Italian car engineer Claudio Zampolli, the man who facilitated the Sammy Hagar era of Van Halen, died yesterday (July 7th) at the age of 82. No cause of death has been given. Zampoli is best known to car fans as the creator of the Cizeta V16T Supercar, but Van Halen fans will remember him as the man who gave Eddie Van Halen Hagar's phone number back in 1985. At the time, … [Read more...]
David Lee Roth’s ‘Eat ‘Em and Smile’ Turns 35
And so the adventure continues...! Thirty five years ago today David Lee Roth released his debut full-length studio album Eat ‘Em and Smile. Released on July 7th, 1986, the album peaked at #4 on the US Billboard 200 while eventually achieving platinum status for a million sales. For his first full-length release, Roth worked with long-time Van Halen producer Ted … [Read more...]
Better Or Worse? YouTuber Dr. Bob Puts David Lee Roth On The Vocal Tuning Operating Table
Somebody get me Dr. Bob! Bobby Huff is a producer/songwriter who has a series of videos titled "Music Surgery with Dr. Bob". They all include the good doctor "cutting into" rock songs in pursuit of musical perfection. In his latest episode he decided to operate on David Lee Roth's vocals from Van Halen's "Dance The Night Away". "So we've all heard the argument that Sammy … [Read more...]
Billy Gibbons On First Van Halen Concert: ‘That Blew My Mind’
ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons said seeing Van Halen perform for the first time lived up to all of the hype and then some. Gibbons was a guest on Eddie Trunk's SiriusXM show Trunk Nation recently. At one point in the interview the conversation steered towards Eddie Van Halen. Gibbons said he had heard all about Eddie's talents, even had Van Halen's 1978 debut album, but didn't get a … [Read more...]
Van Halen On ‘The Today Show’ – July 1986
It's time to revisit another moment in Van Halen history. We go back 35 summers for the band's July 1986 appearance on The Today Show. At the time of the interview, Van Halen had just kicked off the second leg of its North America tour to support the 5150 album. They were about to perform a show at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado on July 12th of '86. As expected, the … [Read more...]