Originally Posted by alpha_omega:
I try to keep it going.
Funny, eh?
HIGHlarious.
Even funnier that people think I'm ever really upset...like, read everything in that stoned syrupy drawl with a Missouri accent and it all makes sense [Reply]
Wolf Van Halen Says 'Van Hagar' Doesn't Get 'Any Respect': 'Just Give It a Chance'
Wolfgang Van Halen noted how the Van Halen era featuring Sammy Hagar "doesn't get any respect", urging naysayers to give it a shot instead of rehashing the "exhausting 'this singer is better, this singer is better' crap."
There was undeniable magic in Van Halen's original glory run with David Lee Roth, and it rightly remains cemented in music history as one of the most exciting rock outfits of the '80s. And while the split with Roth proved to be so polarizing that people argue about it even to this day, the ensuing Van Hagar stuff was at least on par with what came before in terms of musicianship.
During a recent appearance on the Oklahoma City radio station KATT, Eddie Van Halen's son Wolf discussed the Sammy Hagar-era reissues, in particular, the upcoming limited vinyl release of "Live: Right Here, Right Now". He said (via Guitar):
"That era [of Van Halen] doesn’t get any respect, I don't think.
"And there's a lot of amazing songs and just obviously brilliant guitar playing on a lot of that — on all of that stuff — and I think people don't give it a chance 'cause they fall into that just exhausting 'this singer is better, this singer is better' crap, when it's, like, just give it a chance. There's some really good stuff in there."
Wolf also spoke about his own involvement in the reissues and in Van Halen business in general, saying:
"[Alex Van Halen] is, obviously, he's the head honcho when it comes to making the decisions. Obviously, I default to him on anything that he thinks is the right thing to do.
"But when it comes to decision-making or at least just kind of helping out, yeah, I am that sort of what would have been my dad's vote for stuff there with Al. So Al and I are kind of that team. But, all in all, he's the guy."
"Live: Right Here, Right Now" will be available on April 22nd at select independent music retailers. The run is limited to 7,500 copies printed on 180-gram translucent red vinyl.
EDDIE VAN HALEN's 'Hot For Teacher' Guitar Could Fetch Between $2 Million And $3 Million At Auction
The guitar Eddie Van Halen used in the music video for VAN HALEN's "Hot For Teacher" is going up for auction at Sotheby's.
The custom-made Kramer axe has a minimum bid of $1.8 million, and is valued at between two and three million dollars.
According to Sotheby's, stage-used and -filmed guitar was custom made by Paul Unkert of Kramer Guitars for Eddie Van Halen, including important innovations customized for Eddie's evolving guitar technique. It served as one of Eddie Van Halen's primary guitars in 1983 and 1984. The guitar was gifted by Eddie Van Halen to the band's retiring drum tech Gregg Emerson around 1990. Emerson subsequently gave the guitar to his nephew, who sold the guitar to Neal's Music in Huntington Beach, California. Neal's Music then sold the instrument to its current owner.
The guitar comes with a letter of provenance by Unkert, a signed photograph from Eddie Van Halen, its original case with tour and Warner Brothers tags, and the strait jacket and white gloves worn by Van Halen in the video.
Unkert's accompanying letter details the guitar's history: "The 'Hot For Teacher' Van Halen [guitar] was built by me at the Kramer Green Grove Road Plant in Neptune, NJ around 1982-1985/ #CO176. Look for 'Unk' stamps on Neck and Body. It was my last project for Ed and Kramer."
Eddie Van Halen's 'Hot For Teacher' Guitar Sells at Auction for Over $3.9 Million
Spoiler!
If you want to shred like Van Halen, you might have to wait for the next auction.
Eddie Van Halen's original guitar from the 1984 "Hot for Teacher" music video was sold at auction on Tuesday, bringing in an impressive $3,932,000.
The auction on Sotheby's website billed the instrument as "one of the most iconic guitars of the MTV era as played by the most influential guitarist of his generation," which makes sense given the hefty final price tag!
The iconic custom Kramer guitar had a minimum bid of $1.8 million, with its value estimated to be somewhere between $2 and $3 million.
The red and white guitar clearly has a bit of wear after being used by one of the greats, and is described by the auction site as having a "poplar double-cut 'Strat' style body, the top routed for a single double-coil Seymour Duncan humbucker pickup, volume control, Floyd Rose bridge with whammy bar, unvarnished 22 fret maple bolt-on neck (stamped 'UNK' on heel) with Kramer sticker on headstock."
"The legendary 'Hot for Teacher' stage used and filmed guitar, custom made by Paul Unkert of Kramer Guitars for Eddie Van Halen, including important innovations customized for Eddie's evolving guitar technique," the listing reads.
Put together at Kramer Green Grove Road Plant in Neptune, NJ around 1982-1985, the guitar was also used by Van Halen on stage, and of course, joined him in the "Hot For Teacher" visual — directed by Pete Angelus and David Lee Roth.
The winning bidder also took home the guitar's original case with tour and Warner Brothers tags, and straight jacket and white gloves worn by Van Halen in the video.
"When I was told that Eddie Van Halen had died, it hit me like a punch in the face. He was such a kind and beautiful soul, a genuinely nice person. He was so non-judgmental. It’s impossible to think of him without remembering that ever-present smile of his, or the way that his fingers always flew across the guitar.
“He made it all look so effortless, but that’s absolutely the last thing it was. And it’s strange to think that Eddie began as the drummer of Van Halen. His brother Alex was the guitarist until they swapped instruments. Ed had been a classically trained pianist which is why none of the other rockers could touch his musicality.
“I first met Eddie on the night that I saw Van Halen playing at the Starwood, a small club in Hollywood, in 1976.I’ve been credited as the man that discovered Van Halen. No, I didn’t. I did no such thing. I just happened to be there and witness their greatness at what was still a very early stage.
“I saw them that night and was left incredulous. I stood at the front of the stage and couldn’t believe my eyes and ears. This was one man making all of these sounds with his bare human hands? Everybody in the band was singing and playing live and Eddie was a complete guitar symphony in his own right. In those early days Ed would sometimes stand with his back to the audiences because he didn’t want to give his tracks away. But even if you saw how he played those licks, how could you possibly emulate them?
“So I signed the band to my production company, Man Of 1,000 Faces, flew them to New York and produced a demo for them at Electric Lady Studios. If you Google the words ‘Gene Simmons Van Halen demo’ you can hear the song that I consider to be Edward’s defining moment. Not to be confused with the re-make from the album 1984, the version of House Of Pain they recorded with me is the most powerful thing they ever did. It erupts from zero to 60mph in a second. Play it loud; it’s like a steamroller over your face and the band performed it completely live in the studio."
“But despite the quality of those tracks that we recorded together, I could not get interest from my manager at the time, Bill Aucoin, who has since passed away. Paul Stanley wasn’t interested either, and of course Ace Frehley and Peter Criss had bigger thing on their minds, they were too busy making bad decisions about life.
“I had wanted to take Van Halen under the wings of Kiss. We should have signed them and taken them out on tour with us. Sadly, nobody else in our organisation saw it and of course months later Warner Brothers came by and scooped them up. And by the time Kiss went out on tour again they had taken The Kinks’ You Really Got Me and made it into something that Ray Davies could never have imagined. They became superstars. And when that happened I was able to go back to my own band and say: ‘I told you so, you morons’.
“But the songwriting was just as important as the music, and David Lee Roth deserves his share of credit. Nevertheless, possibly due to Roth’s swagger and acrobatics onstage, Van Halen’s songs are often overlooked. That’s a shame as at their absolute peak nobody could touch them. When they went out on tour with Black Sabbath in 1978, Van Halen destroyed that band. Tony Iommi admitted it, and so did Ozzy."
“What really intrigued me about Van Halen was that they came out of nowhere, it seemed like they had no lineage. The big lips and blues-laden songs meant that you could trace the relationship between Aerosmith and the Stones, but to this day I’ve no clue where Van Halen came from. Edward has talked about being a fan of Clapton. I’m sorry, I don’t see that. Where other guitarists were inspired by B.B. King or Albert King, Edward was playing majors and minors and flat-thirds. What he did was closer to classical music.
“My friendship with him is something that I will always treasure. In the beginning we saw one another a lot, but less so as the years passed by. Our final meeting was in Los Angeles, we bumped into each other on Sunset Boulevard. He was already deeply affected by cancer. I had read that he blamed his condition on using a metal guitar pick, putting it in his mouth. In my view that wasn’t the case. Ed smoked all the time.
“All the same, when I heard that familiar voice calling my name on the street – ‘Hey, Gene!’ – I wasn’t sure what to say. His condition was wellknown at that point. He brought it up at the start of the conversation: ‘Hey, man, how you doing? I’ve got cancer’. I was embarrassed and wanted to reach out and hug him, but standing there on the street with a cigarette in his hand he opened his mouth and smiled: ‘Check this out’, inviting me to look at the space where his upper palette should have been. He just shrugged: ‘I’ve got this disease, watcha gonna do? I’ll see you around’. It was typical Ed; happy-go-lucky.
“Those that had the honour of having met Eddie Van Halen will know that he never said a bad word about others. Eddie didn’t bad-mouth rival bands. He conducted himself with a shrug of the shoulders. He reminded me of Charlie Chaplin; at the end of a movie he could be left with nothing, tattered and torn, and he’d walk off down the road with nonchalance.
“That part of his character was always a bitchslap to me, with my big ego. I’m full of myself and I love the sound of my own voice. Spending time in the presence of Edward made me think: ‘I should probably stop this’. You know, give up the airs and stupid stuff and just concentrate on being a human being.
“Eddie was all about the music, not just the chicks or the rock‘n’roll lifestyle. That’s something I always admired about him. He was a lover of life. Whenever you met him he smiled from ear to ear.
“As much as his death was upsetting, it also made me a little furious that so many of our so-called ‘younger generation’ remain unaware of his talents. For fuck’s sake, parents should be slapping mobile phones out of their kids’ hands and telling them to check out this guy. Our millennials need to know about the most important musician since Jimi Hendrix. There will never be another like him."
