Summary
Van Halen has always been that band you crank up in the car without thinking twice. From their ’72 beginnings in Pasadena to ruling the ’80s airwaves, they were pure rock adrenaline. We’ll hit the big moments like Diamond Dave’s wild front-man era, Sammy Hagar stepping in, and of course the Van Halen brothers driving it all with Eddie’s game-changing guitar work. There were fights, hits, shake-ups, and some truly iconic albums, but the legacy they left is undeniable. So grab a seat, and let’s revisit the soundtrack of a generation.
Chapters
- 00:03 - Introduction to Sleep With Rock Stars
- 01:31 - The Legacy of Van Halen
- 10:17 - The Formation of Van Halen
- 14:10 - Van Halen's Rise to Fame
- 26:16 - The Transition to Sammy Hagar
- 33:29 - The Turbulent Reunion: Hagar and Roth
- 36:43 - The Transition to a New Era: Gary Cherone Joins Van Halen
Show Notes
In this episode, we’re diving into the whole Van Halen saga, from their Pasadena garage-band start in ’72 to becoming one of the biggest rock forces of our era. We walk through the classic lineup: Eddie melting faces on guitar, Alex pounding the drums, Diamond Dave doing his thing up front, and Michael Anthony holding it all down. Their debut album blew the doors off the rock world, and their live shows were the kind you bragged about for years.
We get into Eddie’s mind-bending guitar work, the wild chemistry within the band, and how everything shifted when Sammy Hagar stepped in and kicked off a whole new run of hits. It’s the full ride of big highs, creative clashes, and the tough goodbye after Eddie’s passing in 2020. The goal? Bring back that Gen X nostalgia and honor a band that rewired rock ’n’ roll for all of us.
Links
Takeaways
- Van Halen, an iconic American rock band, was formed in 1972 in Pasadena, California, and became renowned for their energetic performances and innovative sound.
- The band's self-titled debut album, released in 1978, was a remarkable commercial success, achieving Diamond certification with over 10 million copies sold in the U.S.
- Throughout their career, Van Halen underwent several lineup changes, notably the transition from lead vocalist David Lee Roth to Sammy Hagar in 1985, which marked a significant shift in their musical direction.
- The 1984 album, featuring the hit single "Jump," solidified Van Halen's status as one of the most successful rock bands of their time, showcasing both commercial appeal and artistic innovation.
- Despite internal conflicts and changes in personnel, Van Halen consistently produced multi-platinum albums, with several releases reaching number one on the Billboard charts during their peak years.
- Eddie Van Halen's contributions as a guitarist were pivotal to the band's identity, influencing countless musicians and leaving an indelible mark on the rock genre.
Mentioned in This Episode
- Van Halen
- Warner Bros.
- Kiss
- Montrose
- VH1
- RIAA
- Steely Dan
- Gene Simmons
- Ted Templeman
- David Lee Roth
- Michael Anthony
- Sammy Hagar
- Garry Cherone
- Daryl Hall
- Patti Smyth
- Alex Van Halen
- Eddie Van Halen
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Transcript
Speaker A
00:00:00.560 - 00:41:12.840
Van Halen Hey y'. All.
Welcome to Sleep With Rockstars, the Gen X sleep podcast that helps you unwind with a calm, mellow reading from Wikipedia about the music we still love. I'm your host Sloan Spencer, here to help you let the day go and drift off.
Before we start, take a second to like, rate and review the show and make sure you subscribe wherever you listen. It's quick, it helps a lot and it keeps the good vibes coming. Now get comfortable. Take a slow breath in and out. Let your thoughts settle.
No need to fix anything, check anything or scroll anything. Don't even say anything. Just listen. Let the sound, the story and the music of our generation ease you toward rest. This is sleep with rock stars.
You deserve a good night's sleep. Or whatever Van Halen was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California in 1972.
Credited with restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene, Van Halen was known for their energetic live performances and the virtuosity of their guitarist Eddie van Halen.
From 1974 to 1985, van Halen consisted of guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist and primary songwriter Eddie Van Halen, his brother, drummer Alex Van Halen, lead vocalist David Lee Roth and bassist Michael Anthony.
Upon its release in 1978, the band's self titled debut album reached number 19 on the Billboard 200, sold over 10 million copies in the United States, achieving a Diamond certification by the Recording Industry association of America, RIAA.
By 1982, the band had released four more albums, Van Halen 2, 1979, Women and Children First, 1980, Fair Warning, 1981 and Diver Down, 1982, all of which have been certified multi platinum. By the early 1980s, Van Halen was among the most commercially successful rock acts.
The album 1984, released in the eponymous year, was a commercial success with US sales of 10 million copies and four successful singles. Its lead single, Jump was the band's only number one single on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 1985, Roth left the band to embark on a solo career and was replaced by former Montrose lead vocalist Sammy Hagar.
With Agar, the group released four US1 multi platinum albums over the course of 11 years, 5150 in 1986, OU812 in 1988 for Unlawful Carnal Knowledge in 1991 and Balance in 1995. The group released a double platinum live album, Live Right Here, right now in 1993.
Hagar left the band in 1996 shortly before the release of the band's first greatest hits Collection Best of Volume 1 Former Extreme frontman Garry Cherone replaced Hagar and recorded the commercially unsuccessful album Van Halen 3 with the band in 1998 before parting ways in 1999. Van Halen went on hiatus until reuniting with Hagar in 2003 for a worldwide tour in 2004.
In the double disc greatest Hits collection the Best of Both Worlds 2004, Hagar again left Van Halen after the tour in 2004. Roth returned in 2006, but Anthony was replaced on bass guitar by Eddie's son Wolfgang Van Halen.
In 2012, the band released their final studio album, A Different Kind of Truth, which was critically and commercially successful. It was also the band's first album with Roth in 28 years and the only one to feature Wolfgang.
Eddie was diagnosed with cancer in 2001 and died of the disease on October 6, 2020, a month after his father's death, Wolfgang confirmed that Van Halen had disbanded. As of March 2019, Van Halen is 20th on the RIAA's list of best selling artists in the United States.
The band sold 56 million albums in the US and more than 80 million worldwide, making them one of the best selling groups of all time.
As of 2007, Van Halen is one of only five rock bands with two studio albums to sell more than 10 million copies in the United States and is tied for the most multi platinum albums by an American band. Additionally, Van halen has charted 13 number one hits on Billboard's mainstream rock chart.
VH1 ranked the band seventh on its list of the 100 greatest hard rock artists. History 19721977 formation and early History the Van Halen brothers were born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Alex van Halen in 1953 and Eddie van Halen in 1955. Sons to Dutch musician Jan Van Halen and Indonesian born Indo Eugenia van Beers, the family moved to Pasadena, California in 1962.
Eddie began learning classical piano by ear and became so proficient he won an annual piano recital contest two or three years in a row. Despite never mastering sight reading sheet music, the brothers began playing music together in the 1960s with Eddie on drums and Alex on guitar.
However, while Ed was delivering newspapers to pay off his drum set, Alex secretly developed a passion and proficiency at them. Eventually, out of frustration and brotherly competition, Eddie told Alex, okay, you play drums and I'll play your guitar.
The Van Halen brothers formed their first band, the broken Combs, in 1964.
As they gained popularity playing backyard parties and local high school functions, they changed their Name first to The Trojan Rubber Company, then in 1972 to Genesis, later to Mammoth when they discovered Genesis was already in use by a major label British band at this time. The band included Eddie on both vocals and lead guitar and friend Mark Stone on bass.
They rented a sound system from Indiana born Pasadena transplant David lee Roth for $10 per night. Roth fronted a local R B influenced rock band, the Red Ball Jets. Roth's uncle Manny owned Cafe WA in New York City until 1968.
Partly to save money, they invited Roth to join as their lead vocalist despite previous unconvincing auditions.
Ultimately, Roth's charismatic Jim Dandy approach would be both an artistic foil to Eddie's circumspect guitar prodigy talents as well as allowing Eddie to focus his energies on song composition. In 1973, Mammoth changed its name to Van Halen. According to Roth, this was his idea.
He felt it was a name that held long term identity, artistic and marketing advantages.
Like Santana, they continued to play Pasadena, San Bernardino and Venice at clubs, festivals, backyard parties and city parks like Hamilton, drawing up to 2,000 people. Traffic jams and noise complaints to the local police often ensued as far away as San Pedro.
Van Halen subsequently played clubs in Los Angeles and West Hollywood to growing audiences, increasing their popularity through self promotion, passing out flyers at local high schools. This tenacious self promotion soon built them an auspicious loyal area following.
By 1974, Roth had been in the band for about a year and they decided to replace the ambivalent Stone, who was unsure about a career in music. Michael Anthony Soboluski, a Pasadena college music classmate of Eddie's, joined the group after an all night jam session.
He had sung and played bass in a number of less successful Arcadia backyard party bands, including Snake. Although he was hesitant, his bandmate in Snake encouraged him to seize this opportunity.
Also in 1974, the band had a major break when it was hired to play regularly on the Sunset Strip at Kazari's. The doors had broken there in the late 1960s. Owner Bill Gazzari had previously claimed Van Halen was too loud for the venue.
However, their new managers, Mark Algori and Mario Miranda took over the club's hiring and booked them through 1976. By the spring of 1975, they were the regular Tuesday night band at Myron's Ballroom.
They had succeeded in becoming a staple of the Los Angeles music scene during the mid-1970s, playing at clubs like the Whiskey a Go Go on Sunset Strip.
All the club gig success led to the need for a demo tape which was recorded at Cherokee Studios in Northridge, where Steely Dan had recently completed an LP at the time. Rodney Bingenheimer saw Van Halen at Kazari's in the summer of 1976 and enticed Gene Simmons of Kiss to see them impressed to action.
Simmons produced a 29 track Van Halen demo tape entitled Zero at Village Recorder Studios in Los Angeles, and with post production overdubs completed at Electric Lady Studios in New York, Simmons suggested changing their name to Daddy Long Legs. However, a very disappointed Simmons could do no more once Kiss management opined that Van Halen had no chance of making it.
19771985 Breakthrough and initial success with David Lee Roth Doug Messenger, Van Morrison's bandleader guitarist, knowing that Ted Templeman was looking for a guitar hero act, had seen Van Halen at the Starwood in Hollywood and placed a number of calls to Warner Records for Ted to check them out. I don't know if it was four calls or ten, but I knew this was exactly the act Ted wanted.
So, on a horrendously rainy night in mid-1977, Warner Bros. Executive Mo Austin and producer Ted Templeman saw Van Halen perform at the Starwood in Hollywood. It was Van Halen's first booking at the Starwood and the first time they hired their own roadies.
We wanted to come on with a little class and we couldn't be seen setting up our own stuff in Hollywood, explained Roth. Although the audience was negligible, messenger claims only a barmaid and himself were there until Austin and Templeman arrived.
The Warner Bros. Reps were so impressed that they wrote a letter of intent on a napkin and within a week met at a local diner with the band, their future manager Marshall Burrell, nephew of comedian Milton Berle, and Warner touring manager Noel Monk, who had just guided the Sex Pistols across the United States.
According to Noel Monk's book, the band's car had broken down en route to the meeting at the diner, and rather than leave the Warner Bros. Reps waiting and appeared to be an irresponsible band, the members of Van Halen actually ran the remaining distance of several miles to arrive only slightly late.
Warner offered the band a two album recording contract, one that heavily favored Warner paying the band $0.70 per unit album sold, a deal that would leave the band over a million dollars in debt at the conclusion of their first supporting tour.
As the opening act for Journey and Ronnie Montrose, the group recorded their debut album at Sunset Sound Recorder Studio from mid September to early October 1977, recording guitar parts for one week and then vocals for two additional all of the tracks were laid down with little overdubbing or multi dragging. Minor mistakes were purposely left on the record, and a very rudimentary instrument setup was used to give the record a live feel.
During this time they continued to play various venues in Southern California, including concerts at the Pasadena Convention Center. Produced by their promoter and impresario Steve Tormassi, Van halen reached number 19 on the Billboard pop music charts.
One of rock's most commercially successful debuts, it was regarded as both a heavy metal and hard rock album.
The album includes songs now regarded as Van Halen classics like Running with the Devil and the guitar's solo Eruption, which showcased Eddie's use of a technique known as finger tapping, leading into what became the band's first single, a cover of youf really Got Me. The band toured for nine months more, opening for Black Sabbath and establishing a reputation for their performances.
The band's chemistry was based on Eddie Van Halen's guitar technique and David Lee Roth's charisma. The band returned to the studio for two weeks in late 1978 to record Van Halen 2, a 1979 LP.
Similar in style to their debut, this record yielded the band's first hit single, Dance the Night Away, which peaked at 15 on Billboard's Hot Hundred. Over the next four years, the band toured non stop, never taking more than two weeks to record an album.
Their album Women and Children first was released in 1980 and further cemented Van Halen's platinum selling status to Warner Bros. It yielded two hit singles and the Cradle Will Rock and Everybody Wants Some.
For the first time, an amplified Wurlitzer electric piano was used to complement eddie's guitar.
In 1981 during the recording of Fair Warning, Eddy's desire for a darker, more complex songs in minor keys was at odds with Roth's pop tastes and style. Nonetheless, Roth and veteran Warner Bros. Rock producer Ted Templeman acquiesced to Eddie's wishes on this album.
Doug messenger recalled how Ed and engineer Don Landy re recorded the Unchained solo hours after Ted stormed out of the studio. This darker album only reached platinum status after $250,000 of payola pushed it up nationwide from 400,000 copies.
Planning to release a cover single, then take a hiatus, Roth and Eddie agreed upon a remake of the 1960s Roy Orbison song oh, Pretty Woman, which peaked at 12 on Billboard Top 100. Oh Pretty Woman's comical video helped its success but was also banned by MTV due to much pressure from Warner Bros.
The hiatus was cancelled and the Diver Down LP was squeezed out again with two weeks time. Roth's preference for pop covers prevailed this time, and with Eddie's synthesizer and guitar riffs, Diver down charted much better.
The band earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest paid single appearance of a band, $1.5 million for a 90 minute set at Steve Wozniak's 1983 U.S. festival, a show that both Noel...
