Alex Van Halen
Appearances
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
If I remember right, he did consult, and we said no. What are you going to do? I'm not going to make something. We really did not overthink anything, but I did want to kick his ass. Why? Because our model— was basically Led Zeppelin. The way that they structured their business, the way they structured how they played, who they played with. Led Zeppelin was Led Zeppelin.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
You couldn't get Jimmy Page anywhere else. You can only get him on Led Zeppelin. Come to the show. That's it. You don't get him with Michael Jackson. You don't get him with so-and-so. But Ed violated that, and it started a whole cascade of just bad, bad vibes.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
In all fairness, it really was not the single thing because things were already starting to unravel. When we named the album 1984, it had nothing to do with the year. It had to do with George Orwell and the dystopia of what was going on. This band was so fractured. We barely ever played together anymore.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
And unfortunately, MTV became the predominant way of conveying all this, and Dave, being the visual guy, naturally opted for more visual stuff. I don't blame him for any of it, but, you know, it's just too bad, because we were on the cusp of something really, really big.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
I don't know. There's some aspects of his behavior are even to me a mystery.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
That was the argument that a couple other people make, but I tell you, I don't buy it. My suggestion would have been put Michael on our record, okay? Then you got something. And people will say, are you out of your mind? Well, you can have guest people on your records. But am I angry? Of course not. That's just posturing. That's what you do to your brother and your bandmates.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
The first thing we wanted to do was put a band together. And I think the first band we did put together was a band called The Broken Combs, which was, I played sax and Ed played piano. I had two other guys in there. And we managed to play for the school functions. And it was a good lesson for us as well.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
Bingo. I'm glad you mentioned that. Those guys, they were really what we thought was the epitome of that kind of music at the time.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
They had a grungy sound that the saxophone provided, and because I think maybe somewhere in our psyche, because our dad played saxophone, it was deeper in our DNA. But, you know, it's a good thing we didn't bet on anything and that we weren't... financial advisors because you would have bet on the wrong horse.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
But yeah, so when the Beatles came, the talent and the music that came out was unmatched. I mean, there were a lot of bands around, a lot of from Herman's Hurwitz to the Seeds, I can't even name them all. But the Beatles clearly were a notch above all that. And that appealed to us.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
I was taught very strict and very by the book. You learn to read. You learn the chords. You listen to the classical music and all that. But I had no connection with the instrument. I hate to use the old expression. I just wasn't feeling it, right? And there's this story about Ed doing papers and that I became better than him.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
It's not quite how it happened, but the fact was when Ed played, he made that instrument sing. It was unbelievable. I'm going, Ed, you're playing guitar. I want drums. Besides, Dave Clark Five was my idol, and he was the drummer. But again, on a serious note, when Ed played the guitar, he made it sing.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
That's because he is. He played guitar from the moment he woke up to the moment he went to sleep. And it was just his way of either communicating or finding peace with himself on the earth. I don't know. And I'm certainly not going to stop him. while he's getting better and better every day. The problem with Ed was he could play anything.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
So the most difficult thing for him was to find his own voice. And he spent a lot of time doing it. Then when he finally found it, that was it. Big smile.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
Yes, it was. Yeah. You know, I was probably overthinking it, but I thought he was trying to curry a favor with us, and I figured, you know. So the first thing I did was I fought it. Now you can't name the band Van Halen. But eventually it took. And of course, Gene Simmons said, you can't use that name. It sounds like a shirt company, like Van Heusen.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
You know, if you watch the bands and see how they progress, even Led Zeppelin was using explosions. OK, so when the guys are the highest form of the food chain, when they do it, it's OK. It's now become part of the language of rock and roll. And why fight it? OK, bring on the flashpots.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
It wasn't so much pushing us. It was more we needed something. We needed someone to get us off our ass because we knew we had to do it. But we're waiting for the last minute possible to have to do it. Because to dress up for a gig, that's not your back to playing with suits on or whatever. That was how I saw it. Rock and roll is supposed to be about freedom, about you just show up and play, right?
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
But when you're in the thick of it, when you're on Sunset Boulevard and you're walking down Hollywood Boulevard, you're walking down anywhere in Hollywood at that time, there is a whole... rainbow of colors and styles. There was a band called Zolar X, and they dressed as space guys. It was mind-bending. Their image was so overpowering, why would even one listen to the music? Who cares?
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
That was my read on it. Now, because we were all very opinionated, we fought it out until somebody came up with the right solution. And that's basically the process.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
There were a number of people at that time who tried different versions of it. I've always been fascinated by fire because for me, fire represents the temporariness. Is that a word? Only the moment counts. I mean, the flame is there and poof, it's gone. So is life, right? So to me, that represented that.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
And there was an element of danger because we did it on such an amateur level that any given night when we did it, if my drum tech, Greg, an old buddy of mine, if he put too much stuff on it, it would leak. And there were several times when— What do you mean by stuff?
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
Oh, yeah, lighter fluid. Lighter fluid? Yeah, lighter fluid. Um, my favorite memory of, of all of that was, uh, we kind of gotten it down to a science and as we're, uh, doing it during the performance, the lighter fluid starts to come down my arm. And then I look over and I noticed my arms on fire. So I'm thinking that, that can't be good. Right.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
So I look at Greg, who's, you know, in theory, he's there with a fire extinguisher so he can So I look at him and he's looking at me and he gives me the thumbs up. Looks great, man. I'll never forget that as long as I live. Greg, I love you. But man, put that damn fire.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
Yeah, we had, but it was very low-dig. You know, we just used lighter fluid, and you put a match to it, and poof, there it goes. It's very uncontrollable. You're taking a risk every night. But, you know, we were young, so it's okay.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
No, actually, it wasn't until the end of the tour. I got slapped with like, I don't know how much, all the microphones and the chords were fried. And nobody told me that when we were doing it. The drum set itself was made out of stainless steel. Ludwig was very accommodating. They made a stainless steel drum kit for me. It wasn't the only one, but they gave it to me.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
But it really goes to show you how, at that age, the stuff doesn't really register in your brain. It turns out that the average male brain does not completely mature until the age of 27. I'm still waiting.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
Yes. And we were always looking for the next, what's around the corner. And we heard a lot of synthesizer music. It was all this progressive rock stuff, you know, whether it was Maha Vishnu or Billy Cobham. And there were a number of people who used that sound quality, if you will.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
Yes, because heavy metal, I love heavy metal, but because we had a lot of different influences. So we had to look for, because people like labels, and it was very difficult to find a label that would define us. Not that we needed a definition. But, you know, the irony of all of it was when rock and roll, which was originally rebellion, became structured and organized.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
That wasn't funny at all. That was a real deal. Why wasn't it fun? Ed and I saw it, and we said, man, that's what we experienced. That is really how things happen. It's mind-bending. You know, the public doesn't really have any idea what goes on behind the scenes, and I'm certainly not going to burst a bubble. But that movie, there were a lot of elements that were more true than they were parody.
Fresh Air
Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez
And, of course, then they believed their own stuff, and they went out and toured for the—