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Eddie gives Howard Stern a VH update

Wednesday, 4 October 2006

Howard Stern & Eddie Van HalenEddie called in to Howard Stern’s SIRIUS Satellite Radio show last month and dished the latest dirt on Van Halen.

Highlights included:

  • announcing that he and a partner had discovered a cure for cancer.
  • speculating that his tongue cancer was caused not by his decades of cigarette smoking, but rather by electromagnetic energy emanating from his studio gear that was channeled to his tongue thanks to his habit of holding a metal guitar pick in his mouth while playing.
  • expressing displeasure about Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony touring as “The Other Half.”
  • claiming that he is still open to a reunion with David Lee Roth.
  • revealing that he and Alex have been in the studio working on new material that features Ed’s son, Wolfgang, on bass; that Wolfgang is now a member of Van Halen; and that Ed is also working on a solo album that will feature Wolfgang.

Ed also took some jabs at his band’s former singers and (apparently former) bassist, referring to Sammy as “The Little Red Rocker” and “The Little Red Worm” (the latter in reference to Sammy’s tequila business); Michael as “Sauce Sobolewski” (a reference to Mike’s new hot sauce venture coupled with the bassist’s real last name); and David Lee Roth as “Cubic Zirconia” (a.k.a. Diamond Dave).

Some worthwhile accounts of the interview are available online at HowardStern.com and RollingStone.com.

The bulk of the Rolling Stone article—which was written by Andy Greene and titled “Eddie Van Halen Goes Bananas on Howard Stern”—follows:

On curing his tongue cancer without chemo or radiation:

Eddie Van Halen: “I cured my cancer in a way that’s not exactly legal in this country. I’d tell you, but I don’t want to go to jail. When you drink your damn draino it just holds it at bay. It comes back. Cancer is like a cockroach. It just comes back stronger. I’m tearing apart the immune system of the cockroach and seeing how it ticks. I’ve opened up my own pathology center. Some of us open tequila bars in Mexico, I’m curing cancer. They cut a healthy piece of my tongue off and grew healthy cells outside of my body and tested them. I’m missing a third of my tongue. They butchered me. I didn’t quit smoking after I got tongue cancer cause smoking didn’t cause it.”

On a possible reunion with David Lee Roth:

HS: “Diamond David Lee Roth never wanted piano in Van Halen.”
EVH: “You mean cubic zirconia?”
HS: “You’re never going to do a reunion with him, are you?”
EVH: “Ummm…You know, I’m open to anything.”
HS: “Really? He makes it seem like you are never open…”
EVH: “In 2000 Alex and I tried to pull something together with him.”
HS: “What happened? You couldn’t stand being around him?”
EVH: “No, the guys’s a loose cannon - but I can deal with loose cannons.”
Robin: “Everyone says you’re the problem.”
EVH: “Yeah, because I don’t respond or talk about this stuff.”

On Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony’s current Sans Halen tour:

EVH: “Sauce Sobolewski [Michael Anthony's real last name] is out touring with ‘the little red rocker’ … I mean the little red worm. I got no problem with these guys, but they’re billing themselves as the other half of Van Halen. My brother is the other half of Van Halen. They’re out there selling hot sauce and tequila and playing all my songs. It doesn’t bother me. It just makes them a cover band.”

On the porno movie he wrote two songs for:

EVH: “I don’t call it porn. I call it sex. It’s like Braveheart with a cum shot. Everyone’s giving me their dweeb opinion about this - but without sex you wouldn’t be here to give me your dweeb opinion.”

On his new girlfriend:

EVH: “I have a girlfriend. Her name’s Janie. She’s a press agent…You’re damn right she’s super hot. We met at a press conference. We’ve been together two months.”

On his fifteen-year-old son Wolfgang joining Van Halen:

EVH: “My son Wolfgang plays drums, guitars and bass. This kid is fucking dangerous. If I excel at the speed of sound, he excels at the speed of light. My brother goes, ‘This is the first time I’ve had bass in my headphones.’ He’s only fifteen years old and he’s getting laid. He’s spanking it too.”
HS: “How do you know that?”
EVH: “When you spend 45 minutes in the bathroom you’re not taking a shower. … Valerie and I have joint custody of Wolfgang. For the last couple of weeks Alex, he and I have been jamming together.”
HS: “You wouldn’t go back on the road with Hagar, would you?”
EVH: “I’m pretty much open to anything. What’s going to happen is that there’s a new member of Van Halen, and that is my son.”
HS: “I’m hearing your son is in and Michael Anthony is out.”
EVH: “My son is in and Sobolewski can do whatever he wants. The name Van Halen, the family legacy, is going to go on long after I’m gone. This kid is just a natural. I’m going to have him play on a solo record, and it’s going to be out - he and I.”


Filed under: Alex Van Halen, David Lee Roth, Eddie Van Halen, Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar, Van Halen
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5 Responses to “Eddie gives Howard Stern a VH update”

  1. tim says:

    Eddie is one messed up dude. Great guitar player or at least he was but one messed up dude.

  2. knightwarrior says:

    Eddie van halen
    knightwarrior come on Eddie quit wasting your time
    on David an try some thing new
    I can sing my butt off let’s get together an rock
    I’ve got the chop’s
    Eddie you say that your open for anything
    come on give me a try Baby I’ll rock your sock’s off
    you have nothing to lose

  3. Ramiro J Picos says:

    I am all for Eddie and his son Wolfgang jammin with him. Why not it is his son and the kid jams. Eddie would not put him in if it was not so. M.Anthony left and made another band without Eddie and Alex so that is his issue to deal with. I would like to see the original four but please life is full of small imperfections. People the freakin glass is more than just half full!!!! This could also help the band draw in the younger crowd. Please stop complining so much and lets have fun with Diamond Daves comeback. I never really liked them that much with Haggar. Diamond Dave is all Karisma. He and Eddie made the band. Who cares who plays bass. Lezzzzz GOOOOOOOOO

  4. Bob says:

    Boy Eddy is whacked!
    Cure for cancer what a joke! Maybe the fact that they cut 1/3 of his tongue off is the reason he hasn’t had a relapse.
    Smoking didn’t cause it what a dumbsh!t!
    Glad he is in rehab he needs it, it’s obvious, he was plastered when he gave this interview because it shows!
    Wolfgang maybe extremely talented but to cap on Michael by belittling his skill at bass because he got tired of waiting for the Drunk to get off his ass is a idiotic rhetoric!
    Let’s see, David is cubic zirconia, Michael sauce Sobolewski and Sammy is little red worm says it all as far as I’m concerned!
    Eddie was, and maybe still is, a great guitarist back in the time but a lot of new guitarist that have come up since then are faster and even better than he was back then!
    I hope rehab works for him and if it does he has a lot of ass kissing to do because as good as he was he is just guitarist and he needs a good surrounding cast to be a band he seems to have forgotten that over the years.

  5. John Greggs says:

    first, Van Halen is a family. A very close knit family. The ONLY brother allowed on that stage that doesn`t have that last name is Dave…..THE END. …as in, “end of book”……….used to work for them so i`m naturally going to say it like it really is

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