Inspired by the sonic innovations of Jimi Hendrix and a passionate devotee of Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page, Eddie would patent several devices that enhanced the guitar’s capabilities, and became renowned for developing the two-handed “tapping” technique heard to dizzying effect on (among other places) Eruption, from the debut album. On tour, fans went wild for Roth’s stage antics, while more musicianly observers were spellbound by Eddie’s staggering guitar work, his innovative technique allowing him to fire off notes and dazzling effects at unbelievable speed. Boosted by a version of the Kinks’ You Really Got Me, released as a single and faithful to the original yet sounding a thousand times larger, the album breached the US Top 20 and went on to sell more than 12m copies. Their debut album for Warners, Van Halen (1978), instantly put the band on the map. Impressed by Eddie’s explosive guitar style and Roth’s berserk stage performances, Templeman persuaded the Warners supremo Mo Ostin to sign the quartet (their contract allegedly contained insurance against paternity suits, a wise precaution considering the band’s archetypally rock’n’roll lifestyle). Their luck changed in 1977, when a Warner Brothers producer, Ted Templeman, saw them, again at the Starwood. Simmons produced a demo tape of several Van Halen numbers, but despite his help, no major label would touch it.ĭavid Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen performing in Ontario, California, in 1983. The group earned themselves support slots with bands including UFO and Santana, before being spotted by Gene Simmons of Kiss at the Starwood club in Los Angeles. Having started off performing cover versions, packing their shows with material by the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Bad Company and many more, they began to develop a songwriting style of their own, with Roth contributing lyrics to music by the other three.īy now Eddie was playing his hand-built guitar, dubbed Frankenstein, known for its red body criss-crossed with black and white stripes. Through three years of playing at clubs and bars around Pasadena, Hollywood and Santa Barbara, Van Halen gradually built themselves up into one of the most popular acts in southern California. After briefly considering the unprepossessing monicker Rat Salade, the quartet dubbed themselves Van Halen. However, they then discovered there was another outfit calling itself Mammoth. Mammoth’s line-up was completed when the bassist Michael Anthony joined from another local band, Snake. Roth brought an extrovert outrageousness, which would be a key factor in their subsequent rise to stardom. They started off renting a PA system from Roth, then the singer with the Red Ball Jets, but soon concluded they could kill two birds with one stone by recruiting Roth for their own band. They initially had called themselves Genesis, before learning of the British band of the same name.Įddie’s first guitar was a Teisco Del Rey six-string bought from Sears for $110. Eddie played drums and Alex guitar, but by the time they formed their first serious group, Mammoth, they had switched instruments. The brothers attended Pasadena City College, as did the future Van Halen vocalist David Lee Roth, and Eddie and Alex also took piano lessons in San Pedro with the venerable teacher Stasys Kalvaitis.
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