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...]
Van Halen News
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...]
Listen To The Invincible Czars Prog Rock Cover Of ‘Right Now’
In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the release of Van Halen's "Right Now", the art-rock group The Invincible Czars have released their own version of the song featuring a dueling violin-guitar solo. According to the band's Facebook page, the track (above) features Chuck Fischer on vocals and drums, Phil Davidson playing the piano part on violin and Henry Q Vines on … [Read more...]
Michael Anthony Sings DLR-Era Van Halen With The Circle In Vegas [VIDEO & SETLISTS]
Sammy Hagar & The Circle busted out plenty of Van Halen classics during their recent residency at the Strat in Las Vegas and they weren't all Sammy era. On Saturday night (February 12th) Michael Anthony took lead vocal duties on a couple of David Lee Roth era VH songs - "Runnin' With The Devil" and "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love. Below are videos from those performances … [Read more...]
Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’ Featuring Eddie Van Halen Solo Released On This Day In 1983
February 14th, 1983. The day the King of Pop and King Edward would team up to make rock and pop history. Michael Jackson's "Beat It" was released 39 years ago today. It would go on to become a number one single for three weeks and win two Grammys thanks in big part to the song's now iconic guitar solo performed by Eddie Van Halen. Did you know that Pete Townshend was … [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...]
WATCH: Mammoth WVH Releases Official Video For ‘Epiphany’ Single
Wolfgang Van Halen has released a brand-new video for the latest Mammoth WVH single "Epiphany". The video, which can be viewed above, includes footage of Wolfgang and his bandmates while out on their most recent tour. Also, keep an eye on the bottom right corner of the video at the 5 second mark. A nice nod to Wolf's former band! "Epiphany" is the third single from … [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...]
Steve Vai On David Lee Roth’s Retirement & The Origins Of DLR’s ‘Damn Good’
Steve Vai says David Lee Roth's retirement is well earned and will be forever grateful for making him "famous almost overnight". Vai, who is promoting his latest solo release Inviolate, was asked by eonmusic if he planned on showing up for Roth's initially scheduled final concerts in Las Vegas last month. Q: With [David Lee Roth's] final dates originally scheduled for … [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...]
Ultimate Jam Night Celebrates Eddie Van Halen Tonight; Livestream Available
Via Bravewords: Ultimate Jam Night, the long-running community-oriented music show presents its night to honor Eddie Van Halen, tonight, Tuesday, February 1. The evening will be held at its long-time residency location, The Whisky A Go-Go in West Hollywood, California. Doors are at 8 PM. Admission is free for anyone over 21 years of age. The event will livestream worldwide … [Read more...]