After four years paying their dues playing the Southern California rock scene, Van Halen hit the road. It was just three weeks after the release of their self-titled debut album that the band kicked off its first world tour. Stop #1 was the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, Illinois on March 3, 1978. The move from the typical clubs the band was used to playing to the Aragon was … [Read more...]
Alex Van Halen
Sammy Hagar On Why He’s ‘Leery’ Of Leftover Van Halen Songs Being Released
Sammy Hagar says any unreleased Van Halen material in the 5150 vaults was unreleased for a reason and it may not be worth revisiting. In a recent interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune, Hagar was asked if there are any unreleased recordings during his time with the band that could eventually come out. "Van Halen didn’t have many songs that were completed that didn’t … [Read more...]
LISTEN: ‘Unchained: The Eddie Van Halen Story’ Author Paul Brannigan Exclusive Interview
The VHND's Eric Senich talked with author Paul Brannigan to talk about his book Unchained: The Eddie Van Halen Story! Here's a rundown of the topics covered in the interview: Eddie's guitar and recorder always by his sideThe influence parents Jan and Eugenia had on EddieForget the Fab Four, Eddie's fire was lit by The Dave Clark Five!Eric Clapton was the Cream of the … [Read more...]
Sunset Sound Discovers Hand-Written Mic Setup For ‘Van Halen II’ [VIDEO]
Cue up the Indiana Jones music, Sunset Sound's Drew Dempsey has just discovered a priceless Van Halen artifact! Dempsey recently posted a video to the Sunset Sound Recorders YouTube channel in which he shares "one of the most amazing documents ever." In his hands is the hand-written microphone set up for the tracking of 1979's Van Halen II, which was recorded at the Sunset … [Read more...]
Should ‘Without You’ Have Been Left Out Of Van Halen’s ‘Best Of Both Worlds’ Compilation?
On this day in 1998 Van Halen released the single "Without You", the very first to feature Gary Cherone on lead vocals. The track debuted at number one on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. Yet, when Van Halen released their Best Of Both Worlds compilation in 2004, "Without You" was not included among the 36 "best" Van Halen tracks. Should it have been? Let's first go … [Read more...]
‘You Can Mess With Us, But Not With Our Fans’: Two Times Van Halen Stood Up For Their Fans [VIDEO]
The YouTube channel Rock N' Roll True Stories has released a video recalling two times Van Halen stood up for the fans and gave the big ole "FU" to authorities in the early 90s. Both stories took place in 1992 while Van Halen was on tour promoting their 1991 album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. The first occurred when the band played at the Five Seasons Center outside Cedar … [Read more...]
Stephen Pearcy On The First Time Seeing Van Halen Live, Becoming Friends With Eddie
Ratt frontman Stephen Pearcy recalled the time he had his mind blown by Van Halen during a recent interview with Metal Edge. Pearcy, who is from Long Beach, California, formed a band out of San Diego in 1977 called Mickey Ratt. In 1980, he decided to move his band to Los Angeles after seeing Van Halen for the first time. It was at a legendary club on the Sunset Strip in … [Read more...]
Guitar World Revisits 2012 Eddie Van Halen Interview For Tenth Anniversary Of ‘A Different Kind Of Truth’
Guitar World has commemorated the tenth anniversary of Van Halen's A Different Kind Of Truth album by revisiting a 2012 interview with Eddie Van Halen. Here are the excerpts from the interview (originally run in the August 2012 issue of Guitar World) regarding the album conducted by Guitar World's Chris Gill. Q: You're using a lot more wah on your solos on this … [Read more...]
Wolfgang Van Halen On ‘A Different Kind Of Truth’: ‘I Fought For ‘She’s The Woman’ To Be The First Single’
If it were up to Wolfgang Van Halen, the lead single off of Van Halen's 2012 album A Different Kind Of Truth would have been "She's The Woman" instead of "Tattoo". "['Tattoo'] was a song I didn't think should be at the beginning or the first [single] released," Wolfgang recently told Ultimate Classic Rock's Gary Graff. "It's still a great song. I was really happy with it. It … [Read more...]
Yano Anaya AKA ‘Michael Anthony Jr’ Shares Behind-The-Scenes ‘Hot For Teacher’ Video Stories
Actor Yano Anaya, who portrayed Michael Anthony Jr in Van Halen's classic "Hot For Teacher" video, took fans behind the scenes on the video shoot in a recent interview with Classic Rock. Anaya was one of four young actors hired to play "junior" members of the band - David Lee Roth (played by BIll Bookmeyer), Eddie Van Halen (played by Brian Hitchcock), Alex Van Halen (played … [Read more...]
Remembering You, Ed
Today would have been Edward Van Halen's 67th birthday. Alex Van Halen, Wolf Van Halen, Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony all shared messages for Ed today, embedded from Instagram, below. "Hey Ed, Happy Birthday! May your light never dim. Love you, miss you and btw... Wolf is killin' it." - Alex View this post on Instagram A post shared by Reverend Al … [Read more...]
Wolfgang Van Halen Names The 11 Albums That Changed His Life, Includes Two From Van Halen
Wolfgang Van Halen has come up with 11 albums that have changed his life and two of them come from Van Halen. In a recent interview with Louder's Dave Everley, Wolfgang picked a list of albums (in no particular order, according to Wolfgang) that have shaped his musical path so far and included 1981's Fair Warning and 1995's Balance. Here's what he had to say about the two … [Read more...]