New Roth Show episode

[Nitro Express]

Adam West told me never marry an actress. Ha! Ha!

[Nitro Express]

I actually read Val’s book. Ha! Ha! She admitted she cheated on Ed early on in their marriage and probably cheated on him before he did on her. She wasn’t exactly America’s sweetheart. So Ed is stuck with his thug brother and a cheating wife who was a flake but could make everyone think she was sweet. Then you had her brothers he couldn’t stand hanging around all the time. I mean the guy was living in dysfunction at every angle.

[Seshmeister]

A reasonable conclusion can be drawn, even without Dave's recent stories, that Val is a big part of what ruined Eddie. Like he said, Ed was only faithful to his guitar and living the rock n' roller life. Once he started trying to balance that with a stable marriage it went downhill. Just look at the band before and after 1981. It was a quick slide after 6 years of full-on commitment and doing music everyday. Val wedged herself in between them because she sought to obtain another man's fame, because her TV career wasn't good enough for her. Ed is a ball of stress to begin with and doesn't know how to confront anybody constructively so just went down a spiral of drug use to cope with it, which obviously took years off his life.

Ed would have needed some sort of stable solid housewife type - ironically the kind of soccer mum that would like the Van Hagar AOR radio bilge he was churning out.

What he didn't need is an actress which is like a normal woman with all the crazy emotion dials turned up 500% :D

Post Val the crowd Ed ended up with is a pretty good point that I don't remember anyone picking up on before. Usually if a middle aged guy split up from his wife, started working on porno sound tracks and married someone from the porn industry you would consider that a midlife crisis car crash of biblical proportions. No one really did because he was clearly in such a mess before the crash.

[Von Halen]

Well, Dave did try to warn Ed before he married Val. Of course, at the time, everyone thought it was because Dave was jealous that Ed had landed a famous tv star. I agree with MasonL. Val's tv career was floundering or getting ready to flounder. Speaking of her tv career floundering, she just got fired from her gig with Duff on the kids baking show.

[MasonL]

A reasonable conclusion can be drawn, even without Dave's recent stories, that Val is a big part of what ruined Eddie. Like he said, Ed was only faithful to his guitar and living the rock n' roller life. Once he started trying to balance that with a stable marriage it went downhill. Just look at the band before and after 1981. It was a quick slide after 6 years of full-on commitment and doing music everyday. Val wedged herself in between them because she sought to obtain another man's fame, because her TV career wasn't good enough for her. Ed is a ball of stress to begin with and doesn't know how to confront anybody constructively so just went down a spiral of drug use to cope with it, which obviously took years off his life.

The band would've broken up at some point for some other reason, as all bands do. But observe how quickly the devolution was after she got involved and connect the dots.

[Nitro Express]

If you ever driven up Coldwater Canyon Road you know what I’m talking about. It’s a two lane windy road with not much of a shoulder with a ton of traffic on it. Picturing Ed in a golf cart with cars swerving to miss him is hilarious. He’s headed for a pool full of porn stars to escape. Ha! Ha!

[Nitro Express]

Noel Monk also mentioned Ed’s “I hate my brother!” fits. Ed was under a lot of stress. No wonder he chain smoked and drank like a fish.

[Vinnie Velvet]

Judging from the last episode, it seems Dave and Ed were a lot closer than we were let to believe.

When Ed was totally down and out after the breakup with Val, he was in quite a state.

Who does he call? He calls Dave.

[Nitro Express]

I liked it because it ended with Dave and that just drives Sam nuts. So what is he doing? He’s got a hot shot guitarist who is dumb enough to think he can be Eddie. Sam is trying to bait Al back and Sam has a wet dream of recreating Van Halen in hopes of getting attention on himself. Yes Sam is that lame. Anyways get ready for Dr. Frankenstein Hagar’s monster. Sam has Joe amp shopping looking for the magic box. Ha! Ha! Well you can’t buy love and you can’t buy EVH playing skills.

[Terry]

Well you do enough post millennium coke laced with who knows what and wash it down with rot gut you will screw the elephant. Thank’s to porn publicist and organizer extraordinaire Janie, Humpty Dumpty got put back together again and did one more glorious tour with Diamond Dave.

Popsicle Sam can’t accept nobody remembers he was in Van Halen and Dreams and Love Walks In are only bad nightmares lost in time. We all remember Sam saying he was visited by aliens. Here’s a popsicle for your ass from the ice cream man.

The nadir of it for me, even lower than the 2004 tour or the subsequent porn soundtrack Trans Trem Sustainer wanking stuff, was watching footage of Ed in either late 2006 or early 2007 (can't remember which now) at the NAMM show and listening to him playing. He looked terrible and wasn't playing much better. If memory serves, shortly after that NAMM show Van Halen released that first publicity shot with Ed, Al, Roth and Wolfgang. Frankly, I wasn't too enthused at the prospects of Roth reuniting with the band at the beginning of 2007. Said publicity shot looked...off. Then, Van Halen didn't bother turning up at the RnRHoF that spring (a wise move, in retrospect), and Eddie was off to rehab and the tour was postponed. Honestly, I didn't think either Ed or Dave were up to delivering the goods prior to the tour getting underway.

It wasn't until I saw footage of the band at one of the tour rehearsals was posted online and saw them serve up Romeo Delight that I thought the reunion might be something worthwhile. For me, it was never a case of merely wanting to see Dave play with the band at any cost, but wanting to see the CVH lineup together kicking as much ass as they could. I didn't want a half-assed Van Halen reunion. Well, what I wanted never quite came to pass because I had to contend with Ed wanting to Bring His Kid To Work Day, but Dave kicked ass on the first tour. Ed eventually steadied himself and was able to demonstrate once again why he was who he was.

All things considered, when I think of where things were in 2006 and early 2007, Van Halen Mach 4 ended up being better than I had any expectations for.

[Nitro Express]

Yeah, well, I'd say by the time 2006 was halfway through, Ed was pretty much in dreadful shape. And Van Halen's career at that point didn't really have a way forward other than getting back with Dave, not if it was to be a career playing to packed arenas.

Well you do enough post millennium coke laced with who knows what and wash it down with rot gut you will screw the elephant. Thank’s to porn publicist and organizer extraordinaire Janie, Humpty Dumpty got put back together again and did one more glorious tour with Diamond Dave.

Popsicle Sam can’t accept nobody remembers he was in Van Halen and Dreams and Love Walks In are only bad nightmares lost in time. We all remember Sam saying he was visited by aliens. Here’s a popsicle for your ass from the ice cream man.

[Terry]

Dave cracked me up when he said, Ed was ruined and he did what he had to do. He called me. Ha! Ha!

Look at some of Val’s Instagram posts. You wonder who was more nuts. Ed or her. No wonder Wolf weighs 400 pounds. That kid grew up in a nut house. Food indeed is a coping drug.

Yeah, well, I'd say by the time 2006 was halfway through, Ed was pretty much in dreadful shape. And Van Halen's career at that point didn't really have a way forward other than getting back with Dave, not if it was to be a career playing to packed arenas.

[Nitro Express]

Ed and me were the skinny artsy types. Al was a thug. Ha! Ha!

[Nitro Express]

Roth needs to keep these stories coming. He’s on a roll.

[Nitro Express]

The closest I ever got to an alien was an illegal alien and I did probe her. Lots of times. I took that bitch to outer space. Ha! Ha! Classic Roth.