Edward Van Halen: A Definitive Biography (21 page)

Keyboard
World
?

In July 1988, Edward appeared on two magazine covers at the same time. His
Guitar
World
cover story was the contentious one with Bud Scoppa. The subhead “What Next?” on the cover wasn’t particularly positive. But his image on the cover of the premier issue of
Keyboard
World
was definitely different. The cover read: “The Big Switch? Edward Van Halen: The Making of a Keyboard Hero.” In the article, Eddie said, “I was so deep into getting a sound out of these things that I totally forgot about playing guitar. Sammy, Al, and Mike said, ‘Hey! We need some guitar tunes too you know!’ Because I had written four songs for the album—all on keyboards. I tend to go a little overboard when I dive into keyboards. I get tunnel vision and forget about guitar.”

One bizarre tidbit out of the
Keyboard
World
article concerned the storeroom at 5150. Writer Alan di Perna called the room “a true equipment arsenal. It also houses Eddie’s guitar collection—which is even more extensive than his keyboard collection—
and
his guns. He picks up an Uzi and holds it out with fatherly pride. ‘Y’ into guns? This one’s a bad motherfucker.’”

Evidence of the impact Edward’s new songwriting, keyboard, and production work showed up in the form of Billy Joel that spring. Joel approached Edward to produce his upcoming album
Storm
Front
. Ian Christie noted, “Drinking excessively, disorganized, and overwhelmed by Van Halen’s plans for a major summer tour, Eddie turned down the piano man.”

Also, in July, Ed gave one of his most revealing and direct interviews ever to Steve Pond of
Rolling
Stone
. He said, “I started working out about a month ago. I’ve been trying to clean up my act, you know, stop drinkin’ and everything. I went to Betty Ford and the whole bullshit, because it worked for my brother. He’s been sober a year in April… . My dad died a year ago December, from drinking, and he asked if we’d stop drinking and shit, and partying, and I tried to do it for him.” He also said his hospital stay for dengue fever had a pretty serious impact on him. “That kinda made me look at things a little different, imagining being there for an OD or alcohol, like my dad died from.”

He said that he had been sober for twenty days at the time of the interview and that he was starting to feel better. “The last ten years of my life, I don’t think I’ve been truly sober. I probably had half a heat going round the clock, all the time. I’d wake up, crack open a beer before I’d eat anything… . But if my brother can do it, I should be able to do it.” Valerie said, “He was never a mean person, but he’s gotten nicer…” For all of their well-known alcohol antics, Eddie claimed that Sammy and Michael Anthony weren’t really even drinkers. “They’re not alcoholics, let’s put it that way,” he said. “Alex and I are. We come from an alcoholic background and everything. We’ve got that X factor.”

OU812
was dedicated to Jan, the liner notes including “This one’s for you, Pa.” The tour to support the album would be monstrous, literally.

CHAPTER 23 

Monsters On the Road Again

When I first heard “Cabo Wabo” and the line “I’ve been to Rome / Dallas, Texas / Man, I thought I’d seen it all”—I immediately
knew
that Sammy was referring to their triumphant Texxas Jam show I had attended in the summer of 1986. Turned out I was right. Van Halen’s manager Ed Leffler teamed up with Texxas Jam promoter Louis Messina to take the Texxas Jam on the road and deliver it to the rest of the country.

The tour name, Monsters of Rock, was taken straight from the spate of similar festivals in Europe (and elsewhere), one of which Van Halen played in England at the very end of the
1984
tour. This was also the resurrection of the old idea to tour by playing stadiums, and therefore fewer dates. The lineup was the Led Zeppelin clone band of the day Kingdom Come, Metallica (on pace to a meteoric rise), Dokken (on pace to disaster), The Scorpions (the same Scorps you’d always gotten and you’d always get), and headlined by VH. The scope of the tour was enormous and the shows would last an exhausting nine and a half hours each. The
L.A.
Times
called it “one of the most ambitious concert packages ever mounted.” Running from May to July, it included twenty-seven dates in twenty-two different cities.

The show came to Houston on July 2, 1988, and, of course, my brother and all of our friends were there. It was a scorching hot Texas afternoon, and Rice Stadium was filled to the upper decks. To appease Texans, the show was co-billed as an unofficial Texxas Jam (the very last Texxas Jam was held the following year—after that, it was gone forever). The Scorpions played just before Van Halen. I suppose I felt a certain excitement during their set because of the 2,000 times I had watched The US Festival video from 1983 when The Scorpions immediately opened for Van Halen.

Now that I was sixteen, my testosterone-fueled buddies and I were tall enough and strong enough to brave the stadium floor and nothing was going to stop me from getting as close I possibly could to the stage on Ed’s side. We pushed, shoved, and cursed our way to within twenty to thirty yards of the stage directly in front of Eddie. Any further and we’d have been crushed.

The band came out slamming and played a great set—no P.A. problems. However, I will never, ever forget the look on Eddie’s face when one of his sequencers nearly failed. It was a first for Van Halen to play to recorded tracks—Edward had partly abandoned playing keyboards onstage live and nearly all of the keyboard and synthesizer lines were sequenced in. During one song, the sequencer cut out for at least five full seconds. Because of the fact that I watched Edward the whole time, I saw his face the moment it cut—he went from a smile to sheer horror in microseconds. Since Al was wearing headphones to play along with the track, Ed turned to him to give him that “What the hell do we do?!” look, and right about the same moment, the sequencer kicked back in in perfect time, as in it was only briefly muted and didn’t skip or start over. The band continued on and Ed looked back toward the audience after shaking his head in disbelief and giving the “Whew!” expression. Technology has its drawbacks.

I don’t recall Sammy’s voice having any problems at all, but the next night in Dallas, his voice was 100% completely gone and he could not perform. Without forethought, Sammy announced from the stage that the band would come back and play a free show in Dallas to make it up to the fans. “We cut the show short, and the brothers went nuclear on me afterward,” said Sammy. “They crucified me for that. It was three years before we made good.”

Honoring Les, and Taking a Break

During a break following the three-month Monsters tour, Edward paid tribute to Les Paul on August 18 along some other musical big wigs. Ed and Les had by now formed a genuine friendship—a humble apprentice and an equally humble master. Les’s presentation of Edward went as follows:

Les: What are you doing here?

EVH: It’s just a goddamn honor to be here. I wanna ask you a question. That little black box you have—yeah, yeah, yeah—where can
I
get one? [NOTE: The “little black box” was the very first ever magnetic tape echo device]

Les: [Riotous laughter] Listen, that was in 1944. Now a lot of time has gone by since 1944-1988…

EVH: I wasn’t even alive yet!

Les: Yeah—your old man was just thinkin’ about it, right?

EVH: Yeah! [laughs]

Les: Here it is, 1988, I would like to go down and sit in the front row and watch what you got to do now. And you’ve changed things a lot.

EVH: I just want to say one thing. That without the things that you have done, I couldn’t do half the things that I can do—now—including, the echo stuff…

Les: Well, forget your married life…

EVH: No, no, no… ! [much laughter] Hey, we wouldn’t be able to make records like we do if you didn’t invent multi-track recording.

Les: Thank you, thank you. [Ed kisses him on the cheek for a second time]

Eddie—go get
’
em!

Playing a Kramer, Ed performed a brilliant unaccompanied solo that started out with sound effects before he launched into “Cathedral”—which of course he would not be able to perform without an Echoplex device or similar pedal which Les laid the groundwork for. Edward then wrapped it up with a killer, and totally revamped instrumental version of “Hot For Teacher” with Jan Hammer on synth, Tony Levin on bass, and Bill Bruford on drums. After the performance, Les returned to the stage with Edward saying, “See what this guy started!” Les replied, “Fantastic… fantastic. And the people love you. Thank you very much—Eddie Van Halen, everyone!”

For the second leg of the
OU812
tour, the band played smaller venues as per usual from late September 1988 to early February 1989, wrapping with a short string of shows in Japan and Hawaii. For the opening act, they brought along Ed’s pet project band Private Life out of Shreveport. When VH returned to Texas, they only played El Paso and Austin, so we did not get a chance to see them a second time that tour.

At the behest of Sammy, who specifically requested an extended amount of time off, the band entered their longest hiatus period of their career thus far and would not enter the studio again until March 1990 and would not perform a concert until August 1991.

During the break in mid-1990, Edward indulged his increasing love of golf when he played the T.J. Martell Rock ’n Charity tournament. His playing partners were his golf instructor Ron Del Barrio, Steve Lukather, and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee. Ron christened them the “alcoholic foursome.” “The way we played, it should have been called the Jägermeister Celebrity Open,” said Ron. “Eddie says he doesn’t remember that day. I believe him.”

That year, my band members were all juniors in high school, and, as usual, the school talent show was our biggest show of the year. Proving my devotion, we played “A.F.U.”—note for note (video exists). However, the shift away from Edward as the premier guitarist of the day resulted in me being specifically targeted at school. In my Spanish class one day in eleventh grade, someone actually left a note on my desk for me to find when I got to class written on behalf of the other big guitar player at school. This guy was as good as Yngwe Malmsteen—and I am 100% serious when I say that. Turns out he was actually cool and had nothing to do with it. We ended up becoming friends and actually performed some Metallica songs together doing all those crazy tandem guitar lines.

The note on my desk said things like “Eddie Van Halen sucks” and “You can’t play shit without a stupid whammy bar” and “Yngwe Malmsteen and Tony MacAlpine blow Van Halen away,” as well as “You suck!” for good measure. Good lord, I was pissed. I’m not a big guy per se—and was certainly not a very big teenager—but I wanted to find out who wrote the letter and absolutely let them have it. I brought it home and showed all of my friends. But they all completely laughed it off and essentially told me to take it as a compliment, and to screw that—Edward was the king and those other guys were jokers. And of course, just like any ridiculous nonsense like that, it always has the opposite effect—I never wanted anything to do with guitarists like those bozos and it only strengthened my devotion to Ed and Van Halen and learning and performing their material to the best of my ability. I suppose I won out in the end. As a graduating senior, I was voted “Most Likely to Become a Rock Star.”

CHAPTER 24 

Filling Time and Getting Help

One of the first things Edward did during his time off in 1989 was to double the size of 5150. Having recorded three million-selling-plus albums there, he proceeded to knock out walls, add an isolated drum room, replace most of the equipment, and even added on a little pinball arcade. To match his personal style, he had a golf cart customized with red, white, and black stripes for getting back and forth between the studio and the main house.

Always having feared he’d be discovered by the city for his “racquetball court,” Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley called Edward on the phone one day. Apparently, an outfit known as the Hollywood Association of Recording Professionals had called for a crackdown on home studios, claiming they were hurting their business and that fidelity of recorded music was ultimately suffering. Turns out the mayor had called to hold Ed up as an example to counter the complaint and would thus not have to go about enforcing the zoning ordinance. Edward does not rent his studio out to anyone. “I like keeping it all to myself,” he said. “I don’t want people recording in here, putting a mojo on the vibe.” According to author Ian Christie: “For his celebrity testimony in this political squabble, he was given the proper zoning variance to legally make music at his house”—thereby acknowledging that the other three albums were recorded “illegally.”

Things for Valerie were not going well that spring, and she decided to take drastic measures to get her weight under control. She went to the Pritkin Center which, according to Valerie, is “the Santa Monica weight-loss clinic you checked in and ate three low-calorie meals a day based on the famous Pritkin low-fat, high-fiber diet.” Following a return trip from Aspen, Valerie checked in and Eddie went with her, suggesting that he might stop drinking again as well to show support. She said, “My hopes were dashed when I saw him bring a six-pack of Schlitz into the room.” In April, Ed was pictured in
Rolling
Stone
with a cigarette between his teeth standing alongside a cross-eyed Billy Idol. Ed was referred to as “Idol’s biker pal.”

However, Valerie said that it was a good period for them overall. The video for “Finish What Ya Started” won an MTV award, and they were nominated for three American Music Awards in the categories Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Artist, Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group, and Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Album. Although they didn’t win an AMA, the nominations were certainly nice (even though Ed likely bristled at the “heavy metal” tag). MTV even asked the band to give a go at its
Unplugged
series. Noting they were not an acoustic band, they denied the offer.

While watching Ed onstage accept the MTV award, Val reflected, “Well done. He’d worked hard, made great music, and earned the accolades. I hoped he found satisfaction in it. Such moments sometimes didn’t register with workaholics like Ed.”

Near the close of 1989, Ed was interviewed by
Guitar
World
and was named their Player of the Decade. The studio and the house were both still under construction. When asked what his wildest printable touring memory was, he named the Sheraton incident on the second tour. When asked what his favorite
unprintable
touring memory was, Edward said, “The chicks, man. The chicks on the road. That first and second year—oh, God, man! I can’t… [breaks down in laughter]!”

Valerie dove back into commercial television with the sitcom
Sydney
that started production that September. The following month, reflecting his growing interest in charity work, Eddie and Michael Anthony participated in the First Annual World Music Invitational Pro/Am Celebrity Golf Tournament in Dallas. In mid-November, Ed and Valerie were spotted out at the Roxy attending a gig by Steve Stevens’ Atomic Playboys.

Worst. New Year’s Eve. Ever.

However, the stress of her marriage, her weight, and her television show was too much for Valerie and she suffered yet another asthma attack in mid-December. To make things worse, she subsequently scalded herself with soup and had to return to the hospital for treatment of third-degree burns. On top of all of that, she noted that Ed had started drinking excessively yet again. On New Year’s Eve, Edward and Valerie went to celebrate the evening at the beach house in Malibu with her parents. In her autobiography, Valerie said:

Ed was drinking Jagermeisters and getting progressively drunker and angrier for no apparent reason. Pissed off at everyone, he decided that he wanted to leave. Everyone knew that he was too wasted to drive—everyone, that is, except for Ed. As he got up, I grabbed the car keys, and the two of us tussled as he tried to pry them from my hands. My dad stepped forward and yelled at Ed to take his hands off of me.

“Daddy, I’m OK,” I said.

“Stop it, Ed,” my dad ordered.

“Daddy, he’s not hurting me,” I said. “Don’t worry about it. I’m just going to hide the keys.”

As she was attempting to do away with the keys, Edward suddenly lunged for them violently and Valerie’s father Luke—who had boxing experience—clocked Edward directly to the side of his face. After things settled down, Ed went to blow his nose and, and according to Valerie, “the whole side of his face blew up. His cheekbone was cracked.” She took him to the emergency room. Upon hearing of the altercation, the doctor assured Edward that his face would be fine, but said, “You might want to check yourself in someplace and get help.”

On January 1, 1990, Edward once again checked himself into a rehabilitation facility, this time for twenty-eight days. With work on
Sydney
, Valerie was struggling with being an actress in a sitcom during the day and trying to save her husband and her marriage at night. After shooting, she would drive to the hospital to spend time with him. She said, “On Wednesday nights… I sped to the hospital for couples group. I would constantly check my watch on those nights, because I couldn’t be late.” She even started attending Al-Anon meetings which she could not stand. She said, “Supposedly anonymous, there was nothing anonymous about those meetings for me, and I feared people would talk about Ed and me. After a couple of meetings, I stopped going.”

As soon as Eddie checked out of rehab, Valerie checked herself in to Overeater’s Anonymous (OA). She said, “Looking back, it’s so transparent: I really wanted help controlling my life, not my weight. But the OA meetings were beneficial. I related to them much better than Al-Anon, perhaps because they were about me and my problems rather than Ed and his.”

Making great strides in his battle with alcoholism, Valerie began feeling more emotionally connected to Ed as she had in a long time. She said, “The proof was in the bedroom. We made love more over a month than we had in the past year.” Blowing whatever potential sex hype befitting such a high-profile couple, Valerie said, “Ed was a tender, caring lover. That’s what made it so painful when he we was off in his own world.”

For Valerie’s thirtieth birthday in April, Eddie bought her a white Jaguar XJE. Knowing that her favorite car of all time, though, was a Chevy Nova, Ed followed up by delivering one to her shortly thereafter. According to Valerie, “It was bright orange and all tricked out.” Ed was there for her when the network pulled the plug on
Sydney
during the filming of its thirteenth episode in May.

Valerie decided that she and Ed needed a new project. She said, “This one involves diapers, cribs, and formula. I figured we’d gone through the tough parts of marriage, a miscarriage, so why not finally get to the good stuff and have a baby? He agreed. It was time for us to start a family.”