Van Halen is a hard rock band from the Los Angeles, California area. The band first formed in 1974 as Mammoth, and featured Eddie Van Halen on guitar, Alex Van Halen on drums, Michael Anthony on bass, and David Lee Roth on vocals. The Van Halen brothers were born in the Netherlands, and trained as concert pianists. At first, Eddie took up the drums and Alex took up the guitar, but later switched instruments, for the better. They started out as Mammoth, and recruited Roth when they borrowed his PA system for their shows. The band later changed their name to Van Halen, and had a demo tape made by Gene Simmons of Kiss. They did not get signed to Casablanca, Kiss' label, but were later signed to Warner Brothers Records.
In 1978, the self-titled Van Halen album was released, and was one of the best-selling debut albums of all time. It featured the hits "Runnin' With The Devil", "You Really Got Me", and Eddie's screaming instrumental "Eruption". That instrumental introduced the world to a new type of guitar playing, known as "finger tapping". Eddie Van Halen soon earned the title of world's greatest guitarist, while Roth earned the world's greatest frontman title, due to his wild jumps and spinning back kicks on stage. Van Halen's first tour, opening for the band Journey, earned them rave reviews, mostly due to the Roth and Van Halen partnership on stage.
The band's second album, Van Halen II (1979), featured the hit "Dance The Night Away". Then came Women And Children First (1980), Fair Warning (1981), and Diver Down (1982), all of which were platinum plus selling albums.
The sixth album,1984, released New Years Day of that year, was Van Halen's biggest-selling album to date. It featured the hits "Jump", "Panama", and "Hot For Teacher". By this time, the band began experiencing internal conflicts, as Roth released his first solo EP, "Crazy From The Heat". Sessions for the seventh album became extremely heated, and Roth left the band to pursue a solo career.
The band replaced Roth with Sammy Hagar, a talented guitarist and solo artist who had previously worked with the band Montrose. 5150, the band's seventh album, was released in 1986, and did surprisingly well with Hagar. Hits included "Dreams" and "Best Of Both Worlds".
OU812 (1988), For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991), and Live-Right Here Right Now (1993) all were big sellers for Van Halen, and the band gained new leagues of fans with Hagar at the mike. Balance, released in 1995, was a new direction for Van Halen, but still sold well. Surprisingly, this would be the last album with Hagar. A conflict erupted when Hagar wanted to take some time off, and the band wanted to record two new tracks for a greatest hits compilation. Eventually, Hagar left the band, and the band reunited with their original frontman, David Lee Roth, for the two new tracks.
Fans were eagerly awaiting a reunion tour, which some said would have been as big, or bigger, than the Kiss reunion tour of 1996. But when Roth made his appearance with the band at the MTV Video Music Awards, the old conflict erupted again when his antics on stage embarrassed the Van Halen brothers. Another factor that led to the split were creative differences in the studio during the recording of the new tracks.
Dave left the band for the second time, and vocalist Gary Cherone, formerly of Extreme, became Van Halen's third singer. But Van Halen III, released in 1998, was the worst selling album of the band's career. Fans were not willing to accept this new version of Van Halen, who were equally divided between Roth and Hagar factions. In 1999, Gary Cherone left Van Halen, and once again, the band was without a lead singer.
In 2000, rumors began to spread that David Lee Roth had rejoined the band, and that they were working on songs for a new album. Then Eddie Van Halen was diagnosed with tongue cancer, and took time off from the band to be treated and recover. As months went by, no news or reports were released from the Van Halen camp. Roth eventually became frustrated, and went back on the road as a solo artist. Eventually, even the fans became frustrated with the lack of news, and felt that Van Halen had finally disbanded for good.
Then in 2002, something no one expected happened. David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar went on tour together. This was totally unexpected, as they had thrown words at each other in the press while Hagar was part of Van Halen. Their bitter hatred for each other seemed to be set aside for the first time, as they agreed to bring the best of Van Halen's music to the fans from both eras of the band. The tour, known as the "Sans Halen" or "Sam & Dave" tour, went on to become one of the biggest and best tours of that summer. Before long, however, Hagar became irritated with Roth's radical behavior, and the tour came to an unpleasant end. As for Eddie Van Halen, he finally posted a message on the Van Halen web site that he was finally well, and that he would get back to making music again.
Van Halen tried to reunite with Sammy Hagar in 2004, and released a second hits compilation, the two disc Best Of Both Worlds, with three new songs with Hagar on vocals. The ensuing tour with Hagar, though, was not a pleasant one. Eddie Van Halen continued to struggle with alcoholism, which made his performances on stage less than stellar. Tensions once again flared up, and by the time the tour was over, Hagar left the band again to continue his solo career.
The future of Van Halen is anyone's guess at this point. The band still does not have a lead singer, and there have been no new news reports from the band, other than the report that Eddie and longtime wife Valerie Bertinelli had separated. Michael Anthony currently owns a cafe and races cars. Roth moved to New York City and became a paramedic, before trying to replace Howard Stern on morning radio, which ended with Roth getting booted from the air. Hagar continued to release solo albums and maintain his Cabo Wabo Cafe in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Will Van Halen ever return to the music scene? Only time will tell...