know, I do this all the time because of
57:57
my you know, I always want to check how the book is doing on
58:00
an Amazon, so I go check the Rock one hundred list. Predominantly rock
58:05
book covers are black and white. You know, for the most part.
58:07
I don't know why. I think there's something classic looking about it. You
58:10
know, that's we went black and white for our cover. So it just
58:15
there's you know, and you look at most of the rock books out there,
58:17
they all have black and white covers. So it's I don't know,
58:22
none more black. You know, that's what we do. We have to
58:24
interpret what we have, so you know, it's all a matter of interpretation.
58:27
Yeah, it's it's going to be really interesting when it comes out.
58:30
I mean, it's going to be and last real quick. I know,
58:31
we have to end as I first thought, in no way and I'm thinking
58:36
now definitely alex is going to read the book. I mean, I think
58:37
he has to. I think a book of this level of person you almost
58:39
have to have the person read it. Now, I could be wrong,
58:42
but in other words, that giddy Lee read his own book, Alex is
58:45
going to read his own I didn't even read his books. I'm better read
58:47
my own book, I mean book on tape. Yeah, for the book
58:50
on tape, the audio books, I'm sure he's going to read it.
58:52
I mean, that was I think. So. I didn't have any process
58:55
in the decision of who the actors were for our audiobook at all. You
58:59
know, I guess people seem to be pretty happy with it. But it's
59:01
kind of weird, you know, because, I mean, people wanted us
59:04
to hand over our tapes, you know, you're, even our book publisher
59:07
did, and it was kind of like, well, gosh, you know,
59:09
it's like we're not stenographers like Steve Rosen. You know. We we
59:15
edit things, you know, and we we keep it in context, but
59:17
we also take out of the like oh really yeah really yeah, oh yeah,
59:22
huh all right, you know, so it's like I couldn't see myself
59:28
spending I still be working on editing the tapes, you know, for a
59:30
book on tape as it is, Yeah, seven minute audiobook, it says
59:35
here, Yeah, I mean it'll be I would imagine my book with Too
59:40
was what sold the Banhand Rising book and the Ted table book. We're sold
59:44
in the audio. Couple of company handled the whole thing. They never even
59:46
actually asked if Ted would read the book, not that he would have.
59:49
I'm sure he would have said, because it's you know, it's going to
59:52
be hard work. You know, it's like everything to read every single line.
59:54
They're like, can you say that again? And you know, pause
59:57
here, like whatever. There's going to be a lot of a lot of
59:59
work and in the studios before he'll get it done. But it's it's not
1:00:01
going to be like a you know, like a we're in an afternoon and
1:00:04
we're done. I want to say one other thing, just I remembered that
1:00:07
Ariel probably recorded interviews with with Alex, so the book may be done.
1:00:12
Yeah, there's there's a possibility there that I just thought of actually talking about
1:00:16
doing my stuff with that that they she just they just may take that and
1:00:20
edit it into the book. So who knows the book that I'm sure Alex
1:00:22
love that. Yeah, that would save him to beat guilty Birds with one
1:00:25
stone, so who knows Greg went off, Chris gil guys, thank you,
1:00:29
pleasure anytime. That's it. It's in the books.