One of the first things you notice upon entering the maintenance room of Edward Van Halen's 5150 complex is a series of five Polaroid snapshots, arranged vertically along the edge of a doorway. Four of these depict Edward sitting atop a 5150 combo amp, grinning aimlessly, as if the photographer was simply testing the settings on the camara. The fifth picture captures the band- Edward, brother Alex, Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar- in cozy, smiling camaraderie, their arms draped around each other's shoulders. Most striking about this print, however, is the fact that someone has plunged a yellow push pin through Hagar's face. The perfect placement of the pin suggests that the deed was about as accidental as the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. No, this is noting but bad Van Halen voodoo, mean mojo stuff- an act of venom and doom.
By now, only the brain dead are unaware of the changes that have rocked the Van Halen camp. Singer Sammy Hagar is gone, his solid gold locks nothing but a memory. David Lee Roth, absent for over a decade, returned to appear on a pair of new tracks recorded for Greatest Hits, the band's first such package ever. But despite feverish speculation that the famboyant singer would rejoin Van Halen, fate and, in all likelihood, Eddie deemed otherwise: Roth is out, history for the second time. Of course, Van Halen had a powerfully felt reason to reject a reunion that would, if nothing else, have been a diamond-studded cash cow for the group.
"We're from different planets; we don't communicate," says Eddie of Roth. "We just don't see things the same way. I'm not saying that he's a bad person at all-I actually fuckin love the guy. But I don't need that kind of negative energy around me. I don't know how to explain it, but Dave kinda sucks the life out of me."
So instead of the life-sucking David Lee Roth making a dramatic reentry into the Van Halen fray, a dark horse candidate emerged and was handed one rock's plum jobs outright. It is none other than the "More Than Words" man, Gary Cherone, Nuno Bettencourt's partner in Extreme, Cherone, known for his acrobatic stage antics and extraordinary vocal range, impressed Eddie with his quiet manner:"He's like a brother. He's shy, he's a quiet guy and has no fuckin' attitude. He's just a beautiful human being. Plus, the guy sings and sounds like an angel"
Van Halen, who despises the politics of the music business as much as Roth revels in it, has, these past few uncertain months, endured a romp through hell without sunscreen. In an intimate conversation which began at his Hollywood Hills hideaway and ended, three days later, with a frantic game of phone tag, he shared with Guitar World his view of Van Halen's massive implosion, the too public upheavel that led to the ouster of one lead singer, the temporary resurrection of another and the arrival of a third. He also talked about the band's Greatest Hits album, a work which in its depth reveals just how much rock's premier guitarist has matured, as an artist and as a man, in the course of 20 spectacular, if turbulent, years.
GW: These last few months have been difficult for the band.
Eddie:Yeah, the last three months have been a full plate-and a few desserts I didn't plan on ordering. There had been a variety of conflicts brewing between Sammy and the band since I quit drinking on October 2,1994. Then things really came to a head when we began work on the soundtrack to the movie Twister.It got so bad that I actually started drinking again.
GW:What were some of the more nagging issues?
Eddie:Well, in the last couple of years Sammy went through a lot of changes. He divorced his wife of 23 years and, possibly because of that, he stopped being a team player. He was especially irritated by the fact that I began to get involved with the lyric writing. Sammy would say, "You never complained about the lyrics before!" Well I wasn't sober before, and I wasn't even listening to the lyrics! It's not like I suddenly wanted Sammy to be my puppet or anything, but once in a while I would take issue with a specific lyric or line. For example, I always hated the words to "Wham Bam Amsterdam," from Balance, because they were all about smoking pot- they were just stupid. Lyrics should plant some sort of seed of thought, or at least be a little more metaphorical.
GW:So you really began to have problems with Sammy around the time you recorded Balance?
Eddie: I'd say that we actually had problems on every album except for 5150. Sammy wouldn't even work with Andy Johns; he demanded to work with Ted Templeman, because Ted lets him get away with everything. Then, like I said, things got really ridiculous when we started working on the music for Twister. Alex had called up the director, Jan De Bont, to ask him how closely he wanted the lyrics of the song that became "Humans Being" to be related to the movie's content. De Bont said, "Oh, please dont't write about tornadoes. I don't want this to be a narritive for the movie." So we ut him in contact with Sam, who called me and said. "I had a great conversation with De Bont and everything is cool." Then-mayabe two seconds after I got off the phone with Sammy-De Bont rang me up and was like, "Uh, Sammy is a little strange. I kept telling him that he shouldn't write any lyrics about tornadoes, but he still kept insisting that I fax him tornade-related technical jargon. Does Sammy just want to learn about twisters for his own personal reasons?" I said, "Beats the hell out of me." And so what lyrics did Sammy come back with? "Sky is turning black, knuckes turning white, head for the hot zone." It was total tornado stuff! Not only did Alex and I tell him not to do that, but the director of the fucking movie told him, "Do not write about tornadoes."
We had had the music to the song completely done for six weeks, during which timke Sammy had refused to fly to the studio from Hawaii, and suddenly the deadline was on us and we had no lyrics. So I was on the spot, and I came up with the title "Humans Being" and a melody. When Sammy finally decided to sow, he, Bruce Fairborn and I ended up writing the lyrics together at the last minute. Sammy sang the track in an hour, because he had an eight o clock flight to catch. Sammy was long gone to wherever when I came up with the low, growling vocal part which I sang: "We're just humans/humans being." He never heard any of that until the record came out. that's how into it he was.
The situation with Sammy was so bad that I had to warn Bruce not to let him know that I had come up with the title and the melody, because if he found tht out he would have completely turned off. Whenever I suggested something to Sammy, he would just stop listening to me.
GW:There was a lot of rumors circulating that Sammy was unhapped with the band because he felt he was being forced into projects he didn't want any part of.
Eddie:Sammy was dead against the Greatest Hits package because he was afraid it would lead to comparisons between him, and David Lee Roth. I said "Wait a fuckin' minute, Sammy. This band has been putting out records for 20 years and never put out a greatest hits- but you already have two of them!
It just goes to show you that, in his mind, he ws always a solo artist- once a solo artist, always a solo artist. He was only into being in Van Halen for the prestige of it.
GW: You've recently begun collaborting with super-producer Glen Ballard, who co-wrote the two new songs on Greatest Hits.
Eddie:Glen is just the most beautiful guy you'll ever meet. I won't work with anybody else any more- there's no reason to. He and I connect, like muscial soulmates. He wrote Alanis Morissett's album in one day, and he and I are that way too. When we get together, we brainstorm and a song is done in two seconds.
GW:What was Sammy's reaction when you started working with Glen?
Eddie:We had several band meetings with Sammy where we told him that if he wanted to continue with Van Halen, he had to stop running around doing all his solo shit and become more of a team player- and that might involve collaborating on a lyrical leve. He said, "No problem." We had another meeting to reiterate that after the premiere of Twister.
So right after that, we began working on this song "Between Us Two," because we thought it had amazing potential. Sammy called Mike one Sunday afternoon and said, "I heard that Glen has some great ideas for the song. I'm really excited."Then he called me that evening to give me his fax number so I cold fax over Glen's lyrics. And then, suddenlly, in the middle of giving me the number, he just started yelling and screaming at me; "This is a fucking insult! I ain't gonna sing someone else's bullshit!" I was totally startled, like, "Wait a minute, we discussed this at length on two occasions. We didn't spring this on you, man." Finally I said, "Okay, forget the new lyrical treatment, but at least come down, take another pass at the performance and change a few lines." He just answered, Yeah, well, whatever."
That's when I finally put my foot down. I said, "Sammy, if you're not here at the studio by six o' clock tomorrow, don't ever bother coming back." The next day, he showed up like nothing had ever happened-like he hadn't yelled and screamed at me. Did he think I was some idiot who didn't remember what had happened the night before? I'm sober now, dude.
Glen and I were sitting there, working on the song, and the opening line was something like, "I want to see you/I want to know who you arae"-kind of a Dark Side Of The Moon vibe, the premise being, "I want to touch your soul, I want to get to know you."
Then Sammy decided to change it to some shit like,"I can't see your diamond ring/through your shining star."I was like, "Sam, please, Gen's got some great lyrics here, just go with them." His only reply was, "If I thought those lyrics were better, I would sing them. Besides, I have an eight o clock plane to catch." And he just left. Glen and I were dumfounded. Then Glen asked me, "How long has this been going on?" I said, "Longer than I'd care to mention."
So anyway, that was the last straw. I called Sammy a bunch of times, and when he finally returned my call, I said," Sam, if you want to make another record or do another tour, you've gotta be a team player. Van Halen is a band- not the Sammy Hagar show, not the Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen or Michael Anthony show. We could be called piss for all I care, but we are a band."
So I went over this shit like 11 times with him, and he finally said, "Yeah, goddamnit, I'm fuckin' frustrated. I want to go back to being a solo artist." And I said, "Thank you for being honest."
We ended up hanging up like everything was cool because it was all out in the open. He'd admitted that he wanted to do solo stuff. And I said, "Well you can't abe ink a band and do that, too, so see ya." I didn't fire him-he quit.
I'll put it very simply: Dave and Sam both suffer from L.S.D.-lead singer disease. Except Dave never lied.
GW: Speaking of David Lee Roth, how did he come back into-and out of-the picture?
Eddie:Dave happened to call me around the same time Sammy quit, because Warner Bros. had notified him that Greatest Hits was going to come out, and he had a few questions about the packaging and other details like that. I told him "Dave, I really don't know yet. I'll call you mid-week and let you know." We were on the phone for about 45 minutes, and we apologized for things we had said back in high school-even junior high. It was probably one of the best conversations I've ever had with him. Especially since, as long as I've known him, we were never really friends. But band-wise, it just seemed to work.
A few days later, instead of calling David with the information on the Cd, I decided to drive over to his house. I told him that the basic idea was to do a single CD that would be half stuff we did with him and half we did with Sammy. that was another big problem we had with Sammy, by the way: he wanted to have more of his songs on the Greatest Hits than Dave's.
What was it like going to Dav'es house that first time?
Eddie:We just had a great time bullshitting as friends. We hung out for about three hours and smoked some cigars. It was only about two weeks later, when I realized that the only new track that we had for the Greatest Hits was "Humans Being," that I came up with the crazy idea of having Dave sing on a couple of new songs. We thought about it for a couple of days and said, "Yeah, why the fuck not?" So I called Ave and said, "Would you be interested?" And he said, "Sure, I'm not doing anything." I was very clear that he was not in the band- that it was just a project. What I wanted to do was write five new songs and pick two out of those five.
We had a little bit of a difficult time because we wrote a song for him that he didn't partiacularly care for. It wan't up his alley. So we got past that and Glen Ballard and I sat down with Dave, and I played him al this new material I had Eventually we narrowed it down to this pop song, "Me Wise Magic," and a shuffle, "Can't Get This Stuff No More," with a "Panama sort of groove. "Me Wise Magic" has a line it, "I know what you're thinking," which Dave felt uncomfortable with. He said, "That bid sounds so angry; it's just not me. People want to hear Dave sing." but I thought it was majestic; it takes you on a roller coaster because there are so many changes. I nicknamed it "The Three Faces of Shamus," because there is that first low part, the high part, and then the chorus. All three have completely different vibes going on. At first he wasn't into that one at all. A week later, I was still playing him songs when finally he said. "What about that first one?" So, finally, he came around and realized it wasn't as dark and angry as he originally thought.
During this process, Dave and I were really becoming good friends. In my heart I really wanted to believe that he had changed a bit We worked and we worked and he actually thanked me for hanging in there with him. It was a struggle to find anything that would inspire him and that he could connect to. Finally, we came up with the other song, and Glen suggested the title and its premise. Dave came up with the lyrics, and it worked. Dave said, "Thanks, because anyone else would have probably thrown their arms up and said fuck it." And I said, "Well, you're a trooper, however long it takes and whatever. It's about making it a good song. There's no time frame here; it doesn't have to be done tomorrow, I just wanted to find something you like, and I'm glad I found one."
GW:So the two of you were able to put all of your acrimony behind you?
Eddie:Oh, yeah, we were actually becoming friends. Before we went to the MTVB Video Awards, we all sat down-because we knew we were going to get mobbed by the press. And it was actually Dave who said, "Let's tell the truth," Less to remember. and the truth is, we did two songs for Greatest Hits, we did two videos and that it.
We could go out there and make a killing on tour with Roth, but we're not a nostalgia band. I would never just take somebody's money for playing old songs to bring back memories. Memories are memories, to be left memories. If we ever did that with Roth, we'd have to write and record a new record and then play a few of the old ones. I'm sure a lot of fans of the band would love to see it-but some things, like I said, are better left to memory.
GW: So why aren't you making a new record with David? Was there some sort of fracture?
Eddie:Everything went to pieces at the MTV Video Awards. After we went out on stage to present the award to Beck, we started doing some interviews there, and I was just telling the truth-the way it is. I said,"If we do a tour we'll have to write and record a new record. But before any of that can happen, I have hip replacement scheduled for December 16th, and that's going to put me out of commission for at least four to six months."
After doing a couple of these interviews, Dave's attitude changed. I asked him what was wrong, and he said, "Well, what's with this hip thing? Would you stop mentioning the hip thing?" I said, "Okay, no problem. In the next interview I won't say a word about my hip." He turned to me and said, "YOu fuckin' better not." And man, I lost it! I yelled, you motherfucker, don't ever talk to me or anyone like that again. Don't bother calling me anymore."
I thought he had changed, but two minutes on stage and a half-assed standing ovation and he turned right back into the old Dave that I hated.
GW: Who chose the tracks for Greatest Hits?
Eddie:Ray and Al came up with a list, and I just looked at them and said, "Yeah, fuck, I don't care." Because there's a Volume 2 ready to go. There are a ton of other songs that people get pissed about when we don't play them live.
GW: IN previous interviews, you've said that you didn't want to do a greatest hits album.
Eddie:I changed my mind. What's wrong with that? Valerie is always on the Internet, and she noticed that a lot of the people out there had their first exposure to the band with Balance. And when they find out we have 10 other albums, they're gonna go out and buy'em all. So why not put a package together so they can at least get a taste and a history of the band? Nest year will the 20th anniversary of the recording of our first album, so I don't see a problem with putting out a Greatest Hits record- not as long as the next record we make is great.
GW: What setup did you use on the new tracks?
Eddie:the beef of the sound is the 5150 amp. And I did experiement with some new stuff-I used a talk box on "Can't Get This Stuff No More," but Matt Bruck actually ran it for me. My mouth wasn't big enough or something, because when I tried it, it just sounded like a wah-wah. I played and then we added it later with Matt doing it through a re-amp or whatever you call it. On "Me Wise Magic," I'm using the prototype Peavey with the Steinberger tremolo.
GW:During the period when you were in vocalist hell, did you think about maybe putting together a solo album of some sort?
Eddie:No, not at all. A long time ago, when Dave totally took us by surprise and just quit, we didn't audition anybody. It was Sammy and that was it. We were just excited to have somebody who was into singing. Actually, my plan at the time-and I wouldn't necessaarily have called it a solo record because Mike and Al would have played on it-was to get Mike Rutherford, Pete Townshend, Phil Collins and Joe Cocker, all of whom I had talked to. I had written "Right Now" back then, and I wanted to do, write a record where I did all the music and had a different singer on each song. Logistically, it would have been an nightmare- people on tour, contractual agreements, companies pissing and moaning- and we'd probably only be finishing it now. It would have been fun. Hopefully, in the future I'll still be able to do that.
GW:Looking at the Greatest Hits album, which provides sort of a capsule view of Van Halen's career, makes me wonder: Did you have any sense, 20 years ago, of the volume of music you would create? Could you see down the road at all?
Eddie: Believe it or not, since I've gotten sober I don't think I've done shit. I don't think I've done anything. I feel like I'm just starting.
GW:You say you feel like you've just begun, but the truth is, Van Halen is one of the few gitar-driven rock bands to still exist here in the Nineties. Most of the other bands who were around and thriving in the Eighties arre gone>
Eddie:Let's just call us a rock and roll band. We just are what we are. I don't know how to explain it, we survived punk the first time around, we survived disco and grunge and rap and whatever We're a rock and roll band and we just do what we do.
GW: Do you have any opinions about the other guitar-driven groups out there- Metallica, maybe,or Soundgarden?
Eddie:I don't really listen to people. I like singers. I like Peter Gabriel, I love Chris Cornell, I like Tori Amose, te guy from Bush. I thought Kurt Cobain was fucking incredible. And Billy Corgan I like.
GW: When you did that cover story with Billy Corgan did you feel a connection with him?
Eddie:Oh, yeah, because he's probably one of the few citizens of the "alternatiave nation," or whatever you want to call it, that admits Van Halen was an influence. Everybody else says Kiss. I mean, give me a fuckin break. If they play guitar, they must have heard Van Halen some where down line. I just don't see Kiss being a guitar-inspiring type of thing. I mean, I'm not putting Kiss down at all. I love Gene - he helped us out in the beginning, and without him we probably wouldn't abe where we are. But say Ace Frehley was the reason you picked up a guitar?
GW: Do you worry at all about what your audience will think about the changes in the band, primarily the addition of Gary Cherone?
Eddie:No, because you cannot please everyone all the time. No matter who sings, someone is not gonna like it. I'm sic and tired of being controlled, and I don't to control. I just have so much music and I want to put it out. Gary's very talented, and we work very, very well together. We'll let the Greatest Hits run its course and then we'll put out the new shit. I don't care. If it touches one person, then it's great. I don't care if it sells millions, I don't care if it sells a tenth of the records that we've sold. It's not about sales-it's for the love of music