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David Lee Roth Exits Van Halen: Wake-Up Video

Posted 4/1/11 9:30 am EST by in Wake-Up Video


Could you imagine if Bono decided to leave U2 in pursuit of a solo career, and then the band carried on with the singer from Snow Patrol or something? It's impossible to consider, and yet something exactly like that happened on this day in 1985. Van Halen were arguably the biggest band in the world at the time, and they were coming off their fantastically successful album 1984 (which contained the huge crossover hits "Jump," "Panama" and "Hot For Teacher") and were selling out stadiums around the globe. But frontman David Lee Roth was not getting along with guitarist Eddie Van Halen, and the solo bug had already bitten him (he had already released his cover of "California Girls" to considerable acclaim). So on April 1, 1985, Roth quit Van Halen and moved on.

The two entities — Roth and the rest of Van Halen — went in significantly different directions. Van Halen recruited Sammy Hagar to replace Roth, and the band ultimately became bigger than they ever were, dropping huge albums like 1986's 5150 and 1991's For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. Roth had less success as a solo artist, though he remained popular on the live circuit. (He eventually walked away from music entirely, taking a job as an EMT near the turn of the century.) Of course, Roth eventually came back into the Van Halen fold (twice), and a new album from the band — their first with Roth in 27 years — is expected soon.

It's apparently an exit-centric day, as this is also my final day as the editor of the MTV Newsroom blog. It's been a great run, and like Roth, I'd like to think I'm exiting on a high note (though I have much warmer feelings to my co-workers than Roth had for the Van Halen brothers). In honor of both of our exits, crank up "Unchained."


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Spotted: Sammy Hagar Rocks His Book In New York

Posted 3/16/11 12:30 pm EST by in Music


Every day a multitude of stars wander through the halls of MTV News to talk about their latest projects and goof around with our intrepid correspondents. But sometimes we catch stars elsewhere, and that's why we put together Spotted!, a daily compendium of stars in the wild.

Sammy Hagar sometimes gets a bad rap, mostly from people who think that Van Halen took a nosedive after the departure of David Lee Roth. But over the course of his career, Hagar's time with Van Halen is actually only a small portion of his greater body of work. By the time Eddie Van Halen came calling, he had already notched plenty of hits and fans both with Montrose and as a solo artist. And since he exited Van Halen, he has found success with his band the Waboritas, as a member of Chickenfoot and, perhaps most importantly, as a resort owner and tequila baron. Hagar included stories from all of those bands and eras in his new book Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock (written with Joel Selvin). Hagar has always been a fan-friendly artist (he still invites people from the crowd to come drink with him during his shows), so he was happily rubbing elbows with supporters and signing copies of his book at a Borders in New York City on Tuesday (March 15).

He wasn't the only star meeting the people, as Joe Jonas was seen on the streets of New York and Shakira delivered another great show in Brazil. Click here for these photos as well as the entire "Spotted" archive, which features over 500 candid shots of stars like Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Jay-Z, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, the Jonas Brothers, Madonna and Kanye West!

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Happy Birthday, Eddie Van Halen!

Posted 1/26/11 11:30 am EST by in Music


One of the coolest guys ever to pick up a guitar and crank up an amplifier celebrates his birthday today, as Eddie Van Halen — the six-string Samurai who has been the driving force behind Van Halen for three decades — is now 56 years old. Eddie has had an incredible roller coaster ride over the past few years, but at the moment, he seems to be back in the driver's seat.

When Van Halen first landed on rock radio in the 1970s, there really hadn't been anything like it. Between the thudding rhythms of Alex Van Halen, the dreamy backing vocals and fierce low end of Michael Anthony and the dynamic personality that was frontman David Lee Roth, Van Halen were primed to become the biggest rock band in the world (and that's exactly what happened, really). But it was Eddie's amazing fret work that really made heads spin and jaws drop. He managed to play harder, faster, smoother and just better than perhaps anybody who has ever picked up a guitar. He invented a whole new style and took it to the outer reaches of hard rock.

The legacy of Van Halen is certainly set in stone, as they have no fewer than a dozen tracks from the Roth era that are classic rock staples. And though he was certainly a polarizing force, you can't argue with the fact that Sammy Hagar's version of the band was even bigger. Between the aborted Roth reunion, the short-lived Gary Cherone experiment and Eddie's health problems, the band had a bit of a rough decade. But now they're back, recording with Roth again and still manage to absolutely cook on stage.

One of Eddie's greatest legacies actually has nothing to do with Van Halen, as he provided the blistering guitar solo on Michael Jackson's "Beat It." In honor of Eddie's birthday, crank up "Beat It" one more time.


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Van Halen Begin The End: Wake-Up Video

Posted 1/18/11 8:30 am EST by in Wake-Up Video


Hindsight is always 20/20, especially in the world of rock and roll. Given the gift of access and the ease with which everything can be reconfigured in different contexts, fans and critics are always going back over rock history and re-creating narratives that may not have been obvious then but seem painfully trite now. It seems obvious now that the men of Van Halen would go their separate ways circa 1984 (and 1984), but on this day that year, it was simply an opportunity to launch a 103-date world tour that ended up being the last jaunt with frontman David Lee Roth for over two decades.

The year opened well for Van Halen, as they had just celebrated the release of 1984, the album that contained some of their biggest hits (including "Jump," "Hot for Teacher" and "Panama") and went on to sell over 10 million copies. The tour for that album was to be the group's biggest and most ambitious yet, and though it started off promisingly with a blistering opening in Jacksonville, Florida, the stress of the road began to wear on the band members, whose relationships were already frayed (especially between principal members David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen). The stories vary, but the tensions seemed to grow out of them being envious of the other one's work outside of the band — Roth was scoring solo success with the singles "California Girls" and "Just a Gigolo" (which came from his debut solo EP Crazy From the Heat, released in January 1985) and Eddie had lent his guitar skills to other artists, most notably to Michael Jackson (whose Thriller kept Van Halen's 1984 from reaching the top of the Billboard album chart, something that reported annoyed Roth).

In the end, Roth left the group to work on his solo career and the remaining members of Van Halen soldiered on with former Montrose singer Sammy Hagar behind the microphone. The members of Van Halen eventually kissed and made up with Roth (twice) and are reportedly working on a new album. There's no indication what the new material might sound like, though hopefully it's a lot like "Unchained."


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Randy Moss' Return To The Vikings And Other Pop Culture Homecomings

Posted 10/6/10 6:46 pm EST by in Television


Minnesota Viking fans and Brett Favre fantasy footaball owners rejoiced on Wednesday (October 6) when the NFL squad traded for wide receiver Randy Moss. The move brings the future Hall of Famer back to his original team, after years spent with the Oakland Raiders and the New England Patriots.

It'll be quite a homecoming for Moss, though he's never played alongside Favre before (in 2004, Moss' last season with the Vikings, Daunte Culpepper was under center for the team and Favre was throwing TDs for the Green Bay Packers).

Nonetheless, a merry homecoming it shall be. And being the pop culture wackos that we are here at MTV News, we immediately thought of other memorable homecomings. From top bands to hit shows, here are some of our favorite second acts.

Jay Leno & "The Tonight Show"
Who would have imagined that when Leno left the most iconic post in late-night TV, he'd be gone for less than a year? After his primetime show flopped and Conan O'Brien's "Tonight Show" struggled in the ratings, Leno executed something of a bloodless coup. NBC execs gave O'Brien a seriously golden parachute and now Jay can be seen back where he always wanted to be: on TV at 11:35 p.m.

David Lee Roth & Van Halen
Drama! It would take almost as many words as are housed in the Oxford English Dictionary to fully tell the tale of Van Halen's intra-band dysfunction. So let's just discuss lead singer David Lee Roth. Following a string of hits like "Jump," he and Eddie Van Halen were at each other's throats. Eddie kicked him out of the band and hired Sammy Hagar in 1985. Over a decade later, Roth rejoined the group for a studio session for their band's greatest hits record. The band then appeared together at the '96 MTV Video Music Awards. If Van Halen fans got their hopes up, though, they were sorely disappointed. Weeks later, Roth was once again outta the band. Draaaaama!

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The 2010 VMA Countdown: Van Halen Get The Band Back Together (For A Few Hours)

Posted 9/2/10 4:30 pm EST by in VMAs


The 2010 MTV Video Music Awards are only a few weeks away. The biggest party of the year features nominated clips by Lady Gaga, Eminem, Jay-Z, Ke$ha and Katy Perry and will feature performances by Kanye West, Eminem, Drake, Justin Bieber, Paramore, Usher, B.o.B, Florence and the Machine and Linkin Park. In order to properly prepare yourself for what's to come, every day the MTV Newsroom Blog will deliver a classic moment in the history of the MTV Video Music Awards. Today's installment: Van Halen run with the devil again.

The 1996 MTV Video Music Awards had plenty of winners. Smashing Pumpkins took home a number of prizes (including Video of the Year) for their poetic clip for "Tonight, Tonight," Alanis Morissette scored a trio of Moonmen for "Ironic," Coolio notched a few wins and Bush were declared Viewer's Choice. Theoretically, Van Halen should have been one of the night's biggest winners. Though they didn't take home any trophies, they did get the biggest reaction of the night when the band appeared on stage with singer David Lee Roth for the first time in a decade.

It looked like the return of the key lineup of one of the best rock bands in history, but the positive vibe on stage didn't last long. Guitarist Eddie Van Halen and Roth nearly came to blows after their appearance on stage when Van Halen kept discussing his hip surgery and the guitarist took offense to Roth's goofing off on stage during Beck's acceptance speech for Best Male Video. What was supposed to be the big even that kicked off the triumphant return of a monstrous rock combo ended up inadvertently being the end of the short-lived reunion. Of course, all's well that ends well, as Roth re-joined the band (minus bassist Michael Anthony) in 2007, and rumors of a new album (the first for the group since 1998's Van Halen III) continue to swirl. It was explosive both on stage and behind the scenes, which makes it a classic VMA story.

The 27th annual MTV Video Music Awards will be broadcast live from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles on September 12 at 9 p.m. ET.

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An Open Letter To Van Halen: Please Do Not Make An Album

Posted 8/11/10 4:30 pm EST by in Music


Understand this: I love Van Halen. Like, seriously adore them. Whereas I have a deep understanding of bands like Radiohead and the Hold Steady and Soundgarden, my feelings for Van Halen are entirely visceral. Whatever chemical reaction happens when you really like a song happens thirty times stronger every time I queue up "Panama" or "Hot for Teacher." According to my pleasure centers, those first few Van Halen albums are absolutely perfect. I recognize that they are sort of empty (frontman David Lee Roth really only sang about his sexual conquests and his potential sexual conquests), but they make me feel good anyway. Let me put it this way: If I were to rank my 20 favorite songs of all time, there would probably be three Van Halen songs in there ("Panama" and "Runnin' With the Devil" would be shoo-ins, with "Everybody Wants Some!!" probably sneaking in there towards the end).

So it would be logical that I would be excited about the concept of the band hitting the studio for a new album with David Lee Roth at the helm. But really, it just fills me with dread. And it fills me with dread because even though I love Van Halen, their batting average with new music is way, way down over the past, oh, 20 years or so.

Let's make another thing clear: As soon as Roth left the band to pursue solo work, Van Halen ceased being Van Halen. They became Van Hagar, and they became infinitely less interesting. Sure, they had moments of occasional transcendence (OU812 has some reasonable moments, and "Poundcake" pretty much rules), but they mostly trafficked in stuff like "Why Can't This Be Love" and "Right Now" — huge hits, to be sure, but lacking in the fierceness of their early work.

But with Roth back on vocals, shouldn't that be cause for rejoicing? Not necessarily. Back in 1996, Van Halen released Best Of Volume I, which contained a bunch of the band's hits and a pair of new tracks with Roth on vocals. They made a big deal out of Roth's (short-lived) return (the "reunion" lasted only a little longer than their appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1996), but one thing that sort of got overlooked was the fact those two new songs — "Can't Get This Stuff No More" and "Me Wise Magic" — aren't any good at all. "Me Wise Magic" definitely tries to hit the heights of the earlier work, but ultimately the stuff comes up short. It's possible that Roth wasn't really ready to work at the time, or it's possible that they were still in Hagar mode during the writing process. It's also possible that they just forgot what made them great in the first place.

So you could approach this one of two ways. Either you think that Eddie Van Halen has been writing continuously for a decade-and-a-half and will have his pick of hundreds of compositions for a great album, or you think that Eddie lost his touch years ago and has no hope. Either way, I only want to live with Van Halen II and Fair Warning and Diver Down. Roth and Eddie are both icons, so making new music will only diminish their legacy. Because once you're written "Jump," all you can do is fall.

What do you think of an idea of a new Van Halen album? Let us know in the comments!

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Happy Birthday, Eddie Van Halen: Wake-Up Video

Posted 1/26/10 10:00 am EST by in Wake-Up Video


Band names are difficult. Some of them are naturally iconic and sound instantly classic, like U2, Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath. Others sound legendary only because the bands transcended them (yesterday, Chris Jericho pointed out that Audioslave really doesn't work without those particular band members, and is there really a sillier band name than the Beatles?). Still others never quite get there (no matter how many records they sold or big-time shows they headlined, Limp Bizkit will always sound kind of dumb; same goes for you, Stone Temple Pilots). When Eddie Van Halen and his brother Alex got together to form a band, they luckily didn't have to look past their surname for any further inspiration. Sure, there was a bit of ego in it, but David Lee Roth always liked to point out that "Van Halen" also sounded like some sort of hydrogen bomb, which was appropriate for the group's brand of explosive, stadium-filling metal that made them the biggest band in the world for a few years.

Eddie Van Halen turns 55 years old today, and he's really just moving into the prime of his life. His band is back together (featuring original singer Roth and son Wolfgang Van Halen on bass), he just got married to longtime girlfriend Janie Liszewski last year, the truly amazing "Guitar Hero: Van Halen" was recently released and supposedly the reunited group is going to have a go at new music following their ultra-successful tour. Like Hendrix and Clapton before him, Van Halen's guitar playing completely redefined what could be done with the instrument (just listen to all the different sounds he is able to make on "Eruption," from the band's self-titled 1978 debut). He also made it cool for serious rock bands to dabble in keyboards (there's no better synthesizer jam on the planet than "Jump"). But he mainly trafficked in big molten slabs of riffage, like the line on "Unchained," one of the group's signature shout-alongs.

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John McCain Countersues Jackson Browne Over 'Running On Empty' And Free Speech

Posted 11/20/08 9:02 am EST by in Foo-Fighters, John-McCain, Van-Halen


John McCainJohn McCain had better be planning on using instrumental music from the 19th century for his next Senate seat run. After a lawsuit he filed against singer/songwriter Jackson Browne in the U.S. District Court in California this week, he'll probably alienate any musicians who haven't already asked him to stop using their songs during his failed presidential bid.

You may recall that back in August, Browne filed suit against McCain's campaign for using his song, "Running on Empty," in a campaign ad, citing copyright infringement and false endorsement. The laid-back California rocker was among a group of musicians — which also included Heart, the Foo Fighters and Van Halen — who asked McCain to stop using their songs in the Republican senator's appearances during his White House bid.

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McCain Campaign: We Need To Talk

Posted 10/17/08 8:50 am EST by in bon-jovi, Foo-Fighters, John-McCain, sarah palin, Van-Halen


John McCainWe're not so arrogant as to think that the McCain and Palin spend their downtime reading the Newsroom blog. We know they're busy and all. So, maybe they didn't read our story earlier this week about how '80s rockers Survivor weren't too happy about the campaign using their "Rocky III" song, "Eye of the Tiger," at rallies.

And maybe they missed the stories about the Foo Fighters, Van Halen, Heart and Jackson Browne complaining about the same thing. We're not saying an intervention is in order, but while five is troubling, six is definitely a sign of a problem.

The latest? Jersey icons Bon Jovi. Jon Bon Jovi told TMZ that the band was "surprised to hear that our song 'Who Says You Can't Go Home,' was used by the McCain campaign at rallies yesterday and today.

"We wrote this song as a thank you to those who have supported us over the past twenty-five years," JBJ continued. "The song has since become a banner for our home state of New Jersey and the defacto theme song for our partnerships around the country to build homes and rebuild communities. Although we were not asked, we do not approve of their use of 'Home.'

McCain certainly should have seen this one coming, what with the singer throwing a $30,800-a-plate dinner at his house for Obama last month.

What do you think of McCain's musical miscues? Does the campaign need to be more careful, or do these musicians need to lighten up?

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