Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / 1984 - Five Kids, One Dream: Seeing Van Halen Live [Episode 176]
Transcript
- 0:00Seeing those brawls and panties come from all over the garden on this stage,
- 0:04it was like, where's this covert from. We're all altar boys too.
- 0:09We were also on the court trying to figure out how a damn Scott got
- 0:13into the concert, right. We all had to go to confession on Monday.
- 0:17When we got that school were totally rock and roll. I mean,
- 0:23gotta leave you. You're reading Little Hens says it's time to rock and roll.
- 0:27Read roll up. I totally booked. Welcome back to book Don Rock
- 0:35the podcast for those about to read and rock online. It booked on rock
- 0:39dot com. You can find every episode there, along with links to the
- 0:42listening platforms, exclusive videos, blogs, and the latest rockbook releases. We
- 0:48have Jim Serger, Chris Berger, and Todd Zimmerman on the podcast. They're
- 0:51here to tell the story behind their brand new book Jump fortieth anniversary of attending
- 0:56the nineteen eighty four Van Halen concert. This is the true coming of age
- 1:00story of five teenagers and their experience attending a Van Halen concert. Back in
- 1:04nineteen eighty four. The band was at the height of their success thanks to
- 1:08their number one single Jump and We're Packing areaders around the country, including the
- 1:12Cincinnati Gardens in Cincinnati, Ohio, on March ninth, nineteen eighty four.
- 1:18That experience was life changing for Jim and his friends. They experienced the enduring
- 1:23power of music, and we're here to share that experience with us. Hey,
- 1:27guys, welcome to the podcast. Thanks Eric, thanks for having Thanks
- 1:33for having us. Eric. It's always great to meet fellow Van Halen diehards.
- 1:38Yeah exactly. I love it. I love it, and you guys.
- 1:40I envy you guys because I was about I was the same age as
- 1:42you actually around there. I was twelve in nineteen eighty four, but I
- 1:46didn't get to see the band until ninety one. I think was my first
- 1:49Van Halen show. So I'm going to live vicariously through the three of you
- 1:53guys tonight. So and I do see do we have a No Bozo's shirt?
- 1:59Chris theres? Oh? Yeah, of course. Okay. This is
- 2:01my staple for all the book signings, for everything we go. Its like
- 2:05I got to do this. I was worried though, because Todd and I
- 2:08were at a record store this past weekend and he's got one too. I
- 2:12meant to text you, Todd and say, hey, make sure we don't
- 2:15swin it up tonight, or a yeah. For those not in the know
- 2:19that aren't huge Van Helen fans, that's a shirt that Eddie would wear,
- 2:23and I think he maybe wore it around that time. I think it was
- 2:25nineteen eighty four, maybe that he Yeah, it was eighty four, because
- 2:30we got a picture of him backstage at the Gardens wearing this with a red
- 2:35jacket over top of it. So all right, that's how everything came around
- 2:38where I'm like, oh, I need that shirt. I love it,
- 2:39and I want to ask you about some of these photos too. So let's
- 2:43start. Well, Jim, we'll stow with you the title of the book.
- 2:45Let's start there. You specifically use the band's song Jump for the title.
- 2:50That was the first song that I remember hearing. Probably saw the video
- 2:53first then the song, but I could just distinctly remember being in the living
- 2:57room twelve years old, seeing that video coming on, see Dave new the
- 3:00Splits and Eddie doing what he does for you. That song has a special
- 3:04meeting absolutely, So, just like you explained, I was twelve in December
- 3:09of nineteen eighty three when Jump came out. I didn't have an older brother
- 3:14or an older sister that I could live vicariously through through the musical influence of
- 3:20more older rock bands, or even Van Halen one or Van Halen two.
- 3:23At the same time MTV is being released in our household and across Cincinnati area,
- 3:30and matter of fact, across the United States, everybody was being welcomed
- 3:34to Martha Quinn and Jackson and everybody else. And when the video came out
- 3:39on January I think the second of nineteen eighty four, the song was already
- 3:46playing through the airs, and all of these guys, Todd and Chris and
- 3:50all my seventh grade buddies were like, have you heard this song? Have
- 3:53you seen the video? This is unbelievable. I mean, all of us
- 3:57were in the right place at the right time when Jump came out. So
- 4:03it wasn't only just about seeing Van Halen, because I didn't know that much
- 4:08about Van Halen at the age of twelve. I knew enough to be walking
- 4:11into the concert we were going to, but by by no means was I
- 4:15ha van Halen experts. I mean, my dad was listening to John Denver
- 4:19and the Kingsey Triom, Yeah right, the Beach Boys, and I can
- 4:27still remember to this day when MTV started playing that, my mom would come
- 4:30into the family room and say, who are these goofy guys? What kind
- 4:34of altit is this? And then she say okay, and then she would
- 4:39sit down, and then she became mesmerized by him, and then she started
- 4:43saying, Oh, I know Eddie, he's married to Valerie. Oh,
- 4:46I've heard of David the Ros because my cousin's best friend's nephew's sister heard him
- 4:50from Van hale And then all of a sudden, the whole family is hunkered
- 4:54around watching the music video Jump. And when you say Jump, the first
- 4:59thing I think of his Van Halen. I could be in the car,
- 5:01I could be on an airplane, in an airport, at another venue,
- 5:05just sitting outside, and someone says, Jump goes right there, Van Haling.
- 5:12So Jump introduced me and my buddy's to Van Haleen, and that's why
- 5:15we came up with the cover of Jump. He's the cake. You know.
- 5:19So you guys all went to school together. Yes, okay, we
- 5:23all get So when does this story start? Like, when do you start
- 5:27to formulate this idea? Actually, before we do that, let's let's talk
- 5:30about the people involved. Let's get all the names here, so because there's
- 5:32six people total, seven total, seven to you and six others. So
- 5:38we have Chris Burger. Jimmy is a pronounced Myers. That's correct, Jimmy
- 5:43Myers, Jimmy Myers. Then Jim Myers, that's correct. That's his dad.
- 5:47Okay, that's his dad. All right. Chris Burger is here.
- 5:50We have Todd Zimmerman who's here as well, Skip Berger and Mike. Yeah,
- 5:57Skip is my dad. Okay, he's the he's the police officer.
- 6:00He's the policeman. Yeah. Cool. He's the one that made everything happen
- 6:03for me. Nice. Oh my god, that's so awesome. Start from
- 6:08the beginning. You guys are in school one day and you say, hey,
- 6:10they're coming around. We got to go see him, And how does
- 6:12this all start? Well, do you want me to take it? Because
- 6:15I'm the one who didn't have a ticket, and I'm the one who kind
- 6:17of got left out aside with everything. Take it. I think it's great.
- 6:23I think, oh gosh, yeah, just like Jim said, it
- 6:27was all you know, hearing that song, and this was before, of
- 6:30course, anything with the Internet or Spotify or anything like. Oh you had
- 6:34to grab the cable box hit MTV at the right time to see that video,
- 6:40and they were playing it constantly on the loop. It was probably once
- 6:43every hour. And then we started hearing it on the local radio stations,
- 6:46and like Jim said, we didn't know who Van Hallen was. It was
- 6:50just that song just struck us and it's like, oh my gosh. And
- 6:55then, you know, Todd and Jim started talking about, you know,
- 6:59having to go get ticket to go see it at the concert. Unfortunately,
- 7:02when all that planning happened, I wasn't involved because right away my dad,
- 7:08my mom and dad said nope, you're not going. My dad worked a
- 7:11lot of concerts here in Cincinnati, goes I know what goes on in front
- 7:15of the stage and backstage. You are not going. You are a good
- 7:18Catholic boy, you will say. Oh. But but then I hear,
- 7:23you know, Todd and Uh and Jim start using my dad as the reason
- 7:29why they are allowed to go, because oh, he'll be at the concert,
- 7:31he'll watch over us and everything. So they used my dad as a
- 7:35pawn to be able to go get tickets, where I sat without absolutely nothing
- 7:40to go. I love it, Todd, tell me about you're involvement in
- 7:44this and when did you first find out about it. I remember specifically,
- 7:46we were sitting in mister Pearson's class I believe it was, and we were
- 7:50kind of puddled around, you know, just talking about it. Like Jim
- 7:56said with the video, you know, the old joke that I said,
- 7:58we tell our kids now was back in my days, missed an episode or
- 8:01something that I said it was drawn for life. Yeah, well, if
- 8:05you were lucky enough to have the record button ready to go when Jump came
- 8:09on, you were at home just ready to hit record on that BCR and
- 8:13get it recorded. So yeah, same thing. I came home, I
- 8:16asked my parents and said, hey, all my friends want to go.
- 8:18Immediately they were kind of like, yeah, not happening. You know,
- 8:22the Cincinnati Gardens isn't in a good part town, you know, blah blah
- 8:24blah. I said, oh, no, mister Burger is going to be
- 8:28working the concert. My dad and mister Berger and mister Serger, we're all
- 8:31really good friends. All three of them coached us on the baseball team,
- 8:35and once I sold them on, mister Burger was going to be there.
- 8:37Making it sound like, you know, kind of the book said he's going
- 8:39to be in the rafters with his sniper life keeping an eye on us.
- 8:45Eventually they were sold on it, and they're like, okay, well absolutely
- 8:48so. Uh, I mean that's the only way that this could happen.
- 8:50I mean you're twelve years old, thirteen years old, I mean you're not
- 8:54getting into the show. Well, that's the thing that's so cool about it,
- 8:56to be able to get to see the show at that age, because,
- 9:00yeah, the only way you can go is having an adult there with
- 9:03you. And even though we got all our parents to say yes, we
- 9:07still had to talk an adult into taking us. Sure. There was no
- 9:09way we were going to be allowed to go, even with mister Berger there.
- 9:13So that's when we had to work on mister Myers to get him to
- 9:16take us. And luckily mister Myers was just okay, I love the baby
- 9:20smoking a cigarette on the album cover too. That was an issue for Chris,
- 9:24your mom, I think, right, oh, yeah, one hundred
- 9:26percent. Yeah. When when I first went to go, I think at
- 9:31the time, it was Camelot Records or whatever was up at the mall,
- 9:35and luckily the first one I bought was the cassette team, So it's kind
- 9:41of shrunken down in everything. And you know, I told my mom wanted
- 9:43to buy it. She didn't think anything of it. You know, I
- 9:46had my allowance money, so I was able to buy it. But once
- 9:50I got home, took that cassette out, popped it in the boom box.
- 9:54I left the cassette on the kitchen table, and when she picked it
- 9:58up and started looking at you because that's a baby. Oh, it's smoking
- 10:01a cigarette and it's got two other packs of cigarettes. What what are you
- 10:05listening to here? And stuff? And that's when you know, the song
- 10:09jump and everything. She's like, okay, I understand it and stuff.
- 10:13And my mom was great, you know, she she probably actually said,
- 10:16you know, okay, just don't show your dad that and stuff. And
- 10:20even though my dad at the time was smoking everything, it was still taboo
- 10:24and yeah, oh god, but that's kind of what's missing from rock and
- 10:28rolls. There was some danger there. It was like the band that your
- 10:31parents didn't want you to listen to. You know. It was that which
- 10:33started really with Elvis and all those guys back in the day, right,
- 10:39But that a lot of that was Dave David Lee is the guy who was
- 10:41just he was thinking about all that stuff. Oh yeah, thank god he
- 10:46was wearing spandex and jumping around and his his blonde locks going. Because there's
- 10:50like Jim said, that's what got our moms hooked and everything. It was
- 10:52like okay, this is okay and everything like yeah, right, it's all
- 10:56good. Yeah it was. So the Cincinnati Gardens two nights March eight,
- 11:01March nine, nineteen eighty four. So those are the two shows you end
- 11:03up going to the second night, so like how do you get Okay,
- 11:07so the tickets you have to wait in line? I mean those days?
- 11:11Is this you can't do it online? You're absolutely right, Eric, that's
- 11:13the missing part in the book. Nobody think there's a missing key to everything,
- 11:18or you know, the hidden message behind the book, And through brainstorming
- 11:22with everybody over and over and creating the book for over a year, nobody
- 11:26really can figure out whose mom or whose dad stood in line at ticket tron
- 11:33and ran through the mall, up the stairs to the window because it couldn't
- 11:37have been us. Yeah, there's no way my parents would let me miss
- 11:41a Catholic school for one day to say I'm going to get van Halen tickets,
- 11:46There's no way. So somebody's parents actually darted out and ran up the
- 11:50stairs to ticket tron and then to get rode ten feet. They had to
- 11:56have been there really early, right, Yeah, those are sweet seats man
- 12:01row ten right in the middle. I think I can tell you this.
- 12:05It wasn't my mom pitching a tent on the sidewalk in a sleeping bag.
- 12:09There's no way my dad would have done that. So wow, so it's
- 12:13still a mystery, Yeah, it is. It had to be somebody fast
- 12:18though, and able to knock people down, because to get the tickets,
- 12:20didn't you have to go upstairs? And it would had to have been an
- 12:26adult, right, because a twelve thirteen year old they'd have to you have
- 12:28to show your ID right right? Correct? Correct? Wow, this is
- 12:35mind blowing. The cost of the ticket was twelve dollars twelve dollars and fifty
- 12:43cents to see Van Halen tenth row center, right, It was right,
- 12:48correct, correct. There's a picture of the ticket in the book too.
- 12:50A lot of you guys kept a lot of stuff from that show, which
- 12:54is which is great because then ye think about that. Well, I was
- 12:58going to say, looking at the ticket and everything we all know nowadays,
- 13:01how there's all these additional charges every time you buy something. I think the
- 13:07tax on that ticket was thirty three cents. That was the only thing over
- 13:11it. It was like today it would be one fifty dollars for its exactly
- 13:20service, twelve fifty for a beer is probably would thousand. Yeah, somewhat
- 13:26important to the story. You mentioned him skip Berger, the real life Dirty
- 13:31Harry, That is correct life. So he's working both nights and at first
- 13:37he tells you, Chris that he couldn't go, but it was meeting the
- 13:41band on the first night that changed his mind. Tell us one hundred percent,
- 13:45he was. He was backstage. Actually, Uh, the way everything
- 13:48worked out, he worked a lot of details when we were growing up,
- 13:52and that was you know, Uh, the salary of being a cop was
- 13:56nothing, but he made all of his extra money with working details. He
- 14:01was making twice as much doing the details. So he was always working and
- 14:05everything. One of the things that he did was always working the concerts and
- 14:11everything. So he got picked do the Van hailn concert boat nights Thursday and
- 14:18Friday night. He was outside to begin with, and then his supervisor called
- 14:24him and said, hey, I need you to go backstage. I needed
- 14:26to take care of the band, watch over, make sure do security and
- 14:30everything like that. And it just so happened that he started striking up a
- 14:33conversation with Eddie. And you know, at the time, we're talking about
- 14:37the Jump video and everything, and my dad's watching the video. He's like,
- 14:41oh my gosh, these guys you know, rock and roll and stuff
- 14:45like that. He already had this stereotype of meeting the likes of from led
- 14:50Zeppelin and stuff, right, right, So he's talking to Eddie and you
- 14:54know, my dad's a tough guy really to crack and become his friend and
- 15:00everything. But apparently they just hit it off, you know, had some
- 15:05sort of connection and everything like that. And in the well, I'm sorry
- 15:09to interrupt, but you know what, Eddie loved real people. He did.
- 15:13He wanted to be treated like a regular person. So he probably treated
- 15:16him that way. Yeah, and yeah, he didn't look at him as
- 15:20a rock star. He looked at him as a rigor person. And you
- 15:24know, we say it all the time. They both showed each other,
- 15:26you know, respect, and I think that was part of the thing that
- 15:30they hit it off and started talking and Eddie brought up to asked if my
- 15:35dad had kids and goes, yeah, I have two kids, one's twelve,
- 15:39and he said, is he here tonight? And my dad goes,
- 15:41oh, no, no, no, he's not here, you know,
- 15:43it's a school night. And everything goes, is he coming tomorrow night?
- 15:48And my dad goes, no, no, his mom and I really don't
- 15:52want him here and stuff like that, and Eddie looked at my dad in
- 15:54the face said bring your son tomorrow night, and I want you to bring
- 15:58him back here to meet us and everything. And then at that point I
- 16:03still didn't know anything because the concert got over. God's probably about eleven or
- 16:07eleven thirty that night. My dad was still working. He actually called my
- 16:11mom like at one o'clock in the morning. As the story went and stuff,
- 16:15my mom was freaking out something happened with my dad and everything. So
- 16:19even though my dad was okay with me going, he had to convince my
- 16:23mom to let me go. So they had the conversation. She said it
- 16:29was okay, and I'll never forget because the newspaper article is in the book.
- 16:33I came down for lunch get ready for school on that Friday morning,
- 16:38and there was that newspaper article there talking about the concert from Thursday night and
- 16:45Mike reading as I'm like, okay, thanks, mom, really rub it
- 16:47in. All my friends are going and I'm not. You got a huge
- 16:52smile on her face that said you're allowed to go. You're allowed to go.
- 16:55I go, Well, I don't have a ticket, goes, don't
- 16:56worry. Your dad's got everything taken care of. Then, as they say,
- 17:00the rest is history at that point. Yeah, just to set it
- 17:03up to Cincinnati Gardens, it's no longer around. Built in nineteen forty seven,
- 17:08torn down in twenty eighteen, so just fairly recently torn down, which
- 17:12makes me think the Live Without a Net show in New Haven was right near.
- 17:15I went to college in New Haven, so that's kind of I can
- 17:19I can relate to that. You know, it's just since been destroyed,
- 17:22torn down, it's gone. This was a pretty cool venue, right,
- 17:26I mean it had going back to Chuck Berry, Jerry Lewis, the Beatle.
- 17:30I mean this what was this? I believe it was also when it
- 17:33was built, so it was the home of Xavior basketball right for them to
- 17:36play college and I believe it was the home of Cincinnati Royals. It was
- 17:41Robinson. Oh wow, did you see so? Yeah, that was like
- 17:45your regular coliseum, right. I had the monster truck rallies in the circus
- 17:49and you know anything else that came to town and the I mean, I
- 17:52don't even know what it sat Jim, you saw that. What was about
- 17:56eighteen thousand. It was the fourth largest indoor venue when it was built in
- 18:00the United States. It could actually see almost eleven thousand people inside there.
- 18:06Yeah, so eleven and the fourth biggest that's right, Yeah, that's right,
- 18:10right, right, right. But it was built in a time when
- 18:12everybody was the baby boomers were just starting to come to life. They had
- 18:18ice skating there almost twenty four hours a day, so they hockey was big
- 18:22for our parents in their youth. They used to love it and they would
- 18:26have high school dances there. So there was more to it than just building
- 18:30it for University of Cincinnati or Xavier. The mindset behind that was I can
- 18:36get everybody from everywhere within the VI city of Cincinnati to come here, because
- 18:41that was one of the first venues built between here and Dayton and even northern
- 18:45Kentucky and even southeast Indiana. So you could get a lot of people there
- 18:49very quickly to pack the place out, and like Todd said, it was
- 18:53packed all the time, wooden seats, the ceiling dripped if it was too
- 18:59much. So it's almost like I think of the Boston Garden type of right
- 19:04right, right, So to for van Halen to set up their equipment inside
- 19:12that small capacity when they're coming from l a rehearsing and they come to this
- 19:18little tiny thing, and for the ingenuity behind that and the high rise got
- 19:22up speaker after speaker after speaker after speaker. I mean, I can only
- 19:27imagine how many brown eminem's they had to before get out because that engineer to
- 19:34Cincinnati Gardens is going, Okay, we're going from hockey to college basketball.
- 19:40Now we're bringing in the Beatles. And that's fine, you know, Chuck
- 19:44Berry, that's fine, Elvis, that's fine. But now you're gonna bring
- 19:47in this maga rock band that's gonna blow you away with so many killobots,
- 19:52it's gonna be unbelievable. I can only imagine what those guys and girls thought
- 19:56when they got the manual and the mail. Yeah, stage, that stage
- 20:03was so massive that it probably blocked hundreds of seats in that venue. But
- 20:08I read something it said they sold those seats to people. There are apparently
- 20:14people that sat behind the stage. They couldn't see anything, but they were
- 20:18cheaper, but they still sold them to try and get people in. The
- 20:22stage was enormous, it was, yeah, and those speakers on top of
- 20:26it, like you said, everywhere it was just, oh my gosh.
- 20:32And like you said, that's the first show we have ever been to.
- 20:36And I know, uh, you know, autograph opened up and I think
- 20:40they probably had what five ten speakers and we thought, right, was loud,
- 20:45and then all of a sudden they dropped the drape and then all these
- 20:48hundreds of speakers and it's like and then Eddie starts out and it's like,
- 20:52oh my gosh, I'm still I can't believe that roof didn't give in that
- 20:56night. Yeah, that was the loudest thing I had ever heard before in
- 21:00my life. Who's the one that put the wax in his ears? Uh?
- 21:04That was right. That happens when you're a day to make kids,
- 21:08you know how to go through all the stays, right, I mean,
- 21:11my dad just said good luck trying to come home and once you know,
- 21:15right, Yeah, he had just taking his kids to the Kiss concert before
- 21:19that, so or his older boys. So he learned about the bes wax
- 21:22and he was a pharmacy right the book down. Rock podcasts will be back
- 21:26after this. Jim Serger, Todd Zemmerman, Chris Berger, authors of Jump
- 21:33fortieth anniversary of attending the nineteen eighty four van Halen concert. It's on sale.
- 21:37Now, take us back to that moment you sit down in the seat
- 21:40and what's going through your mind. Our expectations, Eric was, we were
- 21:45going to go see van Halen. That was it one and done. Like
- 21:48Todd and I always at no opening act said, we didn't know anything about
- 21:52an opening act. We had no clue. We were coming there to see
- 21:56van Halen and perform on stage and do the jump and unchained and dead or
- 22:02alive or whatever they were gonna do to blow us away. And I was
- 22:06standing next to mister Myers and and Mike was next to me and Chris and
- 22:10Todd, and when they opened it up, it's autographs and everybody's like,
- 22:14what what's going on? This is a two for one? Even the red
- 22:18hair like, what's going on here? I mean, I don't even know.
- 22:22And we were blown away. We got to see two concerts and one
- 22:26night and and that song that's Autograph is famous for the radio. Their drummer
- 22:33was buddies with Dave and they would jog together and so Dava. But you
- 22:37know about the t the T shirt band story, and you know so Autograph
- 22:41Autograph was was known as a T shirt band. Okay, Van Helen would
- 22:47pick bands, not that they were terrible or anything, but there wasn't like
- 22:51they wanted a band where people would get out of their seats and go buy
- 22:55some T shirts some Van Hills. Oh okay, that's great. Yeah,
- 23:00so that was just like, yeah, good band, but we don't want
- 23:02them to be like too good to go to the merch beef and buy some
- 23:06stuff. But it's funny is in communicating with others about this concert. There
- 23:11was a guy that chimed in through Facebook and told me when he watched him
- 23:15play at one of the venues on the eighty four tour, they played turned
- 23:18Up the Radio two times in one set. They didn't know what else that
- 23:23they just played it again. But to go with you, I mean,
- 23:26we're tenth row. We were the last section, so there was nobody behind
- 23:30us. That was a runway for the police to get the fans across from
- 23:34one section of the stadium to the other, so there was nobody behind us.
- 23:37It was almost like a exit road in an airplane. We had all
- 23:41this space behind us and there they are, and like Chris said, it
- 23:45drops and they came flying out and it went so fast. Eric, I
- 23:52mean, we were just in all the whole time. And if I was
- 23:56a beat writer for the Rolling Stone or Cream or something like that, I
- 24:00wouldn't You wouldn't be able to write fast enough, or you'd have to record
- 24:03the whole thing because there's so much movement going on. Yeah, I mean
- 24:08that's what welcomed me to music. And I compare every concert that I go
- 24:12to still to this day to that concert. I have walked out of concerts
- 24:18because I'm like, oh my gosh, where where is the stage presence?
- 24:22Where at the bar high? I mean, well, we mentioned Kiss.
- 24:26The two greatest shows I've ever seen to this day are Van Halen with Dave
- 24:30and Kiss. I'm a fan of the Sami era, but with Dave it
- 24:34was it was the show right right right. And there's that footage of of
- 24:41that tour on YouTube. Even seeing it, like Grainy and it's not the
- 24:45greatest footage even that I get the goosebump seeing and they start with unchained and
- 24:49Gave's up there on the drum riser he does that split. Yeah, you
- 24:52guys is like kids just jaw drop right, Like how is this guy do?
- 24:56Because they they were like superheroes. Yeah, and when you know,
- 25:00I remember that after autograph wrapped up and everything, and you know, all
- 25:06the lights came on and then they dropped the van Halen dropped the backdrop that
- 25:12had the caricature with yeah, with the hammer, so that came up,
- 25:17and I remember it's all kind of like going, you know, what's going
- 25:19on and stuff, and there's all this movement and everything. So I,
- 25:22like Jim said, I can't remember it went by like that, but I
- 25:26guess it had to be a half an hour forty five minutes for them to
- 25:30change the set and get all the speakers up and ready to go. But
- 25:34when that light went down in the gardens and it was pitch black, and
- 25:41then all of a sudden you heard Eddie start the rift unchained. It was
- 25:45like, oh my gosh, insane, what is going on here? And
- 25:51then just like you said, Eric, you know, with with Dave jumping
- 25:55off the drum set and it just was like, oh my goodness. It
- 25:59was like, yeah, we were in awe and you know, I wish
- 26:03you know that we had an actual video of us where we were actually can
- 26:08replay it, you know, I know we'd do it in our minds and
- 26:11stuff, but just to have that moment encapsulate it, to be able to
- 26:17see one more time, I would give anything. That's the thing I mean.
- 26:21Is there footage of that that exists in the vaults? You know,
- 26:23I know Michael Anthony said everything. I think he said everything was recorded on
- 26:27audio and video. I could be wrong. Maybe just audio definitely, but
- 26:32whatever. I did find the actual audio from Friday night, March ninth,
- 26:38at the gardens of the concert we were at. I was going through some
- 26:42Van Halen archives and stuff and I came across that, and yeah, just
- 26:47to hear that for the first time, and gosh, I just found that,
- 26:51you know, towards the end of last year, so it was forty
- 26:52years and actually hearing that because you know, we talked about that Unchained is
- 26:56my favorite song of all time and just because it brought me back to that
- 27:02moment in time and everything. But to actually hear that audio from that night,
- 27:07and actually when I heard it for the first time, it was it
- 27:11was mind blowing. In their prime late twenties or they were on twenty seven,
- 27:15twenty nine years old, It's like, you got to be kidding me.
- 27:18It's like this band is from like another planet. Speaking of that being
- 27:22from another planet, What was like when you see Eddie break into the solo?
- 27:26Oh right, I mean unbelievable, Yeah, because he was busting out
- 27:32that thing where he had the it was something that like he could he could
- 27:34put the guitar right the clearboard underneath him for the waist and he was doing
- 27:40all that stuff. Ryeah, Yeah, that was incredible, you know what
- 27:42I mean. He started out with unchained. That was our first you know,
- 27:47hearing Eddie live and everything. But when he did Eruption and started that,
- 27:53you know, his true solo, it was you know, and I
- 27:57told Jim this and it's in the book, It's like every time he played
- 28:00the guitar solo, it's like it was talking to you. You could actually
- 28:04hear the lyrics even though nobody was singing, but it just spoke to you
- 28:10and him just just effortlessly, you know, stringing it never It was just
- 28:15yeah, absolutely incredible, absolutely incredible, absolutely brilliant. Yeah. Now when
- 28:21Jump plays, everybody goes nuts, Right, that's the big hit. But
- 28:26was Panama or a Hot for Teacher? Those weren't released yet? Was it
- 28:30just Jump? I think Panama was there. Hot for Teacher didn't come out.
- 28:34I think they didn't perform that the music video. But in other words,
- 28:40where they already singles, like did people recognize them or the video?
- 28:44The videos were I came out after the whole The Monsters of Rock tour was
- 28:49open, right, that was their last get together before Roth left. But
- 28:55I think Panama was released that video because that was the thing that one of
- 29:00the car ride the vand ride over there and stuff. It's like, okay,
- 29:03are they going to string Michael Anthony up? Is he going to play
- 29:06the Jack Daniels go across the street and yeah, that's they played that and
- 29:11that was that was all. Yeah, Tama, Yeah, I'll wait.
- 29:17Panama Hid for Teacher was supposedly, from what I could gather, was song
- 29:22number two unchained Yeah, High for Teacher. Panama was the last song of
- 29:29the set before they came off stage and then went back on for their encore.
- 29:34So yes, there was a lot of David Lee banter in between songs
- 29:40too, which personally I loved. A lot of the fans were like,
- 29:42you know you got to play that means they could have played a couple more
- 29:45songs, but I always love me sometime and Dave so which I want to
- 29:51ask you about, because so, mister Myers is there, thirty nine years
- 29:52old, renservative guy when when Dave's like pulling the like, you know,
- 29:59whoever's stowing that ship at me, I'm gonna fuck your girlfriend? Pal?
- 30:00I mean, like, what are you looking over him? Like? Honestly,
- 30:11I think he was because that was Dave's thing. You would do it
- 30:14every night, so he probably did, and he would pointed some woman right
- 30:18there and then make fun of the guy next to him. You know.
- 30:21It's funny, is is you talk about the dads that went there, and
- 30:25my dad was part of a unit, Christmas dad was a cop, Todd's
- 30:29dad was in the Coast Guard, and mister Myers dad was in the Coast
- 30:33Guard. So if you rounded him up and put him in a room with
- 30:36beer and cigars, they weren't offended it. There's nothing they have. There's
- 30:41nothing like they haven't heard any of this. Oh yeah, but when you
- 30:44throw the moms into that and the problem like the posters in my room.
- 30:51But they didn't, they didn't. He didn't lean over and try to block
- 30:53your ears or no, no, no no. But seeing those brawls and
- 30:59panties come from all over the garden on this stage, it was like,
- 31:03where is this comment from? We're all altar boys too. We were also
- 31:11on the court trying to figure out how the damn Scott got into the concert,
- 31:15right, I mean, it's true, it is true. We all
- 31:23had to go to confession on Monday when we got back school. Let's go
- 31:29backstage now, Chris get the chance to go backstage meet the band. It
- 31:33was crazy, and you talked about, you know, when we got to
- 31:37the concert, and I know, uh, Todd and Jim and mister Myers
- 31:41and everybody else. You know, they went through the regular you know,
- 31:45turnstiles and everything with their ticket. Well when we got there once again,
- 31:48you know, I don't know how this all happened because you know, there
- 31:52weren't any cell phones or anything, you know, mister Myers parks and all
- 31:56of a sudden, my dad's walking over in full uniform. Everything grabs me
- 32:00and uh yeah, Todd, Jim and everybody else goes the other way.
- 32:05We go to the side of the gardens. He knocks on the door,
- 32:07one of his buddies opens the door, and I'm walk inside with him.
- 32:12So I'm still in this whole awe and everything like that. I don't know
- 32:15what's going on, you know, I I no experience with this whatsoever.
- 32:20And I start walking down this corridor and everything, and you know, you
- 32:24get to hear people talking and stuff like that, and I look up and
- 32:28there is just this line of beautiful women, you know, aquinet hair just
- 32:34everywhere, just scandal, and I'm just going, what is going on?
- 32:38You know, I'm holding my dad's hand and everything, and I was just
- 32:40like, this is absolutely incredible and everything. So, you know, he
- 32:45actually knocked on the dressing room door, and he actually went back and talked
- 32:51to uh, you know, Eddie, Alex, Mike, and Dave before
- 32:55I went back. I think, as the story goes, he said,
- 32:59Okay, my son's coming back. It's time to calm it down a little
- 33:02bit. Whenever they were doing and Sad and I just remember walking back there
- 33:07and you know, we've seen the jump video. We've seen some other videos
- 33:13and it just kind of hit me and everything was a blur that I just
- 33:17look up and there's Eddie van Halen right there, and you know, now
- 33:22I appreciate it, you know, at the time, it was just like
- 33:25I was just starstruck and really didn't know what I was actually experiencing at that
- 33:31time. And you know, Eddie was just so Everybody in the band was
- 33:36so nice. You know, everybody shook my hand, we talked for a
- 33:39few minutes. You know, it felt like I was back there forever,
- 33:43but I think it literally is probably four or five minutes I was back there,
- 33:49and it was just absolutely incredible. That's when my dad actually handed them
- 33:53my eighty four cassette take, just the liner, the cover that was in
- 33:58there. So I thought that was the only thing that we were going to
- 34:01get signed and have and stuff like that. I was happy with that.
- 34:06My dad took that before he took me back to the seats with Michael Anthony
- 34:12when he wrote Chris rock On. I still think that is the coolest thing
- 34:15ever. But yeah, they all signed it so great too. You can
- 34:20make out everybody's autographs, so you could really tell they took some time with
- 34:24that instead of just scribbling stuff on and it really meant a lot to me.
- 34:30And that piece is centerpiece on the wall behind me, and I love
- 34:34showing people that. But you know, on that Saturday afternoon, my dad
- 34:38had to work again Saturday morning after the concert. When he came back that
- 34:44afternoon, that's when he showed me all the programs, the programs from the
- 34:50night with all the signatures on him, and yeah, and everybody's got their
- 34:54copy that's in the book yet and everything. And it was the coolest thing
- 35:00going to school that Monday and see Jim and Todd and Mike Myers and go
- 35:06here, you guys, go look at this. And it was just like
- 35:09crazy, you know, everybody in the schools like looking at it and everything
- 35:14like that. And it was the rocket star. Yeah, he was.
- 35:17He was elevating when he walked through the school. I would there. Okay,
- 35:22well, well please tell us the story of There are phollows here for
- 35:27the listening audience. So there's two photos of Eddie with some police officers,
- 35:31their faces blurred out right right right right right. One of them. Eddie
- 35:38looks like he's being arrested and he's smiling and laughing. There's another where he's
- 35:44he's got the sniper rifle. He was just he was such a I thought
- 35:47there was a guitar riffirst so that's the So it's actually the case for a
- 35:52sniper rifle. And that's what Eddie told my dad when he was talking about
- 35:57signing the autographs and everything like that. He said, Okay, I want
- 36:00to want you to take a couple of pictures because I want you guys to
- 36:04act like you're arresting me, and then I want to picture with the sniper
- 36:08rifle. And it's like going, I mean, really are you Are you
- 36:13kidding me? But that's what Eddie wanted. He wanted those pictures and you
- 36:16know, like you said, Eric, just how nice and genuine and he
- 36:22just wanted to be treated like a normal guy just because you know, it
- 36:27was just cool. And when I first saw those pictures, it was like
- 36:30you could see him smiling and you could tell how genuine and how happy he
- 36:36was, you know, to be able to do that, especially with the
- 36:38police officers because he had so much respect. I mean, back then they
- 36:43didn't have the massive security detail where he had all these people that were with
- 36:50the band, and stuff. They did have to rely on the local policeman
- 36:53really to do the security for the shows, and you could tell he really
- 36:58appreciated all the help that all the police officers did those two nights. The
- 37:02book Down Rock Podcasts will be back after this. What about Val She was
- 37:08there Vale Burtelli, right, Oh, she was there, yes, and
- 37:13mester Berger can tell you in depth and her with his life exactly. She
- 37:23was in disguise and everything. People, Uh, yeah, she went to
- 37:28the She wanted to get something to eat or something. Right, She wanted
- 37:30to go to the consent and once again you would never think that, you
- 37:34know nowadays and stuff if if you've got a performer's wife or husband or something
- 37:39that, Yeah, they had the catering service come in and stuff like that.
- 37:43She went to go to the concession stand. And I think that was
- 37:46the point where the first connection with Eddie and my dad came about, because
- 37:52like, I'll take care of her and walked her up there and got her
- 37:54taken care of and you know, got her back safely and stuff. But
- 37:59people, that's a that's really like all the kids, right, they recognize
- 38:02right, right, right? I forgot So you do have the picture of
- 38:07the Nobozo shirt here Chris book. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So you
- 38:10got the merchandising, the fan club form. That's the other thing I wanted
- 38:15to ask about. That's in the book too, right, that was something
- 38:16that's correct. So Jimmy Myers doing the interviews of this book, I asked
- 38:22him, do you have anything in the basement that you can bring with you
- 38:24to our interview. He said, well, give me a couple of days
- 38:28down in the basement. So, like Chris and like Todd, they had
- 38:32saved all this merchandise for forty years. And there's Jimmy's Van Halen fan club
- 38:39form where you can order the T shirts, the albums, the cassettes,
- 38:44the autographs, the Van Halen necklace that they would put the you have one,
- 38:50okay, right, So there's Jimmy. Jimmy brings it up and he's
- 38:53got it, and he brings a Memorial Day postcard that he was mailed by
- 38:59Van Hale Memorial Day saying Happy Memorial Day, Jimmy. It says on the
- 39:04back or something like that, and that's the picture of them doing their rendition
- 39:08of hoisting the American flag. And he brings all these old concert teachherts that
- 39:13he has all these years, I'm like my land, And every time I
- 39:16did an interview or I asked the guys, can you search the room or
- 39:22search something else? They would always call me within five days and say,
- 39:25hey, I found another guitar, pick, Hey, I found this,
- 39:30Hey my mom saved this, and what have you? And the book Eric
- 39:34just kept taking steps farther and farther and farther to a pinnacle. And that's
- 39:38what you have in your hand. After those guys went to all the depths
- 39:43to find the Fanlan fan club form. How about you finish the book,
- 39:47Jim. I started it in November of twenty twenty two, so I had
- 39:53I had to interview everybody separately because I didn't want Todd's story to collide with
- 40:00Chris's, so I didn't want to interview him so they could ride the coketails
- 40:05of each other, because one word might trigger their memory. So I wanted
- 40:08to capture everybody individually. Then when I built the first rough, rough,
- 40:15rough draft, then I handed it back out to everybody, and then a
- 40:19word would trigger with Todd, and Todd would bring something new to the book,
- 40:23and then a word would trigger with mister Myers, and then he would
- 40:27say, oh, I need to add this, so nobody's story really overlapped.
- 40:31I needed to get all that out. And some of these people you
- 40:36hadn't talked to in a while. Right, everybody moved out correct lives right,
- 40:39right? Absolutely, absolutely, So we all played baseball together. We
- 40:44all went first grade through seventh grade, Mike and I want all the way
- 40:47through high school. So it's been thirty twenty nine, twenty five years.
- 40:52Chris and I probably twenty years. Todd and I probably run into each other
- 40:57since I moved back to Cincinnati every couple months or so like that, I'll
- 41:00see him at the gas station. But the fun part about it, Eric
- 41:04is when I picked the phone up and I told him all the concept of
- 41:07the book, they all said, I'm in, I'm in. What can
- 41:10I bring to it? You know what a great story. And it's just
- 41:14like yourself. When you're a fan, you're a fan, but when you're
- 41:17a raving fan because it brought so much joy to you, it's easy then
- 41:22to create a book because it's not really a book. It's more of a
- 41:28story, a memoir. A buddy is all getting together and I had to
- 41:32build it that way. It reminded me of the movie stand By Me.
- 41:36There's that type of feel to it. Yeah, correct, and that's what
- 41:38I wanted it to be. Because there's been a lot of books, numerous
- 41:43books and documentaries written about the history of Van Halen. Guys are experts of
- 41:47that way more so than Chris and I and Todd together, and we all
- 41:52agreed that this moment for us was the coming of age moment of friends experiencing
- 41:59something for the first time. Van Halen. I mean, we weren't just
- 42:02going to the new swim club or a new roller coaster that just opened up.
- 42:07This is this is a pivotal moment in our lives. Like Todd said,
- 42:12a skunk was in the concerts, women's bodies being up, the f
- 42:16words, nobody was just smoking Marlboro reds, you know. But that's that's
- 42:22a bond you guys created. That's just forever correct correct, And it's really
- 42:28cool. Everybody's still with using well correct. Everybody's doing well you are correct
- 42:34And it's funny, you know, Todd. Todd's vision of that of David
- 42:37Lee Roth is a samurai sword. Oh yeah. We were all at that
- 42:44age where everybody owned numb jocks. Everybody was trying to be like Bruce a
- 42:49little bit, and and and it's funny. He comes out with a samurai
- 42:52sword. And there's no way my parents would let me have a samurai sword,
- 42:58but I had a I had rubber numb jock. You know, they
- 43:00knew I couldn't hit my head, but even this big I couldn't do any
- 43:04damage. But here he comes out and like Todd said, you got the
- 43:07silhouette of davidly Ross in the back of the stage almost slow motion with him
- 43:12doing that. Did Al do the thing with the gong on? Oh?
- 43:17Yeah, that's all I wanted to see. That's all I was fired.
- 43:22Is he gonna light the gong on fire? And he turned around started beating
- 43:25that. I was like, oh my gosh, it was all about Michael
- 43:29Anthony. Oh I love Michael Anthony, absolutely my favorite. I mean,
- 43:35that's him on that base man. That's when Jim asked me my biggest one
- 43:39of my biggest memories there And everybody says, oh, it could be Dave
- 43:43jumping or Eddie, which any eruption was, but Michael Anthony's solo. Oh,
- 43:47I've never felt a building shape. Jack Daniels and we're like, no
- 43:52way, you know, bring he dugs the whole bottle. Right. Thinking
- 44:00back now, you're like that had to be water, right because or something.
- 44:07And he went in that solo and it was. I mean, the
- 44:10concert was great. Van Halen's Van Hamen, but Michael Anthony's solo Still to
- 44:15the State stands out to me as the best part about this. That's cool.
- 44:17He would love to hear that. That dude, he was through the
- 44:22ups and the downs and just was like he waved that van Halen flag and
- 44:25he still does. He still does, which leads me to this question because
- 44:29he's going out on tour with sam He's been with Sammon for a while,
- 44:31right to have that experience that kind of effect and it's with Dave. Was
- 44:37it hard to accept Sammy and the band? What were your thoughts when you
- 44:42heard, you know, we're talking about this the other day at the record
- 44:45shop. Yeah, And for us, we saw van Halen with David Lee
- 44:51roths right, but we were twelve years old, so he knew van Halen
- 44:55as twelve year old. Honestly, we grew up with Sammy and Van Hammon,
- 45:00you know, our adult ages and coming up the second time I saw
- 45:05Van Halen was nineteen ninety one at the Pacific Amphitheater and Coasta Mason. They
- 45:08played two shows. We went to both, and I told Chris Is that
- 45:12a little old band named Alice in Chains open for them. Remember that.
- 45:15Yeah, yeah, But we grew up with Sammy as the frontman to van
- 45:22Halen, so I don't think we were mad about it. I don't think
- 45:27it really affected us. To us, van Halen was Eddie, Alex and
- 45:30Michael. You could put any singer there except for maybe one guy who's as
- 45:37I know, that's what his eyes about. I got into an argument about
- 45:39this, you know, David or Sammy, and then I was gonna say
- 45:46Todd, Yes appeared with that. It was probably a black guy. So
- 45:50yeah, So you know, Eddie, Michael and Alex are van Haleman put
- 45:55the singer there for the stage presence. You could put almost anybody there and
- 46:00I'd be okay with it because I'm there to hear Eddie, I'm there to
- 46:02hear Michael and there to hear Alex. David was great with what he did.
- 46:07Sammy was great with what he did, right. You know, that's
- 46:10the age old question was who is better. It's kind of like ask you
- 46:13know a woman how old she is? You don't really do it. Yeah,
- 46:16you're gonna piss somebody off. Jim and Chris your thoughts, you know.
- 46:22At the moment, I was not upset, but I think that I
- 46:25compared. Like I said earlier in this conversation, I have compared so many
- 46:30alleys that I've been to on major bands, and I've seen other major bands.
- 46:36I compare everything that David, Michael, Alex and Eddie. Everything compares
- 46:40to them. Because that was my first concert, nothing will ever compare to
- 46:45that. I love Sammy. I think Sammy does a terrific job. As
- 46:49a matter of fact, he's coming here to Cincinnati this summer. I will
- 46:52go see him. I will support them. I love it and the greatest
- 46:54voices in absolutely history period. Yeah, absolutely, So I'm not going to
- 47:01compare van Halen from eighty five on to the eighty four backwards. I don't.
- 47:07That doesn't do me any justice. I am a fan of van Halen.
- 47:10I love van Halen. People. Todd and I were talking about what
- 47:15song is better than the other song. Well, there's great songs for van
- 47:17Halen, and then there's awesome songs for Van Hamlin, and then there's triple
- 47:22platinum songs on Van Halen. There is not a bad song done in my
- 47:29opinion, like Todd and I talked about, there just isn't a band song.
- 47:32There's not no So this summer when they come around, I will be
- 47:37happy. I will wave to them. I'll say, hey, it's as
- 47:38a Roa ten. Okay, there you are ro ten, but for a
- 47:44thousand dollars this time. Ye right right yeah. But you know, it
- 47:46doesn't upset me that the band was not intact. I understand that this is
- 47:52the way it goes when you're in the business, whether it be sports,
- 47:55whether it be music industry, or just business in general. People wanted to
- 48:00come and go and then you try to add value to that. And you're
- 48:02never going to replace David. You're never going to replace Sammy. You're just
- 48:07not because, like Todd said, you grew up and then at a point
- 48:10somebody else came in and carried on that message, and then you grew up
- 48:14with them as well. So I think Toddy and Chris exemplify that as fans,
- 48:20that the three guys were intact forever and there was only two If you
- 48:25consider Gary. I don't know Gary that well, so he's still Van Halen.
- 48:30I still liked that he was a part of that history. And I'm
- 48:32sure he does too appreciate that. But yes, you know, it was
- 48:37sad, but instantly here comes Sammy. So after yeah, yeah, Chris,
- 48:44your thoughts on that. Yeah, I definitely echoed the sentiments that that
- 48:47Todd and Jim you know, brought up and everything. And I love Sammy
- 48:52even before you know, he jumped on the Van Halen you know, the
- 48:55red rocker I can't Drive fifty five and stuff like that, so I was
- 49:00familiar with Sammy, but you know, there was none of that, you
- 49:04know, we were still all kind of new to music and everything. And
- 49:07yeah, granted, you know, I bought the eighty four album, I
- 49:10saw the eighty four concert. Then I started going back and got divered down
- 49:15fair warning Van Halen won and then really started to appreciate that music and I
- 49:21loved it. But the thing when fifty one point fifty came out and those
- 49:25songs on that album, it was like it wasn't like, you know,
- 49:30Sammy took over. Then all of a sudden the band just cut off.
- 49:32It's like, oh, we can't listen to this and everything. You know,
- 49:36you still had the core. But with Sammy came in and you know,
- 49:40best of both worlds and you know all that stuff. It's like it
- 49:44was like, okay, we're back to Van Halen and stuff like that.
- 49:47And you know, I will never say one's better than the other or anything
- 49:52like that, but they both did incredible for all the albums and all the
- 49:58performances they did. We're lucky that, you know, Van Halen didn't fall
- 50:02off the face of the earth after you know, David Lee Roth and you
- 50:07know, we had the core of the band, you know, Mike,
- 50:08Alex and Eddie, but you know, you popped Sammy in there. You
- 50:13couldn't have asked for a better you know, passing the baton if you say,
- 50:19you know, to Sammy and some of the best concerts you know,
- 50:22I've ever been to, you know, involved Sammy, and nothing will ever
- 50:25top the eighty four show with Dave. But geez, those concerts fifty one,
- 50:30fifty and balance. It's just like, oh my gosh, it was
- 50:36great to that point, the passing the baton, because I was thinking about
- 50:39this today and I think about Van Hillen every day, So what is it.
- 50:43What's the difference right? Right? You know, I think about him
- 50:45every day, so, but I was just thinking about, like, what
- 50:49if Sammy, because the story was that when Sammy was in Montrose, I
- 50:53think or maybe he just started to go solo. There was that idea that
- 50:57maybe maybe Dave's not work can out. Ted Templeman was have a little difficulty
- 51:02with Dave's vocals on that first album, and Ted produced Montrose and who Samy?
- 51:07Maybe you know the rumblings, you know, maybe we'll get Sammy.
- 51:10Of course it didn't happen, But I don't think if Sammy was there in
- 51:17the beginning, I don't think that it would have panned out the way things
- 51:22panned out. I don't think his style and their style at that time would
- 51:28have worked. I think they they were so young and aggressive and they had
- 51:32so much energy and so much raw, youthful energy that Dave was the guy
- 51:37for that. And it was like the timing was actually pretty damn good because
- 51:43when Sammy takes over in eighty six, by that time, Ed's songwriting had
- 51:51progressed, evolved, however you want to call it, matured, you know,
- 51:55and it's it was the perfect time to have Sammy sing those songs.
- 52:00You know, I thought about that, you know, if it it just
- 52:04was maybe more meant to be. Yeah, I agree with you how that,
- 52:07Yeah, Eric, And I'm curious what you think on this. You
- 52:10know, the nineteen eighty four album was a death totally different sound than than
- 52:15Van Halen had been. They had kind of you know, they were venturing
- 52:17into the new synthesizers and the new sound, and that kind of carried over
- 52:22into Sammy that kind of sound, right, So fifty one fifty, I
- 52:27always say, is a non skippable alum. Right, There's not a song
- 52:30on there that you need to fast forward past. And you know, even
- 52:34Gary Sharon is telling Chris if fan Allen three wasn't the greatest album, but
- 52:37if you listen to Gary Sharon, he sounds more like plastic van Halman on
- 52:42some of those songs. In my mind, the sound of it is the
- 52:45seventies rock sound that feel to it. So I think they kind of were
- 52:50already going in that direction with eighty four with David because the sound changed so
- 52:53much from the previous album, and then Sammy just kind of took over with
- 52:58that and they really, you know, implemented different sounds into their songs had
- 53:04even started with eighty four, and those were the creative differences that David Edward
- 53:07having. That was a face I saw his writing just became. I mean,
- 53:12like I said, fifteen and fifty to me, it's just it's the
- 53:15album that I I really became a Van haill And fan of. I've said
- 53:20this story before. It was Christmas Eve nineteen eighty eight, and my brother
- 53:24had the cassettes and my friends kept banging on me, you gotta listen to
- 53:29Van hail because I obviously I knew Jump, I knew all the nineteen eighty
- 53:32four songs, but then I kind of like steered away. And then in
- 53:36eighty eight my high school friends are like, dude, you got to listen
- 53:37to this man. Oh eight one too. That was the album was all
- 53:40the time. Oh yeah. And when It's Love was on the radio and
- 53:44I was like, yeah, I'm in let's do this. And then my
- 53:46older brother had all the cassettes, so let's Christmas Eve popped into a cheap
- 53:50walkman and I and I to this day, I still remember the goosebumps listening
- 53:54to that fifty and fifty from start to finish. And then I just took
- 53:59the that put it back over. We wand and played it again, right,
- 54:02And I remember just listening to dreams and it was like another world,
- 54:08otherworldly experience, especially when you know I did play the solos and stuff and
- 54:13then found out fifty stood for you loved it even Yeah, right, it's
- 54:20kind of like the story behind you ate one two, you know, and
- 54:22hear those and it's like that makes it even better. I know, Well
- 54:25what we are you guys fans of Dave solo? Were you fans of Eating
- 54:29Smile and skyscreening? So I bought I bought Crazy from the Heat. I
- 54:32remember that, right, Is that what it was? When that's the four
- 54:36song with California Girls? So I bought it, you know because I was
- 54:38like, yeah, it's Van Halen and I follow I didn't really follow his
- 54:44solo career, you know, but I did go see them a couple of
- 54:46years ago, uh, before Eddie had passed, when they reunited with Wolf
- 54:52on Base. They came to Cincinnati with David and I did go see him.
- 54:54So, you know, Chris and I saw Van Halen and eighty four
- 54:58together. We saw Van Halen with Sammy Hagar. Then we saw Van Halen
- 55:02with Garry Sharon Man covered all three. That tour was successful, even though
- 55:09the album didn't do well. The tour, Gary was implementing a lot of
- 55:13those songs that we hadn't heard in a long time and that I have just
- 55:17gone to see Kissed before that. Now, do you remember the concert we
- 55:21saw with kiss was in three D? Yeah, and all this stuff.
- 55:29It was insane, Oh gosh. And that was great because uh, White
- 55:34Zombie opened for that was my first Rob Zombie and I was like, Okay,
- 55:38I can handle this guy too. That's cool man, that's cool.
- 55:42Guys. Thanks, this was great. I could I could always talk Van
- 55:45Halen, So anytime somebody wants to talk Van Halen. And congrats on the
- 55:49book. Phenomenal book. It's out now, so let's plug it. People
- 55:52can get it wherever you buy your favorite books, right yeah, thanks,
- 55:57Eric, Yes, sir, Any website, social media, anything that you
- 56:00want to get out there for people who jimsugar dot com, Facebook, Jim
- 56:05Suger, you know, anywhere, even yours right there, Eric, anything
- 56:08to talk about Van Halen. You got to keep it alive, you got
- 56:12to keep it fresh. We're all getting older, we are, and my
- 56:16generation has been through it. We love it. That's why we're on this.
- 56:21But my daughter likes Van Halen and I need to keep her age engaged
- 56:27so if she can can change her generations kids and keep them going as well.
- 56:31There's so much history with this and it's unbelievable's carrying exactly. He'll be
- 56:37here two times in Cincinnati next year. I'll see Yeah. I got to
- 56:42see him in Connecticut. I got the goosebumps because he has the EVH guitar
- 56:45and he was doing the stuff on the front board through fighters here in the
- 56:51stadium tour. So we're going to that. Yeah. And you know,
- 56:54speaking of Chris told me to watch a video of his or something. It
- 57:00up the one. The whole video is just him and Eddie. I don't
- 57:01know what song it is, but it's him as a baby. Yeah,
- 57:06yeah, yeah, Oh my god, that video just kills you. Especially
- 57:09Yes, you guys probably remember I remember when Wolfgang was born March sixteen,
- 57:15What the hell Wolfgang? Right? And then the years go on and I
- 57:17remember Eddie at the ninety six MTV Awards with Dave and he said, Hi
- 57:22Wolfie, you know, like he was just a kid. You see him
- 57:24to go up, and then credit to him. Man, he just he
- 57:28put off his career because he was with his dad. Yeah, Jim Serger,
- 57:31Chris Berger, Todd Zimmerman, guys, thanks so much, thank you.
- 57:45That's it. It's in the books.