Van Halen Biography

Van Halen is an American hard rock band. The band's first studio album, Van Halen, released in 1978 is commonly regarded as a milestone in rock music, and is widely considered to be ahead of its time. With this first release, the band established itself as a leader in the emerging and commercially successful U.S. hard rock and heavy metal genres of the 1980s. In particular, the band's guitarist, Eddie Van Halen, quickly gained widespread fame for his technical prowess and musical sensitivity. Almost overnight, he was touted as one of the most innovative and influential American rock and roll guitarists.

From 1978 to 1998 the band released 11 studio albums (all of which broke the Top 20 spot of the Billboard 200 music charts). The band has sold more than 75 million albums worldwide and has received several Grammy nominations. Van Halen is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records with the most number one hits on the Billboard Mainstream Rock List. According to the Recording Industry Association of America Van Halen is #19 on the list of Top Selling Artists of all time (having sold more than 56 million albums in the U.S.). Van Halen is one of six rock groups that have had two albums sell more than 10 million copies in the U.S. (the others being: Led Zeppelin, Eagles, Pink Floyd, Def Leppard, and The Beatles).

In addition to being recognized for their artistic contributions, commercial success and popularity, the band is known for drama surrounding the lead singer spot. Although the core instrumentalists and backing vocals have remained constant (Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony), the band has recorded studio albums with three different lead vocalists: David Lee Roth, Sammy Hagar and Gary Cherone. Each vocalist has departed (at least once) under cloudy circumstances. Following their 2004 concert tour the band was on hiatus until September 2006 when on the Howard Stern Show, Edward Van Halen confirmed that his son, Wolfgang was in the band and that they were recording new material. Michael Anthony has also stated that as of November 6, 2006, he was not inviited to participate in any reunion activity.

The band was formed in 1974 and was originally called Mammoth. However, when they discovered that another local band was already using the name Mammoth, they decided on a new name. It was actually Roth who suggested Van Halen as the new name for the group. The Van Halen brothers initially didn't like the idea, but eventually warmed up to it. Roth stated in his autobiography, "I felt that the name Van Halen was like the name Santana, it had power to it."

The band became a staple act on California's Sunset Strip during the mid-1970s, consistently playing at well known clubs such as the Whisky a Go Go. In 1977 Gene Simmons, of the rock band KISS, saw one of Van Halen's shows and subsequently financed their first demo tape. Simmons wanted to change the band's name to Daddy Longlegs and had designed cover art (a daddy longlegs wearing a top hat), but the band disagreed and stuck with Van Halen.

The David Lee Roth era remains Van Halen's most critically successful period, having influenced many eighties rock musicians who followed. The band's top selling albums to date are their 1978 debut and 1984. Both albums have reached diamond status, having sold over 10 million copies each, and are both regarded as milestones in rock and roll music, ushering in artistic innovations that were widely emulated throughout the 1980s (The Van Halen track "Runnin' with the Devil" and 1984's "Jump" are listed as two of the top 500 most influential songs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame). The band's second and third productions, Van Halen II and Women and Children First, each reached #6 on the charts. After this, every subsequent Van Halen album would breach the top 5 spot on the pop charts.

The Van Halen track "Eruption" introduced the rock and roll world to a new soloing technique called tapping, a technique utilizing both left and right hands on the guitar neck (tapping also exists and did for a long time in its more traditional one-handed form, involving just hammer-ons and pull-offs). Other musicians had developed two-hand playing techniques during the 1950s, and Steve Hackett of Genesis used tapping extensively in the early 1970s, but Van Halen's technique was something else — a percussive, highly amplified barrage of notes and effects. Nothing like it had ever been heard on record. "Eruption" immediately propelled Eddie Van Halen to immense heights of popularity among guitar players worldwide (articles about Eddie Van Halen's style and technique remain a staple of guitar magazines). According to folklore, before the release of the first album, Eddie would hide his technique from imitators by playing his solos with his back to the audience. A music critic praised "Eruption" once for its powerful impact and compact musical structure, by labelling it "The Soundtrack to World War III".

Eddie also introduced a never before seen technique in the instrumental "Cathedral". This technique involved Eddie hammering notes on the fretboard with his left hand while simultaneously rolling the volume knob off and on with his right hand. He did two takes, and the volume knob froze completely at the end of the second take due to the heat generated from rolling it on and off at such a great speed. Many beginning hard rock and heavy metal bands of the era have testified that, when trying out new guitarists, being able to cover the song was often the audition criteria asked of the guitarist.

Van Halen also introduced the guitar world to the band's signature "Brown Sound," a nickname given to, among other things, the sonic result of Eddie's guitar/amp combination and technique. With Templeman's warm production, Van Halen produced a distinctive tone sought by other musicians.

As the band began to make music videos for MTV, the telegenic Roth became the visual focus, often to the chagrin of the other band members. Music videos for the singles Jump, Panama, and Hot For Teacher, were wildly popular and became part of the standard rotation on the then fledgling MTV.

The second incarnation of Van Halen also saw broadened use of the Van Halen brand, as they expanded their reach into other media, with high-production films, live concert footage, and even their own cantina in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. If David Lee Roth's innovative, over-the-top style turned Van Halen from a member of the hard rock pack to its leader, Hagar's more conservative 'working man' persona turned Van Halen into a franchise and an icon.

The hit single and award-winning video Right Now (For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, 1991) was used to promote the ill-fated soft-drink Crystal Pepsi. The band's Roth-era remake of The Kinks song You Really Got Me was used in a Nissan commercial.

Van Halen pioneered the way for the modern "Rock and Roll Show" with their extensive use of the concert technical contract rider. Although contract riders had existed before, Van Halen's use of them to specify the band's "wish list" (stage, production, transportation, personal requirements, etc.) was new and established a standard practice that is now used routinely throughout the music industry. As one of the first major bands with a full stage show to appear in many smaller cities, Van Halen had an extensive set of technical and logistical requirements including power availability and stage construction details that a venue had to comply with. Many venues in these markets had not previously dealt with such a large-scale show, and were not equipped to handle Van Halen's massive stage and light show, sometimes resulting in damage to the band's equipment and the venue, once nearly killing a roadie setting up the instruments. The band's demands were not limited to technical issues: their now infamous contract rider specified that, among other personal needs, a bowl of M&M candies, with all of the brown ones removed, was to be available in the band's dressing room. According to David Lee Roth (from his autobiography, Crazy from the Heat), this was not due to an antipathy for brown chocolate candy, but rather was listed with the technical portion of the contract in order to check up on whether venue management and technical staff were correctly reading through, checking, and honoring the technical and safety provisions set in the contract. On arrival, if brown M&M's were found in the dressing room, then the band had reason to believe other parts of the contract were also not being fulfilled, and subsequently, every line of the contract was to be double-checked, to ensure safety prior to and during the show. Some shows were cancelled because of a venue's inability to handle the band's stage or equipment safely.

Influential American punk trio The Minutemen recorded a 40-second cover version of "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" for their landmark double album Double Nickels on the Dime (only the third verse, a guitar solo and the "hey, hey, hey!" outro were used) - an irony considering that, according to Roth, the song originated as an affectionate parody of punk rock when it was first written.

Rapper Tone Loc used uncredited samples from Van Halen's "Jamie's Cryin'" extensively on his hit "Wild Thing," but was not sued by the band; in Alex Van Halen's words, "It was 1987, who knew?" 2 Live Crew later sampled the riff of "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" for their song "The Fuck Shop" on their infamous 1989 album As Nasty As They Wanna Be; Van Halen sued the band for copyright infringement; the suit was settled out of court. Dance music act Apollo 440 sampled the guitar intro from "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" for their 1997 single entitled "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Dub".

Van Halen is ranked #7 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock". Eddie Van Halen is also ranked #70 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of Rock and Roll. The solo in "Eruption" was also voted #2 on Guitar World magazine's 100 Greatest Guitar Solos.