I'm not a Rock & Roll aficionado and know little about bands and the music business. But I recently read a memoir by actress Valerie Bertinelli, who was married to Eddie Van Halen for twenty years. Despite the fact that Eddie and Valerie had a tempestuous marriage that ended in divorce, Valerie speaks of Eddie so lovingly that I became curious to read this book about the guitarist.
Valerie Bertinelli and Eddie Van Halen
*****
Eddie Van Halen's parents Jan and Eugenia, met in the late 1940s when Jan - a Dutch musician - was working in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Jan and Eugenia Van Halen
Jan and Eugenia Van Halen met and married in Indonesia
Jan married Indonesian native Eugenia and the couple moved to the Netherlands, where their sons Alex and Edward were born in 1953 and 1955 respectively. The boys were seven and eight when the family relocated to Pasadena, California and began a new life in America.
The Van Halens on a ship to America
Like their father, both Alex and Eddie exhibited a talent for music, and the boys started their own band while still in elementary school.
Young Alex and Eddie Van Halen showed musical talent as children
Alex played drums, Eddie played the guitar, and by the time the youths were in high school, it was clear they would become famous. Alex and Eddie's group - called Genesis, then renamed Mammoth - was adept at playing covers of bands they liked, such as Cream, The Who, Deep Purple, and Ten Years After.
Teenage Alex and Eddie Van Halen
In 1973 Alex and Eddie formed the band Van Halen, with lead singer David Lee Roth and bassist Michael Anthony.
The band Van Halen (from left to right: Eddie Van Halen, David Lee Roth, Alex Van Halen, MIchael Anthony)
Van Halen started out in small clubs but was soon on it's way to stardom, and Brannigan writes about the band's songs, albums, and tours; booze, drugs, and groupies; and habit of destroying hotel rooms and property (which seems to be de riguer for hard rock bands). Van Halen remained popular for decades and Eddie is widely considered the best guitarist of his generation.
Van Halen performing
The Van Halen band members - and their producers and managers - didn't always get along, and Brannigan details the various changes that occurred over the years. Especially important was the replacement of flamboyant lead singer David Lee Roth with Sammy Hagar in 1985, and then a brief stint with lead singer Gary Cherone. Eddie attributes the shuffling of lead singers to LSD (lead singer disease), which (in short) means the front men got too big for their britches.
David Lee Roth performing with Van Halen
Sammy Hagar performing with Van Halen
Gary Cherone performing with Van Halen
On a personal note, when Valerie Bertinelli's brothers took her to a Van Halen concert, there were immediate sparks between Eddie and the actress. They married soon afterwards, had a son named Wolfgang, and tried to make a go of it.
Valerie Bertinelli and Eddie Van Halen married in 1981
Eddie Van Halen with baby Wolfie
However Eddie abused alcohol and drugs - which he deemed necessary for his creativity; partied with girls on the road; and was difficult to live with. Valerie admits she was no angel either, but it was Eddie's alcoholism and drug use that finally ended the marriage. Nevertheless, Valerie thought of Eddie as a gentle soul with a good heart and the couple remained close until Eddie lost his long battle with cancer in 2020.
Older Eddie Van Halen
The author did prodigious research for this book, and includes numerous details about Eddie's life, family, guitar construction, guitar virtuosity, song-writing, bandmates, studio work, stage work, etc.
Eddie Van Halen is considered the best guitarist of his generation
Eddie Van Halen and Valerie Bertinelli with their son Wolfgang
Wolfgang Van Halen playing with his father's band
It's sad that substance abuse marred so much of Eddie's life, and that chain-smoking (probably) led to tongue cancer and lung cancer. One wonders what would have happened if Eddie had conquered these demons sooner.
I enjoyed the audiobook, narrated by Mike Lenz, and highly recommend it - especially to Rock & Roll and Van Halen fans.
Thanks to Netgalley, Paul Brannigan, and Tantor Audio for a copy of the book.
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