Alex Van Halen

If I remember right, he did consult, and we said no. What are you going to do? I'm not going to make something. We really did not overthink anything, but I did want to kick his ass. Why? Because our model— was basically Led Zeppelin. The way that they structured their business, the way they structured how they played, who they played with. Led Zeppelin was Led Zeppelin.

You couldn't get Jimmy Page anywhere else. You can only get him on Led Zeppelin. Come to the show. That's it. You don't get him with Michael Jackson. You don't get him with so-and-so. But Ed violated that, and it started a whole cascade of just bad, bad vibes.

In all fairness, it really was not the single thing because things were already starting to unravel. When we named the album 1984, it had nothing to do with the year. It had to do with George Orwell and the dystopia of what was going on. This band was so fractured. We barely ever played together anymore.

And unfortunately, MTV became the predominant way of conveying all this, and Dave, being the visual guy, naturally opted for more visual stuff. I don't blame him for any of it, but, you know, it's just too bad, because we were on the cusp of something really, really big.

I don't know. There's some aspects of his behavior are even to me a mystery.

That was the argument that a couple other people make, but I tell you, I don't buy it. My suggestion would have been put Michael on our record, okay? Then you got something. And people will say, are you out of your mind? Well, you can have guest people on your records. But am I angry? Of course not. That's just posturing. That's what you do to your brother and your bandmates.

Nobody fights better than friends.

It was my pleasure.

Thank you for having me.

The first thing we wanted to do was put a band together. And I think the first band we did put together was a band called The Broken Combs, which was, I played sax and Ed played piano. I had two other guys in there. And we managed to play for the school functions. And it was a good lesson for us as well.

Yes. Yep.

Bingo. I'm glad you mentioned that. Those guys, they were really what we thought was the epitome of that kind of music at the time.

They had a grungy sound that the saxophone provided, and because I think maybe somewhere in our psyche, because our dad played saxophone, it was deeper in our DNA. But, you know, it's a good thing we didn't bet on anything and that we weren't... financial advisors because you would have bet on the wrong horse.

But yeah, so when the Beatles came, the talent and the music that came out was unmatched. I mean, there were a lot of bands around, a lot of from Herman's Hurwitz to the Seeds, I can't even name them all. But the Beatles clearly were a notch above all that. And that appealed to us.

Yes.

I was taught very strict and very by the book. You learn to read. You learn the chords. You listen to the classical music and all that. But I had no connection with the instrument. I hate to use the old expression. I just wasn't feeling it, right? And there's this story about Ed doing papers and that I became better than him.

It's not quite how it happened, but the fact was when Ed played, he made that instrument sing. It was unbelievable. I'm going, Ed, you're playing guitar. I want drums. Besides, Dave Clark Five was my idol, and he was the drummer. But again, on a serious note, when Ed played the guitar, he made it sing.

The one and only.

That's because he is. He played guitar from the moment he woke up to the moment he went to sleep. And it was just his way of either communicating or finding peace with himself on the earth. I don't know. And I'm certainly not going to stop him. while he's getting better and better every day. The problem with Ed was he could play anything.

So the most difficult thing for him was to find his own voice. And he spent a lot of time doing it. Then when he finally found it, that was it. Big smile.

Yes, it was. Yeah. You know, I was probably overthinking it, but I thought he was trying to curry a favor with us, and I figured, you know. So the first thing I did was I fought it. Now you can't name the band Van Halen. But eventually it took. And of course, Gene Simmons said, you can't use that name. It sounds like a shirt company, like Van Heusen.

You know, if you watch the bands and see how they progress, even Led Zeppelin was using explosions. OK, so when the guys are the highest form of the food chain, when they do it, it's OK. It's now become part of the language of rock and roll. And why fight it? OK, bring on the flashpots.

It wasn't so much pushing us. It was more we needed something. We needed someone to get us off our ass because we knew we had to do it. But we're waiting for the last minute possible to have to do it. Because to dress up for a gig, that's not your back to playing with suits on or whatever. That was how I saw it. Rock and roll is supposed to be about freedom, about you just show up and play, right?

But when you're in the thick of it, when you're on Sunset Boulevard and you're walking down Hollywood Boulevard, you're walking down anywhere in Hollywood at that time, there is a whole... rainbow of colors and styles. There was a band called Zolar X, and they dressed as space guys. It was mind-bending. Their image was so overpowering, why would even one listen to the music? Who cares?

That was my read on it. Now, because we were all very opinionated, we fought it out until somebody came up with the right solution. And that's basically the process.

There were a number of people at that time who tried different versions of it. I've always been fascinated by fire because for me, fire represents the temporariness. Is that a word? Only the moment counts. I mean, the flame is there and poof, it's gone. So is life, right? So to me, that represented that.

And there was an element of danger because we did it on such an amateur level that any given night when we did it, if my drum tech, Greg, an old buddy of mine, if he put too much stuff on it, it would leak. And there were several times when— What do you mean by stuff?

Oh, yeah, lighter fluid. Lighter fluid? Yeah, lighter fluid. Um, my favorite memory of, of all of that was, uh, we kind of gotten it down to a science and as we're, uh, doing it during the performance, the lighter fluid starts to come down my arm. And then I look over and I noticed my arms on fire. So I'm thinking that, that can't be good. Right.

So I look at Greg, who's, you know, in theory, he's there with a fire extinguisher so he can So I look at him and he's looking at me and he gives me the thumbs up. Looks great, man. I'll never forget that as long as I live. Greg, I love you. But man, put that damn fire.

Yeah, we had, but it was very low-dig. You know, we just used lighter fluid, and you put a match to it, and poof, there it goes. It's very uncontrollable. You're taking a risk every night. But, you know, we were young, so it's okay.

No, actually, it wasn't until the end of the tour. I got slapped with like, I don't know how much, all the microphones and the chords were fried. And nobody told me that when we were doing it. The drum set itself was made out of stainless steel. Ludwig was very accommodating. They made a stainless steel drum kit for me. It wasn't the only one, but they gave it to me.

But it really goes to show you how, at that age, the stuff doesn't really register in your brain. It turns out that the average male brain does not completely mature until the age of 27. I'm still waiting.

Yes. And we were always looking for the next, what's around the corner. And we heard a lot of synthesizer music. It was all this progressive rock stuff, you know, whether it was Maha Vishnu or Billy Cobham. And there were a number of people who used that sound quality, if you will.

Yes, because heavy metal, I love heavy metal, but because we had a lot of different influences. So we had to look for, because people like labels, and it was very difficult to find a label that would define us. Not that we needed a definition. But, you know, the irony of all of it was when rock and roll, which was originally rebellion, became structured and organized.

That wasn't funny at all. That was a real deal. Why wasn't it fun? Ed and I saw it, and we said, man, that's what we experienced. That is really how things happen. It's mind-bending. You know, the public doesn't really have any idea what goes on behind the scenes, and I'm certainly not going to burst a bubble. But that movie, there were a lot of elements that were more true than they were parody.

And, of course, then they believed their own stuff, and they went out and toured for the—

When you juxtapose that over a very simple pattern of something else, it does become something else. I know I'm talking in riddles, but that's what music is. It's a big riddle. Try to figure it out.

Ed and I played so much all the time, it's hard to remember who. I think it was probably Ed who came up with the guitar lick.

There were a number of people at that time who tried different versions of it. I've always been fascinated by fire because for me, fire represents the temporariness. Is that a word? Only the moment counts. I mean, the flame is there and poof, it's gone. So is life, right? So to me, that represented that.

And it was an element of danger because we did it on such an amateur level that any given night when we did it, if my drum tech, Greg, an old buddy of mine, if he put too much stuff on it, it would leak. And there were several times when... What do you mean by stuff?

Uh, so I look at Greg who's, you know, in theory he's there with a fire extinguisher so he can, So I look at him, and he's looking at me, and he gives me the thumbs up. Looks great, man. I'll never forget that as long as I live. Greg, I love you, but man, put that damn fire out.

Yeah. Did you have burns?

Yeah, but it was very low-dig. We just used lighter fluid, and you put a match to it, and poof, there it goes. It's very uncontrollable. You're taking a risk every night. But, you know, we were young, so it's okay. We're all right.

No, actually, it wasn't until the end of the tour. I got slapped with, like, I don't know how much. All the microphones and the chords were fried, and nobody told me that when we were doing it. The drum set itself was made out of stainless steel. Ludwig was very accommodating. They made a stainless steel drum kit for me. It wasn't the only one, but they gave it to me.

But it really goes to show you how, at that age, the stuff doesn't really register in your brain. It turns out that the average male brain does not completely mature... Until the age of 27. I'm still waiting.

That wasn't funny at all.

Well, Ed and I saw it, and we said, man, that's what we experienced. That is really how things happen. It's mind-bending. You know, the public doesn't really have any idea what goes on behind the scenes, and I'm certainly not going to burst a bubble, but that movie, there were a lot of elements that were more true than they were parody.

And, of course, then they believed their own stuff, and they went out and toured for the...

If I remember right, he did consult, and we said no. What are you going to do? I'm not going to make something. We really did not overthink anything, but I did want to kick his ass. Why? Because our model was basically Led Zeppelin. The way that they structured their business, the way they structured how they played, who they played with, Led Zeppelin was Led Zeppelin. You couldn't get...

You couldn't get Jimmy Page anywhere else. You can only get him on Led Zeppelin. Come to the show. That's it. You don't get him with Michael Jackson. You don't get him with so-and-so. But Ed violated that, and it started a whole cascade of just bad, bad vibes.

In all fairness, it really was not the single thing because things were already starting to unravel. When we named the album 1984, it had nothing to do with the year. It had to do with George Orwell and the dystopia of what was going on. This band was so fractured. We barely ever played together anymore.

And unfortunately, MTV became the predominant way of conveying all this, and Dave, being the visual guy, naturally opted for more visual stuff. I don't blame him for any of it, but it's just too bad, because we were on the cusp of something really, really big.

I don't know. There's some aspects of his behavior are even to me a mystery.

That was the argument that a couple other people make, but I tell you, I don't buy it. My suggestion would have been put Michael on our record, okay? Then you got something. And people will say, are you out of your mind? Well, you can have guest people on your records. But am I angry? Of course not. That's just posturing. That's what you do to your brother and your bandmates.

Nobody fights better than friends.

It was my pleasure.

What laws, he asks. We'll make the laws ourselves.

Thank you for having me.

Uh, I'm not quite sure, but when, when I hear it, even though I've heard that a hundred times, when I hear it again, it brings a lump to my throat. Um, We literally were yin and yang, the two halves of a whole, however it's been characterized. And it made the, when Ed says that even we fight when we argue, yeah, that's true. My way. No, your way. No, both ways.

It bled into everything we did, whether it was writing songs. Even though Ed did the majority of the music, we all had a hand into bending and twisting it the way that we felt appropriate for what we were doing. meaning that you can't have a nine-minute song on your first record. Well, you can, but it doesn't serve you well. So the constant juggling and adapting and

I wouldn't call compromising, but blending is really the word that I'm looking for. It's kind of like making a soup. All those things kind of come together, and then you walk away at the end of the day with something that you say, okay, this is pretty good. Let's see what happens tomorrow. Because we left a lot unfinished.

We kind of gotten it down to a science. And as we're doing it during the performance, the lighter fluid starts to come down my arm. And then I look over and I notice my arm's on fire.

I'll be honest with you. I went through a lot of emotional issues. But I basically had PTSD when he passed. I didn't know why I was yelling and screaming at people, and I was borderline violent. I didn't hit anybody. I don't hurt anybody. I'm too old for that. But the feelings of frustration and this inexcusable way of behaving to my closest friends and my family was all wrong.

So I sought help and found out what it was.

Yes. It's indescribable. You know, I had the pleasure and the good fortune of being close friends with the Procaro family. And Steve lost a couple of members. He lost two brothers.

Well, they were probably the most famous studio musicians and later made a band called Toto. I just thought, I talked to Steve, you shouldn't have called it Toto.

I don't know. But the thing is, it's not really named after a little dog. The original name was for Entoto, which means in total. They were a band that did things in total. That was the Italian name. version of it. But anyway, so I went to visit him because I really didn't know where to, who to talk to, who I could relate to.

It's difficult to find people your own age and your own musical history and background that you can communicate with. So I was talking with Steve. I'm laughing because the punchline was at the very end, I leave and I'm maybe 15 minutes out from his house, and he calls me, and he says, Hey, Al, I just realized I never dealt with any of it.

which I found profound indirectly because of Ed and my problem. He finally would admit that it's not done yet, and that's really what it is. You're never going to be rid of it. There's going to be memories. There's going to be people. There's going to be instances, whether it's smells or food or places where you've been together before.

Obviously, every time I hear some of our music, that puts me right back there. Yeah.

That's true. I'm trying to, you know, coming to America... was such an overload, a sensual overload of colors and smells, and the weather was different, and the people were different, and the cars were huge compared to what we had in Holland. It was a lot to take in. But I kind of rolled the wave, so to speak. Ed was very sensitive in that way. if not always.

So it was a good mix between the two of us. I kind of plowed ahead, and then Ed would analyze or be overwhelmed by things. But, you know, it was a different time. It was 1962, I think it was.

Yes.

Yes.

There was a lot of political turmoil in Indonesia. And to put it simply, they wanted to be free of the colonial power structure. And they saw my dad as part of that because he was Caucasian.

our parents were already married, so the best thing that they could do, they thought, rather than live in the middle of some place for the conflict where you really are, the Caucasian people really were a minority at that time in Indonesia, even though they were the ruling class. They moved to Holland. It was my dad's home country, and there the shoe was on the other foot.

Now my mom is the minority, and she's easily identifiable, you know, I'm laughing because it's absurd what people do on this planet, but that's another story. So they moved to Holland, and she really got the brunt of racism all the time. Even as children, we saw it happen. But you can look back on it depending on how you navigate it. It could be a positive, it could be a negative.

It never really affected me as much as it did Ed. It can either make you tougher or it can make you hate people or angry. I never had any of that. As a musician, you welcome everybody. Why would you cut your audience? Let everybody come in. Let's go play.

At that time... My mother had a sister who lived in a city called Pasadena, and she kept sending letters and all these different communications of how wonderful it was and the weather is great. It's just like Indonesia. Oranges are a penny apiece, which is, you know, in Holland, you don't really get oranges. You get them once in a while, and they...

They ship them from Spain and they come elaborately wrapped. It's a big ordeal. But that aside, so oranges for a penny a piece was very attractive for my mom and us two as well.

The way my mom explained it was he showed up on his motorcycle and he didn't have any underwear on. That's a love story. Yeah. You know, those kind of stories. A little humor, I think. Because, you know, living in those times, things were not secure. The Second World War had just ended, and now everything's headed for another conflict and another disagreement.

And God only knows what's going to happen. But my mom came from a very wealthy family in Indonesia. They owned a bit of a railroad piece or something. They were higher up the food chain. But to my mom... Working in an office and wearing a suit and a tie, nothing was higher than that in her ambition. And for our whole life, that's all she ever asked was, Alex, Edward, please wear a suit.

Classical music was in the house 24-7. That and military marches. Because my dad, to be able to work in Holland, he had to join the Air Force. So they would do the dignitary marches and all that. But yeah, basically it was... As a musician, you have to look for opportunity, and every musician knows that. You make do with what you got. But being in the military was, I think, very...

indirectly was very much involved with how we were brought up. Being strict with the kids, there was no question about it. You know, you do it or you're actually going to get your ass beat. And they will never beat us a lot, but just enough.

Bingo. It was very normal. Corporal punishment was very typical at that time.

Yes, and we were always looking for what's around the corner, and we heard a lot of synthesizer music. It was all this progressive rock stuff, whether it was Mahavishnu or Billy Cobham, and there were a number of people who used that sound quality, if you will. I guess I hate to use the word synthesizer because it conjures up a certain image of certain things.