{"id":114561,"date":"2024-10-15T22:23:48","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T15:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=114561"},"modified":"2024-10-15T22:23:48","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T15:23:48","slug":"my-brother-eddie-van-halen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=114561","title":{"rendered":"My Brother, Eddie Van Halen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<span class=\"lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-012\"><span class=\"a-style-intro a-dropcap-intro-background lrv-a-floated-left lrv-u-display-inline-block lrv-u-margin-b-2 u-margin-r-262@desktop lrv-u-margin-b-1@mobile-max lrv-u-margin-r-125 u-width-160 u-width-86@mobile-max u-height-160 u-height-86@mobile-max\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"a-font-theme-primary u-font-size-74 u-font-size-46@mobile-max u-line-height-72 u-line-height-48@mobile-max lrv-u-flex lrv-u-justify-content-center lrv-u-align-items-center lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-height-100p\">A<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span>FTER HIS BROTHER<\/span>  DIED, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/alex-van-halen\/\" id=\"auto-tag_alex-van-halen\" data-tag=\"alex-van-halen\">Alex Van Halen<\/a> fell apart. He can prove it. There\u2019s photographic evidence right here on his phone, which also happens to be a repository of unheard, unfinished <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/van-halen\/\" id=\"auto-tag_van-halen\" data-tag=\"van-halen\">Van Halen<\/a> songs. Spend the day with him, and he might play a few. But first, he\u2019ll scroll to that image, an MRI of his spine with a gaping hole in it, a missing piece.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/eddie-van-halen\/\" id=\"auto-tag_eddie-van-halen\" data-tag=\"eddie-van-halen\">Eddie Van Halen<\/a> died at age 65 in October 2020, leaving the world without its greatest post-Sixties <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-lists\/best-guitarists-1234814010\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-lists\/best-guitarists-1234814010\">guitar hero<\/a>, and Alex without his brilliant, maddening, agonizingly sensitive baby brother, his best friend and bandmate of five decades, the \u201csweet guy\u201d he jammed with nearly every day. Alex spent a lifetime protecting <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/eddie-van-halen-tribute-1081034\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/eddie-van-halen-tribute-1081034\/\">Eddie<\/a>, but now, at last, there was nothing to be done, no bully to beat up, no lead singer to swap out. He was awash in what he calls \u201coceanic grief,\u201d an onslaught of suffering so profound it left him with a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. \u201cI shut down,\u201d he says. \u201cI was yelling and screaming. I was beside myself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tFour years later, the loss still feels fresh, \u201c<em>more<\/em> than fresh,\u201d Alex says on a Friday afternoon in mid-July. He\u2019s eased himself into a director\u2019s chair in the sunny living room of a ranch house on his rural weekend property in California\u2019s Ventura County, a working lemon farm that\u2019s also home to some 20 horses with names like Sir Heinrich VH. The place is hard enough to find that he\u2019ll come out to the main road to guide the way, smiling from the driver\u2019s seat of his supercar, a black Porsche 911 GT2 RS with racing stripes and a \u201cVH\u201d logo on one side. At 71, his only other visible rock-star affectations are a gold stud in one ear and a black beaded bracelet on his left wrist. His cropped hair is tucked under a plain black baseball cap that matches a new-looking black T-shirt; his greenish-blue eyes are clear and bright.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAlex is about to publish a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/book\/\" id=\"auto-tag_book\" data-tag=\"book\">book<\/a>, the frank, funny memoir <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.harpercollins.com\/products\/brothers-alex-van-halen?variant=41488375742498\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.harpercollins.com\/products\/brothers-alex-van-halen?variant=41488375742498\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Brothers<\/a>,<\/em> tracing his life with Eddie from their childhood to the end of the original Van Halen lineup in 1984. He took on the project in search of emotional closure, which remains elusive. Today, in his first interview since Eddie\u2019s death, he\u2019ll reveal even more, maybe get a bit closer to turning the page. \u201cI just miss him,\u201d he says. \u201cI miss the arguments. I live with it every day. And I can\u2019t bring him back. I can\u2019t make things right.\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules a-span1 lrv-u-padding-b-1 u-padding-b-175@desktop-xl lrv-u-padding-t-025 u-overflow-hidden u-border-color-brand-primary u-border-tb-5 lrv-u-padding-b-075@mobile-max\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  recirculation-modules-heading lrv-u-flex u-font-family-theme-primary lrv-u-font-size-20 lrv-u-color-brand-primary lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-012 lrv-u-position-relative lrv-u-padding-b-025 lrv-u-padding-b-1@desktop-xl lrv-u-padding-b-075@mobile-max\">\n<p>\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAlex hasn\u2019t been able to play drums for the past couple of years, thanks to that spinal injury, but lately, he\u2019s been able to hit practice pads again. More important, he can walk, albeit with a slight lurching limp, which is more than he could manage for a while. All those multiplatinum records and sold-out arenas left him with considerable resources, and his brother\u2019s cancer battle connected him with doctors pursuing bleeding-edge treatments. He sought out an experimental stem-cell therapy from one of them, with miraculous results. \u201cHad you seen me six months ago,\u201d he says, \u201cyou\u2019d go, man, I\u2019m in sad shape.\u201d His other plan was even more exotic. \u201cYou know DARPA, the defense arm? They have robotic stuff that you can do, exoskeletons and all that. I was looking into that \u2014 because worst comes to worst, I\u2019ll get one of those. I\u2019ll jump in it.\u201d Like Iron Man? He grins. \u201cBingo.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content-image \/\/  \">\n<figure class=\"o-figure   size-large alignnone lrv-u-max-width-100p\" style=\"width:1024px\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image  \">\n<div class=\"lrv-a-crop-16x9\" style=\"padding-bottom:calc((723\/1024)*100%);\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Insert001_008_9780063265707-copy.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"\" data-lazy-sizes=\"\" height=\"723\" width=\"1024\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div><figcaption class=\"c-figcaption  lrv-u-font-size-12 lrv-u-padding-t-075\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"lrv-u-font-size-16 lrv-u-font-size-14@mobile-max lrv-u-font-family-body u-font-style-italic lrv-u-color-grey-dark u-line-height-20 u-letter-spacing-0 u-line-height-18@mobile-max lrv-u-margin-r-025\">Alex and Eddie Van Halen as kids.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<cite class=\"lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase lrv-u-color-grey lrv-u-font-size-10 u-line-height-13 lrv-u-font-family-basic lrv-u-font-weight-bold u-letter-spacing-003\">Courtesy of Alex Van Halen<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThere were warning signs beforehand, but Alex\u2019s spine finally gave way when he went to a shooting range with some friends in 2022. \u201cThe rifle kicked me on my ass,\u201d Alex says, \u201cand broke my back, instantly. And then I spent a year on the floor. Just staring at the ceiling. We became best friends.\u201d As an addict in recovery, he forewent opiates, so the agony was boundless. He\u2019s still in pain right now. \u201cPain is good for you,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen you\u2019re looking at the ceiling, lots of times it can be philosophical. They say life is suffering. If you don\u2019t get what you want, you suffer. Even when you get <em>exactly<\/em> what you want, you still suffer, because you can\u2019t hold on to it forever. Your mind wants to be free of change, free of pain.\u2026 But change is law, and no amount of pretending will alter that reality.\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules a-span1 lrv-u-padding-b-1 u-padding-b-175@desktop-xl lrv-u-padding-t-025 u-overflow-hidden u-border-color-brand-primary u-border-tb-5 lrv-u-padding-b-075@mobile-max\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  recirculation-modules-heading lrv-u-flex u-font-family-theme-primary lrv-u-font-size-20 lrv-u-color-brand-primary lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-012 lrv-u-position-relative lrv-u-padding-b-025 lrv-u-padding-b-1@desktop-xl lrv-u-padding-b-075@mobile-max\">\n<p>\t\tRelated<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAlex Van Halen is, indeed, pretty philosophical for, well, the drummer in Van Halen, who used to bang a flaming gong with a flaming mallet onstage, who once registered 4.5 on a bar\u2019s breathalyzer machine. (\u201c4.0 was \u2018dead,\u2019\u201d he notes. \u201cI\u2019m proud of it. Abso-fuckin\u2019-lutely.\u201d) Overall, he is not quite what you might expect, especially if you formed your idea of him from 40-year-old interviews where he was titanically drunk. \u201cI wish I had more than one dick,\u201d he said in front of a <em>Rolling Stone <\/em>reporter in 1984.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tUnlike his brother, Alex was a straight-A student, at least until adolescent rebellion kicked in. (Have you seen Junior\u2019s grades?) He immersed himself in Buddhism and other spiritual modalities early on, but also started drinking \u201cfrom the moment I woke up to the moment I went to sleep.\u201d He had his first drink at age six. His father gave it to him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAlex first quit drinking right after the 1986 death of his dad, Jan Van Halen, who, like his sons, was a gifted musician and an alcoholic. Eddie also made his first, instantly unsuccessful attempt at sobriety around the same time. Both brothers continued to struggle, but unlike Eddie, Alex has spent the entire 21st century sober. He found stability with his wife of 24 years, Stine, an artist and equestrian \u2014 those are her horses in the barn. \u201cThere is a part of me that\u2019s common sense,\u201d Alex says. \u201cIf this is going to fuck me up, why would I do that?\u2026 Common sense was not Ed\u2019s strong point.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tTHERE WAS A MOMENT WHEN it seemed like Van Halen, the band, might survive the death of its guitarist. Rumors of a planned post-Eddie tour, with Alex back on drums behind frontman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/david-lee-roth\/\" id=\"auto-tag_david-lee-roth\" data-tag=\"david-lee-roth\">David Lee Roth<\/a>, were true. Shortly before the shooting-range incident, Alex and Roth began early rehearsals for that tour, with two musicians from the singer\u2019s solo band serving as \u201cseat fillers.\u201d The idea was to eventually bring in Joe Satriani on guitar, and maybe even original bassist Michael Anthony, who hadn\u2019t played with Van Halen since 2004, after which Alex and Eddie replaced him with Eddie\u2019s then-teenage son, Wolfgang Van Halen. But in those early rehearsals, Alex started feeling numbness, peripheral neuropathy, especially in his feet. He wondered if it was an \u201comen from above,\u201d a warning not to do the tour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe plans ended up collapsing anyway, even before his vertebrae did. After several phone conversations with Queen\u2019s Brian May about how that band carries on without Freddie Mercury, Alex came away with ideas about how to proceed. \u201cThe thing that broke the camel\u2019s back, and I can be honest about this now,\u201d Alex says, \u201cwas I said, \u2018Dave, at some point, we have to have a very overt \u2014 not a bowing \u2014 but an acknowledgment of Ed in the gig. If you look at how Queen does it, they show old footage.\u2019 And the moment I said we gotta acknowledge Ed, Dave fuckin\u2019 popped a fuse.\u2026 The vitriol that came out was unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAs Alex tells it, Roth simply refused to pay tribute to his brother, found the very idea offensive, for reasons he can\u2019t comprehend. Alex was \u2026 displeased. \u201cI\u2019m from the street,\u201d he says. \u201c\u2018You talk to me like that, motherfucker, I\u2019m gonna beat your fucking brains out. You got it?\u2019 And I mean that. And that\u2019s how it ended.\u201d Alex remains baffled. \u201cIt\u2019s just, my God. It\u2019s like I didn\u2019t know him anymore. I have nothing but the utmost respect for his work ethic and all that. But, Dave, you gotta work as a community, motherfucker. It\u2019s not you alone anymore.\u201d (Roth declined to comment.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAlex has few regrets about the aborted tour, which he would have been physically unable to do, anyway. \u201cIt\u2019s too bad on one hand, but it\u2019s fine on the other,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause now, in retrospect, playing the old songs is not really paying tribute to anybody. That\u2019s just like a jukebox, in my opinion.\u2026 To find a replacement for Ed? It\u2019s just not the same.\u201d Van Halen\u2019s second singer, Sammy Hagar, recently went on tour with Satriani and Anthony, playing those old songs. Alex won\u2019t even utter Hagar\u2019s name. \u201cThe heart and the soul and the creativity and the magic was Dave, Ed, Mike, and me,\u201d he says. He\u2019s at least as cutting in his book: \u201cWe had a lot of other singers over the years,\u201d he writes, in his only acknowledgment of the Van Hagar era.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tTo be fair, there were more singers, at least potential ones, than the world knows about. Circa 2001, while the band was between frontmen, the brothers sat down with <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/ozzy-osbourne\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/ozzy-osbourne\/\">Ozzy Osbourne<\/a>\u2019s wife and manager, Sharon Osbourne, and worked out a plan for an Ozzy-fronted Van Halen album. \u201cWhen you get a dog, you don\u2019t expect it to be a cat,\u201d Alex says. \u201cWhen you get an Ozzy, you get Ozzy. Play the music, he\u2019ll sing, and it\u2019s gonna be great.\u201d Right before they were set to start work, the Osbournes took a meeting with MTV, and their reality show happened instead. (Ozzy Osbourne confirms the story in an e-mail to <em>Rolling Stone<\/em>: \u201cYes, we were discussing it,\u201d he writes. \u201cIt is something that if it had come to fruition, would have been phenomenal. Eddie and Alex were great friends of mine for a very long time and it\u2019s a regret of mine that we never got it together. <em>The Osbournes<\/em> got in the way of creating new music at that time, unfortunately.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAnother time \u2014 Alex isn\u2019t exactly sure when \u2014 the Van Halens jammed with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/chris-cornell\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/chris-cornell\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Chris Cornell<\/a>. At one point, Eddie stepped out for a while, and Alex found himself jamming with Cornell by himself. \u201cChris was in a very fragile part of his life, so to speak,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI got behind the drums, and he started playing bass. We played for 45 minutes. This motherfucker got so into it he started bleeding. I said, \u2018This is the man you want.\u2019 And then he died.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tTruth is, Alex got along with David Lee Roth better than anyone else in the band ever did. After Eddie\u2019s death, Alex\u2019s first call was to Roth, and even after that rehearsal blowup, they\u2019re still in touch. Roth recently fired some shots at Wolfgang, Alex\u2019s nephew, calling him \u201cthis fucking kid,\u201d but Alex laughs that off. \u201cTo me, it\u2019s a sign of respect,\u201d he says, \u201cthat he actually thinks that Wolfie\u2019s on the same level as the old master Dave, right? The other thing is that Wolf can easily take care of himself. It\u2019s not a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content-image \/\/  \">\n<figure class=\"o-figure   size-large alignnone lrv-u-max-width-100p\" style=\"width:1024px\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image  \">\n<div class=\"lrv-a-crop-16x9\" style=\"padding-bottom:calc((706\/1024)*100%);\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/GettyImages-84891429.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"\" data-lazy-sizes=\"\" height=\"706\" width=\"1024\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div><figcaption class=\"c-figcaption  lrv-u-font-size-12 lrv-u-padding-t-075\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"lrv-u-font-size-16 lrv-u-font-size-14@mobile-max lrv-u-font-family-body u-font-style-italic lrv-u-color-grey-dark u-line-height-20 u-letter-spacing-0 u-line-height-18@mobile-max lrv-u-margin-r-025\">Van Halen in 1978 (from left): Michael Anthony, David Lee Roth, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<cite class=\"lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase lrv-u-color-grey lrv-u-font-size-10 u-line-height-13 lrv-u-font-family-basic lrv-u-font-weight-bold u-letter-spacing-003\">Fin Costello\/Redferns\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tFor Alex, the end of the original band, the Roth-fronted one that went from backyard parties in Pasadena, California, to Hollywood clubs to the core of Eighties pop culture, was a tragedy. \u201cIt was the most disappointing thing I\u2019d experienced in my life, the thing that seemed most wasteful and unjust,\u201d he writes. \u201cUntil I lost my brother.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tHe\u2019s well aware Eddie took a major step toward the destruction of the band in 1982 when he agreed to play the guitar solo on Michael Jackson\u2019s <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=oRdxUFDoQe0\" target=\"_blank\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=oRdxUFDoQe0\">\u201cBeat It,\u201d <\/a>which, in turn, led Roth to pursue his own solo ventures. Alex believed creativity was finite, and that they owed all of it to their own band. He told Eddie not to do it\u00a0\u2014 if anything, he would have preferred to have Jackson guest on a Van Halen album. His brother went to the studio anyway, unleashing every fretboard-scorching trick he knew in a solo that became even better known than anything he\u2019d played with the band. Two years later, <em>Thriller<\/em> blocked Van Halen\u2019s <em>1984<\/em> from the top of the charts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe brothers argued about Eddie\u2019s musical infidelity for years, and truth be told, Alex is still furious 42 years later. \u201cWhy would you lend your talents to Michael Jackson? I just don\u2019t fucking get it,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd the funny part was that Ed fibbed his way out of it by saying, \u2018Oh, who knows that kid anyway?\u2019 You made the mistake! Fess up. Don\u2019t add insult to injury by acting stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tONE TIME \u2014 ALEX CAN BE VAGUE on chronology and details, forgive him \u2014 Eddie came to his brother\u2019s house and threw a side project he had just finished onto the kitchen table. It might have been the soundtrack the guitarist recorded for a pornographic film at a low point in 2006, though Alex doesn\u2019t want to specify. \u201cMy wife and I were sitting there, and I\u2019m looking at it \u2014 \u2018What\u2019s this shit,\u2019 right?\u201d he recalls. \u201cAnd he goes, \u2018See? Little brother can do something after all.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAlex shakes his head. \u201cHad I been more receptive to the fact that all he wanted was approval,\u201d he says, \u201cI would have said, \u2018That is the greatest fucking thing I\u2019ve ever seen.\u2019 But at the time, I was more thinking, \u2018Ed, what are you talking about? What more could you want? You already have the\u2026. You are the king of the\u2026\u2019 You know, it just didn\u2019t make sense to me. And now, when I think about it, it makes me want to cry.\u201d He does, choking up for a minute, and we pause.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAlex sighs, and continues. \u201cTo have all that talent was probably the biggest curse he ever carried. The fact was that Ed was an incredible player, but in the end he paid for it with his health, paid for it with his life.\u201d When people told Eddie he was the greatest guitar player alive, at least part of him believed it. \u201cYou ate it up,\u201d Alex writes in his book, \u201cand then you were overwhelmed with the burden of it.\u201d A toxic mixture of (justified) near-arrogance, self-doubt, and self-loathing \u2014 a sense he was unworthy of his own genius \u2014 left Eddie with paralyzing anxiety about his playing. He used drugs and alcohol largely to dampen his insecurities, and Alex is convinced the damage that intake did to his brother ultimately helped cancer kill him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tEddie traced some of his issues to a childhood he saw as traumatic, where his mother berated him as a \u201cnothing nut, just like your father\u201d (the Dutch term was actually \u201cnietsnut\u201d) and forced him to practice piano for hours a day. In classic sibling fashion, Alex\u2019s experience of the same household and the same parents was entirely different. The family came to America from the Netherlands when Eddie was seven and Alex was eight, trying to escape prejudice against their part-Indonesian mom. The kids arrived knowing a single word in English, \u201caccident,\u201d the first entry on the first page of an English-vocabulary book. They faced some ostracism, in the beginning, for their foreignness and Asian ancestry. \u201cYou get treated a little bit differently than all the rest of the people,\u201d Alex says. \u201cBut you know what? That\u2019s life. Ed really took it to heart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAt home, too, Alex shrugged off any trauma. There was definitely some weird stuff, by his own account, like how his mother would enlist him to \u201cknock my dad out\u201d when she didn\u2019t like Jan\u2019s behavior. \u201cOur mother was a hyper-overdriven disciplinarian who wanted nothing but the best for her kids,\u201d Alex says. The discipline once extended to hitting Alex\u2019s thumb with a wooden spoon so hard that the nail fell off. \u201cShe didn\u2019t know any other way. She was of color, and had been pissed on the majority of her life.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content-image \/\/  \">\n<figure class=\"o-figure   size-large alignnone lrv-u-max-width-100p\" style=\"width:1024px\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image  \">\n<div class=\"lrv-a-crop-16x9\" style=\"padding-bottom:calc((621\/1024)*100%);\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Insert001_001_9780063265707.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"\" data-lazy-sizes=\"\" height=\"621\" width=\"1024\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div><figcaption class=\"c-figcaption  lrv-u-font-size-12 lrv-u-padding-t-075\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"lrv-u-font-size-16 lrv-u-font-size-14@mobile-max lrv-u-font-family-body u-font-style-italic lrv-u-color-grey-dark u-line-height-20 u-letter-spacing-0 u-line-height-18@mobile-max lrv-u-margin-r-025\">The Van Halen family on a boat coming to America in 1962: Alex, Jan, Eugenia, and Eddie (from left)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<cite class=\"lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase lrv-u-color-grey lrv-u-font-size-10 u-line-height-13 lrv-u-font-family-basic lrv-u-font-weight-bold u-letter-spacing-003\">Courtesy of Alex Van Halen<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe brothers\u2019 alcoholism was part of their legacy, all but preordained. Their father gave them the genes for it, and handed them the bottle. But neither brother ever much blamed Jan Van Halen for it. Instead, they credited him as a musical inspiration and source of wisdom, a soused Dutch Yoda. Alex writes about watching his father work for hours modifying the reed for his clarinet, pursuing a \u201cricher, earthier\u201d tone, which helped inspire the storied \u201cbrown sound\u201d of Eddie\u2019s guitar and Alex\u2019s own snare: \u201cHis whole world became the reed in his mouth.\u201d Jan was a journeyman musician, the furthest thing from a star, and he tried to inculcate his ethos into his sons: \u201cDon\u2019t believe your own bullshit. Just play.\u201d With Ed, it didn\u2019t quite work, as Alex lays out, clapping on each word: \u201cHe. Didn\u2019t. Heed. My. Father\u2019s. Advice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tTo be clear, Alex was always a virtuoso in his own right. Just listen to the crazed syncopation he sneaks in under the guitar solo in <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SwYN7mTi6HM\">\u201cJump,\u201d<\/a> or the slippery cymbal work on <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Jgn9bEnZGdY\" target=\"_blank\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Jgn9bEnZGdY\">\u201cOutta Love Again.\u201d<\/a> Alex\u2019s friend Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters, who happened to also be a neighbor in their<strong> <\/strong>Los Angeles gated community, played along to the entirety of the latter song when I <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/taylor-hawkins-interview-foo-fighters-dave-grohl-nirvana-drumming-1327228\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/taylor-hawkins-interview-foo-fighters-dave-grohl-nirvana-drumming-1327228\/\">visited him<\/a> in 2021, a year before his death. \u201cThis is really hard to do,\u201d Hawkins said. \u201c\u2019Cause he\u2019s fucking Alex Van Halen! He doesn\u2019t get enough credit. I\u2019m here to say right now that he doesn\u2019t get enough credit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAlex has never been able to absorb the fact that he was a hero to other drummers. \u201cI never had the time to do that, because I\u2019m too busy working with Ed,\u201d he says. \u201cI believe in what Buddy Rich said: \u2018I\u2019m here to make the other guys sound good.\u2019\u201d Anyway, a drummer\u2019s acclaim can only stretch so far on its own: \u201cThe fact of the matter is, how many drummers do you know who can fill the fucking Rose Bowl?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tHe hits \u201cplay\u201d on an audio file on his phone, and an Eddie Van Halen riff no one\u2019s ever heard before jumps out of the little speakers, with Alex\u2019s drums, heavy on the hi-hat, pulsing behind it. The chugging chords of the intro could have been on their 1978 debut, while the arpeggiated verse section sounds not quite like anything the band ever did before. \u201cListen to what he does in between the lick,\u201d Alex says. \u201cThere\u2019s never a dead moment. I tried to set him up in a different kind of rhythm, if you notice.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe song, from some time this century, \u201cnever became anything.\u201d Alex is playing it to try to explain just what the brothers were up to in their endless, lifelong jam sessions.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>He also previews another track that he\u2019ll include on the audiobook of his memoir, a winding, Zeppelin-influenced instrumental, an outtake from the final Van Halen studio sessions, for 2012\u2019s <em><a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-album-reviews\/a-different-kind-of-truth-189365\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-album-reviews\/a-different-kind-of-truth-189365\/\">A Different Kind of<\/a><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-album-reviews\/a-different-kind-of-truth-189365\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-album-reviews\/a-different-kind-of-truth-189365\/\"> Truth<\/a><\/em>. This one, for once, feels complete without vocals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThere\u2019s tons of unreleased music in the Van Halen vaults, but very few finished songs, and even fewer with vocals. \u201cThey\u2019re all little pieces,\u201d he says. \u201cA bunch of licks don\u2019t make a song.\u201d That said, there is a group of songs that Alex would like to find a way to release, though he warns it could take years. He\u2019s reached out to OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, about the possibility of analyzing \u201cthe patterns of how Edward would have played something\u201d so that they could help generate new guitar solos. And he has a singer in mind for this material. \u201cIdeally, it\u2019d be Robert Plant,\u201d he says, though he hasn\u2019t talked to the former Led Zeppelin frontman since 1993. \u201cYou\u2019re gonna think I\u2019m out of my fucking mind,\u201d Alex adds. \u201cBut when conditions are right, things will manifest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe other project Alex is working on, slowly, is a Van Halen biopic, for which he\u2019s currently seeking a producer. \u201cIt\u2019s just a long-term plan,\u201d he says. \u201cI mean, to put things in perspective, the Queen movie took 30 years to make.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tWHEN EDDIE VAN HALEN WENT to Switzerland for experimental cancer treatments in the final years of his life, he took a multi-effects guitar pedal with him. \u201cHe could have just relaxed a little bit,\u201d Alex says. \u201cI don\u2019t know what was driving him near the end. There was something, an itch that he couldn\u2019t scratch, something he needed to do. Up to the very end, he was making music.\u2026 Quite frankly, it wasn\u2019t very good. But that wasn\u2019t the point. That\u2019s what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tJust thinking of Eddie\u2019s multiple health battles can make Alex cry again. \u201cYou know, he fought until the end. Anybody who thought he was anything less than that can suck my you-know-what.\u2026 If you knew what he had to go through to beat the cancer \u2014 he wouldn\u2019t do traditional treatment. Some of the off-the-wall shit caused such a toxic mix in his body. And, yeah, you shouldn\u2019t drink with it, Ed!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tVisiting Eddie in the final months of his life, Alex never told him that doctors were predicting the end around the corner. With Covid at its height, he found himself dressed in full protective gear at his brother\u2019s bedside, hiding the truth. \u201cHow do you sit down with your brother and say, \u2018Hey, Ed, you ain\u2019t gonna make it\u2019?\u201d Alex says. \u201cYou keep hoping and pretending and living like there\u2019s going to be a tomorrow. There\u2019s always the next record. You look at yourself in the mirror and go, \u2018Am I lying to him?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tIn the end, the cancer metastasized to Eddie\u2019s brain, and he died after suffering a massive stroke. Before that, doctors performed Gamma Knife surgery to remove a brain tumor, and gave Eddie steroid pills to combat swelling. They made him feel \u201clike Superman,\u201d and the Van Halens always agreed, Alex says, that \u201cif two\u2019s good, twenty\u2019s better. That was our mantra.\u201d One day, Alex recalls, Eddie took every pill in the bottle, not to harm himself, but to chase that feeling. \u201cI didn\u2019t see the bottle, but the bottle had, like, a thousand pills in it,\u201d he says. He can\u2019t help laughing. It was just so true to form, even if he\u2019s convinced it hastened his brother\u2019s passing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe pandemic meant there was no funeral, no memorial event at all. \u201cIt was a very unceremonious thing,\u201d Alex says. Eddie was cremated, and Wolfgang took possession of his ashes. \u201cI gotta say that Wolf did a phenomenal job in handling all that shit,\u201d says Alex. \u201cIt was way more than any young man should have ever been in charge of.\u201d To this day, Wolfgang wears some of his father\u2019s remains in a necklace, close to his heart.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tFor Alex, Ed is even closer. He believes the ghost of Eddie Van Halen is haunting him, albeit pleasantly. \u201cEd\u2019s been around a couple times,\u201d he says, staring me down. \u201cI can tell you that.\u201d Just today, he felt his presence, or smelled it, really. \u201cHe was <em>there<\/em> this morning.\u201d Alex has come to believe the brothers achieved \u201cwhat we came here to do,\u201d and he\u2019s convinced Eddie finally figured that out, too.<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/  a-span1 lrv-u-padding-b-1 lrv-u-border-b-1 lrv-u-padding-b-075@desktop a-triple-border-t-1-5-1 featured-trending lrv-u-padding-b-00@mobile-max\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-a-font-primary-m lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-012 lrv-u-padding-t-050 lrv-u-padding-b-075\">\n<p>\t\tTrending<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t\u201cHe\u2019s <em>fine,<\/em>\u201d Alex Van Halen says, turning his thoughts once more to the man he knew better than anyone else in this world or the next. \u201cWherever he is \u2014 he\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<em>Additional reporting by Kory Grow<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/alex-van-halen-eddie-van-halen-brothers-book-interview-1235129960\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A FTER HIS BROTHER DIED, Alex Van Halen fell apart. He can prove it. There\u2019s photographic evidence right here on his phone, which also happens to be a repository of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=114561\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=114561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=114561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=114561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=114561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}