Alex Van Halen 1st Interview Since Ed’s Death

I will read the book to get Alex Van Halen's view of history. As they say, never trust what an author says about his own work.....

The DLR vs Sammy thing is so tired to me.

DLR left because it was over with them together. Sammy was the perfect singer for them at that time and their success shows it. Art changes and never stays the same forever. Sammy gave them new life and extra 10 years on their career. Dave flamed out during that time and lost his chops. Yes, I loved Eat Em and Smile and saw the tour and it was killer. Both singers are opportunists that know how to make $$ and market themselves.

It is documented that Alex VH has had money troubles and divorces etc in his life.

Most of all, I think EVH wanted to pursue a more polished and mature music style vs the rawness of his early records. Sammy gave him the the potential to do that. DLR could never sing "Dreams" or songs like that and probably had no interest in that. The AOR music biz in the late 80s was all about polish and high vocals and hooks etc. Yes, we all love Unchained etc but they were chasing commercial acceptance and pushing it as far as they could.

And then their relationship with Sammy ended too. It happens. I will say neither Sammy or VH was the same after that. Sammy has always been a lower level act to me when he is solo. He is Ok, but nothing special to me. His songs are simple and the music generic in ways. But with EVH, it was magic.

Now, like all other aging rock stars, they are just picking over the bones of their career and trying to make some cash from it and amend their legacy the best they can.
 
Fiesta Red said:
I think it's worse now because he and everyone else has access to social media. Put it out there and everyone/anyone can see it. More frequent and more annoying. And I think his crayon box has lost a few crayons too
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Agreed. Dave just comes across as the crazy neighbor next door as opposed to the master of ceremonies. All Dave fans know he suffers from ADHD and it's just gotten worse.

Not defending Dave but I think he probably regrets what went down with Alex in regards to the tour, just knowing people like that - hell my wife is that way, they often get sidetracked before they even realize what they are doing. It takes patience for sure. Dave and Alex still talk so while it was a massive opportunity missed I'm kind glad it didn't happen. Lets be honest, at least @Stradazone got to live the dream for a bit playing with Dave through the years and getting VH prepped for the possible tour.
 
jabps said:
Poor Gary.

I'll say this for Gary, I'll give him props because he made them dig back into their catalog that Hagar refused to acknowledge. And while that tour with Gary was sparsely attended, it's still the best guitar tone I ever heard live from Ed. And I've seen them a ton.
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Yep,
Gary aside,
The VHIII Tour was The best ‘live’ EVH guitar tone I personally ever heard👍
 
legend71 said:
Most of all, I think EVH wanted to pursue a more polished and mature music style vs the rawness of his early records. Sammy gave him the the potential to do that. DLR could never sing "Dreams" or songs like that and probably had no interest in that. The AOR music biz in the late 80s was all about polish and high vocals and hooks etc. Yes, we all love Unchained etc but they were chasing commercial acceptance and pushing it as far as they could.

Now, like all other aging rock stars, they are just picking over the bones of their career and trying to make some cash from it and amend their legacy the best they can.
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True in regards to the music. What's ironic, even though the music became vastly more commercial pop, along with alot more radio airplay (barring 1984), plus the number one albums with Hagar, they still didn't out sell the original unit. Not being argumentative just pointing out that it's fascinating to me because in reality, the amount of airplay they got they should have outsold the original band.

I'm not a Hagar fan at all. He reminds me of politicians. Didn't like his middling solo stuff at all. Now I did like some of his Van Halen stuff - F.U.C.K and much of 5150 I really like but OU and Balance are unlistenable for me plus I really just got turned off by them when I saw the 5150 tour. It was like Van Halen light beer. Although I did see them on following tours, in fact the Balance tour got to see Ed's rig and his prototype Peaveys at the time.

Regardless of my personal opinion, I give props to that version of the band because they did remain one of the biggest bands around with Hagar. 20 million albums sold is nothing to sneeze at.

I don't mind the bone picking, it's their life, they lived it and even though it's that persons view/perspective of what happened it's still interesting. Sadly we won't get anything from Ed. Maybe Mike will write something one day.
 
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jabps said:
True in regards to the music. What's ironic, even though the music became vastly more commercial pop, along with alot more radio airplay (barring 1984), plus the number one albums with Hagar, they still didn't out sell the original unit. Not being argumentative just pointing out that it's fascinating to me because in reality, the amount of airplay they got they should have outsold the original band.

I'm not a Hagar fan at all. He reminds me of politicians. Didn't like his middling solo stuff at all. Now I did like some of his Van Halen stuff - F.U.C.K and much of 5150 I really like but OU and Balance are unlistenable for me plus I really just got turned off by them when I saw the 5150 tour. It was like Van Halen light beer. Although I did see them on following tours, in fact the Balance tour got to see Ed's rig and his prototype Peaveys at the time.

Regardless of my personal opinion, I give props to that version of the band because they did remain one of the biggest bands around with Hagar. 20 million albums sold is nothing to sneeze at.

I don't mind the bone picking, it's their life, they lived it and even though it's that persons view/perspective of what happened it's still interesting. Sadly we won't get anything from Ed. Maybe Mike will write something one day.
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Record sales are what they are I suppose, and its great that the DLR version outsold the Hagar version. I am pretty sure they made way more money with Hagar though and had much more chart success than they ever did with DLR. Which is what they were chasing back then. None of that really matters to the listener.

My original point is - expecting a band or an artist to stay the same forever is ridiculous and says way more about the fans than the artist. The lack of sophistication or mere simple understanding of music and the creative dynamic that it comes from is pretty lame. People say the same shit over and over and over about this. I expect it on a FB page, but on a musicians website (like here) - I would expect more, but maybe I shouldn't.

It's like the endless Ozzy guitar player argument................RR was the greatest and he would have done so many killer records and he was the best blah blah. We never got to see him any more or get old, or run out of ideas, or get ripped off by Sharon, etc. At this point he is a deity that could do no wrong and would have cranked a new Diary of a Madman record every year if he had lived.
 
Chart success vs actual sales. I'd take the sales considering that equals more money and I'd say every single artist would agree.

On your point about artists advancing musically; I love that. Any of my favorite bands that have pushed their boundaries and tried new things, that's never bothered me, I enjoyed the journey. Now it doesn't mean I liked everything but as a musician myself I completely understand it as my own playing changed through the years. It never bothered me that Van Halen went in a pop direction I'm just not/nor was a fan of Hagar. I tolerated him in VH.

As I stated above, they couldn't have done the majority of that music with Roth. However had Roth stayed it doesn't mean Van Halen wouldn't have continued pushing their own boundaries as they did with 1984 and remained successful. I do want to point out though, some bands do stay the same i.e. AC/DC. That was their formula, they stuck to it and it worked. Overall I do understand your point and in general, agree.

As for RR, it's no different than what happened with Hendrix or SRV. That said he was Ozzy's best guitarist lol. Would he have continued pumping out Ozzy records, I think we all know that wouldn't have happened. I actually think he would done exactly what he was aiming for, classical guitarist out of the limelight and eventually backed to what he loved doing, teaching.
 
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Eddie is my hero and thr reason I picked up a guitar. He was a guitar tricks master and then turned into a brilliant songwriter and I respect everything he did. Even VHIII had some great stuff on it.

At the end of the day they are all humans and I like Sam, DLR, Mike, etc. I just find it so frustrating that knowing a man had a history of cancer, that ALL of them couldn't suck it up and give him a proper sendoff either in life or death.

I hope one day, someone does a tribute concept covering Eddie's legacy. Have rock, country, Rap, whatever groups choose a song and cover it and do a T.V. special or something. The one they did for George Harrison was amazing.
 
jabps said:
True in regards to the music. What's ironic, even though the music became vastly more commercial pop, along with alot more radio airplay (barring 1984), plus the number one albums with Hagar, they still didn't out sell the original unit. Not being argumentative just pointing out that it's fascinating to me because in reality, the amount of airplay they got they should have outsold the original band.

I'm not a Hagar fan at all. He reminds me of politicians. Didn't like his middling solo stuff at all. Now I did like some of his Van Halen stuff - F.U.C.K and much of 5150 I really like but OU and Balance are unlistenable for me plus I really just got turned off by them when I saw the 5150 tour. It was like Van Halen light beer. Although I did see them on following tours, in fact the Balance tour got to see Ed's rig and his prototype Peaveys at the time.

Regardless of my personal opinion, I give props to that version of the band because they did remain one of the biggest bands around with Hagar. 20 million albums sold is nothing to sneeze at.

I don't mind the bone picking, it's their life, they lived it and even though it's that persons view/perspective of what happened it's still interesting. Sadly we won't get anything from Ed. Maybe Mike will write something one day.
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Another great post and I'm wondering if the airplay was higher than sales due more to pop rock radio needed pop rock vs. what people actually wanted to spend money on - especially legacy Van Halen fans. The Van Hager era lost many legacy Van Halen fans I'm sure and I doubt that loss was able to be made up with new Van Hager fans that really only liked that version and actually bought albums.

For example, I'm an album guy. When I'm driving to my cabin or on a road trip I typically listen to albums (mostly start to finish). Thursday night I was sitting by my bon fire eating grilled shrimp and literally started with 1984 and worked backward for a change one album at at time until I went to bed. I think a lot of legacy DLR Van Halen fans were album fans too. And honestly, in the late 80's there was not a lot of rock albums to buy and Van Halen was new and fresh. Also, 8 track and cassette tapes made transporting and listening to albums much more plausible.

Pop rock radio is more about what is on the radio. People that listed to the radio a lot - may or may not be buying albums. I think the 80s may have also been a transition decade in general for what I'm trying to describe.

Lastly, I liked OU812 a fair bit. Like 3 or 4 songs off 5150. 3 or 4 songs off of FUCK. Have not spent much time on VHIII @romanianreaper , so I will have to give it an honest listen. Balance had one good song IMO - Amsterdam. I do like the guitar crunch on 'Don't tell me what love can do' - or whatever.

tl;dr - I'm pontificating on why early Van Halen sold more albums.
 
With the level of disrespect that Dave has shown and continues to show to Eddie, I have no idea why Alex still talks to him but won’t with Sammy. If he was going to be consistent, he wouldn’t talk to either. The VH brothers always used their own math to calculate those things.
 
311splawndude said:
Another great post and I'm wondering if the airplay was higher than sales due more to pop rock radio needed pop rock vs. what people actually wanted to spend money on - especially legacy Van Halen fans. The Van Hager era lost many legacy Van Halen fans I'm sure and I doubt that loss was able to be made up with new Van Hager fans that really only liked that version and actually bought albums.

For example, I'm an album guy. When I'm driving to my cabin or on a road trip I typically listen to albums (mostly start to finish). Thursday night I was sitting by my bon fire eating grilled shrimp and literally started with 1984 and worked backward for a change one album at at time until I went to bed. I think a lot of legacy DLR Van Halen fans were album fans too. And honestly, in the late 80's there was not a lot of rock albums to buy and Van Halen was new and fresh. Also, 8 track and cassette tapes made transporting and listening to albums much more plausible.

Pop rock radio is more about what is on the radio. People that listed to the radio a lot - may or may not be buying albums. I think the 80s may have also been a transition decade in general for what I'm trying to describe.

Lastly, I liked OU812 a fair bit. Like 3 or 4 songs off 5150. 3 or 4 songs off of FUCK. Have not spent much time on VHIII @romanianreaper , so I will have to give it an honest listen. Balance had one good song IMO - Amsterdam. I do like the guitar crunch on 'Don't tell me what love can do' - or whatever.

tl;dr - I'm pontificating on why early Van Halen sold more albums.
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The music was great on those albums but I couldn’t stand Dave. Too much vaudeville gimmickry. It just came across to me like a joke.
 
shred4Him said:
With the level of disrespect that Dave has shown and continues to show to Eddie, I have no idea why Alex still talks to him but won’t with Sammy. If he was going to be consistent, he wouldn’t talk to either. The VH brothers always used their own math to calculate those things.
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DLR was always the brains of the band and Alex knows it.
 
311splawndude said:
Another great post and I'm wondering if the airplay was higher than sales due more to pop rock radio needed pop rock vs. what people actually wanted to spend money on - especially legacy Van Halen fans. The Van Hager era lost many legacy Van Halen fans I'm sure and I doubt that loss was able to be made up with new Van Hager fans that really only liked that version and actually bought albums.

For example, I'm an album guy. When I'm driving to my cabin or on a road trip I typically listen to albums (mostly start to finish). Thursday night I was sitting by my bon fire eating grilled shrimp and literally started with 1984 and worked backward for a change one album at at time until I went to bed. I think a lot of legacy DLR Van Halen fans were album fans too. And honestly, in the late 80's there was not a lot of rock albums to buy and Van Halen was new and fresh. Also, 8 track and cassette tapes made transporting and listening to albums much more plausible.

Pop rock radio is more about what is on the radio. People that listed to the radio a lot - may or may not be buying albums. I think the 80s may have also been a transition decade in general for what I'm trying to describe.

Lastly, I liked OU812 a fair bit. Like 3 or 4 songs off 5150. 3 or 4 songs off of FUCK. Have not spent much time on VHIII @romanianreaper , so I will have to give it an honest listen. Balance had one good song IMO - Amsterdam. I do like the guitar crunch on 'Don't tell me what love can do' - or whatever.

tl;dr - I'm pontificating on why early Van Halen sold more albums.
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Good points. And I agree on the album thing. Take Journey for example, their first three albums with Perry sold huge yet other than a handful of songs, not any massive hit singles like would follow once the band became more commercial. Yes "Lights", "Lovin', Touchin'", "Any Way you Want It" were top 20 songs but people can put those albums on and most every song is familiar. Journey was you classic FM radio band before FM radio changed. Kiss sold a ton of albums with very few hits as well.

I'll have to go back and give OU8 a listen, it's been years. I was on board for 5150, handful of those tunes I really liked but as I said above, after seeing them in concert I had to take a break from them. It was so vastly different with Hagar live and then comparing it to Roth's gargantuan tour with Vai and Sheehan - I was turned off on OU8 from the get go. As for Balance, tried listening to it last week and it still does nothing for me. Not even his guitar tone which many love. I'm kinda amazed that album sold as well as it did.

What I would like to see/hear - remix of ADKOT. Every time I listen to that album it grows on me. The mix though, very cluttered. Maybe Wolfie will do something with it one day.

Also kudo's to "Me Wise Magic" - IMO the most underrated Van Halen song in the catalog. I freaking love that song. I love "Can't get this stuff" as well. Good lort, if they just coulda kept the ego's in check and done an album at that point. It would have been smokin' in my opinion.
 
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