“You have to remember we were together for 65 years,” Alex Van Halen says about his late younger brother and fellow Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Eddie Van Halen. “That’s a lifetime, if not more. He’s my brother. We worked together. We were close in everything we did.”
The relationship is the crux of Van Halen’s new book, titled — wait for it — “Brothers.” The 231-page tome, which the drummer was penned with New Yorker staff writer Ariel Levy. It has its share of sex, drugs and, of course, rock ‘n’ roll but focuses primarily on the bond between the two, forged by mutual experience — coming to the U.S. in 1962 from their native Netherlands — and a passion for music that made Van Halen one of the biggest rock bands on the planet over the course of its 12 albums and enduring hits such as “Runnin’ With the Devil,” “Jump,” “Why Can’t This Be Love” and more.
Save for a couple of drum magazine interviews Van Halen has been largely quiet since his brother passed away in October of 2020 at the age of 65 after a long battle with cancer. “Brothers,” however, offers plenty of insight and emotion — including some moving passages written directly to Eddie. The older Van Halen acknowledges that doing the book “really took its toll on me,” but it’s also given him, and fans, a bit more closure after four years of mourning that still feels fresh…
The Van Halen brothers — Eddie, left, and Alex, right — in Tokyo, Japan, June 1978. (Photo by Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images)Getty Images
What led you to do the book?
Van Halen: There’s a lot of things that were left on the table, so to speak. I got the feeling Ed and I never got to complete what we came to the planet for — that may be a self-aggrandizing kind of statement, but that’s what we felt we were doing. The majority of things that were written about Ed were third party. “They weren’t really there. I’m not degrading any of it, but it’s not accurate. I really felt like a lot of the stuff that was out there was incorrect, and it didn’t do justice to the more sensitive side of Ed. So before I die I would like to at least partially set the record straight.
There’s a sense from the book that you wanted to establish the depth of what was behind Van Halen as much as if not more than just the story itself.
Van Halen: You’re very much right on the money. There was more going on than most people recognize or realize. It’s not our place to “teach” people, but there are different layers…it’s hard to express it in words. I mean, everybody gets blinded by the fact Ed was such a phenomenal player (that) you’re not even understanding who the human being was. Maybe people don’t care, but I care. He’s my brother.
People may have expected more in the way of dirt or tell-all in the book, but there’s really not a lot of that in here.
Van Halen: Y’know, if I start throwing dirt it’ll never end. I think some people would like that; that’s how projects are sold nowadays…these pop performers, they create arguments and fights because that helps them sell. I think it divides the audience, and we’re not here to divide. I think the tone of the book and what I want the book to be perceived to be is on a more spiritual and creative level. It’s not about the dirt. That’s why there’s very little dirt in there.
Or anger — not even at a guy like David Lee Roth, who you’ve openly had a lot of issues with over the years.
Van Halen: I’m not angry at all with Dave. He was one of the three main components of the band. At the time we didn’t recognize it because we were constantly battling things out. That’s why I mentioned (in the book) that the first person I called when Ed died was Dave because I felt like I owed him that, to the work we had done together and the fact that our families knew each other and the fact that everybody was sort of on the same level, if you will, when we first started. I don’t know where things went wrong…I have nothing but the utmost respect for Dave and his work ethic. I just think some of his choices were really strange to me, but that’s not my job to figure it out. (laughs)
You made an interesting decision in the book to stop the narrative when Dave left in 1985. What do you say to fans who wanted to read about everything that came after — the years with Sammy Hagar and Gary Cherone and the reunions in the 2000s and all of that?
Van Halen: Well, first, there were limitations to how big the book could be. But. y’know, the magic was in the first years, when we didn’t know what we were doing, when we were willing to try anything. What happened after Dave left is not the same band; I’m not saying it was better or worse or any of that. The fact is Ed and I did our best work whenever we played. We always gave it our best shot.
Sammy and Michael Anthony have said they reached out to you to be part of the Best of All Worlds Tour they did during the summer to celebrate Van Halen but never got a response. Was the silence your answer?
Van Halen: I’m not interested They’re not part of this. They left, and that’s the way it is. They’re not doing the band justice. They can do what they want to do, that’s not my business. But that’s not what Ed and I do; philosophically Ed and I wanted to create, that’s all.
You quote — often in fact — Friedrich Nietzsche and other philosophers in the book. That’s not exactly the first thing we think of when it comes to Van Halen.
Van Halen: (laughs) Oh yeah, philosophy is really all there is in terms of how we create what we do. It’s one thing to talk in the studio and say, “We want a song like this” or “We’re gonna do this and this.” But to go into the studio and have nothing planned and then see what happens? Sometimes nothing happens, then you can do it again tomorrow. I think the simplest way to look at it, in terms of being a student of Eastern philosophies and all that, is the only thing you can really look forward to is being a little better tomorrow than you are today. I don’t know what “better” means, but make an effort. That’s all you’ve got to do, make an effort. Strive. Reach a little higher, a little further. That doesn’t mean in a greedy way; it just means in your outlook of life.
Van Halen, circa 1978. From left: Alex Van Halen, Michael Anthony, Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth.Getty Images
You auctioned off a bunch of your drums and other items back in June and people figured that meant you’re done playing. True?
Van Halen: It was misinterpreted. We had a warehouse full of stuff from all the previous tours and it was suggested, “Why don’t you share this with people? What good is it sitting in a warehouse? Absolutely nothing.” So I said, “Yeah, sure,” and my drum tech said, “Look, I can get a company to help auction it off,” and that’s what we did. But I’m not quitting; I don’t know where that came from. I’ll die with my sticks in my hand. I’ve had to tone down because I did have a spinal issue that I had to deal with, but with modern technology we have now I should be OK in about five years. I’m planning to live to be 100.
The audio book version of “Brothers” has an unreleased instrumental, “Unfinished,” People are excited; us there more where that came from?
Van Halen: Yes, but I’m not in any hurry. I’m not gonna force it. Our way of working is when it feels right, it’ll happen. I know people want to hear it, but I do have a certain obligation to keep it at Ed’s standards; he was meticulous and he was a pain in the ass. (laughs) I need to have access to the right takes, ‘cause not every day did we play at our best. But I am looking forward to getting some people involved — other musicians and producers — who I know will do the job right. So we’ll see.
You write in “Brothers” that you still communicate with Ed. Is that a source of comfort or joy or grief or…?
Van Halen: A little bit of both. I don’t want to go out on a limb to the point where somebody is gonna put me in a straitjacket, but…he’s not gone for me. He’s still here. His spirit’s here. And it’s not something you can grab or touch. It’s intangible. Scientists will tell you that you cannot destroy energy, it just takes different shapes, and that’s kind of how it is for me with Ed. What the future holds for how Ed and I travel this lifetime remains to be seen, but I don’t think it will be in the realm of physicality. You’re not trying to run away from the fact you’re not together anymore; you just accept it for what its and then the pain will slowly diminish — but it’ll never go away.