AVH Autobiography 'Brothers' Due In October

[Vinnie Velvet]

Looks like Alex will talk about the band stuff as well.

[DLR Bridge]

Did a quick Wiki search on Ariel Levy. She co-wrote Demi Moore’s autobiography and wrote a book called Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture. Strikes me as an unusual fit for the project.

[Seshmeister]

Seems unlikely there will be numerous accounts of the brothers spit roasting groupies...

[Seshmeister]

Did a quick Wiki search on Ariel Levy. She co-wrote Demi Moore’s autobiography and wrote a book called Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture. Strikes me as an unusual fit for the project.

Looks like she did a few interviews/stories about Van Halen after the reunion for The New Yorker but they will be behind a paywall.

[DLR Bridge]

This poor soul will sit idly by and hope someone here will post a sampling of her VH stories.

[Terry]

Did a quick Wiki search on Ariel Levy. She co-wrote Demi Moore’s autobiography and wrote a book called Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture. Strikes me as an unusual fit for the project.

How exactly DOES a person 'co-write' someone else's autobiography? No slam directed toward you, DLR Bridge, because doubtless both Levy and Moore would say Levy co-wrote Moore's autobiography. Maybe I'm just being dumb about it, but is it possible to co-write someone else's autobiography?

Yeah, that choice of writer seems an odd one for AVH to go with, too.

[DLR Bridge]

No slam taken! I just wrote what I saw on the Wikis.

As I gaze upon the Ted Templeman book, it states, “Ted Templeman as told to Greg Renoff.” Perhaps that’s the key to a co-write?

[So this is love]

I was excited when I heard the news of Alex book but that has now faded....now I have to wait for Michael Anthony's or maybe DLR is he has not sold his soul to the VH brothers to get back into VH in 2007...

[DLR Bridge]

Ooof. Michael’s forward to his boss Hagar’s book was all I needed to see to know that I’m good without a biography from him. “If Sam says it, it happened.” Barf.

I’d gladly take another book from Dave, but something tells me he’s going to continue to intrigue us sans printed page.

[Nitro Express]

Mike is such a gimp.

[ZahZoo]

How exactly DOES a person 'co-write' someone else's autobiography? No slam directed toward you, DLR Bridge, because doubtless both Levy and Moore would say Levy co-wrote Moore's autobiography. Maybe I'm just being dumb about it, but is it possible to co-write someone else's autobiography?

Yeah, that choice of writer seems an odd one for AVH to go with, too.

It's just a person who can organize time lines accurately and has the ability to convey a spoken story into coherent words and paragraphs that make sense to a general audience. A good co-writer would have to spend a lot of time listening and gathering details rather than just making shit up.

[DLR Bridge]

I can hear it now.

Mr. Van Halen, it says here that you and your brother propositioned to “bang” Ann and Nancy Wilson in the same bed, but the dates you gave me don’t sync up with the tour itineraries.

[Terry]

I get what you guys are saying re: co-authoring an autobiography, it just struck me as somehow being grammatically incorrect or oddly imprecise or whatever...like, I just can't recall having read or heard such a phrase before, while I had read/heard 'as told to' before.

[Terry]

Mike is such a gimp.

It'd be of some interest to know if the Van Halens had Mike sign an NDA at some point either during the 1984 contract renegotiation or any alterations of Mike's contract subsequent to the intial 1984 one.

I say that because I can't understand why Mike hasn't really proffered much by way of venting or defending himself or an explanation in terms of what went down with him and the Van Halens, even if were only concentrating on the years after Cherone left the band in 1999. It's not as if Mike hasn't been asked about that stuff multiple times in interviews over the last twenty years. Mike HAS commented here and there about specifics (the circumstances behind his leaving Van Halen) when asked, but only when asked and it's always been with this neutral tone.

I mean, from what I can suss out, it seems like Eddie and Alex just stopped contacting Mike and playing with him shortly after the demo sessions with Roth in 2000 ended. Which was well before Eddie's mother died (calling bullshit on the 'Mike was chucked out of the band specifically because he missed Eddie's Mom's funeral' theory) or before Hagar formed Chickenfoot or the Circle. Reportedly, Sammy had to say to Ed and Alex in the fall of 2003 that he wouldn't do a Van Hagar reunion if Mike wasn't part of the band, so clearly Mike had been out of the band as far as the Van Halens were concerned prior to the fall of 2003 at the latest. Most likely as far back as early 2001 after the second attempt at a Roth reunion failed to get off the ground.

With Mike Anthony, to me it comes off like Eddie and Alex ultimately ended up being dicks to the one guy out of anybody they played with in Van Halen who was easily the most loyal to the Van Halens. The flip side being Mike Anthony willingly let the Van Halens whittle down his percentage and willingly signed away more and more of his rights from 1984 to 2004...Mike let the Van Halens treat him like the hired help rather than stand up for himself and take a hike. I mean, I get it in that staying in Van Halen even at a reduced percentage was the safer route than standing up for himself and probably being chucked out of the band as a result: it wasn't a great choice (maybe not much of a choice at all, really) but he was free to have left at any time. He chose to stay. The Van Halens ended up treating him exactly like what he allowed himself to be treated, which was the disposable hired help. It isn't to say Mike deserved said treatment, but after twenty years of it he'd have to have been an idiot to be surprised at the way he was dumped.

[Terry]

Like, when Eddie publicly claimed in...was it 2015? Or 2013? Whichever year. Claimed that Mike couldn't ever play bass worth a damn and only ever played what Eddie either told or showed him to play...and then went on to say his vocals were as important as Mike's regarding the VH background vocal style...

I mean, when Mike wouldn't even stand up for himself publicly in the wake of that nonsense from Eddie...when that nonsense didn't prompt MIKE to go online and tell Eddie to go fuck himself instead of Sammy sticking up for Mike, at that point I couldn't help feel that if Mike wasn't even willing to stand up for himself he was just allowing himself to be shit on. Hard to feel much by way of sympathy or empathy for someone who won't even raise a voice to defend themselves. Someone like that IS a gimp.