 ron | A 26-letter look into the life of legendary act Van Halen Written by Van Halen Rock band Van Halen will visit Indianapolis during the opening week of a tour to promote “A Different Kind of Truth,” the first Van Halen album in 28 years to feature David Lee Roth on lead vocals. A Feb. 22 concert at Bankers Life Fieldhouse is the third date of the tour, following a Feb. 18 show in Louisville, Ky., and a Feb. 20 appearance in Detroit. Roth will perform with guitarist Eddie Van Halen, drummer Alex Van Halen and bass player Wolfgang Van Halen (Eddie’s son), replicating the roster that played an October 2007 show at the NBA arena previously known as Conseco Fieldhouse. As this A-to-Z list illustrates, it’s been a long, strange trip to rock ‘n’ roll glory for the California-based musicians: A is for Alex Van Halen, drummer. During performances, he has set fire to drumsticks, cymbals and gongs. B is for “Beat It,” the Michael Jackson tune that featured a guitar solo played by Eddie Van Halen. “Beat It” spent three weeks at No. 1 on Billboard magazine’s Hot 100 chart in 1983. C is for contract rider, a backstage document that Van Halen made famous when the band requested bowls of M&M candy — but with all the brown ones removed. David Lee Roth said the request was made to verify attention paid to the entire production rider, which included numerous specifications related to safety. D is for David Lee Roth, vocalist. “I used to jog, but the ice cubes kept falling out of my glass,” is a quote attributed to Roth, whose “Diamond Dave” persona made hard rock fun for MTV in the 1980s. E is for Eddie Van Halen, guitarist. In 2011, Rolling Stone magazine listed Eddie Van Halen as No. 8 on a list of “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.” F is for “Frankenstrat,” the primary guitar used by Eddie Van Halen during the band’s early days. In 1978, he told Guitar Player magazine that he put together the multistriped instrument with parts purchased from Charvel Guitars. “It is a copy of a Fender Stratocaster. I bought the body for $50 and the neck for $80, and put in an old Gibson PAF pickup that was rewound to my specifications.” G is for Gene Simmons, the Kiss bass player who caught a nightclub performance by Van Halen in 1976. Simmons was impressed enough to fly the band to New York to make demo recordings, but no label signed Van Halen as a result. Four songs from those recordings are revived in full or in part on the new album “A Different Kind of Truth.” H is for “Hot for Teacher,” a 1984 single that enjoyed heavy rotation on MTV. In 2010, The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis exhibited a 1932 Ford Hi-Boy Phaeton car that appeared in the “Hot for Teacher” video. I is for Indonesia, the country where the parents of Alex and Eddie Van Halen met. Jan Van Halen was a touring musician who played saxophone and clarinet, while Eugenia Beers was born in Indonesia in 1914. J is for “Jump,” the lone No. 1 single in Van Halen’s discography. The song reached the top of Billboard magazine’s Top 100 chart in 1984. K is for Kool & the Gang, supporting act on the 2012 tour. Robert “Kool” Bell told Billboard magazine that David Lee Roth recruited Kool & the Gang — known for 1980s R&B hits “Celebration” and “Joanna” — after seeing the band perform at the 2011 Glastonbury festival in England. L is for “lead singer disease,” Eddie Van Halen’s diagnosis of egocentric behavior as displayed by David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar (a member of Van Halen from 1985 to 1996). M is for Michael Anthony, bass player and backing vocalist in Van Halen from 1974 to 1996. Anthony presently is a member of Chickenfoot, a band that features Sammy Hagar on vocals. N is for New Castle, Ind., David Lee Roth’s hometown. “I’m as Indiana as the first day of summer vacation,” Roth told The Star in a 2002 interview. O is for “(Oh) Pretty Woman,” the Roy Orbison hit that Van Halen covered in 1982. The band made a video clip to accompany “(Oh) Pretty Woman)” that MTV initially refused to play. In the video, Michael Anthony portrays a Samurai warrior, Alex Van Halen portrays Tarzan, Eddie Van Halen portrays a cowboy and David Lee Roth portrays Napoleon Bonaparte. P is for party, or the fictional birthday party that Brad Spicoli hired Van Halen to play. In the closing credits to the 1982 film “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” it’s revealed that Spicoli (portrayed by Sean Penn) made post-school headlines by saving Brooke Shields from drowning. He spent the reward money on Van Halen. Q is for quashed reunion, which transpired in 1996 for the classic Van Halen lineup. After David Lee Roth, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony made a feel-good presentation of the Best Male Video award to Beck at the MTV Music Video Awards, the personalities of David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen clashed during a backstage news conference. Nothing materialized beyond Roth appearing on two new songs for a compilation titled “Best of Volume I.” R is for Roman numeral MCMLXXXIV, which is spelled out on the cover of an album commonly known as “1984.” Released on Jan. 9, 1984, it was the final album to feature Roth throughout until this year’s “A Different Kind of Truth.” S is for Sammy Hagar, the solo artist who joined Van Halen after David Lee Roth’s departure. Between 1985 and 1996, Hagar appeared on Top 5 Van Halen singles “Why Can’t This Be Love” and “When It’s Love.” T is for Ted Templeman, the Doobie Brothers producer who urged Warner Bros. Records to sign Van Halen in 1977. Templeman served as producer for six Van Halen albums. U is for US Festival, the 1983 multi-act concert that paid headlining fees of $1.5 million to Van Halen. On the day Van Halen performed, supporting acts included Ozzy Osbourne, Motley Crue, Judas Priest, the Scorpions and Quiet Riot. V is for Valerie Bertinelli, ex-wife of Eddie Van Halen and mother of Wolfgang Van Halen. Bertinelli’s Hoosier ties are represented in the 1970s sitcom “One Day at a Time,” which was set in Indianapolis. W is for Wolfgang Van Halen, the 20-year-old son of Eddie Van Halen who’s played bass in Van Halen since 2007. X is for ex-vocalist Gary Cherone, who made one album as a member of Van Halen — 1998′s “III.” When the Cherone edition of Van Halen played Klipsch Music Center (known then as Deer Creek), the show attracted a modest-sized crowd of 5,548. Y is for “You Really Got Me,” the first-ever single released by Van Halen. The band’s cover of a 1964 Kinks hit reached No. 36 on Billboard magazine’s Top 100 chart in 1978. Z is for Zoetrope Studios, the one-time Hollywood headquarters of Francis Ford Coppola. Van Halen rehearsed at Zoetrope for tours to promote the albums “Fair Warning” (1981) and “Diver Down” (1982). |
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