It’s Day 2 of VHND’s “Fair Warning Week” celebrating 30 years of Fair Warning. So grab a cold one. First, here’s what Smashing Pumkins founder, Billy Corgan, said about the album (from the April 1996 edition of Guitar World): If you’ve ever seen the “Unchained” video, you’ve seen a band at its public epiphany. Beautiful [...]
Dark Victory: Billy Corgan assesses his favorite Van Halen album, Fair Warning
April 30, 2011 51 Comments
Celebrating the 30th Anniversary Van Halen’s Fair Warning
April 28, 2011 241 Comments
To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Van Halen’s magnum opus, we’re declaring it “Fair Warning Week” at VHND, were we’re featuring a different story about the album every day for the next seven days. Happy Birthday, Fair Warning. On April 29th, 1981, Van Halen unleashed their darkest album. From the opening out-of-this-world sounds of “Mean [...]
Q&A with Sammy Hagar autobiography author Joel Selvin
April 26, 2011 240 Comments
Examiner.com conducted a rare interview with Joel Selvin, the author of Sammy Hagar’s bestselling autobiography, Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock. Excerpts are below. One milestone that Sammy’s always stood by—and it appears again in Red—that I’ve always been confused by is his insistence that he sold more records with Van Halen than David Lee [...]
Rudolph and Michael Schenker on Van Halen
April 25, 2011 48 Comments
Rudolph Schenker (Scorpions) and brother Michael Schenker (Scorpions, U.F.O., Michael Schenker Group, etc) discuss Van Halen. From the book, Van Halen 101, by Abel Sanchez. Rudolph Schenker I have known Edward since 1979, when Van Halen played in Hamburg while supporting Black Sabbath (a great concert). Klaus and I were sitting in the fourth row, [...]
“Hot for Teacher” – Air Drum
April 21, 2011 42 Comments
The Air Drummer in the video above, Ari Gold, actually stars in a new comedy about air drumming. He contacted VHND.com wanting to share the video with us and give us some info on his movie. Here’s his email: Hello fellow Van Halen fans! I’m a film-director and sometimes-drummer, and I made a comedy about [...]
Running with the Devil: A Lifetime of Van Halen
April 19, 2011 171 Comments
From SLAKE: The Los Angeles Quarterly: By John Albert The first time I hear Van Halen I am fourteen years old, riding in a car through the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. My friend Steve Darrow is riding shotgun while his dad steers the dusty old Volvo station wagon. Chris Darrow is in his [...]
Last Chance for EVH Low Top Sneakers
April 18, 2011 15 Comments
From VanHalenStore.com: Despite the fact that the EVH Signature Sneaker line is our biggest seller of all time, the EVH Low Tops have been discontinued. Our limited stock is all that’s left. The EVH High Tops are still being made, but our limited supply is all that we’ll have until sometime this summer. So now’s [...]
The Most Misused Song in GOP Politics: Van Halen’s “Right Now”
April 18, 2011 87 Comments
From Time.com: By Michael Scherer If Republicans are on the campaign trail, Van Halen is back in vogue. For years, Republican candidates and politicians have been using Van Halen’s song, Right Now, as the walk-in jingle at rallies and events. The first time I recorded its use was November 5, 2006, when then-President George W. [...]
Top Ten Guitar Solos by Eddie Van Halen
April 15, 2011 147 Comments
From KennerMcquaid.blogspot.com: Eddie Van Halen was exactly what the rock ‘n roll doctor ordered to cure the Saturday Night Fever sweeping the nation during the late Seventies. When Van Halen was unleashed upon the unsuspecting masses in 1978, rock guitar playing was changed overnight. The threat that rock would become an afterthought in the face [...]
Sammy Hagar Forgets Lyrics, Butchers National Anthem During Giants’ World Series Ring Ceremony
April 13, 2011 167 Comments
From NESN: The San Francisco Giants had a tremendous ceremony on Saturday night to celebrate their World Series championship as the players were given their rings. It was a tremendous ceremony until Sammy Hagar took the microphone. The former Van Halen singer was tabbed to sing The Star-Spangled Banner at AT&T Park before the game, [...]
Eddie Van Halen Makes a Wild Child Out of Valerie Bertinelli — Twisted Tales
April 12, 2011 39 Comments
From Spinner.com: Thirty years ago, the hard rock powerhouse known as Van Halen was just coming into its own, and by April of 1981, the original group was already in deep trouble. At the end of the month, Van Halen would release its fourth album, ‘Fair Warning’ and the last track, sung by frontman David [...]
