If you lived through the 1980s and 1990s, you knew Eddie Van Halen’s music. If you liked classic rock, you knew his work even better. Eddie was, as some have said, the Mozart of the guitar world. He never learned to read music. It didn’t matter. His brilliance, like that of all great artists, defied the rules.
Thanks to a 2024 memoir by Alex Van Halen, EVH’s older brother, we have a clearer understanding of that musical genius and the man who shared it with the world. Filled with grit, warmth, and humor, Brothers shines as it delves into the Van Halens’ early childhood in Denmark, their migration to America and formative years in California, and the sterling work ethic that spurred their rise to musical stardom through their band, Van Halen. Above all, the book centers on the brothers’ shared love of music. It became the bedrock of their lifelong, intimate connection.
Alex, Van Halen’s drummer, writes, “If you start our story when Ed and I were two little Dutch kids who didn’t speak a word of English and had to find a way to fit into elementary school in Pasadena, our new home, you know we did that with music. … That entry into an alien, unfamiliar life together sealed the bond between me and Ed.”
Their father, Jan Van Halen, was a Dutch musician who helped cultivate their interest in and reverence for music. As kids, they’d tag along with him to gigs at clubs, learning the ropes early. While their dad taught them to communicate a feeling through music and “musicianship by example,” their Indonesian mother was the disciplinarian. She insisted on piano and violin lessons and dreamed of them as “proper,” classical musicians, not performers in the nightclubs their father frequented.
They didn’t share their mom’s dream of a life as classical pianists. “We were excited by the wildness and rebellion of rock. That whole thing with rock ’n’ roll being bigger than life? That really appealed to us. It felt like hope,” Alex says. Ironically, their two biggest hits, “Jump” and “Right Now,” harked back to their piano skills. “You try everything and then in the end you listen to your mother!”
After they saved up for drums and a guitar, EVH borrowed his brother’s guitar to play a solo from “I’m Going Home,” an Alvin Lee song, and, “out of nowhere he played that solo, note for note—he nailed that song. It was brilliant. We were blown away. Nobody else could do that, at least nobody we knew. That was the day we realized it: Ed was a guitar virtuoso.”
Chasing a Sound, Not Fame
As teenagers, they played gigs around Pasadena, where they met David Lee Roth, their first lead singer. If the Van Halens focused on substance—the quality and delivery of their music—Roth was all about style and over-the-top showmanship. Substance and style melded into a magic formula for the band’s first incarnation.
“We knew enough to know that a guy like Dave with his ego and charisma would give us more space to be who we really were. The audience could watch Dave while they listened to us play. He knew that was his role, and he liked it,” according to the book.
The brothers and Roth were together “constantly” as they performed at clubs, enrolled in music classes at Pasadena City College, and met their second bass player, Michael Anthony Sobolewski.
Though they didn’t grasp it at the time, Alex notes, their days playing clubs “were the pinnacle of our experience on planet Earth. That’s when we got the highest highs, because the potential of being great was still out there! That’s when the dream of Van Halen was the most magical—because it was still a dream. There’s nothing more exciting than thinking you’re on the verge of achieving everything you’ve ever wanted.”
In 1977, their swift ascent saw them sign a contract with Warner Brothers, produce their first album, and launch an inaugural tour. Between 1978 and 1984, the band released six albums and toured the world. Interestingly, Alex confirms that life on the road sometimes led to less-than-savory shenanigans often attributed to young rock stars, such as food fights and hurling television sets from hotel windows.
Drugs and alcohol were a constant, especially when the band was newly successful. They returned to those substances for several reasons, Alex says: as a way of tapping into their creativity, and to silence negative voices that might inhibit their artistic flow.
Western culture has glamorized fame, but the Van Halen brothers weren’t seeking it. Alex says it was a byproduct of the band’s hard work and dedication to producing high-quality music. That commitment drove EVH to chase a sound he heard “in his mind,” according to the book, “a rich, toney sound” characterized by “wood, not metal.” The brothers practiced countless hours to achieve a particular sound.
“You keep on playing and the next chord comes—and then the next one. Just don’t stop. The song will reveal itself. Michelangelo supposedly said that ‘every block of stone has a statue inside it, and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.’ … It feels like the songs—or the statues, or paintings, or poems, I bet—are floating around in the cosmos and what you’re doing isn’t so much writing them as looking for them,” Alex says.
Likewise, their quest for musical excellence was true even amid the brothers’ contentious relationship with David Lee Roth, for whom “fame was the point!” For instance, Alex and Eddie learned to tap into Roth’s talkative nature and skill at promoting the band in press interviews. To be successful, the band needed musicians—the Van Halen brothers—and a rock star, which they had in Roth.
And succeed, they did, influencing other bands and performers who tried to copy Eddie’s guitars and his sound, while others imitated Roth’s style. Eddie “was obviously happy to inspire others, but he didn’t appreciate being knocked off.”
Jumping to the Top
Alex wraps up the book with band’s sixth album, 1984, which the brothers agreed came closest to the sound they aspired to produce. “[I]t remains the record I’m proudest of and enjoy listening to the most. Same was true for Ed,” Alex writes. The brothers met opposition to their legendary song “Jump” from both Roth and their producer, Ted Templeman. After much ado, both Roth and Templeman signed onto the song. Templeman initially misunderstood Dave’s lyrics as encouraging suicide. But he meant them to encourage the audience to take chances, to “take a leap of faith and jump!”
Ultimately, “Jump” was nominated for three Grammys, 1984 sold more than ten million copies, and their corresponding tour sold out. Yet the peaks of success weighed on Eddie, not to mention the escalating tensions and disagreements with Roth, who had become increasingly envious of EVH. After the 1984 tour, Roth split from the band to pursue a solo career.
His departure devastated his bandmates. “It was the most disappointing thing I’d experienced in my life, the thing that seemed the most wasteful and unjust. Until I lost my brother,” Alex writes.
Eddie Van Halen passed away at the age of sixty-five on October 6, 2020, after a battle with cancer. Alex addresses his brother directly in the book’s final, heartfelt chapter. “You never stopped. The real problem isn’t that you drank alcohol, it’s that you drank the Kool-Aid: people telling you you’re a genius, that you’re the greatest guitar player who ever lived. All true. But you ate it up, and then you were overwhelmed by the burden of it.”
With sharp insight and a bittersweet ending, Brothers leaves the reader with a profound appreciation for the unbreakable bond between Alex and Ed, and the unique, enduring sound of Van Halen.
For further pondering …
- Remembering Eddie Van Halen: Anderson Cooper interviews Alex Van Halen
- Alex Van Halen on Live Talks Los Angeles
- The Joe Rogan Experience, episode 1660: David Lee Roth
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