Happy Birthday, Alex Van Halen! For his birthday today, we’ve got a never-seen photo and never-heard crazy story from the band’s 5150 tour!
Many people don’t realize that Alex Van Halen has always been the biggest prankster in the band. He was arguably the most wild and out of control during the band’s 1986 5150 tour—he even shaved his head, as seen in the photo above!
But Alex didn’t want to be the only one, so he started offering each member of his entourage large sums of money to cut their long hair off. One member of the Van Halen road crew agreed, and promptly received a thousand dollars to shear his locks. Alex continued approaching other members of the crew about shaving their heads, but they balked at his financial incentives. But then he started to up the ante. One guy received $5,000 to get a haircut, another did it for $7,000. One roadie repeatedly refused Al’s offer to join his little club, no matter how much he offered. The entire band and crew were aware of Al’s exclusive hair club, and the outrageous sums he was paying the road crew to join it. Everyone was stunned one night to find the group’s one vehement holdout shaved clean. It turns out that Alex had given him a cash offer he couldn’t refuse – $25,000!