When we were involved with doing the concerts at Cal State Fullerton, our sound & lights crew were also the guys who worked the Van Halen tours. The band was rehearsing at a sound stage in Los Angeles getting ready for the US Festival, and I got to go along. Afterwards, I had trouble hearing for a week!
Here are highlights of that show, for which they were paid $1.5 million…..and got them into the Guinness Book of World Records for biggest rock payday at the time:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Van_Halen
Eddie was a Chevy guy too. I’m not sure if he painted these cars like the guitars, or vice versa!
Here is the clip from when Valerie Bertinelli was hosting Saturday Night Live and Eddie was just tagging along. He was hanging out in the SNL-band room when they decided to whip up a tune to play together. Here’s how it turned out – and note that Valerie introduced them while wearing a 91X button!
https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/musical-performance—eddie-van-halen/n9553
Such sad news. Eddie was a guitar legend. And his brother Alex was an unbelievable drummer! I was in my early teens when I started listening to Van Halen and their music will always hold a special place in my heart.
Saw them perform at the Cow Palace in San Francisco in 1984. I was just a kid and my dad fell backwards into free tickets.
To this day, I haven’t seen a better show live. just pure…..balls out…..hard rock!
Glad to hear she was with him when he died:
https://people.com/music/valerie-bertinelli-shares-throwback-photos-of-ex-husband-eddie-van-halen-including-from-the-night-they-met/
Great interview with Ted who was there from the beginning:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/ted-templeman-producer-eddie-van-halen-interview-1073080/