A band who was told they had no future that became a defining example of American Hard Rock. Eddie Van Halen, thank you for your gifts. #vanhalen #hardrock #rockandroll #guitarrock #fuckcancer #NYE2021

Fair warning: There are no ballads in this program.

Van Halen rose to prominence during the late 1970’s wave of American Hard Rock bands that supplanted the dominance of the heavy and loud blues-based British Rock acts a decade earlier. Their strange beginnings and history goes something like this: Brothers Alex and Eddie Van Halen, immigrants whose family moved from the Netherlands to Pasadena in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, were musically inclined, just like their father. Eddie was originally a drummer, paying for his first set with a paper route. Alex was a guitarist.

While Eddie was out of the house, Alex would sneak and play his drum set. Upon discovering this, Eddie reportedly said that he could have the set and he would play Alex’s guitar.

The back of Eddie Van Halen’s “Frankenstrat”, a truly D.I.Y. creation that would become iconic. Courtesy of the Smithsonian.

While still in their teens, they recruited a bass player, Mark Stone, and played neighborhood parties. The band alternately called themselves Genesis, Mammoth and the Trojan Rubber Company. Feeling they needed a lead singer, they auditioned many. David Lee Roth, the son of plastic surgeon, who was renting the band his sound system, eventually was chosen. He had auditioned previously and was rejected. The group simply didn’t wish to pay for the stage gear anymore.

Van Halen in their classic line-up, 1980. (l-r) David Lee Roth, Alex Van Halen, Eddie Van Halen and Michael Anthony. Photo by Norman Seef.

Michael Anthony replaced Stone on bass and the band started playing around the Los Angeles club scene, primarily centered in and around the Sunset Strip: Gazzarri’s, Starwood, The Whiskey, etc. Gene Simmons of KISS, who were one of the biggest American hard rock bands of the era was invited to see the band by local music impresario Rodney Bingenheimer. Simmons recorded several demos with the band in 1976. He gave up on the band after being told by KISS’s management Van Halen had no future. 

The cover of the debut album by Van Halen, 1978. Clockwise from upper-left: Eddie Van Halen, David Lee Roth, Eddie Van Halen and Michael Anthony. Elliot Gilbert – photography, Jodi Cohen – typesetting, Dave Bhang – art direction and design. Courtesy of Warner Brothers.

Ted Templeman, a veteran staff producer at Warner Brothers who had produced million-selling albums for Van Morrison and The Doobie Brothers, saw them live at a local club. Even though the crowd in attendance was small, within a week the label offered them a recording contract, that, unsurprisingly, heavily favored Warners. Their debut would start a series of mega selling albums (two gold, one platinum, 11 multi-platinum and two diamond – sales of ten million- certifications in the U.S. alone) and catapult Van Halen into superstars.

Their live shows, with the solid rhythm section of Michael and Alex, David with his outrageous and energetic front man schtick replete with vocal gymnastics and Eddie’s seemingly absolute mastery of the six string guitar made him his generation’s most influential guitarist and Van Halen his generation’s most imitated band.

“To hell with the rules. If it sounds right, then it is.”Eddie Van Halen

In a land of giants, Van Halen were truly leviathans of rock and roll.

And mind you, the guitar Eddie eventually ended up playing on Van Halen’s debut,