Guitarist/producer Doug Messenger returned to Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles to reveal more behind-the-scenes stories on Van Halen!
Messenger first caught Van Halen perform in February of 1977 and quickly made a call to Warner Bros., urging them to check out this guitar hero named Eddie Van Halen. Soon after, the former Van Morrison guitarist became among Eddie’s most trusted musician friends. He was one of the first people to hear the just-mixed song “Dance The Night Away” from 1979’s Van Halen II and later sat in on the recording sessions of Van Halen’s Fair Warning album from 1981.
Here are some highlights from the interview, which you can watch below:
- How the Montrose “Rock Candy” amp finally found its way to Eddie
- The Ronnie Montrose influence on early Van Halen
- The “Unchained” sessions & tracking Fair Warning
- “Unchained” and “Jamie’s Cryin'” written on the piano?
- The Ted Templeman effect
- Eddie’s accessible melodic tapping technique
- What made Donn Landee the best engineer for Van Halen?
- Favorite drum sounds from the Landee era
- The forgotten “I’m The One” solo
- Missing Eddie
- Hearing “Dance The Night Away” for the first time – THAT’S a hit!
- The secretly remixed Van Halen album
- What is the first Van Halen you’d play for a kid?
Check out more Sunset Sound Recorders videos at their YouTube channel HERE.