Edward Van Halen: A Definitive Biography (30 page)

You cannot please everyone all the time. No matter who sings, someone is not gonna like it. I’m sick and tired of being controlled, and I don’t want to control. I just have so much music and I want to put it out. Gary’s very talented and we work very, very well together… . I don’t care. If it touches one person, then it’s great. I don’t care if it sells millions, I don’t care if it sells a tenth of the records that we’ve sold. It’s not about that, it’s for the love of music.

Eddie also noted that if things ended up not working out with Gary, “That would pretty much be it for Van Halen. Al and I would just move on, score movies, whatever.” Ed even joked that he’d take up the tuba if the project failed.

The producer for the album was an odd choice. Mike Post was a golfing buddy of Edward’s who had originally been a musician (having performed the guitar part on Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe”) and later a semi-super-producer who wrote and recorded some of the most famous TV soundtrack songs of all time. Post had little to no rock experience, but Edward was far more concerned that they be able to work well together by Ed’s definition.

Edward recorded whenever—and where ever—inspiration hit him. Eddie had a special studio set up in the bathroom so he could record while sitting on the toilet, where he said “God gave him frequent inspiration.” Edward was pumping out so much material that they at one point considered making a double album, however, the logistics had already proven detrimental with the live album. Nevertheless, the album run time of sixty-five minutes is more than any two of the first six albums added together.

Going Down a Path

Edward took the lyric writing very seriously. It was the first ever time that a singer had handed over piles of lyric sheets to edit or to provide a spark for writing music. “I’ve been making music for 37 or 38 years and never has somebody handed me lyrics to work with,” Eddie said. “This record is the biggest milestone in my life because the lyrics came first, then the music. I finally had something to bounce off.”

Ed was lying in bed with Valerie one evening reading over lyrics given to him by Gary when he came across what became “How Many Say I.” Eddie said the lyrics struck him hard and hit a deep cord. He later hailed and/or defended the lyrics by saying that they were “not all about female body parts.” This one song is arguably the single greatest departure ever taken on a Van Halen album in the entire history of the band.

The song is a nearly seven-minute piano and vocal duet with Ed playing piano and Gary singing falsetto harmony. Edward sang lead vocals. The first minute of the song is a slightly haunting yet delicate bit of piano work not terribly unlike “Right Now” or even a John Lennon song. When Ed starts singing, you can immediately recognize his speaking voice within his singing voice. The talking-style vocal delivery is something totally and completely different for Van Halen. It was more along the lines of Tom Waits or Roger Waters with very little melody at all. In fact, it feels a bit like a Pink Floyd song.

It was Ed’s attempt to get very serious and very heavy. Unfortunately, an audience tends to take their seriousness and heaviness from someone that’s already in that line of work. Ed was not, traditionally, a “heavy” person. He was Mr. Charming with a “pretty boy smile.” His “brand” is not heady, but that was fine. This was his “OK! I’ve had it up to here with this whole fucking party thing!” He even slagged the classic Van Halen image, deriding the tag, in his words, that VH was “America’s premiere party band.”

With regard to “How Many Say I,” it is hard to imagine a single person saying, “Oh man, I really want to hear that again. Play it again. One more time.” It is surely scientifically measurable as the least re-listened-to song in Van Halen history. It is likely that the majority of people listened to the song once and never did again. The tune in and of itself could’ve been what sunk the album in some people’s minds.

When Ed sings about hungry children and the homeless, it simply does not resonate. There’s a line about denial that Ed really delivers with aplomb. As far as a vocal melody, there really isn’t one, and what is there is very limited in range. Gary’s falsetto does not mesh well with Eddie’s voice on the track, and the repetitiveness of the chorus approaches grating. Where the song is posted on YouTube, where everyone’s opinion is out there for the world to see, user AeroZach1029 posted the following comment: “Christ, those of you defending this song may need your heads checked. This is not only the worst Van Halen song of all time, this may be one of the worst songs I’ve ever heard in my entire life… . Just an abomination of both Van Halen and music as a whole.”

The album’s opener was a beautiful instrumental called “Neworld.” It was a classical piece with Mike Post on piano and Edward an acoustic guitar. The song is exactly what those wishing for an Edward Van Halen solo album should have anticipated. Musically, it is a brilliant workout between the piano and the guitar—Post truly did an excellent job. If marketed properly, it could have killed on the classical music charts (surely those do exist). Another instrumental on the album, “Primary,” fits the same EVH solo album category. The latter is a guitar workout with an extremely effected sound approximating a sitar with a supremely low bass sound.

“Without You” was the single. It was the first video and the first to hit FM radio. It had a slow, steady stomping beat in the “Poundcake” vein. Edward wrote the majority of the lyrics to the song. He said, “I wrote the first two verses and the chorus to ‘Without You,’ and Gary wrote the third.” Edward explained:

It is about the fact that we’re all living on the planet, and in order to keep the light alive for our children, we’ve got to get together. “I can’t do it without you.” I certainly can’t do it on my own. I picked up this book on Buddhism in Japan and it was so to the point of what we’re talking about: all things are impermanent. Ego isn’t real. “You” own nothing. If you surround yourself with impure people, you wind up with impure or toxic thoughts. Greed and being out of touch with what’s real in ourselves is the basis for so much of what we’ve screwed up. Humans have only been around for a relatively minuscule period of time, and look what we’ve done to this planet just in the last one hundred years. It’s like we’re sawing off the limb we’re sitting on. That’s basically what “Without You” is about.

The guitar and bass work was classic Van Halen style—incredible riffs, chord progressions, and lead guitar work. Once Gary’s vocals hit, there was an immediate reaction that each listener experienced. Either the combination worked for you or it did not. The main line in the chorus was “There must be some kind of way that we can make it right.” Quite unintentionally, it expressed a kind of plea from the band to its fans. Sadly, the song tried but fell flat. Reaction was almost immediate and universal. It did not work. The formula was not the same without David Lee Roth or Sammy Hagar.

As history would prove, Edward Van Halen is at his best when he works with David Lee Roth as his creative partner. Their combination is magic, and for an entire generation, Dave Roth and Ed Van Halen were their Simon and Garfunkel, their McCartney and Lennon, their Plant and Page. There’s no way of scientifically dissecting the unbelievable power they brought when they work together. The sum was much greater than the total of its parts. It could very well be that it was because of the fact that they went back so far together, they just had a common brotherhood-like bond that made them both better at what they did. They had put in all of that original hard work together as teenagers playing backyard parties and dance clubs. Ed and Dave had one of rock music’s healthiest competitions. When David Lee Roth and Edward Van Halen come together, they can do what very few people in the world can do, and that is command an audience with pure authority.

There are some that surely believe whole-heartedly that Edward was at his very best with Sammy Hagar, and on
5150
, at the least, there’s an argument to be made. But the balance falls to Dave. There’s no real reason for it, it simply is what it is. Back in 1996 when MTV was covering the news of Dave’s return the studio, Lars Ulrich said, “Seeing Van Halen with Dave again would be the ultimate… . And I hope they wanna do it. And more power to ’em and good luck.” Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains, who actually toured with Van Halen in the early 90s, said, “I love Sammy and I don’t know Dave. But I would have to say that I prefer Van Halen with Dave. I’m sorry to Sammy.”

Van Halen with Gary Cherone would be a short-lived, ill-advised venture.

CHAPTER 32 

The Crash

Production on
Van
Halen
III
was credited to “Mike Post, Edward Van Halen.” The album was released on March 17, 1998 and debuted at #4 on the
Billboard
charts. “Without You” did very well on FM radio and was #1 on the
Billboard
Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, specifically, from March 7 until April 11. The song “Fire in the Hole” went to #6 on the same chart briefly, but “One I Want” peaked at #27, and that was it. The album did not sell well. By July, it was completely out of the top 200.

I did like “Without You.” I never changed the radio when the song would come on, but that was possibly in part perhaps because I knew I was not going to purchase the album, so I had to hear it when I had the chance. I happen to be somewhat surrounded by more than half a dozen certifiable Van Halen superfans—both back in the day and still to this day. At the time, I was getting reports of bad news from the ones that had bought it and listened to the entire album, all sixty-five minutes worth. There were murmurs of “a terrible song” and “it just doesn’t work” being exchanged frequently. I did not buy the album. It was not because there was an “I Can’t Stop Loving You” on it. It was simply because I chose not to engage in what I was sensing was going to be an artistic failure. I just did not want it in my collection or in my head. My brother Brandon, on the other hand, ran out and bought the album the day it came out. He liked it. He was an extremely loyal fan.

That March, Edward gave an extensive interview to Vic Garbarini of
Guitar
World
. He called
Van
Halen
III
the most important album of his life. “I’m very nervous about going out on tour with this record, but that’s something I’ve got to deal with,” Eddie said. “I don’t know how many people are going to get it, how many people are going to be in shock… . People are either going to like it or they’re not.”

In Garbarini’s presence, Ed was off doing phone interviews with Japanese and Spanish language reporters. It was noted that the interviewers were essentially focused on the history rather than the future of Van Halen. “Karen Moss, Ed’s veteran publicist, is concerned,” Garbarini said. “She asks if he’s okay, it must be exasperating, she wants to make sure he isn’t depressed. Depressed? Ed puts his arm around her and promises her that he’s fine, no worries.”

Dave’s revealing autobiography
Crazy
from
Heat
had been released by that time. It was well-received and hit the
New
York
Times
bestseller list. It was one of the first ever texts to ever truly dish on Edward. When asked if he had read Dave’s book, Ed said, “Why bother? I know the guy better than he probably knows himself.” He did concede that he believed Dave was “an intelligent, well-read guy.”

The Ill-fated
Van
Halen
III
Tour

When I heard that MTV was going to air an hour of one of the very first concerts of the tour on May 1, I was ecstatic. I had already read that songs like “Somebody Get Me a Doctor,” “Unchained,” and “Mean Streets” were in the set list, and I was as excited as ever to see what it was like.

I was alone at home with the VCR rolling when the broadcast started. It was cool to see Ed with long hair again—he looked like the old Eddie. When they kicked into “Unchained,” I was fucking giddy. But when Gary’s voice—and his showmanship—kicked in, I was experiencing extreme cognitive dissonance, as extreme as it can feel when it comes to art. Half of it was brilliant and half of it didn’t work. I continued to give it a try as they plowed through other songs. “Why Can’t This Be Love” was interesting in that Michael and Eddie both sang lead on the second verse, with Mike taking the first two lines and Ed taking the last two lines. Ed’s voice was raggedy though, and he missed the vocal mark.

I was frustrated because I wanted Edward to succeed so badly, but I knew this particular lineup was simply not going to work, and it was difficult to deal with, to be honest. I was 26 years-old and had already been following him for two-thirds of my life. At the time, for the most part I just looked away and poured myself into my own music and my own band.

The Van Halen show that aired on MTV was filmed in Sydney on April 20, 1998. The tour started with two weeks of dates across New Zealand and Australia before an eight-show run in the U.S. in May. Ironically, the U.S. jaunt kicked off in my old hometown of Houston before heading to Dallas. Fan reviews were overwhelmingly positive with most praising Eddie for still being Eddie and giving Gary a pat on the back for a job well done. Some though came away saying they couldn’t get used to Gary’s voice. He was accused of having the wrong look and stage moves approximating a poor imitation of Freddie Mercury. After Dallas, they played in Chicago where Eddie sported one of his Wolfgang guitars with a Chicago Bulls logo on the body. The band continued on to Cleveland, Detroit, Boston, Madison Square Garden in New York, and the Spectrum in Philadelphia. They then traveled for a series of shows in Europe, but it would be a short-lived, cursed excursion.

On May 27, Van Halen played in Helsinki. On May 29 and May 31, they played two enormous festivals in Germany sharing the bill with Ozzy, Bad Religion, the Deftones, and others. They played one show in Berlin before heading to Hamburg, where the tour came to a sudden stop. During sound check, a piece of the ceiling at the arena crumbled and fell. The chunk of plaster hit Alex, tearing a muscle in his right arm and inflicting a debilitating bruise. With only four shows on this leg of the tour under their belt, the band was forced to cancel the remaining eleven shows due to Alex’s injury.

Alex was ready to go by July and the band played twenty U.S. dates in that month alone. However, one July show in Sacramento drew an alarmingly low 1,600 people. “I heard they played for forty minutes and Eddie walked off stage,” said Sammy. “I wasn’t there, but Gary told me after we became friends.” At a show in early August, Gary took a blow to the head from his mic stand resulting in a gash. Their August 12 concert in Montreal was canceled, and the band didn’t make it fifteen minutes into their set the following night in Boston before Gary lost his voice in front of his hometown crowd. Eddie and Alex reportedly asked the crowd if they would come back the following night. During the makeup show the following day, Hagar claims Cherone told him that Edward walked offstage and disappeared for a full thirty minutes. The band played solid through the rest of August and into early September before their September 6 show in Wisconsin was canceled. They played only three more shows when their Puerto Rico date on September 20 was canceled due to a massive hurricane. To top it off, the next three Brazilian dates were canceled reportedly due to conflicts with a promoter.

In early October, Van Halen played two shows in Vegas and one each in Alaska and Hawaii before a string of ten straight shows in Japan. At the time, no one knew that it was the end of yet another era of VH.

Sadly, it was the end of something much larger for me. My brother Brandon had actually become a successful commercial pilot. He and his wife Susan had been living in Los Angeles for several years, and Brandon worked at the Van Nuys Airport. He actually ended up befriending Phil Hartman (the voice of Waldo in the “Hot for Teacher” video—just another thing that made it such a wild friendship). Brandon even got to fly Phil’s plane to Catalina with Phil in the passenger seat. Brandon also went to his home and met his wife and his children. They were friends. When Phil was murdered by his wife in the summer of 1998, I was the first person that broke the news to my brother, and he broke down and wept on the phone.

On December 8, 1998, my brother went on a flight run and his plane was found eight days later underwater in Lake Okeechobee in Florida. Van Halen lost one of its most hardcore fans of all time that day. My life was never the same. Brandon was the one that really brought Van Halen into our household, into our lives, and into our brains. We were better for it. He only lived thirty years—but he packed them full of adventure, including having put his arm around Eddie Van Halen.