Eruption: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen

Eruption: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen

by Brad Tolinski, Chris Gill
Eruption: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen

Eruption: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen

by Brad Tolinski, Chris Gill

Hardcover

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Overview

Get a completely new look at guitar legend Eddie Van Halen with this groundbreaking oral history, composed of more than fifty hours of interviews with Eddie himself as well as his family, friends, and colleagues.

When rock legend Eddie Van Halen died of cancer on October 6, 2020, the entire world seemed to stop and grieve. Since his band Van Halen burst onto the scene with their self-titled debut album in 1978, Eddie had been hailed as an icon not only to fans of rock music and heavy metal, but to performers across all genres and around the world. Van Halen’s debut sounded unlike anything that listeners had heard before and remains a quintessential rock album of the era.
 
Over the course of more than four decades, Eddie gained renown for his innovative guitar playing, and particularly for popularizing the tapping guitar solo technique. Unfortunately for Eddie and his legions of fans, he died before he was ever able to put his life down to paper in his own words, and much of his compelling backstory has remained elusive—until now.
 
In Eruption, music journalists Brad Tolinski and Chris Gill share with fans, new and old alike, a candid, compulsively readable, and definitive oral history of the most influential rock guitarist since Jimi Hendrix. It is based on more than 50+ hours of unreleased interviews they recorded with Eddie Van Halen over the years, most of them conducted at the legendary 5150 studios at  Ed’s home in Los Angeles. The heart of Eruption is drawn from these intimate and wide-ranging talks, as well as conversations with family, friends, and colleagues.
 
In addition to discussing his greatest triumphs as a groundbreaking musician, including an unprecedented dive into Van Halen’s masterpiece 1984, the book also takes an unflinching look at Edward’s early struggles as young Dutch immigrant unable to speak the English language, which resulted in lifelong issues with social anxiety and substance abuse. Eruption: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen also examines his brilliance as an inventor who changed the face of guitar manufacturing.

As entertaining as it is revealing, Eruption is the closest readers will ever get to hearing Eddie’s side of the story when it comes to his extraordinary life.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780306826658
Publisher: Hachette Books
Publication date: 10/05/2021
Pages: 336
Sales rank: 190,722
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Brad Tolinski was the Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine, the best-selling magazine for musicians in the world, for over 25 years. He is also the author of Light & Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page and Play it Loud: An Epic History of the Style, Sound and Revolution of the Electric Guitar, which was the inspiration for the Play It Loud exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2019. He lives in New York.

Chris Gill was the Editor-in-Chief of Guitar Aficionado magazine and a regular contributor to Guitar World magazine. He is also the author of Guitar Legends: The Definitive Guide to the World’s Greatest Guitar Players, and he contributed extensive guitar background and historical text to Eric Clapton’s Six String Stories and Jeff Beck’s Beck 01: Hot Rods and Rock & Roll.

 

Table of Contents

Overture xi

California Dreaming 1

"We were like a kid freak show."

2 Riot on the Sunset Strip 15

"Stop! I hired you to play Top 40. What is this shit?!"

Musical Interlude 37

A conversation with Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, Part I

3 On Fire 47

"I wasn't trying to show off … it was Just fun!"

Musical Interlude 68

A conversation with Eddie Van Halen and Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi

4 Warning Signs 79

"What do you got, Eddie?"

5 1984 103

"I wasn't going to allow them to control me anymore"

Musical Interlude 124

A conversation with Toto guitarist Steve Lukather

6 A Tale of Two Singers 133

"Dave used to say I wasn't happy unless I was unhappy. That was a crock."

Musical Interlude 157

A conversation with former David Lee Roth guitarist Steve Vai

7 In and Out 165

"I just started thinking, hey man. let's write something real."

Musical Interlude 178

A conversation with Van Halen manager Ray Danniels

8 Who the Fuck is Eddie Van Halen? 195

"Everything comes to me when I'm sitting on the pot."

Musical Interlude 205

A conversation with Van Halen III vocalist Gary Cherone

9 The Lost Years 219

"I came home and on the six o'clock news Dan Rather was saying, 'Up next, Eddie Van Halen has cancer.'"

Musical Interlude 240

A conversation with Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, Part II

10 The Whole Truth 247

"[Dave's] lyrics are hilarious … I think he's brilliant"

Musical Interlude 272

A conversation with Edward and Wolfgang Van Halen

11 The Art of Guitar 281

"We never once said, 'Yeah, that will do.' It has to be right because my name is on it"

Musical Interlude 298

The SoCal Guitar Triangle: Edward, Les, and Leo

12 Can't Get this Stuff No More 303

"Those truly magical fingers opened a door to a new kind of playing"

Thank You 309

Notes 311

Index 313

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