Edward Van Halen: A Definitive Biography (25 page)

In early July in Boston, Edward had a bug lodged in his ear which came close to causing serious damage. In a March 1995
GUITAR
interview, Edward told writer HP Newquist:

We were playing outdoors in Boston, and there were all these bugs flying around; June bug type things. I didn’t think anything of it, and after the show I went to the hotel and went to sleep. About six in the morning, I get this excruciating fucking pain in my ear. At first I thought it was part of a dream, and I slapped myself around the ear, and it stopped. So I think that I must be crazy and I go back to sleep. An hour later, same thing.
Aaaaagghh!
I wake up again. I’ve always had nasal problems, and I have this saline solution spray, so I spray it in my ear, thinking, ‘There’s got to be something in there!’ After I spray it, I whack myself on the head a couple of times, and out comes this bug almost an inch long! And it’s still alive! There’s this fucking June bug from my ear in the sink! I didn’t think anybody would believe me, so I put it in a matchbox and took it up to my brother’s room, and said, ‘Look what crawled out of my ear.’ It was amazing. Then the doctor said it was real close to my eardrum and could have actually wasted my ear.

Rolling
Stone
reported that the insect was a beetle. Also while in Boston, Edward met a brain surgeon with whom he had a running joke for about a year at the time. Ed quipped to MTV in early 1992 that playing guitar wasn’t brain surgery. Dr. Jim Schumacher, an actual brain surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, spoke out claiming that playing guitar was harder. Schumacher wrote Edward telling him he’d trade him a day of neurosurgical lessons for a guitar lesson. Whether they met before or after Edward had an insect lodged in his ear coming at his brain isn’t clear.

On August 6, at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in Houston, Ed’s limo broke down. Obviously in a care-free mood, Ed abandoned the car on the side of the road as smoke plummeted out of its hood. He started thumbing for rides from concert-goers leaving the show and made quite a public scene and caused a traffic jam. He was so heavily hounded by autograph seekers that he was eventually rescued by Michael and Sammy in their limo that was following nearby.

CHAPTER 28 

A Friend Lost, and Some Ugly Scenes

Tensions between Sammy and Eddie worsened during the last month of the tour centered around issues regarding Sammy’s divorce and the health of their manager of nine years, Ed Leffler. At the outset of the tour, Leffler was diagnosed with throat and lung cancer and his condition continued to worsen. He went to the hospital immediately upon the conclusion of the tour at the end of August in 1993. Also, Sammy was working to put out his own greatest hits album with new solo material.

Hagar’s divorce with his wife Betsy was being finalized and she played some serious hardball. For Betsy to give up all of her rights to any material that Sammy had written during their marriage, they negotiated a settlement for one substantial lump sum payment. Geffen lured Leffler who lured Sammy—they set up his deal so that the album would
exactly
pay for his divorce settlement.

Edward was not pleased. In just January of 1992 in
Rolling
Stone
, Sammy discussed the free makeup show that Van Halen finally played in Dallas. “For a while they were joking ‘You can go and do it by yourself’ and I said ‘Sure,’” said Sam. “Then they say ‘We’ll go, too. No solo shit.’ Because they know I’ve been chomping at the bit to do a solo show.” Edward’s point of view was to stick to the plan—
I
Never
Said
Goodbye
was to be the last Sammy solo album, period. It is also highly likely that Sammy had the money to pay Betsy, but jumped at the chance to knock it out lickety-split and conveniently making it his excuse to do some solo material. But it would put a competing product in the marketplace.

When Sammy went to meet with his lawyer to sign the papers on the deal, Ed and Al were sitting there in his office waiting to see exactly what it was all about. “They didn’t want me to do the album,” Sammy said. “They argued and argued. They said it would be bad for the band.” Ultimately, Ed and Al had to capitulate, but it was the first step toward complicating all of their business matters. This time, Edward certainly did not contribute in any way to Sammy’s new solo material.

The band closed out the tour with a three-night stand in Costa Mesa, during which, according to Hagar, “All Eddie’s bad-news friends showed up with the drugs and the women, and he was wasted.” During one of the Costa Mesa shows, Sammy played a solo-spot acoustic ballad for Leffler, during which Edward came on stage an adjusted his amplifier set-up seemingly oblivious to Sammy’s performance. “I’m out there doing this song and Eddie’s over there panicking, taking his equipment down behind me,” said Sammy. “[Edward was] fucked up out of his mind.”

As far as Ed’s level of intoxication, Vince Neil had already confirmed his drinking routine with Sammy during this leg of the tour. On top of that, an August 30, 1993
Los
Angeles
Times
article featured the following: “Singer Hagar was only affirming the obvious when, a few songs into the show, he told the near-capacity crowd that the antic, L.A.-based quartet had already been partying for hours with a horde of fans backstage.”

When Sammy’s spot ended, he came offstage and grabbed Eddie to confront him physically, but Ed Leffler—in his horrific condition—separated the two. After the encore, Sammy claims he was ready and waiting to throw down with Edward. Leffler forced him into a car and away from the arena.

The next day, Eddie apologized to Sammy. “He was like that,” said Hagar. “He would do the worst shit you could ever imagine, and the next day he’d be humble, whiny, crying and hugging you. It was easy to forgive this guy, because he went all the way to the ground with his humility. Next day? Whole different guy.”

Ed Leffler Leaves a Void

Sammy had big plans for his annual birthday party in October at the Cabo Wabo Cantina—then on its way to becoming a regular spring break-style destination draw. Michael Anthony joined him. A few days later, Ed and Al called, Sammy said, “[They said] if I wanted to see Leffler alive again, I’d better get right back.” Sammy called Leffler who assured him he was feeling fine, so Sammy chose to stay in Cabo and continue on with his birthday celebration.

Ed Leffler succumbed to cancer the following day, October 16, 1993. The funeral was held three days later. Hagar said, “I went to the funeral, and did a little speech for Leffler. When he died, they put a gram of blow and a bottle of J&B Scotch in his coffin. His friends were characters. They didn’t take it lightly or unlovingly, but they did this crazy stuff. That was the end of Ed Leffler.”

The whirlpool began almost immediately after the funeral. The band did not have a manager. Edward sensed it was time to take the reins of his band once and for all. Marshall Berle had screwed him; Noel Monk was Roth’s “puppet”; and Leffler, though beloved, came from Hagar’s camp. The search for a new manager was ultimately a no-brainer as it was right there in the family, but was arduous, stressful, and difficult all the same.

Sammy brought over Shep Gordon (manager of Alice Cooper) and Johnny Barbis (an all-around well-connected industry mogul). “We met with them,” said Sammy. “The brothers didn’t like them.” Via David Geffen, Sammy then suggested Elliot Roberts, manager for Neil Young. “The Van Halens blew him out in about five seconds,” said Sammy.

Of course, Alex was married to the sister of Ray Danniels, the manager of Rush for their entire career (still to this date). It was an obvious decision for Edward and Alex, but Sammy objected highly. “The second Ray Danniels entered the picture, everything changed,” said Hagar. According to Ray, “Sam was distant and made it clear that he had his own guy in Ed Leffler, who had managed him prior to joining Van Halen. He felt a loss of control.” Once again, Rush and Van Halen’s paths crossed in a curious manner.

During the dark period following Leffler’s death, Eddie made his way out to Neil Young’s Bridge School Benefit Concert with Sammy on November 6, 1993. The main act was a reunited Simon and Garfunkel. Sammy and Edward performed together just three songs. Sammy said, “We didn’t go over as well as you might have expected, but it wasn’t our crowd.” Edward ended up performing as a guest with Simon and Garfunkel on the classic “Sound of Silence” contributing a guitar solo. According to Sammy, after his and Ed’s performance, they went back to their trailer and did a few lines. Paul Simon’s trailer was right next to theirs, so Sammy struck up a conversation with him. Sammy said:

Paul Simon invited him to play on a song. “Do you know ‘Sound of Silence’?” he said. “No, I never heard of it,” said Eddie. Simon took him to the trailer and tried to show him the song… . Eddie couldn’t get it. I guess he was too wasted… . Eddie’s a great musician, but very methodical. He doesn’t simply jam those things.

During Simon and Garfunkel’s performance of the song, Eddie came out on to the stage to a burst of applause and played an improvised solo over a bit of music that doesn’t have a solo over it as originally recorded. Ed had twenty minutes to prepare to wing it. It was definitely a unique combination—Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, and Edward Van Halen. Sammy claims Ed “butchered the song.” Reviewer Dave Sigler said Ed provided “an OK solo.” Eddie did fine. It’s a complicated piece of music, it’s not a jam song—the chord changes are delicate. They asked for an Eddie Van Halen guitar solo over “Sound of Silence” and that’s what they got. The show finished with a jam of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” during which Edward and Neil had a guitar dueling session.

Eddie made it out to the Rock Walk in Hollywood to help celebrate Jimmy Page’s induction on December 7. Unfortunately, later that month would be one of Ed’s worst personal moments, only to be followed by yet worse.

The Nirvana Thing

On December 30, 1993, Nirvana—at the absolute peak of the music world—played the Forum, which was by now practically Ed’s home away from home. A highly intoxicated Eddie made his way backstage intent on confronting this Kurt Cobain fellow and to insist on letting the L.A.-native Edward sit in with the band. In an interview with The Germs and Nirvana guitarist Pat Smear (also with Foo Fighters) conducted by student journalists at the University of California, Santa Barbara, he recalled the incident in detail:

Pat: Can I tell you my Eddie Van Halen story? I actually met him. He was backstage at the final Nirvana concert at the Forum, which for me, was like, “Oh my God, I’m playing on the SAME stage as [Queen’s] Brian May!” I was dying. Anyway, Eddie Van Halen comes backstage drunk out of his fucking mind, and he started begging Kurt to let him play with us. It was so disgusting.

Interviewer: I heard he was running Mennen Speed Stick deodorant all over his face. Is that true?

Pat: Yeah [laughs]. Kurt had this deodorant, and he sniffed it or something like that, and it got on his face. It looked like he had cocaine under his nose.

Interviewer: I heard he was asking Kurt to let him come on stage and play “Eruption,” but Kurt said, “No,” and Eddie said, “C’mon, let me play the Mexican’s guitar,” referring to you.

Pat: I told Krist [Novoselic], I thought we should let him play with us. But he said no because we’d never get him off the stage. When I walked up to Eddie, he was talking to Krist. I just saw the back of his head so I didn’t know who he was. And Krist goes, “Oh Eddie, you haven’t met Pat. He’s our new guitar player.” Eddie turns around and sees me, but he doesn’t say hello or anything. He just says, “Oh no, not a dark one.” At first I thought he was kidding. But he kept asking me, “What are you? Are you like a Raji or something? Are you Mexican?” Then he kept saying to Kurt, “C’mon let me play the Mexican’s guitar.” I was horrified! . . . Eddie Van Halen is the perfect example for me of not wanting to meet your heroes
’
cause you’ll be disappointed. I hear he’s sober now. I blame that incident totally on the alcohol. I’ve done a lot of bad things when I was drunk, too.

Interviewer: I don’t think you’re coming from a judgmental place at all.

Pat: I was just shocked. I was thinking, “God, Eddie Van Halen hates me.”

A
Mote
magazine article provided additional detail, noting, “Filmmaker Dave Markey, who was videotaping the show that night, witnessed the entire incident and turned off his camera in disgust, thus saving future generations from witnessing this fiasco on YouTube.” In the Cobain biography
Heavier
Than
Heaven
by Charles R. Cross, Markey simply said, “It was surreal.” The book chronicled Cobain’s final reaction: “‘Actually, you
can
jam,’ he promised. ‘You can go onstage
after
our encore. Just go up there and solo by yourself!’ Kurt stormed off.” Cross noted that Edward was Kurt’s “one-time idol.”

The Edward Van Halen that showed up to the Forum that night was in pain. It wasn’t just that Van Halen was a fifteen-year-old band now and Nirvana was the top new act of the era, impeding on his turf, and Ed wanted to throw his weight around. The loss of Leffler, the strife with Hagar, and the current uncertain future of the band was certainly enough to push Edward to extreme states of anxiety and depression coupled with binge drinking. Ed may have, in fact, also been suffering ill effects from two extremely significant medical conditions that were not yet diagnosed.

Secrets Exposed

No one else but Edward and one other person knew about a secret he had been trying to keep quiet but had steadily lost control of. Feeling extraordinary guilt, Ed took some extreme measures.

In early 1994, Valerie overheard Edward speaking quite seriously on the phone in his private bathroom inside the bedroom of the main house. Valerie said:

Ed was telling a woman… that he was through paying her to keep her mouth shut. He was tired of being blackmailed, and if she wanted to go to the press with photos that proved they’d slept together, that was her decision. He’d given her enough money over the years.

She waited downstairs for Edward and, as Val said, “what ensued was an extremely unpleasant confrontation.” Apparently, exercising obvious poor judgment, Ed had allowed this woman—one Andi Remington—into their home, and into their bedroom over a period of two years, but had cut off the affair. Remington was ready to sell some of her horrifically embarrassing photos to a gossip rag. The photos were taken by Remington from inside of Ed and Val’s bedroom, and showed a nude Edward wearing only a guitar and holding that MTV award. Ed’s attempts to keep her quiet reveal a private panic and a desperate act to make an awful mistake go away.

Valerie left, but cooled off after a few days, and given Ed’s assurance that the affair was long since over, she decided for the sake of the family that they would try and work it out through therapy. For weeks and weeks in a row, they would both alternate sessions as well as take part in sessions together. “At some point, Ed, who felt awful, came clean about other affairs,” said Valerie, “including the wife of a guitar company executive, another woman in St. Louis—and other women.”