Some of the things mentioned in here are pretty far out there and I wonder if he is trying to remake the past or if he is really not remembering things. He still is taking shots at Michael Anthony and Dave. I wonder if they can keep things together for their upcoming tour. He deserves a ton of respect but he comes off like a tool......
Anyway, VH is
SOURCE: BILLBOARD MAGAZINE
Eddie Van Halen doesn't listen to music.
This is not a fake-out or a misdirection, nor is it a seemingly straightforward statement that actually means its opposite. Eddie Van Halen does not listen to music. “I don’t listen to anything,” he tells me from a greenish couch inside 5150, the expansive home recording studio built on his seven-acre residence in Studio City, Calif. I’d just asked if he ever revisits old Van Halen albums, but his disinterest in those records is merely the tip of a very weird iceberg: Unlike every other musician I’ve ever met, he does not listen to any music he isn’t actively making. The guitarist maintains that the last album he purchased was Peter Gabriel’s So, when it came out in 1986. He’s not familiar with the work of Radiohead, Metallica or Guns N’ Roses. He appears to know only one Ozzy Osbourne song Randy Rhoads played on, and it’s “Crazy Train.” He scarcely listened to Pantera, even though he spoke at the funeral of the group’s guitarist and placed the axe from Van Halen II inside the man’s casket. He doesn’t listen to the radio in his car, much to the annoyance of his wife (“I prefer the sound of the motor,” he says). He sheepishly admits he never even listened to most of the bands that opened for Van Halen and worries, “Does that make me an asshole?” Sometimes he listens to Yo-Yo Ma, because he loves the sound of the cello. But even that is rare.
“It’s an odd thing, but I’ve been this way my whole life,” he continues. “I couldn’t make a contemporary record if I wanted to, because I don’t know what contemporary music sounds like.”
As a high school student, he was obsessed with Eric Clapton and mildly interested in Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. That’s pretty much the extent of his investment as a consumer. He can intuitively learn almost any song he hears and works on his own music every day -- the 5150 archive is filled to the rafters with unreleased recordings -- but he simply isn’t intrigued by the music of other people (the last “new” guitarist he liked is 68-year-old jazz artist Allan Holdsworth, who’s eight years older than he is). And if that seems strange, here’s something stranger: A few minutes after explaining this, I casually mention Taylor Swift as an example of modern songwriting; before I finish my thought, Van Halen rhetorically speculates on the role Max Martin might play within her songwriting process. So how is it possible to not listen to music for three decades, yet still know the reputation of a faceless Swedish songwriter who specializes in high-gloss pop?
“I have a lot of Google alerts set up,” says Van Halen. “I think I read something where somebody said, ‘If Max Martin played guitar like Eddie Van Halen, he’d be dangerous.’ I know he’s like the modern Desmond Child. He makes all the hits. But that’s all I know about him.”
It’s a contradiction -- but not the first one, or the last.
Merging from the backyard party scene of mid-’70s Pasadena, Van Halen radically modernized the trajectory of American metal by simultaneously making it less heavy, more melodic, less gothic and more inclusive. The band’s first six albums sold 34 million copies in the United States, according to the RIAA, punctuated by the mammoth No. 1 single “Jump” in 1984. But that volcanic success melted into a never-ending carousel of high-profile reinvention: Vocalist David Lee Roth went solo, prompting the group to relaunch its identity with Sammy Hagar. During the next 10 years, this more refined, less bombastic version of Van Halen sold another 14.7 million records -- but that lineup was similarly doomed, leading to Hagar’s acrimonious departure and an ultra-brief, ill-fated reconciliation with Roth at the 1996 MTV Music Awards. That debacle spiraled into an awkward three-year union with ex-Extreme frontman Gary Cherone, the only singer Van Halen officially terminated. “It was a strange thing with Cherone,” recalls Van Halen. “We were getting ready to go on tour, and all of a sudden I see this John Travolta outfit -- these big lapels and a crazy jacket. He’s like, ‘This is my stage outfit.’ That’s when I realized it wasn’t going to work. But I don’t dislike Gary at all.”
Hagar rejoined in 2003 (mostly for touring purposes) but exited again after two years, this time followed by bassist Michael Anthony (eventually replaced in Van Halen by Eddie’s son Wolfgang). Rumors that Roth would return once more progressively bubbled to the surface; in 2007, it finally happened. Which leaves us where we are today, at least for the moment. The current lineup released A Different Kind of Truth in 2012, trailed by a 2015 live album cut in Japan. Interestingly, A Different Kind of Truth included a handful of old songs abandoned from the band’s earliest demos, selected by Wolfgang and lyrically updated by Roth.
Eddie Van Halen looks back on these transactions the way a Vietnam vet recalls Cambodia -- certain details are vivid while others blend together, but he has no nostalgia for any of it. The most hyperkinetic guitarist of the past 40 years has become, for lack of a better term, exceedingly normcore. “I’m a T-shirt and jeans guy,” he says while compulsively vaping. He no longer smokes cigarettes, having surgically lost one-third of his tongue to a cancer that eventually drifted into his esophagus. Still, he’s not certain if the cigarettes were totally to blame.
“I used metal picks -- they’re brass and copper -- which I always held in my mouth, in the exact place where I got the tongue cancer,” he says. “Plus, I basically live in a recording studio that’s filled with electromagnetic energy. So that’s one theory. I mean, I was smoking and doing a lot of drugs and a lot of everything. But at the same time, my lungs are totally clear. This is just my own theory, but the doctors say it’s possible.”
The surgery has slightly affected his speech, in the same way his 1999 hip replacement slightly affected his mobility. But he works out several times a week and appears remarkably spry. As proof, Van Halen is about to embark on a 40-plus-date North American tour. He will be joined by his drummer brother, Alex (whom he loves), his bassist son (whom he loves) and vocalist Roth (with whom he has no relationship whatsoever).
“He does not want to be my friend,” Van Halen says, seemingly bemused. “How can I put this: Roth’s perception of himself is different than who he is in reality. We’re not in our 20s anymore. We’re in our 60s. Act like you’re 60. I stopped coloring my hair, because I know I’m not going to be young again.”
Eddie would love to make another Van Halen album, but that plan has obstructions. “It’s hard, because there are four people in this band, and three of us like rock’n’roll. And one of us likes dance music,” he says. “And that used to kind of work, but now Dave doesn’t want to come to the table.” That said, Van Halen still seems more magnanimous to Roth than he does toward Hagar and Anthony. He swears he has no hatred for anyone, but his grudges run deep (he’s still pissed that longtime producer Ted Templeman forced him to waste an original Minimoog keyboard composition for the single “Dancing in the Streets” in 1982: “The whole reason I built this studio was to shove it up Templeman’s ass”). The fundamental nature of his genius confounds logic: He is an autodidact who can play any instrument he gets his paws on (he owns an oboe, for instance), but he’s also the rare rock artist who studied music at college (both he and Alex attended Pasadena Community College in the early ’70s). He’s a classically trained pianist, but he can’t read music. And he insists that -- had he taken proper guitar lessons -- he would have never developed the innovative techniques that are now regularly taught by proper guitar instructors.
“Eddie has the natural gift of melody, with the deepest right-hand groove,” notes Joe Satriani, a fellow virtuoso who (somewhat ironically) now plays in the band Chickenfoot with two former members of Van Halen. “Eddie put the smile back in rock guitar, at a time when it was all getting a bit brooding. He also scared the hell out of a million guitarists around the world, because he was so damn good. And original.”
Since unleashing the instrumental “Eruption” in 1978, Van Halen has pioneered a career based on astonishment and influence. The first question every rival guitarist asked upon hearing the first Van Halen album was, “How is he making those sounds?” The second tended to be, “And how can I copy it?” As a consequence, the 1980s were saturated with Eddie clones, all of whom tried to prove that they, too, could hammer on the neck of their guitar with maximum dexterity. But it never really worked for anyone else.
“That was a different trip,” Van Halen recalls. “It was like, ‘What the hell did I start here?’ Because [that technique] had been a part of my playing for so long, and then everybody else started doing it. I did not take it as flattery. But it ultimately didn’t matter, because I still play that way and none of those other people stayed with it.” He further notes that all the Big Hair replicants ignored a subtle aspect of his methodology -- he always held the neck of the instrument with both hands while he hammered (as opposed to just popping the strings with the fingers of an open hand). Now, why that detail makes a difference is hard to deduce. But that’s just one of myriad mysteries within Van Halen’s populist catalog. There are many who can instantly recall the first time they heard songs like “Panama” and “Unchained” and “D.O.A.” -- but Eddie Van Halen is not among them.
“I have no memory of coming up with any of those riffs,” he says. “Even the stuff I wrote for the last record, I don’t remember. It just comes to me. I never sit down and decide to write a song. I’ve never done that.”
This sentiment becomes more explicable when you hear the explanation for how Eddie used to work. For most of his career, he wrote on tour. After every show, the other three members of the band would hit the town and carouse (“My brother was the biggest horndog of them all,” he says). But not Eddie. Eddie would remain alone in his hotel room, where he’d spend the entire night drinking vodka, snorting cocaine and noodling into a tape recorder.
“I didn’t drink to party,” he says now, sober since 2008. “Alcohol and cocaine were private things to me. I would use them for work. The blow keeps you awake and the alcohol lowers your inhibitions. I’m sure there were musical things I would not have attempted were I not in that mental state. You just play by yourself with a tape running, and after about an hour, your mind goes to a place where you’re not thinking about anything.”
Here again, the contradiction is stark: While directing the ultimate California party band, Eddie Van Halen took little pleasure from partying. Drugs and booze were simply intertwined with a relatively hermetic lifestyle. In fact, most rumors about Van Halen’s drinking adopt an unusually dark tone, most notably a passage from Hagar’s 2011 autobiography Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock that portrays Eddie as a violent, booze-addled vampire, living inside a garbage house resembling the mansion from Grey Gardens.
“I was an alcoholic, and I needed alcohol to function,” he says now. For years, he awoke every morning with dry heaves. “I started drinking and smoking when I was 12. I got drunk before I’d show up to high school. My ninth grade science teacher, he could smell the alcohol, and he told me, ‘Don’t drink anything you can’t see through.’ And I was like, ‘So, vodka?’ And he said yeah. Which was great, because that was my drink...I’m not blaming my father at all, but he was an alcoholic, too. So in our household, it was normal. But it never affected his work, although I guess it didn’t affect my work, either. Around 2004, I suppose I became a very angry drunk. But [the stuff in Hagar’s book] was definitely embellished. That’s him painting a picture of something that never happened.”
Not surprisingly, Hagar stands behind his book’s depiction. “There is what Eddie says and there is the truth,” he says. “I’m happy to see that he’s healthy, sober and playing music again.”
Part of what makes Van Halen’s persona difficult to interpret is his tendency to swing between unyielding perfectionism and mild apathy. When making the early VH albums, he would often sneak back into the studio at four in the morning to fix mistakes only he could hear. Yet he can also be confoundingly laissez-faire about significant career accomplishments. For example, it’s widely known that he received no compensation for playing the solo on Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.” What’s less known is that he (probably) deserves a chunk of the track’s songwriting credit, too. But he doesn’t care about this at all. It’s almost like he doesn’t comprehend the magnitude of the song, the fame of the person who sang it or the singularity of his own contribution.
“I think it’s funny the way people talk about that,” he says. “It was 20 minutes of my life. I didn’t want anything for doing that...I literally thought to myself, ‘Who is possibly going to know if I play on this kid’s record?’ So I went to the studio and listened to the song twice, and I didn’t like the section they wanted me to solo over. They wanted me to solo over the breakdown. I asked [Thriller producer] Quincy Jones to edit the chords underneath the solo. Then I could play the solo in the key of E, but it was the chords underneath that made the solo interesting. So I guess I did rearrange it.”
Right now, the only new music Eddie seems excited about is a forthcoming solo project from Wolfgang, 24, who’s also crafting the set list for the upcoming tour (they’re including a handful of songs they’ve never played live -- “Dirty Movies,” “Drop Dead Legs, “Top Jimmy”). To classify Eddie as the consummate family man might be a tad overstated, but he takes familial ties seriously: Alex is his indefatigable best friend, their relationship forged by their childhood emigration from Amsterdam in 1962 (when they arrived in the United States, the brothers could speak only four English words -- “yes,” “no,” “motorcycle” and “accident”). He still has a good relationship with his first wife (and Wolfgang’s mother), actress Valerie Bertinelli (when Eddie married his current wife, stuntwoman-turned-publicist Janie Liszewski, in 2009, Bertinelli was one of the 100 guests in attendance). Eddie dislikes Van Halen’s ’82 cover version of “Big Bad Bill,” but he’s overjoyed his musician father was able to play clarinet on it. And he’s adamant that his son is a better bass player than the exiled Anthony, almost to the point of overkill.
“Every note Mike ever played, I had to show him how to play,” Van Halen claims. “Before we’d go on tour, he’d come over with a video camera and I’d have to show him how to play all the parts.” He doesn’t even credit Anthony for his harmonic backing vocals, which fans classify as an integral part of the group’s signature. “Mike’s voice is like a piccolo trumpet. But he’s not a singer. He just has a range from hell,” he says. “Mike was just born with a very high voice. I have more soul as a singer than he does. And you know, people always talk about Mike’s voice on Van Halen songs, but that’s a blend of Mike’s voice and my voice. It’s not just him.” (Anthony’s rebuttal to these accusations is diplomatic: “I am proud to say that my bass playing and vocals helped create our sound. I’ve always chosen to take the high road and stay out of the never-ending mudslinging, because I believe that it ultimately ends up hurting the Van Halen fans.”)
The reasons Van Halen split with Anthony in 2006 are predictably complex -- it involves Anthony’s relationship with Hagar, his lack of contribution to the songwriting process and the fact that he did not phone when Eddie developed cancer (or when Eddie and Alex’s mother died). But that conflict feeds into a larger question that’s more complicated: Why does Eddie Van Halen so often work with people he doesn’t seem to like? It does not appear that he needs the money or enjoys the fame. He concedes that he barely knows the words to most Van Halen tracks, which means he doesn’t care about the lyrics to songs he doesn’t recall inventing. He could spend the rest of his days making music by himself, in his own isolated studio, and no one would question the decision. So why, at the age of 60, does he continue to tour with a singer who drives him insane?
Because he feels obligated to do so.
“I think it’s now built into people’s DNA, that it just won’t be Van Halen if it’s not Roth’s voice,” he says. “This conversation brings me back to being in Pasadena Community College with Alex, where all these strict jazz guys would call us musical prostitutes, because we would be gigging at rock clubs every night and then stumbling into class the next day. But there is an element of music that is for the people. You make music for people. Otherwise, just play in your closet. And how do you reach the most people? By giving them the band that they know. To do it any other way would be selfish.” Van Halen is hitting the road. And they’re hitting the road for you.
[Edited on 6/22/2015 by OriginalGoober]
Sammy Hagar comes to the defense of Michael Anthony:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/sammy-hagar-slams-eddie-van-halen-youre-a-liar-20150620
[Edited on 6/22/2015 by OriginalGoober]
Wow, nice interview.
This guy sounds so eccentric, it makes him interesting, to me anyhow.
I'll never doubt his abilities and his place in rock history but that eccentric part sure has made for a twisted band history.
Seems like rarely a week goes by these days without some public sniping from one side or the other.
I am so glad this website's band is not like this, as far as constant sniping.
Sure, within the Allman Brothers Band there has been sniping, (putting it extremely mildly) we all know that, but at least it isn't quite like the VH sniping, thank goodness for that.
I have yet to see an interview where EV doesn't come off as a delusional self absorbed asshole. There is a guitar world interview from a few years ago where he spends half the interview dumping all over his former sound engineers.
EV has had three singers that all seem to hate him, a bassist he fired and now dumps all over and a wife that's left him and it always seems to be some one else's fault. That's not the pattern I'm seeing. Maybe the problem is Ed.
As a huge VH fan, it's tough being a fan of that band. There is always something stirred up.
However, to his credit I don't think I've ever heard Gary Cherone say anything bad about Eddie although I'm sure he could... and I'm not sure that Alex even talks publicly anymore.
The comments about Michael Anthony go far beyond what is necessary. He's trying to justify his son being in the band, but he's going about it the wrong way by attacking the one person that fans of the band universally agree is a good person.
Brilliant guitar player and song writer (at least at one point), but it stops there. There aren't enough buses in NYC for the number of people almost everyone in the band throw under them.
Love Eddie to death but I really wish he would just STFU.
Classically trained pianist ... who doesn't read music. Can that be? Just askin'!
sammy hagar's response to EVH's attack on anthony:
sammy hagar's response to EVH's attack on anthony:
😛
love Eddie the guitar god, but he's definetly lost some brain cells.
I believe Michael Anthony once said about the difference between playing with Joe Satriani and Eddie, is
Joe can read music and could tell Mike what to play. Mike would ask eddie, and he said he couldn't tell him
and had to show him. I belie MA repeated that story on a That Metal Show episode. So there is a grain of truth there.
As for not listening to music since the 80's, Ed's full of shite.
I remember him in interviews in the 90's where he said he was disappointed with Gabriel's follow up to 'So'
and how much he listened to Live's "Throwing Copper" album, and was again disappointed in the follow up,
"Secret Samadhi". That was mid to late 90's.
I still prefer classic VH to the Van Hagar era, but still listen to it all.
sammy hagar's response to EVH's attack on anthony:
Ha, ha, ha - I'm not really sure what Sammy is trying to say here, I think he needs to be more clear.
Classically trained pianist ... who doesn't read music. Can that be? Just askin'!
Great question!
Anyone think this tour will actually last for all of the scheduled dates?
He no longer smokes cigarettes, having surgically lost one-third of his tongue to a cancer that eventually drifted into his esophagus. Still, he’s not certain if the cigarettes were totally to blame.
“I used metal picks -- they’re brass and copper -- which I always held in my mouth, in the exact place where I got the tongue cancer,” he says. “Plus, I basically live in a recording studio that’s filled with electromagnetic energy. So that’s one theory. I mean, I was smoking and doing a lot of drugs and a lot of everything. But at the same time, my lungs are totally clear. This is just my own theory, but the doctors say it’s possible.”
Valerie was on Howard Stern last year and quite hilariously commented on this. Let's just say she doesn't place much validity in that theory. 😛
It was a low-class thing to say, and no way to spin it or say it was taken out of context. Just a dickish move, and so needless. As well as the comments about Cherone. Hagar and DLR in many ways are fair game b/c they basically ask for it and get in the fray all by themselves, but M.A. and Cherone have remained pretty loyal even from the outside.
In addition to being a hermit, and killing a lot of brain cells over the years, I think EVH also just lives in a pre-internet world and isn't fully clued-in to the 24 hour news cycle. He likes to repeat the same stories and seems unaware that everyone around the country (or world) can read them, and everyone already has read them dozens of times over. And embellishments abound. Classically trained pianist that can't read music. He played drums and his brother played guitar, until EVH was delivering newspapers on his bicycle and his brother took over his drumset. The varistat story. Peter Gabriel's "So" being the last record he bought and he doesn't listen to other music (other than old Clapton, Who, and some Sabbath and Purple). There are many others, but I think the metal pick causing cancer has now entered this realm.
So many of those stories probably sounded good when you're 20-something, but sound utterly ridiculous coming out of the mouth of a 60 year old.
The author ended the story pretty good, at least to churn things up. Sounds like EVH bashed everyone pretty good, but he pretty much avoided the bait to a certain extent on Hagar. That last comment that it's just not VH without DLR's voice pretty much puts the nail in that coffin of Hagar ever being involved again, as if that wasn't obvious already. But then EVH in the same breath says that he has the duty to give the fans what they want by giving them the band they want to see, going so far as to say anything else would be selfish, yet everyone has been wanting to see a reunion of the classic 6-pack lineup.
So EVH isn't just a jerk, but a selfish jerk.
Sammy Hagar: In Defense of Mikey
Maybe before Sammy gets his panties in a bunch. He should remember what he wrote in his own book.
http://www.vhnd.com/2015/06/23/sammy-hagar-calls-eddie-van-halen-a-liar-contradicts-himself/
I'm not sure why EVH feels compelled to throw dirt at this stage of the game except that it makes for GREAT press when their supposed final tour isn't selling too well...However, as mentioned on the vhlinks website by a fan, Michael Anthony himself mentioned on a recent appearance on "That Metal Show" that EVH used to show him what notes to play when in the studio recording new songs as he admits he isn't a songwriter. And don't forget, Roth claimed in his book that he was the one who "choreographed" Michael Anthony's horrendous bass solo for the live shows. Anyone who's ever seen VH live knows what a great piss break Mike's solo is.... Worst part of the show in my opinion.
I do appreciate Mike's contribution to the Van Halen legacy and am glad he's cashed in so nicely. But hearing Sammy claim he's perhaps one of the top five bass players in hard rock really makes my eyes roll. And I'm shocked, shocked I tell you all that Hagar would take such an opportunity to get some free publicity at EVH's expense! 😛
I don't think anyone has ever said that this was a final tour.
I don't think anyone has ever said that this was a final tour.
I think if you read between the lines so to speak of the interview you'll find that EVH is suggesting this is the final tour. He specifically mentions there will be no multi-singer/Michael Anthony tour in the future....And given his comments about Roth, I suspect this is the last hoorah....Just my opinion.
Setting aside EVH's comments about Mike for a moment, I have to agree with pretty much everything he said about Roth. You'll recall the thread in here a few months back discussing Roth's very subpar performance on Kimmel and Ellen....It seemed pretty much everyone agreed Roth was horrible and he continues to prefer the tired DLR "stich" over actually singing. I think that's exactly what EVH is referring to and is simply tired of it and very frustrated with Dave's laziness, frankly...
Roth can actually sing if he'd put forth the effort and discipline it requires. Instead he still wants to try (and fail miserably in my humble opinion) to be the DLR of 1980....That ship has sailed for all these guys, including EVH. Roth seems to be the only one who doesn't get it.
The thing about Roth is, he was never a good live singer. He's just gotten worse over the years, but he's always been more show than go on stage. The US Festival in 83 he's all over the place but the energy and fire of the band and his showmanship took over.
There are a couple of reasons Van Halen only has 2 "live" albums. One is Eddie at one point wanted everything perfect and you get the live album with Hagar that was mostly done in the studio and two hearing Roth sing without seeing the show is disappointing vocally especially now that he is comfortable in the band and probably doesn't have much fear of getting canned anymore like on their first reunion tour in 07.
My theory is that those early shows sounded much better because Roth was on eggshells making sure he kept the gig and sang his best. Now he's established as the singer and knows any change at this point is the end of the band so he can go out and play star instead of sing.
[Edited on 6/27/2015 by WarEagleRK]
The thing about Roth is, he was never a good live singer. He's just gotten worse over the years, but he's always been more show than go on stage. The US Festival in 83 he's all over the place but the energy and fire of the band and his showmanship took over.
There are a couple of reasons Van Halen only has 2 "live" albums. One is Eddie at one point wanted everything perfect and you get the live album with Hagar that was mostly done in the studio and two hearing Roth sing without seeing the show is disappointing vocally especially now that he is comfortable in the band and probably doesn't have much fear of getting canned anymore like on their first reunion tour in 07.
My theory is that those early shows sounded much better because Roth was on eggshells making sure he kept the gig and sang his best. Now he's established as the singer and knows any change at this point is the end of the band so he can go out and play star instead of sing.
[Edited on 6/27/2015 by WarEagleRK]
I think you're right...And yes, Roth never was nor will ever be a great singer. However, he could be better if he'd sing in his natural register and perhaps utilize the services of a good vocal coach. For a guy who disciplines himself in other interests of his life, it's strange to me that he doesn't follow the same path with the craft of singing. Clearly EVH feels the same way.
As you said, in the early days he'd always rely on the showmanship and he could pull it off extremely well. But he now can no longer do that and it shows in every performance.
Classically trained pianist ... who doesn't read music. Can that be? Just askin'!
LMAO! To think that all those studying music have had it all wrong. I often mistake Jump for a Bach piece until the lyrics come in.
EVH is not the brightest crayon in the box and never has been. Add cocaine and believing your own hype and you get a career mess unfortunately. Considering his claims for 30 years of working away daily in the studio, there should really be a lot of music in the can.
All they ever had to do was just find some good looking long haired blonde kid who could sing. Used the singer issues as an excuse and still is. Can just stay home and get wasted that way.
I believe that he showed Michael every part that he played. Anthony has never been strong and VH probably lacked that magical back end team that so many other bands had. Perhaps with a better player that connected musically with Alex, they could have gone in more directions. I bet Satch showed him all his Chickenfoot parts too. Good guy that should have been there for a reunion but I still think he is one of the luckiest guys in rock. More so as the band credited all members as equal songwriters.
Wolfgang is a better player and a big part of what got them back together. I laugh when he doubles EVH's tapping parts live. Pretty cool. Not something that Michael would do.
Roth never sang and always talked. His problem is his timing. His vocals are always off time because he thinks it's cool or has no concept of rhythm. I think it is the combo. Might work if he did it once in a while and changed the phrasing around but he does it for every line. Throws the band off slightly too and the shows that I saw last tour suffered because of it. EVH looked annoyed too and I don't blame him as they sounded great. At times I wondered if Roth has even listened to those songs in 40 years.
The worst part was having a wardrobe guy in front of the stage. Constantly changing clothes and hats. Obsessed with the fu*kin' hats. The sequin and sparkle suits that he borrowed from Barry Manilow screamed what was wrong with the modern Roth. Diamond Dave was gone.
Get a kid who can sing and just play. I remember the rumor long ago when they were doing those Rockstar INXS/Supernova shows that VH was next and at the time I cringed. Looking back it might have been a great move.
No doubt Mike is the luckiest Bass player in hard rock....Cashed in big time given he probably never wrote a note and to this day stills makes coin off the songs he has partial ownership of. I think that's what really rubs EVH....Just as it does many other long time musicians who share royalties with entities that had nothing to do with writing the songs themselves. Sadly, the music world is littered with such examples.
I must also admit I'm a little intrigued about Wolfgang's solo effort mentioned in the article. I'm most curious if it'll be on the heavier side given his own stated influences and that he plays and apparently writes with Tremonti and other Heavy Metal type players.
“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.”
- Hunter S. Thompson
[Edited on 6/29/2015 by heineken515]
The worst part was having a wardrobe guy in front of the stage. Constantly changing clothes and hats. Obsessed with the fu*kin' hats. The sequin and sparkle suits that he borrowed from Barry Manilow screamed what was wrong with the modern Roth. Diamond Dave was gone.
Ha! To quote a former VH lead singer who once toured with DLR, you can't spell lamé without L-A-M-E.
I always thought the equal songwriting credits was another of those stories of VH lore that probably sounded "cool" when in your 20s that was kind of stupid idea to perpetuate into your 40s or 50s. The whole concept that band is egalitarian and very un-Who/Zep/Stones like. But they didn't have to keep doing it, so once again EVH has nobody to blame but hisself. And just because all band member names are credited on the album sleeve doesn't mean it actually HAS to be equal song-writing credits. If the Bros. VH wanted to maintain that egalitarian story-line, they could've kept the fake-"credits" on the album sleeve but had a different operating agreement for the members of Van Halen LLC that gives songwriting credits only where credit was really due.
I think the other thing about Michael Anthony that pisses off EVH (and AVH) is that Mikey is loaded because he managed his money well. AVH has been broke a few times due to serial alimony obligations, and EVH snorted up and drank away a good part of his fortunes. Michael made his money off EVH's back, perhaps, but the double-slap in EVH's face was Mikey being "rich" because he didn't piss his money away. And good for Mikey for that.
[Edited on 6/29/2015 by Zambi]
The worst part was having a wardrobe guy in front of the stage. Constantly changing clothes and hats. Obsessed with the fu*kin' hats. The sequin and sparkle suits that he borrowed from Barry Manilow screamed what was wrong with the modern Roth. Diamond Dave was gone.
Ha! To quote a former VH lead singer who once toured with DLR, you can't spell lamé without L-A-M-E.
I always thought the equal songwriting credits was another of those stories of VH lore that probably sounded "cool" when in your 20s that was kind of stupid idea to perpetuate into your 40s or 50s. The whole concept that band is egalitarian and very un-Who/Zep/Stones like. But they didn't have to keep doing it, so once again EVH has nobody to blame but hisself. And just because all band member names are credited on the album sleeve doesn't mean it actually HAS to be equal song-writing credits. If the Bros. VH wanted to maintain that egalitarian story-line, they could've kept the fake-"credits" on the album sleeve but had a different operating agreement for the members of Van Halen LLC that gives songwriting credits only where credit was really due.
I think the other thing about Michael Anthony that pisses off EVH (and AVH) is that Mikey is loaded because he managed his money well. AVH has been broke a few times due to serial alimony obligations, and EVH snorted up and drank away a good part of his fortunes. Michael made his money off EVH's back, perhaps, but the double-slap in EVH's face was Mikey being "rich" because he didn't piss his money away. And good for Mikey for that.
[Edited on 6/29/2015 by Zambi]
"And just because all band member names are credited on the album sleeve doesn't mean it actually HAS to be equal song-writing credits. If the Bros. VH wanted to maintain that egalitarian story-line, they could've kept the fake-"credits" on the album sleeve but had a different operating agreement for the members of Van Halen LLC that gives songwriting credits only where credit was really due."
That's exactly what they did, I believe, just prior to the release of "1984" or soon after. Mike hasn't earned any additional real writing credits since "Fair Warning" or thereabouts. I think what pisses EVH off is he still gets nice coin from what he does actually own and had, apparently, no part in writing. And I too am happy for Mike. After all, putting up with Ed's shit all those years is a form of earning them... 😛
I can't remember details, but I thought pursuant to the negotiations for the 2004 hagar reunion, when M.A. was relegated to salaried non-member, that M.A. also negotiated away his songwriter rights to songs only on the 1984 record (other than "I'll Wait"). On the BOBW compilation, and the new live album, the tunes on 1984 only listed DLR and the Brothers for songwriting credit. But it shows M.A. with songwriting credit for every thing else before 1984. So they seem to be going by how it's written on the record sleeves, except what was re-negotiated.
What's not clear to me when people talk generically about "M.A. having signed away his copyrights" is whether they mean songwriting or performance, or both. Even if stripped of songwriting copyrights, M.A. would still get roylaties for the performances (recordings), at least to the extent M.A. actually played on the songs in the studio. It's possible he negotiated away these rights as well, but that's never been real clear to me.
[Edited on 6/29/2015 by Zambi]
I'm fairly sure that in order to be included on the 2004 tour Michael Anthony had to sign away several rights including songwriting credits on 1984.
I wonder if Michael Anthony was kept on the songwriting credits on "I'll Wait" because you have to get all of the songwriters to sign off on making adjustments? I'll Wait has Michael McDonald as a co-writer as well as the band, maybe they didn't want to contact him to make the change to not sound super retroactively petty to an outsider?
So much wasted time and talent, if you don't like a singer then move on.
The brothers (mostly EVH and Alex follows) are hard to get along with. This has cost them over and over during their career.
I'm fairly sure that in order to be included on the 2004 tour Michael Anthony had to sign away several rights including songwriting credits on 1984.
I wonder if Michael Anthony was kept on the songwriting credits on "I'll Wait" because you have to get all of the songwriters to sign off on making adjustments? I'll Wait has Michael McDonald as a co-writer as well as the band, maybe they didn't want to contact him to make the change to not sound super retroactively petty to an outsider?
Mike stated in an interview some years ago that he did not sell or give up his songwriting credits to the VH brothers in order to participate in the 2004 reunion. What he did relinquish was his ownership stake in the corporation known as "Van Halen." Meaning he has no ownership stake and has no claim to the name Van Halen or the assets owned by said corporation. This is entirely separate from his songwriting credits which he still owns to this day.
He specifically stated in this interview that he would never give up his songwriting credits. I assume that means that's where the real revenue potential lies with his association with Van Halen. I would also assume that he gets paid some monies whenever VH tours and plays any songs he has writing credits for. Meaning he probably got a nice chunk of change from the last two multi million dollar total gross tours with Roth.
That is to say, Mike still makes a shit load of money from songs he didn't write whenever Van Halen performs them while on tour, into perpetuity. This, I suspect, is what really pisses EVH off....
[Edited on 7/2/2015 by Chain]
