AVH Autobiography 'Brothers' Due In October

[martial]

Just kidding

[twonabomber]

Waiting for a French version, Holland had a Dutch version. I don’t know why

Seriously?

[martial]

Waiting for a French version, Holland had a Dutch version. I don’t know why

[Nitro Express]

The first person I called when Eddie died was Roth. He was a member of the raiding party and we were hungry pillaging everything in sight and leaving a wake of burned out villages behind us. After 84 we just 5150 walked like fags and played stool softening music but we got paid but who cares about that forgettable shit.

[Silexxx]

https://blabbermouth.net/news/alex-van-halen-on-why-he-didnt-cover-sammy-hagar-years-in-his-book-the-original-band-was-the-driving-force

In a new interview with Bringing It Back To The Beatles, VAN HALEN drummer Alex Van Halen was asked why he made "the conscientious decision" to end his recently released book, "Brothers", in 1984 and not cover any of the band's later years. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Because the original band was the band that was the driving force. That was the connection between the disparate parts of the musical world, if you will. And we were young. The first record going platinum — it's incredible. That's something you can really never expect to happen again. Later on, it was different — that's for another book — but the excitement and the confusion and the groping in the dark, if you will, and all the mistakes that we made, and all the B.S. we had to endure, and then to recognize at the very end, maybe we had one more record in us, it was very… You can't take it back, but those are the things that are in the back of your head. The old expression of, if you don't go over the edge, then you can't come back. You have to go too far to come back in. Does that make sense? Unfortunately, we're human and we made some bad choices. The US Festival, for instance, was just a clusterfuck. Nobody knew what the hell was going on. All we said was, 'You make sure you have enough power, and we'll play.' That's it."

When the interviewer noted that this attitude is "true rock and roll," Alex concurred. "Bingo. That's exactly right," he said. "You just hit the nail on the head. After that, that's why the book ends in 1984, because that was true rock and roll. After that, it became much more — I don't know; I can't explain it. But it's not to say that it was not any good. We always did our best at whatever we were doing, but it wasn't the same."

He added earlier in the interview: "I think I picked up where Ed [legendary VAN HALEN guitarist and Alex's brother Eddie Van Halen] left off in terms of saying… His example was that we were actually happier playing in clubs than we were when we hit the so-called big time, because in the clubs you weren't quite sure what you were doing, you could, at the drop of a hat, change directions, you can play anything you want and there's nobody that holds you accountable or they have expectations of any sort. You just go on and you play. And it's intimate. You're right there, two feet away. People are right there in front of your face. And that kind of goes away when you get to the place where you have five lines of security people. And we always kept it to a minimum, but nonetheless, that was the soup du jour."

[nick500]

Al sounds like a sane version of Dave. He seems to have a lot in common with Dave.

[Silexxx]

[Silexxx]

[Seshmeister]

Looks like Watkins was a pyro guy and did most of the Van Hagar tours and lots of other bands in the 80s and 90s.

[Seshmeister]

From AlternativeNation.net


VAN HALEN roadie claims ALEX VAN HALEN LIED in his new book, calls him a “COWARD.”
Van Halen’s former roadie John Watkins recently took to Facebook to post about inaccuracies in Alex Van Halen’s new book “Brothers.” Out of the many claims Watkins makes in his lengthy post, one of the biggest is that Alex lied about his reasons for firing his longtime drum tech and childhood friend Gregg Emerson.
Watkins shared a portion of Alex’s new memoir in which he wrote about Gregg. In the excerpt, Alex revealed the reason he claims to have let Gregg go: “We had to let him go after I got sober in ‘87, I couldn’t have someone around me all the time doing shots and pounding Schlitz, and Gregg wasn’t willing or able to stop.”
But Watkins alleges that Alex’s reasons for firing Gregg are a complete lie. “Alex Van Halen is lying when he says, ‘We had to let him go in 87.’ Gregg Emerson left Van Halen’s crew in 1986 halfway through the 5150 tour, and a year before Al got sober! He was replaced by an excellent drum tech named Rob Kern and the band and the crew all know this is true,” Watkins wrote on Facebook.
“Al continued drinking long after Gregg left, and Rob was now responsible for stocking the daily tray of Shiltz. I never once, not once ever saw Gregg drunk or high enough to not do his job/ He was always in control, and I cannot say the same thing about Al. That whole passage about Gregg being a bad influence is bullsh*t. If Alex was so vulnerable he could not be around anyone drinking, how did he manage to play in a band with Michel, Sammy, and his brother who did certainly did not stop drinking? But Al wants to justify his horrendous behavior making it out to be Gregg’s fault…bullsh*t!”
“... It takes a real big coward to disparage the dead when they are not here to defend themselves. I do not care if Alex Van Halen is the second greatest rock drummer of all time (he never will be Keith Moon) he didn’t need to try and make himself look better at Gregg’s expense.
“... He was a horrible human being when I worked for him and the way he lies about his onetime friend and employee Gregg Emerson shows he is still a horrible human being! I would never have posted this story if he had been honest or at least kept his big mouth shut but he didn’t, so I hope Gregg’s kids sue him and take all the profits from his book for libeling their father’s memory.”

[Seshmeister]

Yeah all three were probably pretty horrendous.

[Never was]

Al wrote little about the Bertinelli's, Sam, or the weeks around Edward's passing.

Sometimes what you do not say can say more.

[silverfish]

Lefsetz chimes in:

lefsetz.com/wordpress/2024/11/03/the-alex-van-halen-book/

[Von Halen]

That's right you did.

I'm old, man. Gimmie a break LOL

Ha ha! Me too.

[Vinnie Velvet]

Uh, isn’t that what I said?

That's right you did.

I'm old, man. Gimmie a break LOL