On January 26, 1955, Eddie Van Halen entered the world and shortly thereafter began the competitive sibling rivalry that would eventually lead him and brother Alex to merge their talents into what thereafter became Van Halen. Three lead singers – David Lee Roth, Sammy Hagar, and that other guy – later, Van Halen is promising a reunion with Roth for a 40-date amphitheater tour. Furthermore, Eddie, Alex, Roth, and Hagar are all set for a March induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
A reunion should sound exciting to fans, but somehow it isn’t anything but bittersweet. Roth parted ways with Van Halen in 1985 and prepared to reunite eleven years later, but soon “issued a statement several weeks later saying he’d been the ‘unwitting participant’ in a publicity stunt.” With the unfortunate recent failure of Roth’s talk-radio career, is this another, albeit mutual, publicity stunt?
“It’s very simple to put together,” Roth said. “And as far as hurt feelings and water under the dam, like what’s-her-name at the end of the movie Chicago””So what? It’s showbiz!’ So I definitely see it happening.”
Eddie Van Halen, who has in recent years endured hip surgery, alcoholism, oral cancer, and divorce, had this to add:
I’m telling Dave ‘Dude get your ass up here and sing, bitch! Come on!’ As it stands right now, the ball is in Dave’s court. Whether he wants to rise to the occasion is entirely up to him, but we’re ready to go.
Eddie insists that he has ten albums of material built up. The unwariness of this fan remains, but the more pertinent question is whether Eddie Van Halen’s health will persist as well.
7 comments
Michael Anthony has also been on the outs with Eddy since Anthony started doing gigs with Sammy calling themselves The Other Half, or some such thing. If they make a tour stop in or near Sac, I may have to go even if Eddy looks like your crazy aunt who you can only tolerate being around once a year.
The years have not been kind to Eddie, that’s true, but he had a great head of hair back then, didn’t he?
I remember back in high school how all the girls loved Eddie because he was “so cute”. The guys loved him because he is/was one of the greatest guitar players of all time. I’m guessing all those girls aren’t going to be using ‘cute’ to describe him these days.
The guys were jealous when he married Valerie. Now I wonder how much his fading looks have to do with their divorce. You can only look at that for so long. I can’t think of too many people who have had their looks go to such a degree in only 20 years. That looks more like meth than alcohol.
Eddie was always cool, but I’ve always kinda had a thing for David Lee Roth…it’s the showbiz thing he refers to. Dave is a great performer.
In my dream world, I’d like to see both Dave and Sammy tour with them, each singing his own songs from Van Halen’s back catalogue. Plus, we’d get to hear “I Can’t Drive 55″ and “Just a Gigolo”. Hmmm, on second thought…
I never cared for VH without Dave and I never cared for Hagar with VH even though Dave has a head 10x bigger than Eddie’s liver.
Yikes!
I had no idea he looked that awful!!!
He looks like a scary homeless guy I see walking the streets in our town!