Edward Van Halen: A Definitive Biography (18 page)

CHAPTER 19 

5150 and the War of Words

Psychologically, Ed felt so much relief. He and Sammy jammed joyously on stage on September 22, 1985 at the Farm Aid benefit concert, jamming through Zeppelin’s “Rock ’n’ Roll” and “Wild Thing,” as well as an unaccompanied solo by Edward. The broadcast of their performance was cut part way through “Wild Thing” because of “Hagar’s constant verbal obscenities” (also noted: “Hagar started joking about his dick”). What was not broadcast, though, was Sammy’s announcement at the conclusion of Edward’s solo that he had joined Van Halen. That was essentially the unofficial-official announcement. The September 26 edition of Rolling Stone carried the following excerpt: “Of Sammy Hagar, the man most likely to succeed Roth in Van Halen, Dave says, ‘Sammy Hagar’s been making good records for years, but Van Halen’s been making history.’”

When Dave said, “Eddie’s not happy unless he’s unhappy,” the timing indicates that Dave made the remark following their tearful March 1985 departure, period. Rumors during the late summer seeped everywhere, all the way down to the fan level. Shortly thereafter, the Dave bashing began. The first real remark from Edward came in the December 19, 1985
Rolling
Stone
: “Twelve years of my life… putting up with his bullshit.” He said this well after Sammy had officially joined. Additional remarks by all of the members about Dave ventured into uncharted territory.

Alex specifically made two analogies about Sammy versus Dave. One, that original Van Halen was like a Volkswagen, and the new Van Halen was like a Porsche. Secondly, he said it was like getting a rotten tooth pulled and having it replaced with a gold filling. This was after the band came off the most successful year in their history. The new act was often fond of calling themselves “the real Van Halen.” Alex said, “People know that Van Halen is now the real Van Halen; a rocking band that hasn’t jumped into a volcano because Mr. Roth has left the band.”

Eddie gave several interviews in which he lobbed his most pointed words. He said, “I think he started believing the attitude he was copping, the ‘Hey, I’m God’ syndrome. To the point where his hat wouldn’t fit his head anymore.” He also added, “I don’t know if this is slandering Dave, but Sammy is just a better singer… Dave is kind of limited, vocally—range-wise and stuff.” He said, “I’m a musician, he’s a star. A musician doesn’t want to go star, direct, and write his own movie… . Trying to live with him on tour… you ask anybody that’s gone on tour with us and he’d yell and scream for his apple in the morning. Or ransack people’s rooms for the
Playboy
somebody borrowed the night before.” Edward intimated that David was jealous of Sammy Hagar. He dismissed Dave’s million-plus selling EP as a novelty. He also lightly threatened, “I could write a book about the stuff that went down, and none of it had anything to do with music. The guy just did not treat anybody like a human. He was like Idi Amin or Muammar Qaddafi.”

Dave stayed silent for months and months. But finally, he’d had enough and he held a press conference in Toronto in October 1986 and laid it all out:

Just like any band—
any
band
—we’re having a career difference here. We’re having a musical difference. And we’re gonna go our own ways. And we cried, and we hugged, and we split and two weeks later I’m reading in
Rolling
Stone
what an asshole I am [NOTE: The reader has to assume that Dave meant two weeks after Sammy officially joined Van Halen in September of 1985]. And how poor little Eddie was forced to spend the last twelve years of his life living a lie, like the fuckin’
National
Enquirer
or something. And here comes his wife, you know, to back it up, you know [laughter from press corps]. And on and on and on. So, I stayed quiet for six months, seven months. And I’m just reading diatribe after harangue, after this, after that, you know, again and again and again. And I still believe there’s no—it’s not necessary to make a comparison. I don’t think you have to make a choice. But Van Halen
demands
it. Van Halen is
demanding
—for some bizarre, retarded reason—for the audience to make a choice. ‘You have to either love us and hate him’ or vice-versa. They demand it; they demand it.
Well
, I’ll rise to the challenge. If we have to have a comparison, fine—I eat you for breakfast, pal [laughter]. I eat you and smile… . I don’t talk about Van Halen not once on my stage during my show and I haven’t on this tour. I think we’re on our 50
^th
gig. I only started talking about Van Halen in the last several months after six, seven months of silence. And they have taken it upon themselves to attack me every single opportunity they have. I don’t know, have they played here, yet? They played here? [NOTE: Van Halen played Toronto on August 18, 1986.] Then I’ll bet you five bucks they made a big production of cheap, low shots—make a scapegoat. That’s German mentality. You know? Just go and go and go. They’ve got nothing better to talk about. We’re beginning to see this now. Regardless of the music, regardless of their stage direction, they’ve got nothing better to talk about. I do.

When he said “pal”—he was clearly referring to Edward specifically. Being Jewish, Dave’s comment about “German mentality” was especially pointed. About VH’s future, Dave was notably unenthusiastic. He said, “I don’t know if there’s a Van Halen without David Lee Roth. But I know that nobody cares about Van Halen without David Lee Roth.” In the short term, it turned out that Dave was not right at all, to be sure. But in the long run, Dave would ultimately be proven right, even if it took a few decades to be vindicated.

In 1992, in a radio interview with Howard Stern, Dave ended up claiming that drug and alcohol abuse was actually the main reason he left the band. Stern asked, “The reason you left Van Halen was why?” Dave responded, “Because they were completely stoned all the time. How do you make music with someone who has a hangover or is copping a buzz on a regular basis? . . . You’ve got kids, right? . . . Would you like your daughter to spend any amount of time with somebody who’s constantly hung over or constantly coppin’ a buzz?”

Eddie’s story about the details of the split suggest that Dave stopped coming to the studio, again, quite possibly after hearing the demo for what became “Dreams.” “Personally I didn’t know there were going to be any changes until Al, Mike and I were out here in the studio making music and Roth wasn’t showing up,” he said. “So we called him up and said, ‘Hey, do you want to do a record or not?’ And he said he wanted to do a movie… . But we want to make a record and go on tour.” Ted also said he never saw the split coming at all, and he was essentially the fifth member of the group.

Edward told MTV, “When Dave quit the band, Alex, Mike, and I were just… pretty devastated, really. We were just sittin’ there going, ‘Now what?’ You know? I mean, we’ve worked with the guy for eleven years, so to speak, and he just kind of, like, walked—took off.” Alex added, “At that point, Ed and I didn’t know what the hell we were going to do.”

Edward later admitted, “I said a few things about him in the beginning, you know, that I might not have—I shouldn’t have said. But… I was bummed out. I was pissed.” He also confessed to saying things in anger that warranted an apology. He also directly addressed his feelings when Dave left that day in March. “I cried, I was bummed… I slagged him in the press because I was pissed and I was hurt. The thing was, Dave is a very creative guy and working with him was no problem. It was living with the guy. And that’s what I meant by all the years of putting up with his bullshit. I didn’t mean musically. But, boy, it just freaked me out. He left us hanging.” But with Sammy, “This will still be the Van Halen band,” Edward said, jokingly adding, “Even though we’re still going to do everything my way!”

Recording
5150

Edward’s individual guitar talents were recognized on November 13, 1985 when he was inducted as a member of the Rock Walk outside of the original Guitar Center on Sunset. For Ed, the honor was extremely special as he was inducted right alongside Les Paul—the father of the electric guitar (Ed and Les would eventually form a genuine friendship). A photo of the event shows a beaming Edward with he and Les each with one hand in the other’s cemented hand prints in the sidewalk. That same month, recording began on the album
5150
.

Ted Templeman would not be around for this record at all. He instead went to produce Roth’s album,
Eat ’Em
and
Smile
(CBS was bought out and Dave’s movie deal was axed, so he formed a supergroup with guitarist Steve Vai, bassist Billy Sheehan, and drummer Greg Bissonette). Donn and Ed would do the engineering and producing themselves, until Warner Brothers brought in Mick Jones of Foreigner to help. Jones noted that Edward and Alex were “going through a particularly charged emotional relationship at the time, and there were some crazy situations that went on there.” According to Sammy Hagar, “When they were both drinking, they’d fight at least once a week. I mean, go at it. Fistfights. Mike and I would try to pull them apart.” He continued, “The next day we’d come to the studio, the windshield would be busted out of the car, the trash can turned over.” Sammy also noted that when they brothers screamed at each other in Dutch when they did not want anyone to know exactly what they were saying to each other.

With Ted out of the picture,
5150
would have a drastically different sonic quality than albums one through six. The change in the sound can only be described as less live sounding—the crux of their previous approach—and far more polished and slick. Audiophiles would describe the new sound as “compressed” and “chorusy” (as in similar to the sound of typical stereo chorus guitar pedal). Ed himself described it as “a little more polished, a little shinier.” [The technical root of this sound change was Ed running a single guitar track through an Evantide harmonizer detuned to 98 which in turn created a simulated double-tracked guitar sound.]

As per usual, the record company was a never-ending source of headaches of Edward. Lenny Waronker of Warner Brothers strongly urged Eddie and the band to adopt a new moniker and retire the Van Halen brand name. Incredulous, Ed and Al flatly refused the bizarre suggestion and turned to focus on writing and recording.

During the midst of the recording of
5150
, Edward and Valerie began to try to have a child. She became pregnant in January 1986 and she and Eddie were ecstatic. Horribly, Valerie would miscarry just two months later in March. “I went through the necessary procedures, and, at home, Ed brought me tea and soup while I recuperated in bed. He was sweet and tender.” Awfully, though, her upbringing led her to be wracked with illogical guilt. She said, “I was convinced that God had taken the baby as punishment for my affair in Japan.”

Shortly thereafter, Valerie had her first ever asthma attack, and Eddie rushed her to the emergency room. The same thing would happen a few weeks later. Valerie described herself as “choking emotionally.” It was also upon one of these return trips to the emergency room that she angrily told a lurking reporter inquiring about her pregnancy status, “No, I’m not pregnant. I just had a miscarriage. Thanks for asking.”

Edward was already occupied with the release of
5150
, which hit in March, the same month as her miscarriage. In just three weeks, the album was the first ever Van Halen record to hit number one on the album charts (
1984
had been perennially blocked at #2 by
Thriller
, of course on which Ed also appeared). Edward felt completely vindicated.
5150
was a record on which he felt he had complete control over the music and that he was the most satisfied with. Ted Templeman said, “Frankly, I think they did a better job without me. They made a pop record. They picked up a new audience that they didn’t have before.” Three songs, though, were new territory—sometimes predominantly musically, and sometimes predominantly lyrically. Just these three songs would create the division between party lines that fueled untold millions of musical arguments for years to come.

Pop Power Ballads Are, in Fact, a Major Shift in Direction

The first single off of the new album was the not-terribly-tough titled “Why Can’t This Be Love?” A completely keyboard-driven tune, the song is considered a pure pop song by most music critics. The basis of the song, for example, revolves around a very common progression in popular music—C-A-F-G—which is most well known as the progression for the classic piano duet “Heart and Soul.” These four chords have been used repeatedly throughout pop music history. Additionally, Edward’s main keyboard melody line is purposefully simplistic—not quite approaching the complexity of “Jump” or “I’ll Wait.”

But the biggest change made clear by the first single was the lyrics provided by Sammy Hagar. “Why Can’t This Be Love?” was essentially about a guy declaring that his love for his girl was so strong that he dared her to contemplate why what they had couldn’t possibly be love. This song, and a subsequent multitude of Hagar-penned songs, did not poetically leave much to the imagination (“It’s got what it takes / So, tell me why can’t this be love? / Straight from the heart / Oh, tell me why can’t this be love?”). This was a
gigantic
change in Van Halen’s music, which made the subsequent label “New Halen” applicable—but the phrase most often used to describe the sound was, without argument, “Van Hagar.”