Band members
David Lee Roth with Van Halen at the MTV Video Music Awards 1996
Van Halen started their new tour on September 27, 2007 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Playing to sellout crowds, the tour has generated positive reviews. Amid rumors of Eddie being back in rehab, multiple dates of the current tour have been postponed. The official reason is the need for medical procedures to be run on Eddie Van Halen .
At first, Eddie invited Patty Smyth of Scandal to replace Roth but Van Halen refused. Eddie was then introduced by way of a mutual auto mechanic to Sammy Hagar, formerly of 1970s band Montrose, and at that time a solo artist coming off a very successful year (his 1984 album VOA had yielded hit single "I Can't Drive 55'"). Hagar agreed to join, also serving as a rhythm guitar onstage to add to the Van Halen sound. The 1986 Van Halen album 5150 was a hit, becoming Van Halen's first #1 album on the Billboard charts, driven by the keyboard-dominated singles "Why Can't This Be Love?", "Dreams" and "Love Walks In". The album included diverse songs ranging from the thrashiness of "Get Up" and party rock of "Summer Nights" to the more riff-driven "Good Enough" and a guitar heavy title track. To further introduce the new era for the band, a new Van Halen logo was put on the cover. The new logo retained elements of the original, but now the lines extending from either side of 'VH' wrapped around and formed a sphere. 5150 is generally considered the strongest album of the "Hagar era".
Main article: Mitch Malloy
On July 4, 2004, Roth performed with the Boston Pops at Boston's annual Pops Goes the Fourth celebration. Hagar remained active, releasing five albums and creating Van Halen's own merchandising brand Cabo Wabo, which lends its name to Van Halen's line of tequila, as well as Van Halen's franchise of cantinas. He reunited with Montrose in 2003 and 2005 for a few performances and maintained contact with Michael Anthony, often playing with him. With Van Halen inactive, Anthony worked on merchandising projects such as Van Halen's signature Yamaha bass and set up a website. He became involved with the annual music industry NAMM Show.
Also in this period, rumours cropped up that Anthony had been fired - despite Van Halen's name being included in messages 'from the band' on their website. His official website denied the rumours, though it was later revealed that on the Van Halen III album Anthony only recorded three tracks, and subsequently Van Halen's position became tenuous (it relied entirely on Hagar's demands that Van Halen remain in 2004). His departure was confirmed in 2006.
photo by Brian Lynch
For more details on this topic, see List of Van Halen band members.
Van Halen during their 2004 reunion period, left to right: Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar, Eddie Van Halen
Reports from the first half of the tour were largely positive. Later, however, stories of Eddie being drunk and playing poorly also circulated. At the end of Van Halen's final show of the tour, in Tucson, Eddie smashed one of Van Halen's guitars during the show and quickly walked off stage.
Gary Cherone - lead vocals (1996-1999)
The band's appearance on the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards fueled reunion speculation. Several weeks after the awards show, it was discovered Roth was out of Van Halen again. Roth released a statement in which Van Halen apologized to the media and the fans, stating that Van Halen was an unwitting participant in a Van Halen publicity stunt by them and manager Ray Danniels. The next day, Eddie and Alex released their own statement, claiming they were completely honest with Roth and never suggested Van Halen was guaranteed to be the next lead singer.
Wolfgang Van Halen - bass guitar, backing vocals (2006-present)
David Lee Roth - lead vocals (1974-1985, 1996, 2006-present)
Rumors of a David Lee Roth reunion re-emerged and on January 3, 2006, Roth explained during an interview that Van Halen spoke to Alex Van Halen the previous week and a reunion was "inevitable". However, Van Halen also said that Eddie Van Halen was "off in Van Halen's own little world" recently. When asked if any problems occurred with Sammy Hagar during the 2004 tour Eddie Van Halen answered, "Sammy is Sammy, and for the most part that's just fine". Roth persisted with suggestions of a reunion, saying. "People want the reunion," and "No one will pay respect to what any of us do until we get the reunion out of the way." In May 2006, Van Halen told Billboard.com, "There's contact between the two camps."
Alex Van Halen - drums, percussion (1972-present)
The band was also working on a compilation album, which Hagar was not keen on since Van Halen felt it was not what fans wanted, nor was it something Van Halen needed to release, since they presumably had a long career ahead of them. This led to conflicts with Hagar and the group's new manager, Ray Danniels (Ed Leffler's replacement and Alex Van Halen Van Halen's brother in law) who suggested the idea. Reluctant to work on compilation album songs before a new album came out, Van Halen fell out, leaving the management siding with Eddie and Alex. Hagar was also rumoured to have concerns over comparisons on an album which featured both Van Halen's work and Roth's.
Hagar claimed that Van Halen was fired; Van Halen claimed that Van Halen quit. The media storm surrounding the dramatic exit of Hagar helped him immediately restart Van Halen's solo career. However, the publicity did not help Van Halen , serving to highlight the vacant lead singer spot. The band's past successes set high expectations, and fans everywhere were waiting for Van Halen's next move. Throughout this time, Michael Anthony managed to remain on good terms with Hagar.
Eddie's only live performances during this period were joining Mountain to play "Never in My Life" in August 2002 and a private audience jam at NAMM January 2003. This took place at the Peavey booth (Peavey produced Eddie's signature "Wolfgang" model guitar). Word quickly spread through the NAMM show that Eddie was to play at the Peavey booth, and it filled up. Eddie showed up late, drunk. When Van Halen finally appeared, Van Halen was incoherent. Shortly after this, Peavey lost its license to produce the "official" Van Halen guitar, and Fender, which had purchased Charvel-Jackson, was awarded the license, but the guitar produced was a copy of Eddie's earlier Strat-style guitars.
Eddie Van Halen - guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (1972-present)
As Van Halen's Hall of Fame induction drew near, media focus shifted to that. Velvet Revolver would induct Van Halen and speak on their behalf. On March 12, 2007, Van Halen was inducted at a ceremony held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. Anthony and Hagar were the only inductees in attendance (ironically, both ex-members). Velvet Revolver played "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love", and Anthony and Hagar performed "Why Can't This Be Love" with Paul Shaffer. At a post-induction press conference, Hagar said Van Halen would love to work with Van Halen again but that the Van Halen s should tour with Roth first.
On September 8, 2006, Howard Stern's Eddie Van Halen live interview broke Van Halen's long silence. Eddie said Van Halen was willing to reunite with Roth and revealed a solo album in the works. Michael Anthony's departure was confirmed with Eddie's son, Wolfgang, taking Van Halen's role. Wolfgang had played guitar alongside Van Halen's father on some 2004 concerts. When queried about The Other Half tour, Eddie said Anthony could "do what Van Halen wants" now. This shocked and offended many fans.. In November, Eddie's spokesperson, Janie Liszewski, claimed the Van Halen family was writing/rehearsing for a Summer 2007 tour, which Billboard magazine's website shortly confirmed. However, the Van Halen website remained in the state it had been in since the Hagar reunion.
Van Halen - San Antonio, TX 01/24/2008
The band's commercial success and new "Van Hagar" sound did little to woo many fans who still held a strong resentment over Roth's departure and refused to move on. However Eddie repeatedly said Van Halen was happier with Hagar singing and that "Roth was not coming back".
In 1977, Mo Ostin and Ted Templeman of Warner Bros. Records saw Van Halen perform at the Starwood in Hollywood. Although the audience was small, the two were so impressed with Van Halen that within a week they offered them a recording contract. In October of that year, Van Halen recorded their eponymous first album at Sunset Sound Recorders studio. All of the tracks were laid down in about three weeks, with little over-dubbing or double tracking. Minor mistakes were purposely left on the record and a simple musical set-up was used to give the record a live feel. Despite its simple components, Van Halen proved innovative in musical technique, production, and arrangement.
On April 21, 2007, Eddie Van Halen served as an Honorary Race Official for the Subway Fresh Fit 500 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway. He looked fit and well, better than Van Halen had on the last tour, and on May 24 posted a note to the Van Halen website confirming that Van Halen had exited rehab successfully. After nearly 10 months of speculation and numerous rumours, on Monday, August 13th, 2007, Van Halen (and David Lee Roth separately via Van Halen's own website) announced that Van Halen will be going on a tour of North America beginning on September 27.. Roth claimed in the press release that, "the idea is that this will continue on and on and on" and also that a world tour and new album were in the works.
After the tour, things broke down. At first Hagar stated Van Halen had yet to decide what Van Halen would be doing with Van Halen but Van Halen was in Van Halen . However, Hagar and Anthony soon admitted that Eddie had problems with alcohol during the tour that affected everyone involved. Hagar stated that Van Halen was "done with Van Halen " and wished that everyone would have "taken it more seriously". Despite this, Eddie later described himself as 'satisfied' with the tour.
Former members
Wolfgang Van Halen also stated that Van Halen's father was not in rehab during the 2008 Kids Choice Awards, but did not say if Van Halen had recently been in rehab: only that Van Halen wasn't in rehab now . Eventually, the tour started back up on April 17 at the Reno Events Center in Reno.
During January 2003, the VHND ( Van Halen News Desk) website reported that Sammy Hagar was working with the Van Halen s. No official confirmation came for an extended period of time. In late March 2004, Van Halen and Sammy Hagar announced that Hagar would reunite with Van Halen for a Best Of album release and a Summer concert tour of the USA.
Van Halen tickets Reunion with Roth (2006 - present)
