Edward Van Halen has donated a guitar to the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund Guitar Auction and the online bidding has begun. The Fund: Formed in honor of the legendary singer who lost his life to stomach cancer, The Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable fund dedicated to support cancer prevention research, raise … [Read more...]
Eddie Van Halen News
Ted Nugent: “Godspeed, Eddie Van Halen”
Ted Nugent contributed to the new hardcover photo book, Eddie Van Halen, by Neil Zlozower. VHND.com has the exclusive on what he had to say about Eddie Van Halen: "Van Halen opened up for my band in the late 1970s, and this fuckin’ kid started playing shit I’d never heard before, and I was like, 'Oh, I think I’m a bad motherfucker, but there may be an element of me sitting … [Read more...]
1962 Photo: The Van Halen Family On a Boat to America
This historic photo was taken on the very boat that carried the Van Halen family to America (Feb. 1962). It was a nine-day boat ride, and to help pay their fare, Jan, Edward, and Alex provided the ships musical entertainment. Special thanks to Jan and Eugenia for taking their two beautiful boys and risking everything by immigrating to America with their nothing but 75 Dutch … [Read more...]
David Lee Roth: Gene Simmons Tried To Recruit Eddie For KISS, But I Was On To His Game
Yesterday we featured a quote from an old friend of Van Halen's that said that sometime before Van Halen's debut album was released, Kiss's Gene Simmons tried to recruit Eddie Van Halen for his band. In his out-of-print autobiography, ‘Crazy From The Heat’, David Lee Roth concurs that Gene Simmons tried to recruit Eddie Van Halen for KISS. Here's what Roth had to say in his … [Read more...]
Did Gene Simmons Beg Eddie Van Halen To Join Kiss?
Kiss bassist Gene Simmons has always boasted that in 1982, Edward Van Halen, while expressing his frustration over dealing with David Lee Roth, actually asked if he could join Kiss. We're thinking Gene is making a bigger deal out of it then it was. If Eddie really did ask to join Kiss, he probably woke up the next day with a brutal hangover and had a laugh about it with the … [Read more...]
Is Ozzy Dead? Van Halen’s Crazy Tour With Black Sabbath
David Lee Roth shares a tale from Van Halen's first world tour: There is an old science-fiction movie from the fifties called Forbidden Planet, where the extinct inhabitants are called the Krell. So we started to call cocaine "Krell", gave it a science fiction name. We would stay up all night, well into the next day, having what we called Krell Wars. And the best Krell War was … [Read more...]
Vote For Van Halen in Guitar World 2012 Readers Poll
It's time once again to make your voice heard in the annual Guitar World readers poll! Eddie Van Halen is nominated under the following: Most Valuable Player Best Rock Guitarist(s) Best Live Act Comeback of the Year But what's very peculiar is that Van Halen's 'A Different kind of Truth' is not nominated for 'Best Rock Album'! Perhaps they didn't want ED to win … [Read more...]
Remembering Dick Dale: Without Surf Music, Would There Be a Van Halen?
Dick Dale, the "King of the Surf Guitar," died Saturday at age 81. RIP, maestro. As we honor his legacy, we ask ourselves this: Would Van Halen exist as we know it - or even exist at all - without young Eddie and Alex first being influenced by Southern California surf rock? Two Van Halen authors share their thoughts on the subject... Dick Dale is best known for … [Read more...]
Vinnie Paul on His Favorite Band, Van Halen
Vinnie Paul (Pantera, Damageplan, Hell Yeah) contributed to the hardcover photo book, Van Halen: A Visual History 1978-1984, by Neil Zlozower. The Van Halen News Desk has the exclusive on his story: "Van Halen was and still is my favorite band of all time. Me and my brother always modeled ourselves after them. They were without a doubt our biggest influence. We … [Read more...]
Eddie Van Halen Pumpkin!
It's this time of year again! Here's some Van Halenized pumpkins emailed to us from readers. Our favorite is the one which features Eddie Van Halen, above (Yes, it's REAL, not photoshopped!). It was made by Dave Bedford, who writes, "As Eddie is my guitar hero, I decided to take a stab at creating and carving him onto a pumpkin for Hallowe'en. The guitar didn't come out as … [Read more...]
Unearthed 1964 Photo: “The Broken Combs” Band, Featuring Eddie and Alex Van Halen
The historic photo above is one of the oldest Van Halen photos ever. Here's the story... In 1964, fourteen years before Van Halen's first album, Eddie and Alex Van Halen were young kids (age 9 & 11) who had immigrated to the United States just two short years earlier. Eddie Van Halen met fellow student Kevan Hill in their early morning music class at Hamilton Elementary … [Read more...]
1983: A Day With Eddie Van Halen in Rio
From Playadelnacho.com: This is an article originally conceived in Portuguese by Brazilian journalist LUIZ ANTONIO MELLO, translated by me [English is not my first language, so bear with me] for your entertainment. Basically, these are his memoirs from a day with EDDIE VAN HALEN back in 1983, during the infamous –and only EVER- Van Halen South American Tour. Photos posted … [Read more...]