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One day in 1982, Eddie got a call fro quincy Jones, who was producing the new Michael jackson album and asked Eddie to come down to the studio and play a solo for a song called "beat It". At the time, Roth was out of town on an excursion with a group of adventure seekers he organized called The Jungle Studs. Eddie agreed to come down to the studio, and nailed the solo in two takes, a job he did for free. Who would know? Little did anyone suspect that the album he contributed to, Thriller, would become the biggest selling album in history. Years after the fact, Roth claimed that if he had known about the Michael Jackson session, he wouldn't have had a problem with Eddie playing on it because he respected Quincy Jones. "Don't waste it on Gene Simmons or nicolette larson, "he wrote in his autobiography. Roth wasn't impressed with the guitarists performance on the Thriller album regardless. "What did Edward do with Michael Jackson?" he asked. "he played the same solo he's been playing in this band for ten years. Big fucking deal!"
Van halen's last album with Roth, 1984, was an unprecedented triumph for the band. Ed had written the song "Jump" back in 1980 and wanted to record it then, but Roth repeatedly told him, "You're a guitar hero - no one wants to hear you play keyboards." But Eddie believed in the song and persevered.
When Eddie was writing the 1984 album, he lied to the band, telling them he had writer's block. He claimed the only song he could come up with was "Jump", which forced them to include it on the album. "Jump" became the band's only #1 single and spent five weeks at the top of the charts. 1984 was a huge smash and ultimately sold more than seven million copies.
With the success of 1984 and the "Jump" single, Van halen hit the road. When Roth entered the tour bus, if he discovered there were too many blondes on board, he'd order them off - he didn't want to compete with anyone else's hair. Supposedly, bands with blonde singers were banned from opening for Van Halen. Twisted Sister's Dee Snider even considered dying his hair for the slot. Autograph, whose singer was a redhead, was picked as the opening act.
Roth also dictated that no wives were allowed on tour, though Eddie had been married to actress valerie bertinelli for three years. They met backstage at a gig in 1980 and married a year later. But Roth wanted Van Halen to keep up their playboy image. When Life magazine went on tour with the band for a feature story, Roth insisted that Bertinelli not accompany them. She stayed home, hurt by the snub. Roth often took cheap shots at Bertinelli in the press and compared her to David St. hubbins's fictional yoko-esque girlfriend in This Is Spinal Tap. According to Eddie, when vertinelli came backstage to meet him for the first time, Roth hit on her first but was rebuffed. Eddie also thought that Roth was jealous that he was dating an actress. Another possible explanation for Roth's dislike of Bertinelli is that se encouraged her husband to stand up to him. Roth bullied Eddie a lot, and Bertinelli felt he wanted to keep Eddie miserable so he could control him - not an unreasonable suspicion.
After the 1984 tour, Roth put together a solo ep called Crazy From the Heat. The record was all cover tunes, which Roth loved to sing, and his video for "Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody" became a huge hit on mtv. When Van Halen played the Monsters of Rock festival in 1984, Roth spent a lot of time with dio keyboardist Claude schnell. Schnell thought David was trying to put as much on his plate as possible. He never got the impression that Roth was going to jump ship. "He either didn't anticipate the success of the EP, or that it would cause the rift in the band that it did," says Schnell.
Schnell felt a breakup with Van Halen was not only somehting Roth didn't foresee but something he didn't want. "I think David is a modest guy, if you can believe that. I don;'t think he considered himself a tremendous singer...and I think he knew damn well that his success rested on the shoulders of Van Halen, not the other way around.
"When a band is at a stage that Van Halen was at that point, when a band has a #1 hit and a #1 album, egos are running wild. And a band's frontman typically has the biggest ego. There's no greater untapped resource than the ego of a musician, and typically that is true of frontmen.. But in Van Halen, who was the frontman? avid or Eddie?"
From Bang Your Head, copyright 2002
Van halen's last album with Roth, 1984, was an unprecedented triumph for the band. Ed had written the song "Jump" back in 1980 and wanted to record it then, but Roth repeatedly told him, "You're a guitar hero - no one wants to hear you play keyboards." But Eddie believed in the song and persevered.
When Eddie was writing the 1984 album, he lied to the band, telling them he had writer's block. He claimed the only song he could come up with was "Jump", which forced them to include it on the album. "Jump" became the band's only #1 single and spent five weeks at the top of the charts. 1984 was a huge smash and ultimately sold more than seven million copies.
With the success of 1984 and the "Jump" single, Van halen hit the road. When Roth entered the tour bus, if he discovered there were too many blondes on board, he'd order them off - he didn't want to compete with anyone else's hair. Supposedly, bands with blonde singers were banned from opening for Van Halen. Twisted Sister's Dee Snider even considered dying his hair for the slot. Autograph, whose singer was a redhead, was picked as the opening act.
Roth also dictated that no wives were allowed on tour, though Eddie had been married to actress valerie bertinelli for three years. They met backstage at a gig in 1980 and married a year later. But Roth wanted Van Halen to keep up their playboy image. When Life magazine went on tour with the band for a feature story, Roth insisted that Bertinelli not accompany them. She stayed home, hurt by the snub. Roth often took cheap shots at Bertinelli in the press and compared her to David St. hubbins's fictional yoko-esque girlfriend in This Is Spinal Tap. According to Eddie, when vertinelli came backstage to meet him for the first time, Roth hit on her first but was rebuffed. Eddie also thought that Roth was jealous that he was dating an actress. Another possible explanation for Roth's dislike of Bertinelli is that se encouraged her husband to stand up to him. Roth bullied Eddie a lot, and Bertinelli felt he wanted to keep Eddie miserable so he could control him - not an unreasonable suspicion.
After the 1984 tour, Roth put together a solo ep called Crazy From the Heat. The record was all cover tunes, which Roth loved to sing, and his video for "Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody" became a huge hit on mtv. When Van Halen played the Monsters of Rock festival in 1984, Roth spent a lot of time with dio keyboardist Claude schnell. Schnell thought David was trying to put as much on his plate as possible. He never got the impression that Roth was going to jump ship. "He either didn't anticipate the success of the EP, or that it would cause the rift in the band that it did," says Schnell.
Schnell felt a breakup with Van Halen was not only somehting Roth didn't foresee but something he didn't want. "I think David is a modest guy, if you can believe that. I don;'t think he considered himself a tremendous singer...and I think he knew damn well that his success rested on the shoulders of Van Halen, not the other way around.
"When a band is at a stage that Van Halen was at that point, when a band has a #1 hit and a #1 album, egos are running wild. And a band's frontman typically has the biggest ego. There's no greater untapped resource than the ego of a musician, and typically that is true of frontmen.. But in Van Halen, who was the frontman? avid or Eddie?"
From Bang Your Head, copyright 2002
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