Edward Van Halen: A Definitive Biography (16 page)

For the first time on record, Ed openly questioned his songwriting arrangement with the band in terms not terribly flattering. “Ten years ago, we sat down at Dave’s father’s house and said, ‘Well, what are we going to do if we make it?’ I said, ‘Split it four ways. There are four people, right?’” Edward said. “That was before we found out I’m the only one who writes. I made my own bed, so I’m sleepin’ in it. It’s like bein’ married. You find out things about your wife later on, but you’re still married, so what the fuck. I could be an asshole about it, but it would just create problems.” The marriage analogy couldn’t have sat too well with Valerie.

Finally, though, Ed delivered a very terse response that shocked most Van Halen fans. When asked if his mother would be offended by some of the lyrics to the songs, Edward said flatly, “I don’t know what the lyrics are.”

Such blatant disinterest in just exactly what it was that his musical counterpart was bringing to the table to make Van Halen what it was is as shocking now as it was then. Dave later responded in veiled jest that he didn’t know how to play Ed’s solos either, although it was clearly a pointed jab. On the other hand, Dave belittled the idea of building a backyard studio—one of Ed’s biggest dreams. “He’s got a great new studio. How many tracks is it? Nice microphones. Pretty floor. All those little pieces of wood that fit right together all the way to that big door.” Dave added, “Edward adores the studio. He’ll spend the rest of his life in one, I expect.”

It was in this article that Edward referred to his tone as “brown.” Eddie was making reference to the color of wood and comparing and contrasting the more pleasant sound of wood than the sound of metal. The more pleasing tonk of a wood block versus the harsh clank of metal pipes. Thus was born “The Brown Sound”—an oft-repeated reference to Edward’s tone that he later said he regretted even saying it because every single interviewer for years would inevitably ask him to explain it over and over again.

Taking Control of MTV and America

Early that summer, the video for “Hot for Teacher” hit MTV and was an immediate, absolute instant classic; a timeless bit of rock and roll film. The character of Waldo was voiced by Phil Hartman, and the cast featured little kid look-alikes of the band members. Eddie completely played along to the point of lip syncing a line of the verse, all the way up to-or down to—participating in choreographed dance sequences with Dave out in front of Ed, Alex, and Mike. The sequence, of course, is famous for the irony of the band in smarmy suits doing ridiculous dance moves, and the fact that their choreography is off only makes the sequence that much more endearing. But how Eddie felt while dressing up for the scene was likely a whole other issue.

Ed’s walk down the library tables is a legendary sequence in and of itself, forever capturing him at his coolest. The close of the video shows Eddie in a mental hospital bound in a straight jacket with his guitar leaning up against him as he gazes hypnotically at a television set. The caption reads: EDWARD VAN HALEN IS TEMPORARILY “RELAXING” IN BELLEVUE MENTAL WARD AND MAKING PROGRESS. Dave set a new standard for rock videos with “Hot for Teacher,” and it joined the other two videos that remained in heavy rotation. Their profile was as high as it could possibly be.

Alex married his new girlfriend Kelly Danniels in 1984, less than a year after breaking off his marriage with Valeri. One thing that makes Kelly Danniels interesting—other than the fact that she is an intelligent, beautiful model, and
SCTV
alum—is the fact that she is the sister of Ray Danniels. Ray was high school friends with Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee of Rush. Ray dropped out of high school right along with Alex and Geddy serving as Rush’s manager from day one until this very day—Ray is the only manager Rush has ever had, since before their debut record came out in 1974. Under Ray’s management, Rush has sold 40 million albums and has the third most consecutive gold or platinum album records of any rock band (trailing only The Beatles and The Rolling Stones). With Alex marrying Rush’s manager’s sister, Ray would later enter the picture as manager in the mid-1990s, subsequently twisting Van Halen eight ways from Sunday.

The fourth leg of the 1984 tour would end up what no one ever thought it would be—the last few shows of the original incarnation of Van Halen. Starting in early June and wrapping on July 24, the band logged an incredible thirty shows, with no less than nine cities having multiple-night stands.

On July 11, 1984, this author attended his first ever Van Halen concert obviously knowing very little that it would one of the last of a handful of shows ever played by the original line-up of the great American rock band Van Halen. [See the appendix for the full story.]

That night, something was wrong with Ed’s wireless set-up, so he actually played with a guitar cable and his mobility was thus limited. Yet seeing him on stage right at the moment was truly hard to comprehend. It was almost too bizarre to be real. He played amazingly—we were one million percent blown away, our expectations completely shattered. I remember I had no idea that he played “Cathedral” on guitar rather than on a keyboard until that night. It was also astounding when he played the guitar solo for “Jump” on the keyboard so that he could simply go right into the keyboard solo. This would be the only brief window in which Ed would ever actually play the keyboard parts to “Jump” live—he would afterward simply play his guitar along with the band to pre-recorded backing tracks.

During “(Oh) Pretty Woman,” I recall that the band actually broke down and had a small train wreck. Dave stopped the band cold mid-song and made a funny comment about screwing it up. Rather than booing, the crowd completely ate it up. It was blood on Superman’s brow—a reassurance that they truly were human. They launched right back into the song to outrageous applause. (Years later, I had convinced myself that the “(Oh) Pretty Woman” shtick was planned—but a review of several 1984 live recordings proved me wrong.) The other highlight that I will never forget is when Dave came over right in front of us during “Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love” and sang, “I been to the edge / There I stood and looked down / I lost a lot friends there, baby / Ain’t got no time to
fuck
around…” I’ll never forget the slight shock, which was then followed by a feeling of “We’re playin’ with the big boys, now!” It was practically the very next day that Mike and I started playing music together (we had both been learning guitar but never actually played together). Again, it’s almost thirty years later, and Mike and I still perform together. That’s how inspired we were that night.

But one of the greatest things is that my sister’s friend D’Lesa was a hardcore concert photographer of the every single rock show that came to Houston. She was not a professional and she simply used your basic point-and-shoot camera. But D’Lesa had a knack for getting up close and getting incredible shots—some of which have been published in this book for the very first time ever. Amazingly, she was able to capture of photo of Edward in Houston at the Summit that night from about the third row on the right side of the stage. D’Lesa used to make collages of all of her classic concert photographs and she literally cropped this incredible photo with a pair of scissors! However, the photo remains mostly intact and captures Edward at the peak of his classic bent-leg jump shortly after the beginning of the show. In fact, based on Ed’s fingering, the photo may have been snapped during “Unchained.”

Edward Van Halen at the Summit in Houston, Texas in July of 1984. Photograph © D’Lesa Plunk

The
1984
tour closed out in the U.S. with three sold-out nights in Dallas immediately following the three-night stand in Houston. Van Halen crossed paths with The Jacksons on their Victory Tour in Dallas on July 14, and Ed made a special trip over to their show at Texas Stadium to sit in on “Beat It”—his only public performance the song ever. The event was indeed captured on video. Eddie then raced over to Reunion Arena for the first of the three Dallas shows—the final U.S. shows of the tour.

The band went on to play the Monsters of Rock Festival at the Castle Donnington Raceway in Derbyshire, England on August 18, 1984. The final shows were in Stockholm on August 25; Winterthur, Switzerland on August 31; Karlsruhe, Germany on September 1; and finally Nuremberg, Germany on September 2, 1984.

That was truly it. It was the last time Edward Van Halen, David Lee Roth, Alex Van Halen, and Michael Anthony would ever perform together live on stage. Subsequently, everything finally unraveled.

CHAPTER 17 

Dave Steps Aside

Over the course of the
1984
tour, on his breaks at 5150, Ed, along with Donn as his right-hand man, had been composing and recording material for Cameron Crowe’s follow-up to
Fast
Times
at
Ridgemont
High
. Starring Eric Stoltz and Christopher Penn,
The
Wild
Life
hit the theaters in September. The opening credits list Edward Van Halen as the musical director for the film. Ed used tons of little pieces of his own music recorded at 5150 for the film, much of it would be recycled for use later on mostly during the Hagar years. Ed’s touch on the film, though, was brilliant. The movie didn’t fare as well at the box office as its predecessor, but it certainly has valid cult status.

The soundtrack only featured one song of Edward’s from
The
Wild
Life
, a funky six-string bass track called “Donut City.” Shortly thereafter in October, Brian May officially released the Star Fleet Project jams as an actual album. Edward had played first on Nicolette Larson’s album, then on “Beat It,” he recorded soundtrack music for one of Valerie’s TV movies, he recorded with Brian May, and he scored a major motion picture on which he had a solo song on the soundtrack.

What had Dave done outside of Van Halen? Nothing yet. But that was about to change. At the same time Ed was working on
The
Wild
Life
soundtrack, Dave, along with Ted Templeman, began production on an easy-going and fun four-song EP of classic cover tunes. Dave’s first solo single would be “California Girls,” for which he continued to improve upon his very highly visible video production prowess (along with Dave’s partner in crime, Van Halen lighting specialist and all-around key player Pete Angelus). Beach Boy Carl Wilson even contributed backing vocals on “California Girls,” and Brian Wilson himself has stated openly that it is his favorite Beach Boys cover that he’s heard. Dave had the idea of redoing some classic songs for a while now, and with the fall fairly wide open, he jumped right in.

In an early 1985 interview, Dave said, “I just wanted to put out some of my favorite tunes, something that had nothing to do with rock ’n’ roll. The only thing that held me back before was that the band was in full swing. Once I saw the opportunity to go after it, it took me about a month to put the project together and about four or five days to actually record it.” Dave also noted that Ted, Van Halen’s faithful producer, was a huge driver behind the EP. “Putting together the backing team was sort of Ted’s responsibility, since I’m not overly familiar with session musicians, especially the A Team of session musicians,” Dave said, “so he put all the very best characters together.” In addition to bringing in an actual Beach Boy, he also recruited Edgar Winter on keyboards and Christopher Cross to provide additional backing vocals.

Dave ended up approaching his
Crazy
from
the
Heat
project as a holistic promotional vehicle—although it didn’t necessarily start that way. It wasn’t just singles, it wasn’t just an EP, and it wasn’t just videos—they were singles promoted non-stop on MTV by videos which in turn boosted EP sales. The “California Girls” video, which hit MTV in early 1985, was followed by Dave’s most outrageous video yet for his version of “Just a Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody,” which was a big budget send-up of most of his mid-80s contemporaries. This new video featured an extensive introduction before the start of the music that was extremely entertaining and very funny. Dave’s image of himself as a leading video director was mirrored on the cover for the “California Girls” single—he is sitting on a beach with two video-editing machines in front of him. The single eventually went all the way to #3 on the Billboard charts.

Dave came out swinging publicity-wise—he was David Letterman’s first guest of 1985 on New Year’s Day. His megawatt personality was on fire. He spoke fondly of Van Halen while promoting his own album, but he lightly mocked Alex for “forgetting the concept” of the Van Halen videos.

Toxic Sessions and Selective Memory

Initially, Edward publically expressed what appeared to be great pride in Dave’s solo effort. He said, “I think it’s great he’s actually doing it… . He did four cover tunes… yet managed to project his personality through them… . I’ve heard it all and it sounds real good… . I don’t think he’s out to prove anything. I know it will be good for him personally and his own self-satisfaction when it takes off the way I expect and hope it will. I seriously want the best for it, in the same way he’d want the best for me or Al or Mike if we did anything outside the band.”

It only got more perplexing from there. Dave claimed that the only reason he made the videos for his solo record was because of the constant delays coming from the other side of the fence. In his autobiography, Dave noted that he and Ted waited endlessly on Edward. “I’m sitting with Ted Templeman outside of Ed’s backyard studio for four and five days in a row… . We would sit on this little bench for hours waiting for Ed to pick up the phone in his bedroom, knowing he was in there but he wouldn’t pick up,” he said. Dave quipped, “He had been up all night working on his own version of a mix for a song or working on a tune for one of Valerie’s TV movies.” In fact, Ed only worked on one of Valerie’s movies, and that was a full year before, so it was simply a bitter complaint from Dave based on the fact that Eddie had done so much work outside of the band. Dave’s comment about working on his own mixes revealed bitterness toward Ed over the newfound control he had gained by constructing 5150. Dave also reported that “Mr. Fingers couldn’t get out of bed for four days in a row.” Edward had also developed a large ulcer.

Dave said that the plan all along was to reconvene Van Halen after New Year’s, and they did. Ted Templeman confirmed that the new VH album was his “number one priority. All the time we were doing that EP, he kept saying, ‘Whatever you do, Teddy, don’t put any fucking guitars on there. I don’t want this to get in the way of Van Halen.’”

Dave recalled a conversation he had early in 1985 in which Eddie, in tears, claimed that Dave never told him he was going to release “California Girls.” Dave replied, “Well, yeah, I did, Ed. Why else would I spend that much money and recruit that much stellar talent?” Dave claimed Ed retorted, “Yeah, but I don’t remember… . We don’t remember you telling us about this.” Dave claimed it was a case of Eddie’s “selective amnesia” from heavy drinking. And Dave held the line: “I made sure—goddamn sure—that everyone knew. And I also knew that memories were short when diluted, so I repeated my plan, again, and again.” Dave also holds that his solo project all fell in an interim between the end of the tour and the start of work on a new album.

The sessions at 5150 were untenable once they finally got together to start recording the follow-up to
1984
. About the material, Dave said, “The music was turning morose. Probably because of individual personal habits more than anything else.” He also added, “My choice was to commit poetic felonies, wind up doing melancholy power ballads.
No
way
.” As far as the actual sessions, Dave noted that “the chemistry had turned rotten… . The arguments became more and more vehement, loud and venomous, with threats, hands balling into fists.” Dave also claims to have often asked what the timeline of the album was, only to be told repeatedly by Edward to give it a year.

This whole time, “California Girls” and “Just a Gigolo”—like the three videos from
1984
—were in heavy rotation on MTV (one even might have called it “Dave TV” at the time). Sensing an opportunity to take it to the next level, Dave started kicking around the idea of developing an Elvis-esque summer movie around the style of his five extremely successful videos. He very much wanted Van Halen to provide the music. After all, Prince had just had a smash with his
Purple
Rain
film. Dave developed a loose script, but had no company backing him at all. It was still just an idea. Eddie said, “He wanted to make a movie—and he actually asked if I’d write the music for it.”

But another critical issue came up yet again on the subject of touring. Edward had always thrown around the idea of touring less, and his idea was to do just two or three months of stadium shows rather than ten months of 15,000-seaters (of which they were routinely selling out three nights in a row on the
1984
tour). This was completely counter to Dave’s plans, which were to keep the show on the road as per standard procedure. Dave loved life on the road while Ed was getting tired of it and wanting to spend more time with Valerie and in his new studio. In March, Dave laid it all out during an interview on French television:

Dave: I like to dance, you know? I like to, you know, go out on the road, man, and go in front of a camera, and go in front of a microphone, go on the stage, go under the stage, I wanna be doing, you know? I says what’s the pay off, he [Edward] says, “Well, we don’t wanna go on the road anymore for these big six-month tours, you know, it’s been five, six, seven years.” You know? Like that. “We figure we’ll go play stadiums in the U.S. for two-three months…” You know? Stadiums?! You need to get 50,000, 90,000 people in there? Yeah, you make a lot of money but you can’t hear my jokes in between the songs. You can’t see my shoes that I paid $300 for, you can’t see the lights, you can’t see—it’s a rip-off. I mean in three months I don’t even get to the right weight. You know? What’s the story? I said, “You wanna do the soundtrack for the movie?” He goes, “No, the movie’ll probably stink.” Yeah, like the last three videos… . There will be a soundtrack for the movie, whether or not it will be Van Halen is really in question at this time.

Also that month, Dave went on
Good
Morning
America
. Kathie Lee Gifford’s introduction stated: “For the last eleven years, Van Halen has been a hugely popular, yet widely unheard of band, but the year 1984 changed all of that with the album called
1984
giving the group their first #1 pop hit and directing the spotlight squarely on the flamboyant face and physique of David Lee Roth.” Again, Dave spoke stridently about the band, saying, “I think Van Halen can go down to the beach with a sword in one hand and a torch in the other and still inject a sense of humor.” When asked why some people are so bitter within the music industry, Dave said, “I think a lot of people enter this business with a lot of problems already. It’s just they’re just couched and they won’t dish them—certainly won’t dish them up to you in an interview. They come in with a lot of bitterness, they come in with a lot of problems, and then only compound it through drug use, drinking, the stress in terms of hours and responsibilities that are heaped upon them, or that they heap upon themselves through excess, laziness, sloth, egotism…”

Maybe Dave Didn’t Actually Quit

In his autobiography, Dave said, “Somewhere around March, it came to a head.” According to
Rolling
Stone
, “[Ed] went to the singer’s twenty-room mansion in Pasadena, California, to settle matters once and for all.” Dave had bought his father’s house from him—the house with the basement where the band’s greatest tunes were born. “Ed and I hugged each other and cried at my father’s house,” said Dave. “I said, ‘Ed, your brother is up to two six-packs a day. Maybe if we get ourselves square, down the line we can reconvene, and I would love nothing more than that.’ I don’t think he understood. We went our own ways.” By calling out Alex’s drinking, he was likely hinting to Edward that alcohol had become a real problem for the band.

Ed’s version was that Dave said, “I can’t work with you guys anymore. I want to do my movie. Maybe when I’m done, we’ll get back together.” And according to Edward, his reply was, “I ain’t waiting on your ass… . See you later. Good luck.” Ed also admitted, though, to crying and being very upset.

Valerie came home from shooting a film to find Ed “totally defeated and bleaker than I’d ever seen.” According to Val, Ed said, “Dave doesn’t want to come back. I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do.” Later Edward said that he never thought Dave would actually quit. “The things he said were so weird,” Eddie said. “He asked how long the album was going to take, his attitude was, ‘Hey, man, I’ve got better things to do, how long is it going to take?’ I told him to count on about a year from starting point to album release—writing for a couple of months, recording for three months, and then all the red tape crap of mastering, album covers, T-shirts and all that. And he put it in the press like I just wanted to rot in the studio for a year.”

Yet another part of Van Halen lore is that Dave announced he was leaving the band on April 1, 1985—April Fool’s Day—when in fact all he did was tell
Kerrang
the familiar quote, “Eddie’s not happy unless he’s unhappy.” The truth is that there was no real formal announcement of any kind at that time. In fact, Eddie had said the thought Dave would “wake up.” The following month, on May 16, just six weeks after his last face-to-face with David, Edward sat in with the
Late
Night
with
David
Letterman
band. Letterman did a week of shows from Los Angeles—thus Eddie’s presence. Eddie’s hair was short—a very different look than the past seven years (he had shorn his hair after Dave departed). Edward played songs during the commercial bumpers including “(Oh) Pretty Woman,” “Sunshine of Your Love,” and “You Really Got Me.”