Originally Posted by
Terry
I think it would have been bad form to do a Fuck you Ed post immediately after his death, just out of basic decency, although that sentiment pretty much reflects the sentiments I'd held certainly since 1996. I'd even throw in a Fuck you Alex for good measure.
Up to and including the 1985 split, I'd basically split the blame or responsibility evenly. The bottom line is that the Van Halens never particularly cared for Dave from the beginning. Not personality-wise and not in terms of how he sang. Even stylistically, Roth and the Van Halens were different re: the music they liked. Roth kinda finagled his way into the band despite the reservations the Van Halens had. Roth had a PA system the whole band could use, as well as rehearsal space at his father's house. Roth and the Van Halens all had ambitions beyond being a backyard party/regional bar band. They all worked toward that goal of getting signed to a major record label and touring big venues. They paid their dues, honed their abilities, nurtured their talents, got some lucky breaks along the way, eventually became stars.
It seems to me come 1983 that Ed was...I dunno if he was beginning to take his success for granted at that point or just felt by then that Van Halen's track record should have afforded him the right and expectation to do things the way he wanted to do them, to not have to listen to what Ted or Dave or whoever said and just have things his way, and maybe Ed was starting to tire of the perception of him as a flash rock guitar player above all else...a guitarist who amounted to little more than a guy who could play blazingly fast solos over dumb party rock music...but I think Ed wanted respect from rock critics and other musicians in general, and a lot of those people back then thought David Lee Roth was a clownish showoff who was holding Eddie Van Halen's musical greatness back and tethering it to hard rock. I think Ed felt that way, too. When Dave pitched the CFTH movie idea to the Van Halens, it probably solidified to Ed that Dave thought HE was the star of the band, whereas Ed doubtless felt that were it not for his guitar playing Van Halen would have never made it as big as they did.
I think success also went to Dave's head, in that come CFTH EP time when those videos were in constant rotation and Dave was at his zenith commercially, I'll bet Dave figured he WAS the star of the band and if not the main draw than every bit as responsible for Van Halen's success as anything Eddie was doing. Throw in musical differences and the fact that by 1985 Van Halen had climbed the summit, well, this was no longer four guys from Pasadena trying to break into the bar band scene on the fabulous Sunset Strip. It wasn't even the same four guys who for the first few CVH records were probably overwhelmed with the thrill of being signed to a major label and building their national audience. All of those previous circumstances probably made the members overlook their differences to work together. Once the success set in, Ed didn't see the need to do an album and tour every year, nor did he see the need to do any more cover tunes or have to battle with his lead singer and producer if he wanted to have keyboard-based material. By that same token, Dave felt he could do whatever he wanted musically a la the CFTH EP, and expand into movies. Once Van Halen got the success and had a substantial amount of time off in 1983 - got off the hamster wheel of album/tour, album/tour, album/tour - THAT is when the problems set in and those long-term personality differences exacerbated everything.