Brad Tolinki (L), Chris Gill (R) The Van Halen News Desk had the chance to talk with Brad Tolinski & Chris Gill, authors of the much-anticipated book Eruption: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen, which is released today! Tolinski and Gill collected over 50 hours of unreleased interviews with Eddie - most conducted at his legendary 5150 studios in Los Angeles … [Read more...]
Mr. Big Singer Eric Martin On The ’85 Van Halen Audition That Never Happened
Eric Martin says he could have been a man with big regrets if it wasn't for his band Mr. Big. During a recent appearance on the Appetite For Distortion podcast, Martin recalled the time he had the chance to become the lead singer of Van Halen. "That's the biggest thorn in my side," said Martin, who went on to tell the story of the time Eddie Van Halen offered him a … [Read more...]
Dweezil Zappa Is All Fired Up For ‘OU812’ Deep Track ‘A.F.U. (Naturally Wired)’
Dweezil Zappa says Van Halen's "A.F.U. (Naturally Wired)" is firing on all cylinders no matter who the singer is. In fact, it could have worked just fine with no singer at all. "If there was never a vocal on this, this would be a great Van Halen instrumental," Zappa told Maroon 5 guitarist James Valentine in a recently released clip of his podcast Runnin' With The Dweezil. … [Read more...]
Latest ‘Runnin’ With The Dweezil’ Podcast Clip On The ‘Greatness’ Of Eddie Van Halen’s ‘Good Enough’ Guitar Work
Listening to Zappa's podcast Runnin' With The Dweezil often feels like being a fly on the wall. We get to hear two veteran guitarists talk shop. In the case of this podcast, it's a shop filled with the sounds of Eddie Van Halen's legendary guitar riffs, solos, bending licks and whatever other head scratching "how the hell did he do that?" sounds. Take Eddie's elephant roars on … [Read more...]
Wolfgang Van Halen On The Creation Of ‘Guitar Hero: Van Halen’ Video Game
Wolfgang Van Halen revealed details behind the making of 2009's Guitar Hero: Van Halen video game during a recent podcast appearance. While a guest on the video game podcast Good Game Nice Try, Wolfgang (an avid video gamer himself) along with the hosts Sonja Reid and Aaron Bleyaert were discussing some of their favorite games of the past. That's when Reid reminded Wolfgang … [Read more...]
David Lee Roth In The Movies (?)
Wait a second. David Lee Roth was in Taxi Driver? Jurassic Park? Titanic too? This weekend the Van Halen News Desk came across something too funny to resist sharing. Let's put it this way. We think you'll get get a real "kick" out of what you're about to hear. Check out these recent clips coming from "Randy Baumann and the DVE Morning Show" on WDVE 102.5 FM in … [Read more...]
Tom Morello Discusses Life & Legacy Of Eddie Van Halen With Nuno Bettencourt & John 5
Credit: Neil Zlozower An alien. A superhero. Those were a few of the titles that came to mind when guitarists Tom Morello, Nuno Bettencourt and John 5 recently attempted to describe the other worldly skills of Eddie Van Halen. John 5 (David Lee Roth Band, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie) and Bettencourt (Extreme) recently appeared on Morello's podcast Maximum Firepower to … [Read more...]
Dweezil Zappa Highlights The ‘Jeff Beck’ Influence On Eddie Van Halen’s Guitar Technique
Eddie Van Halen often talked about Eric Clapton being his main influence growing up but Dweezil Zappa said he hears more Jeff Beck in Eddie than Clapton. "I don't hear Eric Clapton in Ed's playing unless he's playing straight up blues and he can clearly mimic Eric to a T when he's doing that," Zappa said in a newly released clip from his podcast Runnin With The Dweezil. … [Read more...]
Podcasters Debate & Discuss Eddie Van Halen Grammy Tribute
Credit: Neil Zlozower Just when we thought we were out of the Eddie Van Halen Grammy controversy, they pull us back in! It's been over a week since the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony and music fans are still talking about the tribute (or lack thereof) to Eddie Van Halen. The podcast Epic Footnote Productions has a series titled "Am I Missing Something?" where they … [Read more...]
Van Halen’s ‘Jump’ Hits #1 On This Week In 1984
Thirty seven years ago this week Van Halen’s "Jump" knocked Culture Club’s "Karma Chameleon" off the top of the charts and started a five week run at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. "Jump" was released a single on December 21st, 1983 and began its ascent atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart beginning on February 25th, 1984. It stayed there until the week of March 24th, … [Read more...]
Anthrax’s Scott Ian Calls Eddie Van Halen ‘The John Lennon And Paul McCartney Of Hard Rock’
Credit: Scott Ian's Instagram page Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian has paid Eddie Van Halen the ultimate tribute by saying his musical skills were those of both John Lennon and Paul McCartney combined. Ian talked about Eddie's legacy during a recent appearance on Dean Delray's "Let There Be Talk" podcast. "There's not a bad song from 'Van Halen I' to '1984' -- for me, … [Read more...]
Listen To Eddie Van Halen Tributes From Bret Michaels & Sebastian Bach
Credit: Sebastian Bach Facebook/Brett Michaels Instagram The Van Halen News Desk continues to roll out the Eddie Van Halen tributes. This time we have two coming from a few of the biggest frontmen to emerge during the 1980s: Poison singer Bret Michaels and former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach. Both Michaels and Bach called into the Sirius/XM's "Trunk Nation with Eddie … [Read more...]