Edward Van Halen: A Definitive Biography (44 page)

CHAPTER 41 

The Slow Journey
Back to the Top of the Mountain

On September 30, 2006, Edward threw a monster bash at his own home—referred to as The Gathering Party—to celebrate the release of
Sacred
Sin
. The party was attended by hundreds if not a thousand people. Hundreds of photographs and extensive video of the party exists. Edward was heavily intoxicated. There were pictures of Eddie with Janie as well as pictures of him with Joey House. Some close-up photos focused on those unbelievable bum boots he insisted on continuing to wear for at least three or so years by this time. At one point, someone captured 18 seconds of Ed playing the piano in the house. A small, well-dressed crowd had gathered around and Ed while he played some furious classical jazz on the piano that built up to an incredible peak before he actually semi-collapsed. He rested his forearms on the top of the piano and dropped his head down as if he was barely coherent. No one actually applauded, although lots were snapping photos during his performance.

He casually performed with a makeshift band on a stage in his backyard during the event. The band played classics like “Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love” and “Jump.” The performances were loose jams, not exactly an arena spectacle for 30,000 people. The performance of “Jump” was
extremely
loose with another player taking on the keyboard parts while Edward noodled, missing several notes along the way. His guitar solo for “Jump” was actually dead on, though. For the most part, he jumped around like he was pretty out of it, and his bent-leg jumps barely got himself off the ground and, even as low as he jumped, he had trouble landing with much grace.

Edward even treated the party crowd to a six-and-a-half minute guitar solo that started with “Eruption” and segued into “Cathedral” and then back again. However, for “Cathedral,” he wasn’t quite getting the sound he needed—the presence of the guitar was too low for the echo to pick up on the notes. So, he actually came to a stop and motioned in a funny way for the crowd to be quiet so he could hear. He started back into “Cathedral” starting and stopping twice. It just wasn’t happening. As he continued to solo, he eventually did get to a point where he was kicking some ass. But it was not a great performance overall. The truth is, obviously, that Ed was just playing in his backyard and didn’t think about or care if anyone filmed the party show with their camera or their phone. Unfortunately, in the modern age, that thing is going straight to YouTube and it is going to be viewed tens if not hundreds of thousands of times. Everyone that saw it had a reaction, and everyone that had seen him in his prime was concerned.

Just a week later, Edward returned to House of Petals for yet another jam session to promote Joey’s high-end flower shop. The bash was referred to as “House of Petals presents Harlottique Hosted by Eddie Van Halen.” Party attendees included several celebrities, most notably Ton Loc, who made a fortune of off sampling “Jamie’s Cryin’” for his song “Wild Thing.” This time though, Ed was accompanied by Janie who was becoming more and more of a constant companion. He had recently met Janie through Michael Ninn and she was involved in promotional work for
Sacred
Sin
. While in some matters, Ed tended to move glacially, in this matter, he did not. By the end of 2006, Janie had quit her job as an adult industry publicist with High Profile Media. Her new job would be to serve as Edward’s exclusive personal publicist in all matters related to media and promotion of any kind associated with Edward’s name. He put his trust into her 100 percent—fully, completely, and totally.

Janie Enters the Picture and Wolfgang Enters Van Halen

Doing publicity for people like Michael Ninn was only one small part of Janie’s career. She was actually a professional stunt woman and appeared in dozens and dozens of well-known movies and TV shows including
Spider
Man
2
,
The
Wedding
Planner
(as a double for Jennifer Lopez),
CSI
Miami
, and
Baywatch
. She was even a bit of a video vixen, appearing in an Enrique Iglesias music video. The timing of their meeting would turn out to be absolutely perfect. She was fifteen years Ed’s junior, but was already in her mid-30s when they met. She was one of the most significant catalysts for Eddie to get his life and his career turned around.

The other major factor was Edward’s son. Starting in the summer of 2006, Wolfgang and Eddie started playing together on a regular basis with Wolfgang picking up the bass and Ed playing guitar. Eddie said that the first time Wolf ever played bass with him was on “the blonde five-string bass with four strings on it!” Alex came over for a regular session with Eddie, and Wolfgang slipped into the studio quietly and started slamming away on the bass. Edward said, “Al said, ‘Hey! How are you playing guitar and bass at the same time?’ I got on the talkback and said, ‘Say hi, Wolfie!’ and [Wolfgang] went [in high voice] ‘Hi, Uncle Al!’ . . . Al went, ‘Who’s playing bass?’ I told him it was Wolfie, and it blew Al’s mind… . That’s when I asked [Wolfgang] if he’d like to be the bass player in Van Halen. He said, ‘Yeah, as long as I don’t have to do a certain thing,’ which I won’t mention.’” Wolfgang clarified and said, “I just don’t want to do a bass solo.”

Of particular significance, however, was that Wolfgang—much like is own mother publicly professed—had an overwhelming preference for Dave rather than Sam or any of the Sammy-era material. Chris Gill of
Guitar
World
asked Wolfgang, “When did you start listening to your dad’s recordings with David Lee Roth? What do you like about them?” Wolfgang said, “I love it for the same reason everybody else loves it. It’s awesome. It’s just good music. It lasts. It was made a while ago, and it still lives today.” Edward also recalled, “I’ll never forget when we were coming home from Castle Park [a family entertainment center]. ‘Hot for Teacher’ came on the radio and Wolf was going, ‘Who is that singing?’ I said, ‘That’s Dave.’”

The three Van Halens played every Wednesday and Saturday for prolonged rehearsals and jam sessions. After about six months of playing with no one on vocals, Ed gave an interview to
Guitar
World
in which he intimated that Dave had already been asked to come back and he was simply waiting on a response. “I’m telling Dave ‘Dude get your ass up here and sing, bitch! Come on!’,” Edward said. “As it stands right now, the ball is in Dave’s court. Whether he wants to rise to the occasion is entirely up to him, but we’re ready to go.”

This was no minor verbiage. This was
it
. That was the green-light-go for dreams coming true. I remember reading those words and losing control of my jaw. I could not believe it. Fortunately, Dave slightly hesitated, but didn’t take very long to answer the call. Ed recalled to
Guitar
World
:

EVH: We rehearsed probably six months before Dave showed up. We were almost over-rehearsed. We got to the point where we were goofing around.

Wolfgang: That’s when we started playing “Little Dreamer” in double time.

EVH: When Dave walked in it blew his freakin’ mind.

Wolfgang: That night was magical. That was the fist time I heard vocals with everything.

EVH: Dave couldn’t believe how good you are.

Ed and Dave on the Same Team

In almost no time at all, the
Los
Angeles
Times
reported on January 26, 2007—Edward’s 52
^nd
birthday—“Eddie and Dave, together again.” The article revealed that Dave, Eddie, and Alex would be reuniting, but that Michael Anthony had been replaced by Wolfgang Van Halen. Geoff Boucher wrote: “The band had been planning a splashy press conference in L.A. to announce the news, but word leaked out Thursday. There had been intense speculation that the reunion might happen after the announcement this month that the band would be inducted into the Hall of Fame in New York on March 12.”

Just a few days later, the band officially announced it.
Rolling
Stone
picked it up and reported: “Van Halen is Back: Van Halen Officially Announce Summer Tour With David Lee Roth.”

Los Angeles, CA—In what is no doubt one of the most anticipated moments in rock and roll, Van Halen officially announces their 2007 North American tour.

The tour will mark the first time since 1984 that original Van Halen front man David Lee Roth will perform with Eddie and Alex Van Halen along with new bassist Wolfgang Van Halen for 40 shows this summer.

Van Halen fans can look forward to legendary high intensity performances, featuring a set list of the most iconic hits ever produced by America’s premiere rock band.

Eddie Van Halen states, “I am very excited to get back to the core of what made Van Halen.”

“The core of what made Van Halen” is no small string of words coming from Edward. No matter what outside influences or reasons Edward personally had for finally burying the hatchet and partnering back up with Dave, the timing was right. It had been clear Ed wanted to play on a regular basis in some capacity with his son, and at almost sixteen, Wolfie was finally able to carry the weight and the responsibility. He wasn’t poured into the situation. It was a slow, careful, and deliberate process of incorporating him into the band. Their focus had been the material on the first six albums. The timing was finally right. At least it seemed for so for a few weeks.

Meanwhile, Sammy Hagar, the Buzz Aldrin of Van Halen, wasn’t taking it so well. He told the
Cleveland
Plains
Dealer
on January 6 that the only reason Michael Anthony wasn’t still in Van Halen was because the two of them were friends. He also openly scoffed at the idea of Ed working with Dave. “I don’t see it in a million years,” he said. “Dave’s gonna want it to be all about him. Ed’s gonna want it to be all about him… . I’ll probably just be sitting over in the corner, cracking up.” That same month, Sammy flapped his gums again about Wolfgang being in the band, casting some rather foul dispersions to
Billboard
. “That’s a lot of pressure for Wolfie,” he said. “Just ’cause he’s Eddie’s son doesn’t mean he can go out and play in arenas and perform and entertain an audience for two hours.” Sammy offered an alternative musical route for little Wolfgang. “I would love to see Eddie and Alex get behind Wolfie, with a kid of his age singing, and produce the record for him and help him launch a career,” he said. “I’d rather see it go that way than come out and say ‘Wolfie’s the bass player in Van Halen and maybe singing, too.’ Van Halen’s got way too much history to have that put on him.” Sammy and probably millions of other fans obviously didn’t think about what impact their words would have on a fairly young Wolfgang. The charges of nepotism in the face of pure Van Halen family talent were absurd. But they were also hurtful. Additionally, Edward had openly confessed from the time Wolfgang was five that he couldn’t wait to play with him some day. He reiterated that Wolfgang wasn’t forced into music or to take lessons. He simply grew up surrounded by music and absorbed it, the same way Edward had with his father. Wolfgang had
it
. Yet the hardcore Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar fans were greatly displeased.

Dave finally made a public statement to
Rolling
Stone
which ran on February 15. “Eddie and I wrote the songs, every note, every syllable, as if we invented a language that only we can speak… When you speak a language that you both created, it’s natural to go, ‘I know you.’ So it was very easy. There wasn’t any stumble at all. I just showed up, and twenty minutes later, it was the usual, ‘How’s the wife, how’s the kids, let’s play.’ When you’re born to do that language, you speak it naturally. I never forgot it.” Dave said the chemistry during their rehearsals was “combustible.” They had taken a now classic photograph that was intended to be the front cover of the very next issue of
Rolling
Stone
. It was incredible image. A tall, long-haired Wolfgang; a mischievous Dave chomping the handle of his sunglasses; a tough-looking Alex; and a long-haired Eddie with his sunglasses on his nose and beanie hat on with a huge smile. Tour dates were just about to roll out when things got sidetracked again, almost as if on schedule.

“Al made it clear he didn’t want to tour unless Ed was sober,” said Valerie. She also said that Wolfgang came home very upset after a photo shoot—possibly the
Rolling
Stone
cover shoot. “He’d also run out of patience and said something like, ‘That’s it. I’m telling Dad I’m not doing the tour.’” Considering his career and his relationship with his son were potentially on the line, Ed made the best decision possible.