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  • The Diamond David Lee Roth Army

    Nobody rules these streets at night but us! Join our growing legion of fans dedicated to honoring the Commander in Chief of  Rock n' Roll - David Lee Roth.
  • Latest David Lee Roth News

    by Published on 11-24-2013 07:34 PM

    Pretty cool video of Dave & Konishiki at some Sumo arena in Japan, watching fights, the real deal.
    Dave is great as always

    by Published on 11-07-2013 08:08 AM







    South Park creator has a history of knowing his shit in this area...

    by Published on 11-06-2013 07:01 PM

    Eddie guitar up for auction next month




    NEW YORK — Eddie Van Halen’s 1982 Kramer Frankenstrat is among items up for bid. The handmade, red-and-white guitar was used during Van Halen’s 1982-1983 Diver Down Tour and recording of its most successful album, “1984.”

    Van Halen’s signature is inscribed on the guitar’s neck. Its presale estimate is $100,000 to $150,000. Part of the proceeds will benefit guitarist Jason Becker, who has Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

    Here is the full listing.




    124. Eddie Van Halen’s 1982 Kramer “Frankenstrat” guitar used in live performances and in the studio. This 1982 Kramer “Frankenstrat” guitar was owned and played by the legendary Edward Van Halen during some of the most remarkable years of his career with Van Halen. This guitar was made in 1982 by master guitar builder Paul Unkert and represents one of the original 8 guitars built
    by Unkert under Kramer for Eddie Van Halen upon his signing with Kramer Guitar Company in 1982. Until the relationship with Kramer, Eddie played his own handbuilt “Frankenstein”, which was his attempt to combine the classic sound of a Gibson guitar with the physical attributes of a Fender guitar. The “Frankenstrat” takes its name from a combination of “Frankenstein” (whose creature was also made of various parts) and Stratocaster after the Fender electric guitar.

    The body is hand-painted in masked layers of white with red and black shapes on body and head stock. The natural wood neck was made ultra-thin to Van Halen’s specifications. The guitar was signed by Eddie on the headstock in 1984 during rehearsals for the “1984” tour at Zoetrope Studios.

    This particular guitar has been used in live performances for the “Diver Down Tour” 1982-1983 as well as in the recording studio in 1984 for one of Van Halen’s most successful albums, “1984,” which included the songs, “Jump”, “Panama”, “I’ll Wait” and “Hot for Teacher.” The “1984” release was the band’s last studio album featuring all the original band members. The guitar is accompanied by an LOA from Rudy Leiren, 10-year, veteran Van Halen guitar tech and longtime friend to Eddie, verifying the guitar’s authenticity and history with Eddie. Rudy states that it is very unusual for Eddie Van Halen to part with a guitar once he has used it for either live performance
    or recording. Also included is an LOA and video from the original guitar builder, Paul Unkert, who was in charge of building all artist guitars for Eddie Van Halen during the 1982 relationship between Eddie and Kramer Guitar Company. Unkert verifies that, with the exception of the string tree placed on the headstock behind the Floyd Rose nut clamp, and a missing aluminum strap button replaced with eyehooks (by either Eddie or his tech), every detail of the instrument’s condition coincides with when it was built in 1982. This guitar was recently featured in the book, The Guitar Collection: Solid Body ’54 Edition, Published by Epic Ink, 2011, which contains 150 of the world’s most famous guitars including those of Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Eric Clapton, George Harrison and others. A portion of the proceeds from this lot will benefit guitarist Jason Becker and the Jason Becker Special Needs Trust to assist him and his family in his battle against ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). An iconic and extremely well-documented guitar from a true virtuoso in the art. Special shipping
    arrangements will apply. $100,000 - $150,000

    Also listed in the auction is Eddie Van Halen handwritten musical notation to his iconic guitar solo “Eruption.”Eddie Van Halen handwritten musical notation to his iconic guitar solo “Eruption.”





    221. Eddie Van Halen of Van Halen handwritten signed music notation For “Eruption”. (1988) Notation signed on 10 x 13 in. printed music paper leaf. Under the title, “Eruption” Van Halen has handwritten musical notation for his song, in black ink, on the first and second staffs. Van Halen has noted in the upper left corner of the page, “First played at the Whiskey A Go-Go 1975”. Signed upper right, “Eddie Van Halen”. Dated,“July 20, 1988”. John Stix believes “Eruption” to be the most played, imitated and revered solo electric guitar piece in history. In fine condition.
    $4,000 - $6,000



    Other items on sale at the auction include

    Elvis Presley’s diamond & platinum wedding ring from his marriage to Priscilla.
    • Elvis Presley stage-worn ornate belt from his black “Conquistador” performance jumpsuit.
    • Bob Dylan handwritten lyrics for “I Want You” used as he was recording the song in 1966.
    • John Lennon vintage Beatles stage-worn D.A. Millings custom-made suit.
    • (6) Vintage color transparencies of The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, sold with copyright.
    • Jim Morrison unpublished 100-page handwritten notebook from his last days in Paris, 1971.
    • Jim Morrison handwritten lyrics to The Doors’ “Riders on the Storm” – the last song Morrison would record before his
    untimely death in 1971.
    • Jimi Hendrix signed bill dated July 29, 1969 to pay Gypsy Sun and Rainbows band mates who, 2 ½ weeks later, would play with
    Hendrix at Woodstock.
    • Robert Plant handwritten lyrics to Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.”
    • Roger Waters handwritten lyrics, with artwork, for Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.”
    • Joe Perry’s handwritten musical notation from Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.”
    • Michael Jackson’s MTV “Moonman” award for Best Choreography for Thriller.
    • Michael Jackson original costume worn at the 1981 American Music Awards where he accepted two awards for his first solo
    album Off the Wall.
    • Whitney Houston signature “Queen of the Night” costume worn in the film The Bodyguard.



    The catalog is available from https://www.profilesinhistory.com/wp...9RRM-final.pdf
    by Published on 10-14-2013 08:24 PM

    Van Halen Suing Alex's Ex





    The former wife of Van Halen’s drummer is being sued over the alleged illegal use of the rock band’s name to sell clothing, blankets and fashion accessories. According to court papers filed in Los Angeles, Kelly Van Halen is accused of illegally infringing on the group’s registered trademark to market her fashion line. The plaintiffs claim Kelly’s items are “identical or closely related to” merchandise sold by Van Halen which is causing a “loss in the value” to the band’s name.

    A website called www.kellyvanhalen.com is currently under construction and is registered to a Kelly Van Halen at a residential address in LA.

    Kelly and Alex Van Halen were married for 12 years until their 1996 divorce and have two sons together.


    Van Halen trademarked its name upon the 1978 release of their debut album.
    by Published on 10-08-2013 07:39 PM

    A new Billy Sheehan interview popped up today, mostly promoting his Winery Dogs project but with the obligatory Dave questions:

    http://ultimateclassicrock.com/billy...nterview-2013/

    With Talas, you got the chance to tour with Van Halen a couple of times. What was the scene like at that time?

    Van Halen was the greatest band in the world. At their worst, they were only spectacular. It was just an amazing experience. It was Showbiz 101 to see that band in action and behind the scenes and [to see] how incredibly precise and awesome [they were] and [with] almost military precision [how] they could get up on stage and make it look like it’s a big-ass party.

    You know, to do a party, you just have a room with beer in it and have people in there. But if you do it right, it’s a riot and they always would do it right. And it would never seem like there was any effort put into it at all, but behind the scenes, there was great effort. The lighting, the sound and the cues and everything was all worked out, but when you watched it — even though we watched it every night and it was the same every night, we’d still laugh at every joke. It was all worked out and scripted to a large degree, but boy, it was just done magically and perfectly.

    A lot of that was Dave, of course — he’s just a grandmaster of showbiz and the greatest frontman in my humble opinion that there ever was — and still is. It was an incredible lesson to learn and they were very, very nice to us. They let us do some encores and they chose us personally to be on that tour, because they got a tape from Premier Talent, the booking agency. We had no idea we were even up for it until we finally found out, “Hey, you guys got the Van Halen tour” and we were like, “We got the what?” We didn’t even have a record out, really — so we were very surprised. We made friends with everybody and I’m friends with all of them to this day, thankfully.


    That was a band that was knocking a lot of people for a loop at the time. Particularly the bands that were touring with that band, it seems like if you’re in that position, that would cause you to take at least a second look at all areas of your process to make sure you had everything dialed in.

    Yeah, when you’re up on that stage and it’s Van Halen’s stage, you’re under a microscope and there’s a whole lotta people watching. We got lucky. We scored and we got a bunch of encores and we did real well and they were real pleased with us. I created a relationship there that, of course, led to the Dave thing later.

    It was a little spooky though, getting up on a stage like that in front of all of those people and telling them that we’ve never played there before and we had no record out and we just gotta go up there and do it. There again, we get back to the power trio thing and with everybody singing and playing, we got up there and did our thing and they responded positively. Sometimes you roll the dice and the sun comes up.


    One of our readers wanted to ask about how you were asked to join Van Halen quite a few times. It’s surprising that never panned out or went that way.

    Yeah, in the end I’m not really sure what the purpose of any talks with me to join the band was. But it happened a couple of times. I love Michael Anthony and I felt totally torn, because I love the band too — I didn’t want to see the band change and [have them] bring some new guy in, even if it was me. I’m a real believer in the original lineup — I love that concept as a fan. Whenever anybody changes, even if it’s some peripheral person, it’s kind of not the same to me — once in a while, it works. So I was torn a little bit, but it never really panned out.

    In a way, nature took its course. When Dave left, he called me and we started that band and that was close enough. I always said when I was in Buffalo, the only band I’d ever leave Talas for was Van Halen and when Dave called, I said, “Okay, close enough, I’m gone.” That was it!


    That ‘Eat ‘Em and Smile’ lineup, as it’s now called, that was a supergroup to end all supergroups. Even now when you look at some of the combinations have come along since then, that lineup remains impressive. The albums that you guys made speak well of what was accomplished. Was there instantly good chemistry when the band came together to work with Roth?

    Absolutely. ‘Eat ‘Em and Smile’ was just a great experience for all of us. We would hang in the basement with Dave and tell stories. He had a whole garage full of beer left over from the US Festival. He lives in Pasadena where it’s pretty hot and the garage, of course, was air-conditioned, so the beer was skunked by then.

    But we drank it anyway — we’d sit around and drink skunk beer, like we were sitting around the campfire in Dave’s basement, telling stories and hanging, me, Steve, Gregg and Dave. It was a riot. On tour too, we just had a complete blast.

    With ‘Skyscraper,’ things changed. I think it was more management-run at that point, which I think was a mistake in retrospect. It wasn’t as personal and fun or close or [us] hanging out. But the ‘Eat ‘Em and Smile’ thing was just an incredible experience. Everywhere I go, someone has an ‘Eat ‘Em and Smile’ record for me to sign. Coming out of the jungles of Indonesia, somebody has a copy of it and it’s incredible.


    Ted Templeman produced that album while Roth and Vai end up producing the next one. How much did that change the dynamic of the sessions for that second record?

    Quite a bit. The second record was done one at a time. We never played together as a band ever. The drums were laid down, I came in and did bass and then they did a zillion guitar overdubs and it wasn’t the band playing. ‘Eat ‘Em and Smile,’ Ted had us all in a room and we were playing, we laid down the track and there it was.

    I remember even Steve wanted to go back and double all of his guitar lines and Ted said “no, let’s just leave it organic the way it is and leave it there” and I’m glad he did, because it really showed a side of Steve’s playing that I don’t often see now where he’s just kind of on his own and he’s just gotta play. He’s a studio wizard, so when he goes in the studio he ends up with a lot of wizardry and it’s brilliant and beautiful, but what he did on ‘Eat ‘Em and Smile’ is a different character than the Steve I see today.

    I love ‘em both, but I’d love to see Steve go out now with a combo amp and a drummer and a bass player and do a record like that without going and doing a zillion things after. A lot of players are like that and they approach it differently — Steve uses the studio as an instrument now and on ‘Eat ‘Em and Smile’ he didn’t have the opportunity because someone else was in charge. Then on ‘Skyscraper,’ the record sounds a little over-produced to me and it was not one of my favorite records.

    It was even years before I actually listened to the whole thing because I’d left right at the end of making that, so it was not my favorite time, music-wise and career-wise, because unfortunately I had to make a move and I did. It’s always a sad thing when you have to leave or break something up or make a change like that. But unfortunately, that’s what had to happen.
    by Published on 10-07-2013 04:29 PM

    Eddie Van Halen Biography Coming



    Faber & Faber have announced today that they have acquired a biography of Eddie Van Halen, Eruption, by Paul Brannigan.




    Paul Brannigan previously wrote the Sunday Times bestselling biography of Dave Grohl, This is a Call, and is the co-author of the forthcoming two-volume biography of Metallica, Birth School Metallica Death. He is also the current editor of Kerrang!

    Scheduled for publication in 2015, the book promises to explore how it was the incendiary playing of the young guitarist which launched the band Van Halen into the consciousness of America in early 1978, and transformed the musical landscape. Offering the first real examination of a true musical icon, it will also turn up the volume on a life lived in popular music's fast lane.

    There was previously a biography of Eddie released in 2011 by Kevin Dodds.

    Faber and Faber will publish in the UK + Commonwealth rights, plus Canada. Eruption will be published by Da Capo in the U.S.
    by Published on 10-06-2013 07:43 AM

    Jon Taffer of Bar Rescue on Van Halen’s boozy business affairs



    “Running a bar is not just a business – it’s a science… nobody knows more about bar science than Jon Taffer.” Three seasons in, that opening voiceover to Spike TV’s Bar Rescue is undoubtedly the most recognizable on the current reality television landscape. Taffer, a bar business veteran, takes on the tired, the angry, the bitter, and the dejected who are desperate to find a savior even if, like doubting Thomas before them, they at first don’t believe. Much more often than not, the boisterous, Svengali-like Taffer is able to take establishments in disrepair and turn them around with a new look, sometimes a new name, and always with an attitude of positivity that few can match.

    I know you’ve worked with Sammy Hagar before, but when it comes to Van Halen, are you a Dave guy or a Sammy guy?

    [Laughs] Let me tell you a quick, funny story about when Sammy and the guys went down to Mexico and decided to open Cabo Wabo – this is years ago. They had left a titty bar and they watched a local drunk walk into a light pole and knock himself out. Sammy turns to Eddie and says, “That’s the Cabo Wabo!” and they have a big laugh. The next morning they wake up and decide they want to open this nightclub next to their favorite topless bar. They find a local architect [Marco Monroy] and tell them that they want a 12,000-square-foot nightclub. Being rockstars, they leave two days later and go on a 10 month tour.
    They come back after the tour and the club is 12,000 square meters, which is 32,000 square feet – so this club is almost three times the size they expected. First year it loses one million dollars and is a huge frustration in the band. Sammy goes ahead and buys out Eddie and his brother and now he owns 100% of it and he gives half of it to the architect, Marco, and his wife, to run in Cabo.

    Marco’s wife becomes promoted to the VP of tourism to the port of Cabo. The next morning, there are buses pulling up in front of Cabo Wabo from all the cruise ships to buy t-shirts, and suddenly they’re doing $50,000 to $60,000 a week in t-shirts when the month before the place was losing a million a year.

    Sammy’s got the tequila going, he’s got the club going, he’s making all this money and he’s perceived as the coolest guy in Van Halen, and the Van Halen brothers have none of this.Now the Van Halen brothers are out, Sammy owns the place, it becomes successful. Marco comes up with the idea to make a Cabo Wabo tequila, they move 140,000 cases a year in sales and Sammy later sells it for, give or take, $80 million. All this is going on while the band had broken up over, what I believe, Cabo Wabo. Sammy’s got the tequila going, he’s got the club going, he’s making all this money and he’s perceived as the coolest guy in Van Halen, and the Van Halen brothers have none of this.
    Eight years later, the band gets back together with Sammy for a summer tour. At this time, I’m working with Sammy on a Cabo Wabo New Orleans. In the contract that Sammy signed to go on tour with Van Halen, it said specifically that he’s not allowed to say Cabo Wabo, wear Cabo Wabo shirts, do anything with Cabo Wabo onstage whatsoever.

    He signs the contract.

    Next day, Sammy goes out and gets the biggest fucking Cabo Wabo tattoo on his arm he can possibly get. Every promo picture has Cabo Wabo in it. Halfway through a planned world tour they were ready to frickin’ kill each other and they [didn’t go overseas].


    The theory is that Sammy hoodwinked the Van Halen brothers, had a plan to buy them out while the club was doing poorly and then turn it around and make all the profit for himself.


    Can I be honest with you? I know Sammy Hagar – he’s not that smart. It didn’t happen that way. They opened the place – it failed. They wanted out, Sammy bought them out. The cruise ships started showing up; that’s the side of the story I believe. And Sammy’s not a bad guy – I’m not suggesting he is – Sammy Hagar did not wake up one morning and decide to fuck the Van Halen brothers.

    However! That said… I gotta go with Diamond Dave.

    I’m right there with ya.

    When I used to run the Troubadour, Diamond Dave used to come hang out and I remember a lot of wild Diamond Dave nights that I won’t get into. There were some amazing stories at the Troubadour and he was involved in quite a few of them, actually [laughs].




    Read more at http://www.vanyaland.com/2013/08/29/...iness-affairs/
    by Published on 08-29-2013 11:21 PM

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