Edward Van Halen: A Definitive Biography (47 page)

DLR: Yeah, there’s a high standard, here. You know? We could waddle out there. We could kind of, uh, halfway do it. But like I said—a band like this coming after an absence of this amount of time can get away with a lot if you do one tour. That’s not our ambition, here. This is not like The Police. The idea is that this will continue on and on and on. And that, uh, you gotta get a good start with that. We’re all together with this, whether it’s with Ed, or anything else that involves any one of us. We really have reformed this team like a brother team that is
never
was before. I think you hear that in my voice, here. And we think we got it right this time. You come and judge the performance
harshly
.
Please
. I beg you. Come on down and see.

EVH: None of us wanna give you less than our best. And we are at our best. [He nods.]

DLR: Thank you for joining us, God bless you all!

Following the press conference, the guys moved all their microphone stands out of the way and posed, arms around each other, for nearly a minute while a thousand flashes peppered the band. The press corps yelled out for the guys to remove their sunglasses. Eddie and Wolfgang took theirs off, but Alex and Dave did not. After multiple yells for them to remove their glasses, someone yelled, “Take off your clothes!” to much laughter. With that, “Jump” came over the speaker system, and the guys left the stage. On their way off the stage, Wolfgang patted Dave on the back.

Now to hit the road. Edward would struggle with the routine of being on tour. It would be a glorious ride, but with one rock big enough to temporarily block the entire road.

CHAPTER 42 

Almost Too Good to Be True

The resurgence of the Edward and Dave era of Van Halen landed like an atomic bomb in North Carolina on September 27 in Charlotte and two days later in Greensboro (their traditional opening city). Opening night in Charlotte was a huge triumph for Edward and the latest incarnation of Van Halen. The footage is there—Edward was completely back on top of his game. This latest incarnation of the master himself was enough to make anyone reflect upon their age. Eddie was 52 years old at the time, and he was performing cut and shirtless, with just cargo pants and tennis shoes. He was rocking, jumping, soloing, and singing like the flood of a creek after a drought.

The band launched straight into their set of classic material with “You Really Got Me,” almost as if to get it out of the way while simultaneously reminding the listener of just exactly what it was they were seeing. By the time they hit “Dance the Night Away” about a half-dozen or so songs into the set—it was clear that this monster had a life of its own. The middle section was lengthened with some beautiful guitar work by Ed, but then the band brought the song down very low. Dave sang out the first line: “Dance the night away…” The entire crowd chimed along in unison singing along spontaneously. It was an absolutely beautiful moment. A simply perfect performance. Ed’s individual solo spot was dead on. His delivery was fantastic and fluid. The beauty of the conclusion of his solo was that old, familiar three-ring circus voice coming up from behind: “Ladies and gentlemen, Edward Van Halen!” They were simply firing on all cylinders. Wolfgang’s performance was at a level where no one should have missed Michael Anthony at all.

Rolling
Stone
reacted to the first show immediately with the headline “Gods of Rock Deliver the Goods: Van Halen Kick Off Reunion Tour.” The review was exceedingly glowing, even referring to
#70
Edward Van Halen as a “guitar god” and focusing on Dave’s Olympic-precision performance with awe and due deserve, the reaction of a common fan best summed up the impact that their opening night performance had on the public. Weeping fan Matt Caramella said, “Did this really happen? . . . Man, that was like a fucking dream.”

The dream continued on two nights later in Greensboro—as familiar turf as Van Halen has in the United States. When Edward said they didn’t want to give any less than their best and reassured everyone they were at their best, all he had to do was continue to prove it. The second show of the tour would become legendary. Your classic hand-drawn cartoon came back in updated digital animation in full stereo sound. By 2007, essentially every single show of the tour would be taped one way or another and posted to YouTube. In the 21
^st
century, your performance is essentially broadcast immediately and the microscope was on Edward and Dave.

While the first twenty-five songs of the set went perfectly without a hitch at all, “1984” came in followed by the pre-recorded synth backing track from “Jump.” The moment Edward came in, it was painfully obvious that he had a guitar tuned down a half step to E flat rather than in standard 440 tuning [the majority of all Van Halen songs are tuned down about a half-step, but a keyboard song, like “Jump,” is always in standard tuning]. Edward attempted to make adjustments throughout but the guitar was so painfully out of tune against the backing track—it was simply a half-step off. He had the wrong guitar. If he had the correct guitar that was properly in tune with the backing track, that would have been great. But it was the wrong guitar, and it was painfully off and left some to wonder why Ed didn’t simply swap out guitars given how overtly obvious it was that the tuning was off. It was a horrible way to end a 99.5% perfect performance. Just a few nights later in Philadelphia, the set-closing performance of “Jump” was spot on and flawless. At the end of the song on October 1, Ed improvised a brilliant wah-wah solo over a spot where it had never existed before, and it was triumphant and masterful. The October 12 “Jump” performance in Toronto was also excellent and ethereal.

It turned out quite a bit of the set would require delicate interplay with prerecorded backing tracks, especially in “The Cradle Will Rock” and “I’ll Wait,” in addition to “Jump.” During “The Cradle Will Rock,” Dave completely melted the crowd with what would become his oft-repeated refrain of “Have you seen Wolfie’s grades?!” At the tail end of the song on October 1, Edward masterfully drifted briefly into “Smoke on the Water” before kicking the famous “wooshing” sound of “Cradle” and slamming it for a tight ending.

One of the biggest highlights of the early shows was the interplay between Edward and Dave on stage. They came across as so genuinely happy and sincere and loving toward each another. The only thing that could equal that was the interplay between Eddie and Wolfie on stage especially during tunes like “Romeo Delight.” To see Dad come over and muss his son’s hair on stage was one hell of an extra treat for the crowd. Occasionally they would get down on their knees in front of each other and pick at each other’s instruments just to get each other to laugh. It wasn’t unusual at all for Ed to grab Wolfgang by the neck and give him a kiss on his head.

Getting Angry and Getting Lost

On November 3, Ed was officially on public bad behavior. He had a stage monitor that was either not working or not mixed correctly. Ed lost his mind with anger. He gestured off-stage with fury, pointing at and screaming about the monitor in a huff. Finally, Edward had enough. He took his guitar off and he picked up the stage monitor. He carried it toward the front edge of the stage and hurled the monitor down the steps just as the song ended. It was not pretty at all. There is some irony here. Long ago, during Dave’s Jungle Studs travel days, he said that all of his hardships taught him not to sweat the small stuff. In fact, he specifically once said of such incidents, “‘Hey, man, the monitor just blew up.’ That’s all right. I remember the beat.” At least “Jump” was in tune for the most part. But all in all, he was not happy that evening.

By November, video surfaced of Ed getting lost in songs. The first such incident was during “Hot for Teacher” in Uniondale. Ed was behind Wolf and Alex, missing notes, and having gear trouble. At one point, he gestured to Dave for guidance upon which Dave belted out for the whole crowd to hear, “I think we’re gettin’ ready for the final outro…” Video was also posted showing Ed getting lost during the funk breakdown/solo/breakdown part of “Mean Streets” and giving an overall not-there guitar solo.

The show at a sold-out Madison Square Garden on November 13 is truly legendary. Edward’s solo spot was amazing and flawless and he brought it 10,000%. During “Cathedral,” he was so in the zone and the crowd knew it that Ed broke into a huge smile and nodded to the crowd as if to say, “Yeah, it’s happenin’!” The crowd reaction during his solo was amazing and thunderously loud, again rounded out with Dave’s classic carnival barking, “Ladies and gentlemen, Edward Van Halen!” “Panama” sounded brand new. During the middle breakdown, instead of going into a contrived, nonsensical diatribe about living for “right now” etc., Dave got down to business, taunting a woman in the front row, “Don’t stick that tongue out at me unless you intend to use it, hot stuff!” Dave, Ed, and Wolf all stopped and went extra long on the “now” in “Ain’t no stoppin’ now” a Capella. Amazingly, it is actually an improvement upon the song’s original arrangement.

At the Garden that night, Edward’s vocals were amazingly strong on “Unchained” and complemented Wolf’s and Dave’s perfectly. The best part was the classic breakdown of the song when Dave teased Wolf saying, “You’ll get some New York leg tonight for sure, Wolf! Tell us how you do!” Wolfgang took to the microphone, and the entire band completely stopped. “Dave… ?” Wolf said and paused about three seconds before following it meekly with, “Can you give me a break?” Dave gave the crowd his huge open-mouth smile and the crowd roar surged even higher. Of course, Dave came back in screaming, “One break, coming up!” They finished the song strong, with Ed just amping up his solo and taking it extra long through the outro while Dave taunted him like a chief summoning fire. Dave went to a rare symbolic stage gimmick for the band—two gigantic pieces of chain that he held high and then dropped to the stage during the very end.

Just a week after the New York City show, the band played the Staples Center in Los Angeles—the modern-day equivalent to the unfortunately outdated Forum. Amazingly, things were just getting better. The November 20 performance of “Unchained” is damn near unparalleled in Van Halen history [I invite you to look up the video]. The majority of the performance is a spot-on, album-version recreation. Edward’s guitar solo is as excellent and extraordinary as you are ever going to hear in your entire life. His performance during the “Unchained” outro induces goosebumps. They were peaking. It was unbelievable. It is an amazing digital age in which anyone can now go and watch hundreds if not thousands of individual performances by Edward and Van Halen at their fingertips—but it was amazing when it was happening. When the night was done, the rush was on to upload the videos to YouTube for the whole world to watch damn near each and every performance. If only I had the digital camera I do now back in July of 1984—now that would have been something.

Van Halen had a strict every-other-day booking set-up. Rarely if ever did the band play on back to back nights. By rule, there was essentially a one day break between each and every show. This tactic seemed to work well for the band as they wrapped up the second leg of the tour with back-to-back shows at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas at year’s end. Eddie and the band were firing on all cylinders throughout all of November and December—save for the accidental “Jump” butcher, Ed’s monitor fit throwing trip, and getting inexplicably lost in “Hot for Teacher” and “Mean Streets.”

The next few months would be beyond glorious and a bit painful. But the pain would be over soon. And there was still plenty of ass kicking left to do.

CHAPTER 43 

Glory and That Rock in the Road

Before the band returned to the road in late January, the second leg of the tour, Edward and Wolfgang gave an interview to of Chris Gill of
Guitar
World
for an article that was eventually published in the April 2008 edition of the magazine. The interplay between father and son in the interview was so pure and charming. It was
Leave
it
to
Beaver
with f-bombs. Ed was like a stoner Ward Cleaver and Wolfgang was a long-haired Theodore.

Wolfgang emphasized how the approach to his joining the band was very organic and natural. “We didn’t lay out a plan or anything,” he said. “It just fell together. We played together a good four months without any vocals, and we looked at each other and knew it was awesome.” Ed followed it up with a quote from Dave: “It’s like Dave says, ‘Three parts original, one part inevitable.’ And it was inevitable.” He joked that he joined on bass since it was the only open slot. In response to critics such as Sammy Hagar, Edward said, “Before we went on tour a lot of people were saying Wolfgang got the gig just because he’s my son. But after that first gig, forget it. It’s just hands down, hands up, hands sideways: he’s a musician and a Van Halen.” Everyone that went to the 2007-2008 shows knows at least two or three fellow fans that said, “It’s just not Van Halen without Michael Anthony.” That is common knowledge. Most people probably don’t realize Wolfgang heard the same thing, too, over and over again. But his level of talent—especially in the eyes of his father—was easily that of an equal and he said so directly. “Every now and then when we’re on stage playing, I look at him and go, God, that’s my son!” he said. “He’s only 16, but he’s not 16. He’s an equal. Age doesn’t matter.”

In the interview with Chris Gill, Edward summed up the situation at the time. “For me it’s the fact that I get to play with my son, my brother and Dave,” he said. “Every night is special.” And my special night was right around the corner.

San Antonio and Dallas were the second and third shows of the third leg. It was something I had been looking forward to since I was twelve in 1984. Almost 24 years had passed—twice as many years as I was old at the time.

The San Antonio show on January 24 was absolutely fantastic. One thing that was very obvious, however, was that Edward had either a bandage or a wrap of some kind around his left hand. It did not seem to affect his playing at all, but everyone noticed and wondered what it was.

I have to admit that I was so thrilled and astounded that my reaction during the show in San Antonio was more that of numbness. I was extremely sedate during the show with a case of a blown mind. I also knew that just two days later, we would be seeing them again in Dallas at Reunion Arena. That concert would be sold out, and the band would even come back to Dallas later in 2008 for a second show at the same enormous venue.

For the Dallas show, I figured that there was at least a lingering possibility that this show could be the last I’d ever see with Dave and Edward on the same stage together—I was just fearful, even though I was eternally positive for Edward’s future and the future of the band, which seemed to be going completely in the right direction after so many years of drifting. My best friend Michael, with whom I had seen Van Halen with in 1984, couldn’t make it to the San Antonio show, but he did make it for the Dallas show.

It was winter in Dallas on January 26, 2008—Edward’s 53
^rd
birthday. Michael and I sat next to each other in pretty much the nosebleeds of Reunion Arena. I brought with me our original 1984 tour ticket stub and we laughed about it before the show started. The lights went down, up came the rumbling thunder of music from the stage, and into “You Really Got Me” they flew. I had that shot-out-of-a-cannon feeling again. It was fantastic. Song after song was masterful. Ed’s hand was still bandaged, but none of us could figure it out—if it was a wrap or a wound cover. Again, it made absolutely no difference in his playing at all, so that made it even more perplexing, because Edward Van Halen was on fire on the evening of his 53
^rd
birthday in Dallas, Texas.

“Romeo Delight” was the tune that Dave had something in mind to acknowledge Eddie’s birthday. Nevertheless, Wolfgang jumped up to the microphone and said, “Let’s sing Eddie ‘Happy Birthday!’” The crowd cheered briefly and Dave turned to Wolfgang and said, “Shut your fuckin’ mouth, Wolfie. Play the song, Eddie!” Edward started “Romeo Delight” and played one single time through the riff and stopped as if he wasn’t sure what exactly had just transpired. He actually paused for nearly ten full seconds before Dave said, “Play the song on the guitar!” and Edward went directly back into “Romeo Delight,” restarting it from the beginning. They launched into a rendition of the highest order of badass, it was straight out over the top. Ed and Wolf’s background vocals were ridiculously spot on. Edward’s guitar solo was absolutely off the charts, completely and totally. The breakdown was astounding with Wolfgang taking some of the tapping parts on the bass in mini-solo of his own.

As the breakdown reached its lowest ebb, Dave started into “Happy Birthday,” prompting the entire crowd to sing along. “Happy birthday, dear Eddie,” Dave sang, “Happy birthday to you!” Ed stood there smiling, just soaking it in. Afterward, Ed and Dave embraced, with Edward giving Dave his trademark kiss on the cheek. Wolfgang stood close by clapping. Edward got on the microphone and said, “You get to make a wish, right? I want you all to have a great motherfuckin’ time tonight!” With that they launched back into “Romeo Delight.” Just before the “Feel my heartbeat” refrain, Dave said, “You see, Wolf, I just couldn’t sing ‘Happy Birthday’ in the other goddamned key!” Wolfgang walked over and laughed. No harm done. They segued into a jam of “Magic Bus.” You will rarely find a single performance of “Romeo Delight” better than what happened in Dallas on January 26, 2008. It was an eight-minute exercise in rock music entertainment excellence. It was as transcendent as a rock performance could possibly be. I saw it and I documented it. It was
crazy
good. The whole train though was also less than a month from derailment.

The Amps Came Crashing Down

By the time the band hit Tampa on February 18, Ed’s solo segment began to deteriorate. He spent just as much time making feedback and echo effects as he did actually playing. He wasn’t able to get his timing right on “Cathedral” at all. He came to a stop and went to the microphone and said, “Who’s out there? Who’s out there at this point?” He continued on into some of the blazing parts of “Eruption” but was mostly improvising and to the hyper-critical observer, he was a bit all over the map. It wasn’t his greatest performance, and there may have been good reason.

On February 20, in Sunrise, Florida, at the Bank Atlantic Center, the show seemed to be going well. “Everybody Wants Some” was superb. Ed and Dave’s engine sound competition was classic. Dave would use his voice to imitate a car engine and Edward would use his guitar. Dave would give up, saying “I can’t beat that.” During the final chorus, Edward got up on Wolfgang’s microphone with him as they both belted out “Everybody wants some!”

But behind the scenes, things were falling apart. Fans reported that Wolfgang would not engage with Eddie at all during the show despite a dozen or more attempts by Ed to get Wolfie to loosen up. Clearly, things were off between the two. The ending of the concert was another one of the ugliest moments in Edward’s onstage history. At the end of “Jump,” Edward threw his guitar to the stage and then wandered around for nearly twenty seconds before finally saying “thank you” to the crowd. For the customary band bow at the end of every show, Edward had to actively reach for Wolfgang’s hand. Wolf was hesitant to give him his hand, period. But he did and they bowed. Immediately thereafter, Wolfie practically ran off the stage. He was followed by Al, but as Ed left the stage, he violently rocked Wolf’s amps back and forth until a stack of cabinets collapsed to the stage. Smooth as ballet, Dave just casually stepped back as several hundred pounds of amplifier fell about six inches from his feet. Something was very wrong. There were reports of a “furious backstage bust-up with his son.”

The next move was a difficult one, but absolutely critical. The tour had to be postponed. Edward was clearly tired of having to address his alcoholism publicly and acknowledged that in his statement regarding rehab back in March of 2007 when he said, “It was an intensely personal thing that I’m not really comfortable talking about right now.” This time, the word rehab was banned from the discussion of Edward’s status at that time. On March 3, 2008, The
Associated
Press
carried the headline “Van Halen Postpones Shows, Eddie Undergoes Medical Tests.” At first, only four shows were postponed, but just a week later, it was announced that in fact seventeen shows would be affected and the tour was put on hold for a month. And just one week after that—all seventeen shows were rescheduled. There was really only a brief two-week window or so that left fans to scratch their heads, but once the postponed shows were rescheduled, everyone realized that this was just temporary and that the band would indeed be back in action in short order.

During the hiatus, Valerie chose to tell
People
that Eddie was in fact still sober and not in rehab. Even though she seemed to be proactively denying what seemed to be so obvious, she refused to go one level deeper. “He’s being proactive about his illness,” she said. When asked to elaborate, she pulled back, saying only, “I don’t think it’s my place [to comment.]” However, Valerie released her well-received autobiography
Losing
It
on February 25—just immediately before the tour was derailed. Other than Dave’s 1996 autobiography, Val’s book was the only other publication at that point in time that truly revealed what it was like to live with Edward Van Halen. Her book hit the best-seller’s list and while many readers identified with her issues of weight loss and self-perception, another great many were shocked at the descriptions and depictions of Ed at his worst. However, Edward was reportedly fine with the book, just the same as he was fine with Dave’s book. He didn’t make any big waves to stop the publication or make counter-claims in any way whatsoever. The timing of his derailment (February 20), however, coincides neatly with the release of Val’s very revealing book (February 25).

Wolfgang was also putting a spin on things when he appeared at Nickelodeon’s Kid’s Choice Awards on March 29. He told a
People
reporter, “Don’t listen to the rumors—he’s doing great—seriously!” Medical tests, ailments, illness (
People
even called it a “mystery illness”)—it seemed like an obvious spin and twist using semantics. Ed had been so public and so open about his struggles before, even though he had said he wasn’t really comfortable talking about it. By this time, it is simply likely that enough was enough. Everyone knows he is a struggling alcoholic. The tour got derailed for a month. The picture was already painted before anyone could even open their mouth.

Dave gave a brief interview on March 27 to Rocco G, a fashion reporter who caught up with Dave at the Mercedes Benz LA Fashion Week Fall 08. Rocco asked, “So how’s everything going with the music? What’ve you been up to?” Dave’s response was funny, nonchalant, and positive. “Oh, it’s going superbly,” he said. “We have an unexpected break in the action here but that’s kind of what you pay Van Halen for. It’s like NASCAR: are you here to see the winner or the crash? Don’t answer—we have both! And we’ll be starting up our engines again in a couple of weeks.”

At this exact same time, Edward and Alex finally sold their mother’s home. The house was co-owned by the brothers, the same home they had purchased for her after her pelvic injury back in 1987 after Jan had passed away. It had been three years since Eugenia passed, but the brothers still had not sold the house. One could argue that the last link to their parents and their past and their upbringing was finally gone with the sale. Ed had said the house was only two minutes away from him and that he often slept there overnight. It was finally time for Edward to permanently move into the future and forget about the pasture—as Dave would put it. Just like his guitars and amps and effects, Edward had to ultimately rebuild himself his own way. In the end, it doesn’t matter how many times it takes someone to see the light, just so long as they finally see it. It is no small postulate that this was
it
.

A Supreme Rock and Roll Machine

Before the tour resumed in Reno on April 17, Edward and Janie were caught by paparazzi at the airport on their way from L.A. to Nevada. Most of the pictures were simply, “Hey, here’s me and my girlfriend going to the airport just like everyone else.” But one picture highlighted the ridiculousness of the TSA during the post-9/11 era. There is a photo of Edward with his shirt pulled completely up revealing his stomach and chest, his hands up, and the blue-gloved TSA agent literally unbuttoning Ed’s jeans! It was one of those caption-contest type photos. But it is possible Ed is on everyone’s list because of the “gun thing.”

When the band hit the stage in Reno, a song title from their debut album perfectly described the caliber of the band at that moment, and that would be “On Fire.” Reviewing all of the footage from the Reno show truly revealed that Edward and the entire band came back even stronger, as if that was actually possible. The Van Halen of April and May of 2008 was ridiculously super-charged and delivering a supreme product. I personally reviewed hundreds of videos over those two months [there are thousands on YouTube from just April and May 2008 alone]. I did not find a single performance that was subpar in any way shape, form, or fashion. Anyone who saw Van Halen during April or May of 2008 witnessed the peak of the band’s performance power.