They Cost a Band Probably Won t Wear Them Again
"In that location'southward a little bit of Van Halen in everybody, and we're just in that location to bring information technology out."
Talk about the perfect t-shirt.
Those words came straight from the homo who has brought the undeniable Van Halen beats we've been rocking to for over four decades – Alex Van Halen. They're from a 1981 interview that has never been heard before until now thanks to the podcast The Tapes Annal.
Indianapolis music critic and announcer Marc Allen had the take a chance to interview Alex back in 1981 while Van Halen was on bout to support their album 'Fair Alarm'. The interview covered a range of topics including the "no dark-brown M&Ms backstage" clause in the band's bout rider, what it was like working with producer Ted Templeman, the band'due south pre-fame lodge days and where he thought Van Halen would be in the side by side iv years.
Alex'due south comments on the dark-brown M&G rumor are certainly interesting to read almost 40 years later since, as Van Halen fans now know, the ring's tour rider need was really to ensure the concert promotor in each city had actually read the ring'southward complicated contract. Back in 1981, yet, the "no brown One thousand&Ms" story was seen simply as just another example of 4 pranksters with rock-star egos seeing what they could get away with.
Here's how Alex responded to the question dorsum in 1981:
Marc Allan: What nearly chocolate-brown M&M'southward in your contract, is that true?
Alex: All right, everybody has to have a little sense of humor, yep, it's true. Look, if in that location's brown Thousand&K'southward in our bucket, we won't play. I'll tell you, one of these days, one of these days someone'southward gonna get that little piece of paper wrapped around a brown K&M thrown through his window in the middle of the night, and they'll know who information technology's from. But we don't take that too seriously.
Marc Allan: Simply that is in your contract?
Alex: Yes it is, and legally we don't like brown M&M'south.
Marc Allan: Let's talk about the aesthetics of 1000&M's. Do brown Chiliad&M's gustation different from other M&Grand'southward?
Alex: Yes they practise.
Marc Allan: They do?
Alex: They do, they are heavily, more than heavily carbohydrate-coated, they contain more chocolate. The green ones and the yellow ones are much more than refreshing.
Marc Allan: What about the red ones? Practise you miss the red ones, I always–
Alex: Yep, I don't particularly go for the cerise ones that much, like I said, my main objection is dark-brown, and that'south all there is to it.
Marc Allan: So is that a running thing throughout the band, or is information technology just your–
Alex: Well aye, it was actually David [Lee Roth]'due south first objection was brown M&M'southward, Michael [Anthony] doesn't similar Thou&Chiliad'due south at all, Ed [Van Halen] only likes Jujubes. Can you believe that? I got a bridge you lot might be interested in ownership.
While Alex helped to facilitate the band's "rockers at play" image with his brown G&M comments he was upfront and honest well-nigh the ring'due south dedication to making the all-time music possible and giving fans the all-time live experience possible.
"I think we're the about sincere [ring around], and we practice the best to our adequacy," said Alex. "We hateful what we do, nosotros hateful what nosotros say, and we're on the level, and we practice information technology ten months a year, and the other 2 months we spend in the studio, and rehearsing and writing, and making the next album so we can do information technology all over once more."
Allan asked Alex if he idea Van Halen was the all-time heavy metallic act going at the time.
"I wouldn't telephone call it heavy metallic. Once again, Michael [Anthony] would telephone call it large rock, for lack of a better term," said Alex. "Well information technology's gotta wait like it sounds, and sounds like it looks. Like we were talking, we love to take the PA sound, it'southward not actually overkill. Other bands use that organisation to fill up a 40,000 seater, nosotros do it to fill up a 10 to 15,000 seater, considering we feel, we shouldn't, we don't have to crank that matter to the signal where it distorts and hurts your ears, to go the same level of decibels, you know, as you tin with this system. We tin sit in that location and say, drive it, say one-half-style, and it won't misconstrue, and even so information technology will be super, I mean it'due south hard to explain, information technology'southward similar Sensurround. You tin can feel it, yous know?"
Here are Alex's comments to Allan when asked virtually Van Halen'southward pre-fame and fortune days.
Marc Allan: When did you leave Holland?
Alex: About 10, 15 years ago, it'due south kind of hard to pinpoint, yous know, it kind of runs together, it doesn't change, doesn't become bigger or smaller, it gets longer.
Marc: Does it have whatever influence on you now?
Alex: Yeah, I remember information technology does. I call up everything has an influence on you 1 manner or another. I'm surprised you haven't asked most how we write the songs or anything. Only what I was gonna say is that–
Marc Allan: You lot used to write the words in–
Alex: Well no, no, no, whereas your influences and such. Ed and I studied classical piano in The netherlands–
Marc Allan: That'due south interesting.
Alex: And then we started playing rock and roll when we were older. Dave was always singing forth with the radio, and Mike, I don't know, I think he just eats his bass strings for fun. Only when we played the clubs which we did for quite a while, we had a repertoire of near 300 different songs, maybe more, and it was by such a variety of artists, it was nearly unbelievable. And all we had was i guitar, 1 bass, one vocal, and one drum. So nosotros had to twist the music, you know, we had to Van Halenize information technology to make it fit to our instrumentation, which teaches you a lot nearly arranging, and such. And yous know, all of those songs were recognizable, everything did sound like Van Halen, I mean it was withal danceable, then we could still play at the club, because if the people weren't dancing the social club owner would boot you lot out, right? So serves two purposes at the same time, and it carried out over into writing our own music, at that place'south a little bit of everything in there. My personal tastes vary a little scrap with Dave'southward, which again, vary a footling bit with Ed's, but when we all get together, we all, it's like a large soup, and it shows in the music. Mind to some of Ed's guitar solo, like "Eruption", or "Spanish Fly", there is a picayune bit of classical influence in there.
Marc Allan: What song would I be almost surprised that you did a cover of?
Alex: Oh I'd say, okay, we did some stuff by Ohio Players, "Go Downwardly Tonight".
Marc Allan: Really?
Alex: Yeah, we used to practice some onetime James Brown, "Information technology's Your Thing", but so again at the other end, we did some Deep Purple, we did some Black Sabbath, nosotros did "Deal with the Preacher" by Bad Company. Y'all name it, we played it. Nosotros played anything and everything, and information technology seemed that the wider the scope of the style of music, nosotros played whatsoever music but jazz, people just didn't know how to dance to it. We didn't really care for it that much. So it wasn't really bankable, nosotros didn't want to introduce a sax section.
And what did Alex accept to say about the future of Van Halen in 1981?
Marc Allan: Do you recollect your audiences volition grow with the band, that if you get in another three or iv years, volition the same crowd notwithstanding be–
Alex: Okay, I don't take a crystal ball, only I think judging by how much the audience has increased over the last two or three years, every bit you simply mentioned from playing a ii,000 seater to a 10,000 seater, I recall yeah. Our music is, I hate to utilise the word readily attainable, simply it is, you lot know you heed to it and information technology makes you experience good, there's an old saying, if information technology sounds good, it is proficient. Duke Ellington said that. That'due south the truth, and he knew what he was talking about. Because I did become to college a little scrap, for music, and they told me I was a musical prostitute considering I was writing songs with no more than three or four chords, and I said, "Listen, it's harder to write a tune for a song with iii or iv chords than information technology is to sit there and modulate, and sit in that location and modify keys and meter, and crush, and all this jazz, to go some kind of song across, which nobody tin make sense out of, not even the guys that are playing it or writing it." They don't even know, they don't understand, then I left.
There'due south much more from Alex in this interview which you can hear in its entirety below:
Total TRANSCRIPTION:
Marc Allan: So yous were telling me about the sound system out there, and the tonal qualities. When you mix your albums, practise you become for a minor speaker, and make it, yous know–
Alex Van Halen: No when nosotros go into studio we take all our stage gear, set information technology upwards in a big room and play alive. Of course at that place are separation baffles, and only in instance something goes wrong, nosotros have to fix upward a guitar, or overdub something, and Dave is in a separate booth, but we all do play and sing at the aforementioned time, which unlike most bands who become in, lay downwards a rhythm track and build on acme of that, over and over, and so forth, until you get such a fat audio, attempt a fat audio by massive overdubbing, which we don't do. If you listen to the records you lot'll notices, a very, if any, very few if any overdubs, an occasional rhythm guitar at the most. And Ted Templeman takes intendance of the technical attribute of it. You know, obviously he puts down vinyl.
Marc Allan: There was somebody who was talking about, well there was an arc on "Rolling Rock" about Mike Chapman, and Mike Chapman said that he wouldn't want Ted Templeman to produce whatsoever of the groups he produced, because he thinks Ted Templeman would all make 'em sound the same. How about working with Ted Templeman?
Alex Van Halen: I think information technology'due south the exact opposite, I tend to say that almost Mike Chapman. Ted has produced such a diverse, multifariousness of acts, anywhere from The Doobie Brothers, to Ronny Montrose, Van Halen, he does Nicolette Larson, Petty Feat, are you trying to tell me those bands sound alike?
Marc Allan: No I'm not, not at all.
Alex Van Halen: Come on Chapman, wake upwardly, wake upwards. I hateful, I didn't read the article, so I don't know what he said word for word, simply we've been approached by a multifariousness of producers, particularly in the beginning, when people are already being signed, and we chose Ted, because when we sat down he was open, information technology wasn't similar a lot of producers put their postage stamp, so to speak, I mean it's their sound on the record, a lot of times you lot can hear a band, you don't even know who the band is, simply withal you tin tell, or pretty well gauge, who produced it. And similar I said, we had been approached past sure producer, at ane point one of the gentlemen said, "Listen, this is my record and you're gonna do it my fashion, "or you won't exercise information technology at all." And so we said all correct, we won't do it, goodbye. Enter Ted Templeman.
Marc Allan: I wanted to ask you most the Pueblo, Colorado thing that was written most in "Rolling Stone" likewise, something almost racking a lot of–
Alex Van Halen: Yeah, well get-go of all, it was blown, commonly out of proportion, I mean there was a little bit of food spilled on the flooring, but equally far as existence smeared in lasagna, and all this garbage, that'due south what it was, garbage, information technology's not truthful at all. I call up what happened was the higher lath, the school board, just didn't want that make new building, existence subjected to massive rock and roll audiences, and they figured well, we'll only grab any ring, I think we were only a scapegoat. You obviously we didn't go out the dressing room spotless, but there was no damage there, there were no urinals ripped off the wall, and any else they said, that we have behaved similar animals, because you know, later on all this is our living, it's our task, and nosotros know we accept to go dorsum and play there again. So nosotros'd only be cutting our own throats, and it's not truthful at all.
Marc Allan: What well-nigh brown Grand&G'south in your contract, is that true?
Alex Van Halen: All correct, everybody has to have a little humor, yes, it's true. Await, if in that location's brown M&M's in our bucket, nosotros won't play. I'll tell you, 1 of these days, one of these days someone's gonna get that petty piece of paper wrapped around a brown Thousand&1000 thrown through his window in the heart of the night, and they'll know who it'due south from. But we don't take that also seriously.
Marc Allan: But that is in your contract?
Alex Van Halen: Yes information technology is, and legally we don't like brown M&M's.
Marc Allan: Let's talk about the aesthetics of M&M's. Do brown M&M's taste dissimilar from other K&M's?
Alex Van Halen: Yes they practice.
Marc Allan: They do?
Alex Van Halen: They do, they are heavily, more than heavily sugar-coated, they incorporate more chocolate. The dark-green ones and the yellow ones are much more refreshing.
Marc Allan: What most the ruddy ones? Exercise you miss the red ones, I always–
Alex Van Halen: Aye, I don't particularly go for the crimson ones that much, like I said, my master objection is brown, and that's all in that location is to information technology.
Marc Allan: And so is that a running thing throughout the band, or is it only your–
Alex Van Halen: Well yes, it was actually David's kickoff objection was dark-brown Chiliad&K'due south, Michael doesn't like One thousand&M's at all, Ed just similar Jujubes. Can you believe that? I got a bridge you might be interested in ownership.
Marc Allan: The band seems to relate extremely well to the audiences, and I estimate that your average, the average of your audience may be, correct me if you think I'm wrong, fifteen or sixteen, around there?
Alex Van Halen: You know, information technology varies anywhere from like I'd say 15 to 21, or and then, and we get older audiences as well. But the reason we relate so well, is because we are the audience. What we're doing on stage is what we always wanted to encounter being washed on stage, and the reason it goes over so well, I mean nosotros've traveled the earth, we've gone to Japan, we've gone to all of Europe, England, places they don't speak English, places they practise speak English, and even when they understand the lyrics, and don't understand exactly what Dave is saying between songs, they become the feeling, they relate, and I recollect it's because there's a little bit of Van Halen in everybody, and we're just there to bring it out. And tonight yous're with united states of america, and we'll bring information technology all out. Yous know, because a Van Halen show is one of the concluding places where you can really just yell and scream, and thrash your arms about, and do almost anything y'all want, curt of hurting somebody or killing somebody, and get abroad with information technology.
Marc Allan: What about violence in the audience? Exercise you lot see that?
Alex Van Halen: We've seen very little of it. Now of grade you're gonna get a few, I hateful a few guys are always gonna ruin information technology.
Marc Allan: Steven has mentioned something almost an M-80 blowing upwards in someone, in ane of the burn down marshal'southward ears last nighttime, something that happened–
Alex Van Halen: Yes, you know you get that anywhere, accept a look at a football game, the people always knocking rock concerts for being tearing, and such, you lot e'er seen a European football game game, or an American ane, for that matter, the fans in in that location, they're fanatical, even if their, if their team loses they get pissed and they beat up on the other side. You know, look at the loftier school games, look at the violence that goes on there? And that's when they're still stone-cold sober.
Marc Allan: How'd a band like Van Halen come out of Los Angeles, which is such a, I mean it'south one of the–
Alex Van Halen: We've been asked that a lot. Get-go of all we're non from LA, that's where we got together, I'm from Amsterdam, then is Edward, we grew upward basically in The netherlands, moved here about x years ago, and Dave'southward from the Midwest, he's from Bloomington, Indiana, Mike is from Chicago. And we'd all been playing effectually the LA area. Now LA'south not all the laid back that people think it is. A lot of that depends on where you alive, you know? A lot of people, we say LA they call back of Hollywood, other people think of the embankment, but at that place are places in the middle of nowhere, where at that place are just people who, beer drinkers and hell-raisers, then to speak, you know, information technology could be anywhere in the middle of Texas, for all yous know. Then once again, in that location are the beaches, and there are the mountains, and at that place is the Hollywood, simply there is a diversity of stuff in between. That's why we don't audio like The Eagles, 'cause we aren't from LA.
Marc Allan: There's a quote in here that David's kind of like to option upwardly on, I call up it says, according to almost heavy metal, he'south saying "What we're getting these days is clones of clones, "unlike the original Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, "Led Zeppelin, Who, just they've undergone so many changes, "it's become bastardized in so many ways." And he'southward talking about clones of music now, how, considering these bands are probably the start of heavy metallic, how is Van Halen different? Van Halen's patently not a clone.
Alex Van Halen: Well beginning of all, heavy metallic back when it first started, meant 20-minute guitar solos, one-half-hour drum solos, songs that went on to epic proportions. Van Halen does it in three minutes, I mean why take a one-half an hour when y'all can exercise it in three? And I mean, vice versa it could also be true, but I call back people don't have that long an attention span, they get bored very hands. I know for a fact, that when I see some of the bigger bands, and the drum solo happens, and I'grand a drummer, information technology goes on for y'all know, five, 10 minutes, when it reaches into 20 minutes I'll be out there, I'll exist one of the first to exit of the you know, and I'll come back and I probably won't have missed a thing.
Marc Allan: And then in that location'southward a minimum of solos in the band?
Alex Van Halen: Yes, I would say there are solos, but not to the extent of, not playing a solo for the sake of having solo there. It used to be kind of nigh standardized, I mean, when it was near the cease of the set, you knew the drummer was gonna do a drum solo. Now in the middle of the set, when the guitarist rocked out by himself, you knew he was gonna stand up there for xv minutes, you realized he was miles away. Besides, I think our songs accept memorable melodies as well, I hear lots of people they're singing forth with the song, singing along fifty-fifty when the music isn't playing, and I'm like in the ride-on's they have.
Marc Allan: And I've been walking around singing "Everybody Wants Some", I know the words.
Alex Van Halen: Aye, "Everybody Wants Some", well that'due south another thing, our lyrics are not into infinite, or into something yous don't understand, the third planet from the moon, or star or whatever, I mean it'south pretty basic. When you say I tin't wait to feel your dear tonight, you don't demand to use your imagination very much, I don't think.
Marc Allan: What was the all-time heavy metal band you lot always saw?
Alex Van Halen: That I ever saw? I've seen them all, and I think each ring that I've seen has something special to offer. As a matter of fact, I've even seen some punk acts, that I've, I think are New Wave, whatever y'all want to call 'em, like The Damned, they played 15 minutes, and in 15 minutes they played about 15, no wait, about 25 songs I call up information technology was. I'thou not exaggerating, those guys are just so hyper, they're on stage and they were off, side by side i, boom. The music wasn't really there, but I mean the show was, I hateful every band has something to offer, I hateful, when y'all become see Yes, it's more like sitting downwards, an evening with Yes, and they duplicate the record, I mean they duplicate the record, which sometimes makes me wonder why pay $ix or $10 for a ticket, you know, and have to sit down at that place, barely able to see, lousy acoustics, when yous could much rather sit at abode with a nice stereo? If yous want to hear the record duplicated, mind to your stereo. I enjoyed Sabbath very much, I similar Thousand Funk, and I gotta say, it was a pleasure to play with Sabbath, yous know, for their 10th anniversary, we toured with them for all of the U.Chiliad. and nigh of united states, and so that was a pleasance. But other than that, I really can't call up that many heavy metal acts, you know of course everybody goes to come across Zeppelin in one case a yr, it must be a ritual or something, simply since we've been touring so much I oasis't had the fourth dimension.
Marc Allan: Do you retrieve that Van Halen's the best heavy metal human activity now?
Alex Van Halen: I wouldn't phone call it heavy metal. Again, Michael would call it large stone, for lack of a better term. Well information technology'south gotta look like it sounds, and sounds similar it looks. Like we were talking, nosotros love to have the PA audio, it'due south not actually overkill. Other bands use that organisation to fill up a forty,000 seater, we exercise it to fill upwardly a x to 15,000 seater, because we feel, nosotros shouldn't, we don't have to crank that think to the point where information technology distorts and hurts your ears, to get the same level of decibels, y'all know, equally you can with this system. We tin sit down there and say, drive it, say one-half way, and it won't distort, and yet it will exist super, I mean it's hard to explain, it's like Sensurround. Yous tin feel information technology, you know?
Marc Allan: Kind of the acoustics in here assistance a picayune bit.
Alex Van Halen: I heard the acoustics are something else in here, but our music doesn't need acoustics.
Marc Allan: I think the last time you played in Boston, you played the Orpheum, is that correct?
Alex Van Halen: Yeah.
Marc Allan: Yous've come a long way, in a comparatively short amount of time. How have things changed internally in the band since then?
Alex Van Halen: Well our sexual practice lives are better now. Internally, not at all. We're the same as we've e'er been, we've always wanted to do this, nosotros used to play for free, equally a matter of fact, nosotros started out, before nosotros had a managing director, before we had a tape contract, we never had an agent. All nosotros would do is take some fliers, some leaflets, put our picture on there, we'd rent the hall, put the date on it, and but plaster the unabridged LA surface area, and earlier nosotros knew it we could draw about five guys and people to these shows, you know, it was all up there by ourselves, we would set up the stage, we would rent the PA with the money that we knew we were gonna brand, and it was just recycled, the shows got bigger and bigger, more equipment, more people, and it just went on and on, and on and on. And then when nosotros signed the tape, we did it all over the world.
Marc Allan: Do you detect yourself getting caught upwards in any sort of bureaucracy now that it'due south bigger?
Alex Van Halen: No, because we run everything ourselves. We work very closely with the record company, we work very closely with our management, and luckily enough nosotros've had a say in almost everything that we do, anywhere from the material that'due south on the album, to the album cover, to where we tour, when nosotros tour, the clothes we vesture. Yous know a lot of people take the managing director telling them what time to go to bed, what time to wake upwardly, eat now, the things similar that. We were pretty much left up to our own.
Marc Allan: Would you e'er similar to–
Alex Van Halen: To be a manager, hell no.
Marc Allan: To command your audiences a little more than, to be able to transport them,
Alex Van Halen: Like I said, we're–
Marc Allan: you know maybe we call up you should cool out a little.
Alex Van Halen: I think we are the audience, and that's the whole thing, and the people chronicle to that, it's just people tin tell if you're phony, if you lot're trying to act something that you're not, if you have to put on your suit to go out to play. I'll tell you what, Dave'due south the same offstage as he is on, he'southward always mouthy, he's e'er singing, and wearing funny apparel. And it shows, and every bit far as controlling the audition, once again, why control 'em? They're there to take a expert fourth dimension, it's an escape. If you lot desire to be controlled go to school, your teacher will tell you what to do.
Marc Allan: Tin can I ask you how far you went in school?
Alex Van Halen: Yes, how far did I become in schoolhouse? I used to walk in, and and so I'd walk right back out. No, of course I graduated, I mean that's some kind of land police says you lot have to graduate from loftier school, more than or less. And they were more or less happy to get rid of me, and so I bid adieu.
Marc Allan: Would you say the people in high school will remember you lot as they would figure that what you're doing now is pretty typical of what you–
Alex Van Halen: Either that or in jail, I don't know. I gotta exist quiet honest with you, I never went to school that much, I figured I knew more than than the teachers did, and the quality of education was not upward to my standards, you know, upwardly to par. I figured if I had to sit and listen to somebody for 45 minutes, trying to explain something which I already knew 5 years ago, and then something's gotta be wrong. So I would only kind of, oh you know, at present Holland it was different, which were I was younger likewise, so that fabricated a deviation.
Marc Allan: When did you exit Holland?
Alex Van Halen: Almost 10, 15 years ago, it'south kind of hard to pinpoint, yous know, information technology kind of runs together, it doesn't change, doesn't get bigger or smaller, it gets longer.
Marc Allan: Does information technology have any influence on you now?
Alex Van Halen: Yeah, I call up it does. I remember everything has an influence on y'all i style or another. I'one thousand surprised you haven't asked about how nosotros write the songs or anything. But what I was gonna say is that–
Marc Allan: You used to write the words in–
Alex Van Halen: Well no, no, no, the whereas your influences and such. Ed and I studied classical piano in The netherlands–
Marc Allan: That'due south interesting.
Alex Van Halen: Then we started playing rock and coil when we were older. Dave was always singing forth with the radio, and Mike, I don't know, I recollect he just eats his bass strings for fun. But when we played the clubs which we did for quite a while, we had a repertoire of about 300 different songs, maybe more, and information technology was by such a diversity of artists, it was almost unbelievable. And all we had was i guitar, 1 bass, i song, and one drum. And then we had to twist the music, you know, we had to Van Halenize it to brand it fit to our instrumentation, which teaches you a lot about arranging, and such. And you lot know, all of those songs were recognizable, everything did audio like Van Halen, I mean it was still danceable, so we could still play at the order, because if the people weren't dancing the club owner would kick you out, correct? And so serves ii purposes at the same fourth dimension, and information technology carried out over into writing our ain music, there's a piffling bit of everything in there. My personal tastes vary a little bit with Dave's, which once more, vary a little bit with Ed'southward, but when we all get together, we all, it's like a big soup, and it shows in the music. Listen to some of Ed's guitar solo, like "Eruption", or "Castilian Fly", there is a picayune bit of classical influence in at that place.
Marc Allan: What song would I be most surprised that you did a cover of?
Alex Van Halen: "You're No Good", oh y'all hateful side by side anthology?
Marc Allan: Well no, no, no, when you were playing clubs, and you said you had 300 songs?
Alex Van Halen: Oh I'd say, okay, we did some stuff by Ohio Players, "Get Down This night".
Marc Allan: Actually?
Alex Van Halen: Yeah, we used to do some former James Brown, "It'due south Your Thing", just and then again at the other end, we did some Deep Royal, we did some Blackness Sabbath, nosotros did, "Deal with the Preacher", past Bad Company. Yous name it, we played information technology. We played annihilation and everything, and it seemed that the wider the scope of the style of music, we played any music just jazz, people just didn't know how to dance to it. We didn't really care for it that much. And so it wasn't really bankable, we didn't desire to introduce a sax section.
Marc Allan: Or the orchestra, that he tells about here, the big 24 piece orchestras.
Alex Van Halen: Yeah we don't demand that.
Marc Allan: Band's not gonna play live anymore, nosotros're just gonna bring in an orchestra.
Alex Van Halen: Yep right, well as you lot very well know, I'g not gonna name names, simply very many bands practice that, and they even accept actress hidden musicians underneath the phase, or in the dorsum. Every bit a matter of fact, Grand Funk carried around, what was his proper name, Chris Frost?
Marc Allan: Craig Frost.
Alex Van Halen: Craig Frost, they carried him around for years before anyone knew at that place was an organist, and they finally has him all, shit, equally long as you've been playing with the states you may also be on the album embrace and the remainder information technology as well. And other bands tape theirs stuff, pre-tape and play it.
Marc Allan: Yeah, once more no names, that's another affair I was reading about, I recollect Toto, and they have a vocaliser that stands backstage.
Alex Van Halen: A singer who's backstage?
Marc Allan: Yeah, a singer they have aboveboard behind the–
Alex Van Halen: Oh I didn't know that, I wasn't aware of that.
Marc Allan: Aye, that'southward what I read.
Alex Van Halen: Okay, this is back-stabbing, listen guys.
Marc Allan: Okay, back to what I trying for, since you're not heavy metal, you're the best at what y'all do.
Alex Van Halen: I think we're the virtually sincere, and nosotros do the best to our adequacy, that came out great, and we're not lazy, we enjoy it. We mean what nosotros do, nosotros hateful what we say, and nosotros're on the level, and we exercise it x months a year, and the other two months we spend in the studio, and rehearsing and writing, and making the side by side anthology so nosotros can do information technology all over again, it'due south one big vacation country.
Marc Allan: Do you lot retrieve your audiences will grow with the band, that if yous get in some other iii or four years, will the same oversupply still be–
Alex Van Halen: Okay, I don't have a crystal ball, but I think judging by how much the audience has increased over the last two or 3 years, as you lot just mentioned from playing a 2,000 seater to a 10,000 seater, I think aye. Our music is, I hate to apply the word readily attainable, but it is, you know you listen to it and it makes you feel good, there's an one-time saying, if information technology sounds practiced, it is skillful. Duke Ellington said that. That'due south the truth, and he knew what he was talking well-nigh. Considering I did go to college a lilliputian bit, for music, and they told me I was a musical prostitute because I was writing songs with no more than iii or four chords, and I said "Listen, it's harder to write a melody "for a song with three or iv chords "than it is to sit there and modulate, "and sit down there and alter keys and meter, and beat, "and all this jazz, to get some kind of song across, "which nobody tin can brand sense out of, "not fifty-fifty the guys that are playing it or writing it." They don't even know, they don't sympathise, so I left.
Marc Allan: It's interesting that you talk about you've had musical training, yous've studied classical piano, I remember that the majority of the things that I read about the band, you would think that you guys just picked up guitars and started to play ane solar day, yous found that you could make melodies that people enjoy.
Alex Van Halen: Well it may just as well have been, because I'll tell you a lot of that grooming had absolutely no application, it's prissy to know, but what adept is it if yous know that the key of F has one apartment, okay? What difference does it make?
Marc Allan: What virtually the reviews? Do you lot read them, do you care near them? They're plainly not–
Alex Van Halen: Information technology depends, generally, we're in the next boondocks past the time the review comes out. I call up some of the reviewers, some of the critics, are skillful at what they do, and they should be commended. I mean, they know their profession and they do it well. Others I recall are like a virgin trying to describe the pleasures of sex, I mean they don't empathize they don't know, but in the long run I don't call up information technology matters, because just like the album reviews, which are sometimes so drastically opposite, I mean it makes you wonder, who actually knows what the hell he's talking nigh? I mean one guy says it stinks, and the other can be completely opposite, possibly even on the side by side page of the same magazine volition say, "My God, this is fantastic, "I mean the messiah has come up down." You know what I mean? Then it only wonders, I think it'due south a matter of personal taste.
Marc Allan: It's interesting, 'cause Dave Marsh wrote a slice on Ted Nugent recently, and wrote a bit about Van Halen, and said how groovy Nugent was, but how he couldn't stand Van Halen, how terrible they were at what they did. That'southward what I wonder, you know, y'all read that after a while and just start going hey–
Alex Van Halen: Well I recollect as long every bit they don't pull any punches on you, information technology'southward all right, I don't intendance what they say, simply if he does it in a slanderous style, or has nothing to back information technology upward with, so I think that the guy'due south off the wall. And you can accept this and stick it up your olfactory organ, Dave Marsh.
Marc Allan: The thing is, you lot know, I wrote a lot of criticism and I tell people get really upset about information technology, hey, it'due south only my opinion, you don't take to agree with it, you lot don't have to not buy the album, I tell y'all what I don't like.
Alex Van Halen: Well I just, non in defense of it, Ed won this years "Guitar Thespian" poll as the best rock guitarist. He vanquish out Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Ted Nugent, I don't think he was fifty-fifty a runner-up, well maybe he was, but and that's something more creative person oriented magazine, you know, more guitarists, people who actually play the instrument buy that magazine, and they're the ones who vote, as opposed to people similar Dave Marsh who know zilch about guitars, probably. How many strings does a guitar have?
Marc Allan: How do you get along with your brother?
Alex Van Halen: Oh fine, you know we have the obvious, nobody gets forth slap-up all the time, nosotros take the rows, the fights, whatnot.
Marc Allan: Yous simply always here about The Kinks, you know, and Dave Davies and Ray Davies, how they attempt to stab each other.
Alex Van Halen: Oh yeah, well that happened in our younger years, only equally we grow older, you know, later on all it is a felonious offense, to become into the jail, fifty-fifty though he is kin.
Marc Allan: In this article, the guy wrote, he said just what heavy metal is, and he say, the person who wrote this says, "Fine art, it'southward not." in other words heavy metal's non art. Is what you do art? I mean you know you say, it's not heavy metallic.
Alex Van Halen: Art is like beauty, it's in the centre of the beholder, I don't even know how to start on this one. I retrieve it'due south art in the fact that it's gonna last for a while, I mean it is on vinyl, 20 years from now people can heed to it, and hopefully savour it however, if they don't, well then, I mean what was the "Mona Lisa", information technology's a painting, you lot know? I've seen sculptures in the middle of some of these urban center centers, I mean, I'm similar Jesus Christ, what the hell is that? I saw one that was a gigantic wearing apparel pin, and that's all it was. But since the person who put it there was quote unquote, an creative person, it was an object of art. So it merely depends, it'south just a matter of terminology.
Marc Allan: And it's all very interesting, 'cause I was reading this book, "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Directly". And this guy wanted to exist an creative person, so he would clothing very thick glasses when he didn't need whatever spectacles, and would walk with his shoelaces untied, and trip over them.
Alex Van Halen: And that gets right back to what I was saying before most being honest, I mean not having to put on your suit to get out on stage to do something. I've seen guys who, you know, put on make-up, they'll put on the real tight pants, just they'll feel uncomfortable and look uncomfortable, because they are uncomfortable now, considering some people ask them, and they go "Wow Dave, those are some outrageous dress." Well he wears stuff like that all the time. That'due south just Dave, that'southward him. I'm the slob, you lot know?
Marc Allan: How practice you feel near glitter? Similar Alice Cooper, Bowie, things like that? How does that relate to what y'all practise? Does information technology at all?
Alex Van Halen: Oh I've seen, I similar Alice'south show, especially earlier he started playing golf on the "Mike Douglas Bear witness". I think that blew his brownie a scrap, especially now with his completely new image.
Marc Allan: When he was on the "Hollywood Squares", that killed it for me.
Alex Van Halen: Right, yes, that'due south correct, that was one of the meliorate rock shows I saw, I remember it was in the Hollywood Bowl, I don't know, mayhap ten years ago, helicopter came in, flew in so low this affair was deafening, I'grand surprised the FAA didn't get downward on 'em, that was pretty dangerous, if that thing had run out of gas, iii,000 people would have been dead. Simply yeah, I liked his show, and there's certain things I like nearly Bowie, we played some of his music. I haven't followed up on him lately, I hateful he changes his graphic symbol and image like I change my underwear. Of course for him it'south get standard, it'due south the norm, he does that almost every yr, he comes out with something dissimilar, and so you come to expect it of him. And in that sense, existence different is being the same.
Marc Allan: Do you find that since yous've become a very, very popular band, probably ane of them most popular around now, that you've lost some contact with your audition?
Alex Van Halen: No, that's not true at all.
Marc Allan: I'yard somewhat surprised that yous were able to do an interview, simply like that.
Alex Van Halen: Aye, well we oasis't lost contact at all. A lot of bands go out and they'll play, or they'll say they play, or they will play minor clubs, at present to me that seems like losing contact, they say that they similar to exist intimate with people, well I don't call back information technology's very intimate if say, Van Halen was to go into a boondocks like Boston, and play a 500 seat hall, when 10,000 people want to see you. That ways 9,500 of them don't get to see you. You know, which disappoints them, and it'southward only a hurting in the ass for everybody, you know? There's gonna be a riot at the club, and you lot need to change the proper noun, people are spring to detect out, that ways garbage only doing clubs. I don't see that any reason why you lot tin't exist close to people, 10,000 people, 20,000, any, they're all there.
Marc Allan: What'due south something that yous've always wanted to talk about in press that no ane'south asked?
Alex Van Halen: Your love life. I can't really retrieve of anything, I'll talk about anything.
Marc Allan: Tell me near your beloved life?
Alex Van Halen: I'll tell you what, you follow us back to the hotel after the testify.
Marc Allan: What kind of things can we expect from Van Halen in the future?
Alex Van Halen: Okay, Van Halen just takes information technology one day at a time, but I hate to apply that wording, sounds like a fuckin' motion picture.
Marc Allan: Or a TV show.
Alex Van Halen: Nosotros have information technology as it comes, we don't plan. We write all the time, and nosotros take one of the greatest exterior influences, which is Ted Templeman. Because when nosotros get off tour, which will be in Dec sometime, I call back, we go into the basement, where we rehearse, and nosotros'll play all of the songs that have been written over the last year. And Ted will mind, and his first impression of the songs that he hears, which are good, will normally be the ones that end up on the album. The last anthology was washed peradventure out of l songs. You know, nosotros might do something quasi-religious next year, who knows? We didn't know that we were gonna add little keyboards to this album until we really sabbatum down in the basement and Ed started playing a niggling bit, and there it was, "And the Cradle Will Stone". First take, and so we put information technology on the anthology, starting time song. But I'll tell you, Ted's a smashing guy. When we get together in the studio he's like a 5th member of the band. We all throw ideas around, and Ted is the guy that makes some sense out of it. Somebody has to be sane in in that location.
Marc Allan: How long is this tour gonna last?
Alex Van Halen: 'Til about December I recall, it'll be a full of about 10 months. In that form, we simply came back from Europe, information technology's good to be dorsum in u.s.a., thank God.
Marc Allan: What do yous miss most when you go? Do you miss the skillful food–
Alex Van Halen: Yep, I miss the food, yeah it'southward true. It actually makes me laugh when nosotros come up back, and a friend of mine will walk up and say, "Oh my God, isn't this marvelous? "I'm gonna spend 3 weeks in England." All right, you thought it was American, I don't mean to knock the people or annihilation, it'south just one of those things, the nutrient is non very good, the weather condition is admittedly unbearable, it'south e'er raining, always muggy. The audiences are great, they dearest rock and roll, they love to get into it. And the proof of that is because 90% of the bands on the radio are English language. As for the rest of Europe, y'all know, Holland is my abode land, so it's nice to become back there once in a while. And we simply finished playing the largest festival they e'er had there, a identify called Pinkpop, l,000 Dutch people at that place, and that was good, merely information technology's actually nice to be dorsum in u.s.a.. In that location's no way to describe information technology.
Marc Allan: December, January, and February you're recording some other album, and then back on the route once again?
Alex Van Halen: Correct, yeah, the last album we recorded took x days, and then of class the mandatory mixing and re-mixing, but the actual recording process takes very few days. So I see no problem at all.
Marc Allan: How long have you been on the road at present?
Alex Van Halen: We left February or March, but I don't know what month this is.
Marc Allan: This is July right now.
Alex Van Halen: Okay, and so how many months is that?
Marc Allan: Does it bother y'all? Exercise y'all get tired?
Alex Van Halen: No, you become used to information technology. Every bit a matter of fact, even before the tape, earlier the touring, we were all doing the same thing, simply on a smaller scale. We would play five, 45 minute sets a dark in the club, five, vi days a calendar week. And it would all be random long traveling distance, you know, two, three hours, which is your average aeroplane flight from metropolis to city anyway. And now all nosotros do is play about 100 minutes, nosotros used to play five hours, and no slow songs.
The Tapes Annal is a weekly podcast that presents never-earlier-heard interviews from the 1980s and 90s with notable musicians, actors, comedians, and other iconic people. The episodes featuring Marc Allan's interviews are produced past Alan Drupe. It's role of the Osiris Podcast Network.
To discover out more well-nigh The Tapes Annal Podcast and to hear more interviews with classic stone legends including John Mellencamp, Ace Frehley, Neil Peart, Billy Joel and Ian Anderson) visit The Tapes Archive.
Source: https://www.vhnd.com/2020/04/04/never-before-heard-alex-van-halen-interview-from-1981/
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