Hagar rejoined in 2003 (mostly for touring purposes) but exited again after two years, this time followed by bassist Michael Anthony (eventually replaced in Van Halen by Eddie’s son Wolfgang). He’s like, ‘This is my stage outfit.’ That’s when I realized it wasn’t going to work. “We were getting ready to go on tour, and all of a sudden I see this John Travolta outfit - these big lapels and a crazy jacket. “It was a strange thing with Cherone,” recalls Van Halen.
That debacle spiraled into an awkward three-year union with ex- Extreme frontman Gary Cherone, the only singer Van Halen officially terminated. During the next 10 years, this more refined, less bombastic version of Van Halen sold another 14.7 million records - but that lineup was similarly doomed, leading to Hagar’s acrimonious departure and an ultra-brief, ill-fated reconciliation with Roth at the 1996 MTV Music Awards. But that volcanic success melted into a never-ending carousel of high-profile reinvention: Vocalist David Lee Roth went solo, prompting the group to relaunch its identity with Sammy Hagar. The band’s first six albums sold 34 million copies in the United States, according to the RIAA, punctuated by the mammoth No. Merging from the backyard party scene of mid-’70s Pasadena, Van Halen radically modernized the trajectory of American metal by simultaneously making it less heavy, more melodic, less gothic and more inclusive. It’s a contradiction - but not the first one, or the last. Van Halen Performs ‘Panama’ at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards “I think I read something where somebody said, ‘If Max Martin played guitar like Eddie Van Halen, he’d be dangerous.’ I know he’s like the modern Desmond Child. “I have a lot of Google alerts set up,” says Van Halen. So how is it possible to not listen to music for three decades, yet still know the reputation of a faceless Swedish songwriter who specializes in high-gloss pop? And if that seems strange, here’s something stranger: A few minutes after explaining this, I casually mention Taylor Swift as an example of modern songwriting before I finish my thought, Van Halen rhetorically speculates on the role Max Martin might play within her songwriting process.
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He can intuitively learn almost any song he hears and works on his own music every day - the 5150 archive is filled to the rafters with unreleased recordings - but he simply isn’t intrigued by the music of other people (the last “new” guitarist he liked is 68-year-old jazz artist Allan Holdsworth, who’s eight years older than he is). That’s pretty much the extent of his investment as a consumer. THIS COVER STORY FIRST APPEARED IN BILLBOARD MAGAZINE GET THIS WEEK’S ISSUE HERE OR SUBSCRIBE TO BILLBOARD HEREĪs a high school student, he was obsessed with Eric Clapton and mildly interested in Black Sabbath and Deep Purple.
But even that is rare.Įddie Van Halen : The Billboard Cover Shoot He sheepishly admits he never even listened to most of the bands that opened for Van Halen and worries, “Does that make me an asshole?” Sometimes he listens to Yo-Yo Ma, because he loves the sound of the cello. He doesn’t listen to the radio in his car, much to the annoyance of his wife (“I prefer the sound of the motor,” he says). He appears to know only one Ozzy Osbourne song Randy Rhoads played on, and it’s “Crazy Train.” He scarcely listened to Pantera, even though he spoke at the funeral of the group’s guitarist and placed the axe from Van Halen II inside the man’s casket. He’s not familiar with the work of Radiohead, Metallica or Guns N’ Roses. The guitarist maintains that the last album he purchased was Peter Gabriel’s So, when it came out in 1986. I’d just asked if he ever revisits old Van Halen albums, but his disinterest in those records is merely the tip of a very weird iceberg: Unlike every other musician I’ve ever met, he does not listen to any music he isn’t actively making.
“I don’t listen to anything,” he tells me from a greenish couch inside 5150, the expansive home recording studio built on his seven-acre residence in Studio City, Calif. Eddie Van Halen does not listen to music. This is not a fake-out or a misdirection, nor is it a seemingly straightforward statement that actually means its opposite.
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