Rock & Reflection: One Van Halen Fan's Journey [Episode 344]

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's a Van Helen fans journey through four decades of
highs lows, epic songs, epic concerts, and the loss of
a guitar hero. That's up next.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
We're totally booming rock and roll. I mean, I'll leave you.
You're reading.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Little Hands says it's time to rock and roll. Roll up,
I totally booked. Welcome back to book Don rock the
podcast for those about to read and rock. My guest
is a fellow van Halen fan. It's been a while
since I've had a van Halen fan on the show.

(00:36):
This is so nice here Michael Pastor, author of the
Mighty Van Halen One Fans Journey. Michael, Welcome to the podcast. Man,
good to see you again.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Thank you very much. I'm really excited to be here.
This is great.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
I say again because we've been on a few panels
on some other van Halen podcast in the podcast Rock
and Yes.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yeah, we're frequenters on some of those van Halen or
van Halen ad Jason and podcast so absolutely yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, and now this is go small world. Let's start
where you're from. We are both Connecticut natives. Tell us
where you're from and where you grew up.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yes, I grew up in New Fairfield, Connecticut. It's right
outside of Danbury, so I'm, you know, familiar with that
whole area. I mentioned I ninety five in the book,
which was my local radio station, my rock station WRK
I Brookfield. So I basically grew up there until I
went to Central Connecticut State in New Britain to get

(01:31):
my undergraduate degree. So after that, I ended up meeting
my wife in Long Island, and in my early twenties,
I moved to Long Island. I've been there ever since.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Okay, what inspired you to write this book?

Speaker 2 (01:45):
You know, it's an interesting question. I've been asked that,
and I think what I wanted to do. I didn't
really begin with the idea of writing a book. My
son published a book last year, a horror story compilation
that he's building, this world of horror and monsters, and
he self published it, and he wrote everything in a journal.

(02:08):
And what I realized was, you know what, I could
grab a journal and start making notes of a lot
of my stories, you know, about growing up and about
rock and roll, you know, being a rock and roll
fan back in you know, let's say the mid early
to mid eighties. I realized because I'm a retired teacher.
I realized with a lot of my students that they'd

(02:29):
be wearing to class in high school. They'd be wearing
a lot of those bands that I used to attend concerts,
you know, and Motley Crue for example, def Leppard, Van Halen,
Sammy Hagar, and you know, I would strike up you know,
casual conversations every once in a while, and I realized,
you know what, there might be a story to be told.
You know, it would sort of be like somebody telling

(02:50):
me that they saw the Beatles or saw Elvis or
saw the Rolling Stones back in the day. I tell,
you know, a lot of those bands from the Sunset
Strip and a lot of those bands we grew up
with back in you know, the early mid late eighties,
early nineties, they're becoming very historic now. So it was
really for my children that I decided to start writing

(03:11):
down in this journal that I purchased these stories. And
those stories ended up developing into short chapters, and I
eventually said, you know what, let me see what it
looks like if I type it up. So I came
up with a formula. I typed it all up and
the next thing, you know, I had Michael my Son
explain how to have it published, and I did just that.

(03:33):
So now everybody's talking about it.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Would is that's amazing. Yeah, And it puts you in
the It puts you in the point of view of
a Van Halen fan back in those those early days,
the early eighties, eight tracks collecting, collecting eight tracks and cassettes,
and it just takes you back to that great time
when it's rock and roll radio and when the band

(03:55):
came around to your area, it was an event, especially
Van Halen Cotzer, it was a big deal. And then
when MTV comes along, you're right at that age where
you're starting to get exposed to MTV and the videos,
you know, Diamond, Dave Jump, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah. So nowadays, I guess what the young people do
if they want to see a music video, is they
look at vivo on YouTube or something. But it again,
I don't think we realize how much we actually lived
through history at this point, you know, And that's what's
resonating with people, is the nostalgia. I was talking to
someone today from Tennessee who read the book, and he said,

(04:34):
I could have written that book, you know. I saw
Van Hallen back in the eighties, and I remember those
days of recording albums onto cassettes and playing them on
a radio that you walk around the neighborhood with. And
as I was writing these stories, I thought, you know what,
there's something to be told here, not just to my children,
but you know, to my students, or to any young

(04:55):
person or even someone our age, whether you're a young
person who wants to learn about what it was like
to live back then, or whether you're an older person,
like not older, but you know what I'm saying. You know,
generation X, let's say, who lived through that time and
want to relive it a bit. It really seems to
be resonating with people. And like I said, I couldn't
be happier.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, I'd represent that era of Van Halen fans where
there's a part of it. It's mythical to me, the
early era with Dave. I became a fan in the
late eighties when Sammy was there, so I can share
stories about what it was like as oh, you eight, one,
two is happening in real time four and nowful carnal
knowledge and things like that. But there's this, there's always
this this view of the Diamond Dave era that David

(05:37):
Lee era of those first six albums, that was just
like untouchable, larger than life, and man, what would have
been have been like to be like sixteen, seventeen years old,
because you know, I was like twelve in nineteen eighty four.
So I just wondered about that. And that's that's what
I love about this book too. And you talk about
that Mikey p who who was wearing a T shirt,
a Van Halen T shirt. I guess let's start there.

(05:58):
I would go back to what eight one, nineteen eighty two,
when you.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah, it was so I had just entered junior high school,
seventh grade. We didn't have middle school back then, and
you know, I reached out to him. He didn't get
back to me. And I'm hoping that if he hears
as he would because I do want to get him
a copy of the book because I haven't seen him
since high school. And in high school I even mentioned
that in high school we really really didn't hang around

(06:22):
that much. It was more in maybe seventh grade and
a little bit in eighth grade. But yeah, I think
it was science class in seventh grade. And he's, you know,
he's sitting in the classroom. I described him as like
the coolest looking kid, you know. And I know you
read the book and it's it's a quick read, you know,
I should say that, but there's a lot of information
in it. And one of the things I described with
this particular scene is, you know, he looked like a

(06:44):
high school student because as a seventh grade student in
this particular school, I was with the high school kids.
So I'm walking around the hallways as like an eleven
twelve year old with these seventeen year olds, and they
look so heroic to me. You know that the hair,
the bin dan who's hanging out, the cones hanging out
of the back of their pockets, you know, the jeans,

(07:05):
and and I thought, wow that you know, this kid
looks like a miniature version of one of those kids,
you know, and he had this It must have been
women and children first, because it was the iconic picture
of Dave with the reaching his arm out and Michael Anthony,
you know, I described it as was it a cigarette?
Was it marijuana? You know that he's holding between his fingers.

(07:27):
It was I believe that T shirt and Dave is
doing a split in mid air on the back of
the T shirt, you know, and I was like, wow,
what is this? You know, it looks so cool van
Halen And I think the name of the title of
the chapter is basically the quote that he gave me.
And I asked him, you know who's van Halen said,
the greatest band that ever lived? And I never forgot it,

(07:50):
just the way he said it with such confidence.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
Yeah, yeh, the greatest.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
Band that ever lived. I said, Oh, okay, I got
to check this out right, Yeah, but what fun.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
The Book Down Rock podcast is part of the Boneless
podcasting network. If you're a fan of classic rock and
classic film like I am, go to Boneless dot lovable
dot app to find over twenty great shows there. That's
Boneless dot lovable dot app. Or just go to book
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you right to the Boneless podcasting network. It is what

(08:25):
you want to be listen with confidence. Diver Downs. That's
the one album from the rotharea that takes some hits.
But you loved the album when it came out. Now,
all these years later, what do you think of it.
It's gotta have sentimental value to you.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
Absolutely, Yeah, I still love the album. It was my
first Van Allen Contra. And that's another thing. You know,
when when I was a guest on in the podcast
Will Rock and You were there a couple of times
when I told some of these stories before I even
started writing it down in the journal, I noticed a
lot of you guys. He's sort of lighting up, like, man,

(09:02):
you saw them back then? You saw that show, right, Yeah,
like I did. I was actually there, and that's when
I began to realize, you know, this needs to be told.
And yeah, that concert that hyde your Sheep Tour, right, man,
it's basically the US festival, the Largo Show, right, It's
the same show back then. And man, I'll tell you
when that album came out, I brought it on eight track,
and I described in the book hearing where of all

(09:24):
the good Time's Gone for the first time and it
was played remember those old record players, you know, like
and what was the TV show What's Happening? I think
where rerun was sneaking the tape recorder into the Doobie
Brothers concert, right, And it was one of those tape recorders,
and he played the cassette on that tape recorder and

(09:49):
I remember hearing that. You know, I'm waiting for it,
like when is it going to start? And it was
a fade into where of all the good time's gone,
and I said, wow, this is really cool. And at
the time I had heard Van Halen one I tell
that story as well. But hearing that, I said, you
know what, this is my band. I'm gonna I'm going
to be the guy who likes Van Halen, you know,

(10:10):
im possum rage right. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
Man, it's just so much just being a Van Helen fan,
doing this podcast and writing for the Vanillen News desk.
I've I've come across many people who just it's the
same experience that I had. It's it's hard to explain,
but there's just that magic to it when you discover
Van Halen. And and the thing is, as I went

(10:32):
back and I got all of the cassettes at the time,
and I would I had a part time job and
I have just enough money to maybe get two cassettes,
and so I would buy one and two, and then
I would buy Women and Children first Fair Warning, and
then get Daver Down and then get you know, nineteen
eighty four. And there's only one time that you could

(10:56):
listen to a Van Halen album for the first time,
and you wish that you could just go back in
time and relive that moment because it's it just like
you're saying, you're hearing the first three five seconds of
a song you've never heard it before, right, Well, that
means just amazing. It's a great it's just a great feeling.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
That was my experience with nineteen eighty four where my
father came home with the album and I listened to
it more than once, obviously on vinyl, and I remember
hearing House of Pain and thinking, wow, what is this?
You know it was it was so much different than
Jump and even Patama, you know, to some extent, But
in the guitar on Hutford Teacher, I said, whoa, let's

(11:38):
open up that site too of the album. Yeah, you're right,
Like hearing those songs and hearing those albums for the
first time is really Uh, it's something that is to
be appreciated, you know.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, lost on this generation in the Spotify era, it's
a different thing. When you purchase an album and it's yours,
there's a connection to make to it for the rest
of your life. That's why I assume diver Down has
that connecttion with you. Every time you hear it takes
you right back.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yeah. Absolutely, Yeah. I'll go to that album more than
I go to maybe even Van Helen two because of
the memories attached to it. And it isn't so much
the cover songs, because I know that a lot of
people give it, you know, some criticism because it's basically
half covers. But I would argue that David Lee Roth
is probably the best cover man in rock and roll history.

(12:25):
He can make these songs better than the original in
my opinion, you know, and he even did it in
a solo career on Eataman Smile, for example. But with
that particular album, full bug I mean, come on, hang
them High. And probably my favorite Van Halen song of
all time is Little Guitars. I can listen to that
song every day for the rest of my life and

(12:48):
never get.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
Tired of it, which is why I was a bummer
when they had the first Best of the Volume one.
Eddie excluded everything from that album. Yeah, you don't hear anything.
You could have easily put Dancing in the Street or
a Pretty Woman because they were hits, but the original
is You're So Right. Secrets to Me is one of
the most underrated Van Halen songs and that comes from
Diver Down. That's an original. Let let's talk about your

(13:11):
first Van Halen concert. You hear on the local radio
station that the band is coming to Connecticut, and this
is on inety five, And I'm very curious because I
worked it on ninety five many years. Do you remember
the DJ? I no, I do, Okay, I'm curious.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
Un the DJ. I would have not only named the
DJ in the book, but I would have contacted them
to give them a copy.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
I could figure it out, though, I could. Probably was
in the afternoon, I could eat.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
It was definitely in the afternoon because my rain Joey
were at the house. We're in the garage as I
describe it, and my father was working on the tractor.
So it was in the afternoon. And it was probably
in the summer because that was in October concert, so
we were hanging out and it was probably it wasn't
a DJ that announced it. I don't think it may
have been. I don't remember how we described it in

(13:55):
the book, but it may have actually been just an advertising.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
Right one of the spots they ran, yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, and I said, oh man. We were like, oh man,
can you imagine. And my father, just like I described it,
he was like, you want me to take you guys?
It was like what really? And listen, my fat he
worked in a factory all his life, you know, and
for him to do that, looking back on it, I mean,
he would wake up at four o'clock in the morning
to drive to Newer Shelle, you know, and that's a

(14:21):
pretty long trip, you know, early in the morning to
get there, and he's working a lot of overtime. For
him to do something like that, knowing that he had
to go to bed late, knowing that he had to
wake up early, it's just a great testament to know
the father he was.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
Yeah, great dad. Was he a fan of those bands?

Speaker 2 (14:40):
No, but he so ironically because.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
He was probably born on the same time my parents
were born, which would have been like they were more
infective Glenn Miller in the yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
Early forties. I know that he had told me he
saw I think James Brown at the Apollo. I think
he mentioned that once. But he wasn't a big concert
goer when he was younger. He did enjoy the covers though.
My mother liked dancing in the street and my father

(15:07):
liked Pretty Woman a lot. Because they were familiar with
Roy Orbison and Martha and the Vandellas. So it was
much easier for me to, you know, to play the
cassette in the car on a long trip to you know,
Wildwood or something, because they could relate to some of
that music, particularly the covers on Diver Down. It was great.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
Now here's here's a throwback word. Ticket tron, right right, ticketron?
Did your mom get the tickets?

Speaker 2 (15:34):
My my mother stood online both times. Yeah. She worked
in Bethel, Connecticut as a secretary, and there was a
ticket tron right around the corner there. So, like I described,
she would hang out. She would get up early and
go the two times and wait on line with the
teenagers to get us our tickets.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yes, so you you had the coolest mom and dad. Yeah,
let's just let's get that out there.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
I think the way I described it, it was the
chagrin of my poor mother. Yeah, you know my obsession
with rock and roll back at that time.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
All right, so tell us about that show. Those lights
go up, Dave does that split, and Eddie rips into
Romeo Delight, I think, right.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah, But I don't think Dave jumped off the vine.
I think that was nineteen eighty four. I don't remember
if he did that with Diver Down, he might, okay,
But what I do remember is him hitting that stage
and I mean he was dressed. I don't know what
he was wearing. It was just glitter, you know. And
at the time, so I described the way I got

(16:33):
my record collection was in Wildwood, New Jersey, on the boardwalk.
They had these games like wheels that would spin, and
that's how I built my record collection. So I did
not yet have women and children first. So when he
hit the stage, I didn't even know what the song was.
I just was like whoa. And then he's like, I
forgot the words. You're like whoa. But it's not until now,

(16:54):
like with YouTube, that you realize, oh yeah, he forgot
the words every time he saying the song. You know,
like even in twenty twelve at Madison Square Garden, he
keeps getting the words, you know. So he was you know,
that's just part of his shtick, you know.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
But that experience, man, you're just in awe, right, I mean, yeah,
you're you're watching the band in its prime.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
Right, and Eddie, I mean he was just I think
at one point he pulled Valel on the stage with him,
and everybody was cheering, and he was you know, he
was kicking those amplifiers and they're rocking back and forth,
back and forth, and we're like, oh, no, he's going
to get hurt, you know, but we didn't realize it's
all part of the show, you know. And then at
the end, So at the end, I describe it Dave

(17:35):
coming out in his assless chaps. You know. Now we
knew what was coming, you know, we knew what was
going to happen, but my father didn't, you know. So
you know, I mean, I don't want to spoil the book,
but you I would hope that you got to chuckle
out of the way that all development.

Speaker 1 (17:50):
Oh yeah, yeah. That was that New Haven, wasn't it?

Speaker 2 (17:53):
That? The New Haven Coliseum? And then in nineteen eighty
four they played I saw them in Hartford. But what
ended up happening was they added a show after the
tickets for Hartford went on sale, and that second show
was before the Hartford show in New Haven. So my
one friend Joey, he got to see them in New

(18:15):
Haven before I didn't I remember him, you know, I
saw him. He came right to the house you know.
Of course he comes right to the house wearing his
contract teaser, and I was like, don't tell me anything
about it. I don't want to know. You know. This
wasn't the days where you would text your friend and
be like, I'll be right over. This was like the
doorbell rings, your mother answers the door and there he
is standing there. You can't say, get out of here.

(18:36):
I don't want to know anything about.

Speaker 1 (18:38):
It, right, yeah. Yeah. And also this is a period
where it was much easier to keep secret what the
show is all about, what it looks like, what's the setlist?
You now, Internet, you have to really make an effort,
a concerted effort, to not look up the show online,
because you're going to see the playlist, and unless it's

(18:58):
like a jam band, it changes the set us every
night you're going to be.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
You actually have to be like, we just my wife
and I just want to see Stevie Nicks a little
while ago cool and I didn't want to look at
the set list, you know, because I mentioned Stevie in
the book, you know, she was like I discovered her
around the same time, so I would say that I'm
more of a solo Stevie Nicks fan than I am
a Fleetwood Mac Stevie Knicks fan. So seeing that concert

(19:24):
and finally seeing her for the first time was like
a dream because all of those solo songs and all
of my favorite Fleetwood Max songs were part of that
set list that night, which you're not going to get
to see if you see you know, Fleetwood Mac for example.
So and my point is that with setlist, you know, FM.
My wife went on to see what the setlist was,

(19:45):
and again it was like, Joey, I'm like, I don't
want to know, don't tell me anything about it. You know,
it's it's you're right, it's it's just a different form
of you know, having to keep that surprise, you know,
just in a different way.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
And Summer of eighty three are exposed to MTV.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
Yeah, oh yeah, I'm TV. So yeah, we didn't get
cable on Possum Ridge until a little bit later than
you know, most people, but you know, i'm TV hit
the you know, the hit the ground running in the
early eighties and we were hanging out with at Romo's
house and you know, all summer that's all we would
do is just it sounds odd, but we would just

(20:20):
watch MTV and we'd go out and do whatever and
play football and whiffootball and all that. But we spent
a lot of time watching MTV. And what I would
try to remind people of and what I would like
to explain to the young people is the VJ And
you can hear them on serious a lot of them now,
like Mark Goodman, Allen Hunter, Nina Blackwood. They what they

(20:42):
would do is they would announce at the top of
the hour the bands that are going to come on.
So I would just sit there. We'd all sit there
and wait for our favorite band to be announced. And
if they said Van Helen, you know, I knew, oh yeah,
it's gonna be It's not gonna be anything. But the
Oakland shows those three videos and man, those are again.
You watch those videos now, it's like little guitars to me.

(21:04):
I don't care how many times I watch those videos,
how many times times I hear those live versions. You
can't hear them enough.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
You know, hear about it later. So this is love
and unchained from fair warning.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah, and like you know, there's only a Van Halen
fan would pick up on. I got myself a brand
new Oakland scar, you know, what that is. Oh yeah,
and that's how you would know what the video is,
you know. And I think here about it later was
my favorite. But I didn't mind if if the video
came on and Dave goes I got a brand new

(21:35):
Oakland scar.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
And the girls screaming for days. It's Alice the gong
set that on fire and Eddie's got those the candy
cane stripe pants, the socks.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
We refer to it as his hit, like his jail breakout,
but the convict, you know, outfit that he was wearing
a drum set and everything.

Speaker 1 (21:58):
Right, Mikey with a you know, the jumpsuit or wherever
he's wearing.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
Yeah, and he had that Jack Daniels guitar. You know,
I think before he had that.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
Yeah, was the show in Hartford and eighty four? Was
that the one where there was a blizzard?

Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yes? And I and again I described the story in
the book. I was home and we didn't have school
that day, and my father was going to drive me.
He had station Wagon brand station Wagon that he just
got at the time. And it was me, my mother,
my sister, and my two buddies. And the phone rang

(22:35):
and my mother said, it's your father. And the first
thing I said was are we going? And kind of paused.
He said, yeah, we're going. I said, okay, good. So
I called this kid Mark, who I mentioned in the book,
and I said we're going. He goes, we're going. I said, yeah,
we're going, We're going to the show. He goes, all right.
And to this day, I'm convinced that he was calling

(22:56):
to tell me that it was too dangerous, that he
didn't want to drive. But he did it, and he
got us there, and he took my mother out to
eat with my sister, and so, as the story goes,
towards the end of the contract, they were going to
meet us in the Hertford Civic Center at a predestinated,
you know location, and they were waiting outside and he

(23:16):
could hear Dave, he could hear Eddie, he could hear
all of the noise inside the civic center. And he
asked the security guard if my sister could get a peek,
and the security guard was about to let her, and
then somebody stopped it and she never got a chance
to see it. Yeah, but she she came that close
to catching a glimpse of David Lee Roth in nineteen
eighty four, can you imagine.

Speaker 1 (23:37):
Well what a story too, Just that's dedication there, going
through a blizzard to get to that show and surprising
that they didn't reschedule it, you know, because from what
it sounds like, it's pretty pretty bad.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
Well, you know what they I don't know if they.
I think they may have left New Haven and then
went somewhere else and then came back to Hartford that night,
so they may have been hanging around anyway. But yeah,
and when I gave my father a copy of his book,
I gave my parents copies a couple of weeks ago,
and I did write it, and I said, you know,
you never complained. You know, you made a lot of

(24:11):
sacrifices and you never complained. You know. That's one thing
I wanted him to know.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
Hey, guys, we'll get back to the show, but first
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(24:39):
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Booked on Rock also find a link in this episode
show notes, or just go to booked on Rock dot
com and click on my deals. Michael Passtory, author of
the Mighty Van Halen One Fans Journey and look, it's
not too late Christmas is I don't know, what about
a week away? Less than a week away? You can
get this on Amazon, Man, get it, get get it. Tier.

(25:02):
You're the Van Halen fan and your family or friends. Uh,
it's a great gift. So this gets us into a
real interesting area when it comes to Van Halen fandom.
Most of the old school fans who had grown up
on the first five albums did not receive nineteen eighty
four positively. There were some who hated the keyboards. First,

(25:23):
what did your friend Mikey P think of it? And
then second, what was your response to nineteen eighty four?
You did talk about a little bit. I did yehs
of pain and.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
Yeah, so in ninth grade. So I hadn't seen Mikey P.
You know too often we sort of won separate ways,
you know, for whatever reason. And I did catch them
I couldn't wait to see him in the hallway and
I said, what'd you think of the new album? He said, sucks, so,
you know, so he was definitely he did not discover
Van Hallen with Diver Down obviously, you know so. And

(25:55):
I can understand, you know, because I sort of felt
the same way about Sammy. You know, when fifty one
to fifty came out. I liked it, but it wasn't Dave,
you know, it was different, and I think that's how
Genesis fans who grew up with Peter Gabriel sort of
feel about Phil Collins.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
You know.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
It's that type of thing, you know. But yeah, he
didn't like it, which sort of surprised me because everybody
was talking about it, you know, at that time, and
it's probably their most popular album, you know, as far
as I think it didn't hit number one. They never
hit number one for an album, but the song Jump
did come to number one, and I talk about that

(26:33):
a bit that Michael Jackson and Adele both kept Van
Allen from hitting the number one spot, you know twice
in their their illustrious you know.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
Right right, Adele with twenty twelve is a different kind
of truth, do you refer to that. Yes, yeah, right, right, yeah,
and now the story and you know this, I'm sure
with nineteen eighty four was Thriller was number one, and
Alex was always always talking about how you know Eddie
didn't do the solo and beat it? You know, we
would have, we would have had enough. But I don't know.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
Do you think I don't know? Do you think that's true?
Do you think I don't know how many people went
out and but Thriller because they might have. I mean
maybe No.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
I think that you're talking about Thriller is just a
one in a million type of thing. Where it there was,
that album was so huge, nobody could compete with it
until you get to the point where it ran its
course and you know, they it's had been out for
over a year. But uh I I don't think it
would have made any difference. I don't And uh in fact,

(27:37):
I think, you know, I think that it exposed a
lot of Michael's fans to to Eddie and brought brought
in some more Van Halen fans. I think if you
look at it that way, you know, but you know,
the Sami era, now that's it. It's it's an interesting
discussion and I'm not looking to get into the whole.
You know, everybody gets so fired up over you and

(27:59):
I know this city right absolutely? Good Lord, you mentioned
just that just you know, I think Sammy's better. What
how dare you why I think Dave's better? Oh, Dave sucks.
But you know you're in that age group. It's interesting.
I mean, you had, like Mikey p was following them
from the early days on up. So I can understand
why that age group would not like the Sami era.

(28:24):
But what did you think of it being a fan
of Van Halen just for a few years there before
Sammy joins.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
Yeah, so there are there are three regrets that I
have as a Van Halen fan. I don't want to
mention them now, but you know what they are. And
the first one is because I didn't really accept Sammy
when he came out. I did buy the album. I
ran out and I purchased a cassette. It was actually
out in Brookfield, I think it was Record Town in
Brookfield at the time, and I walked in and it

(28:53):
was there early, so I said, oh, grab it. It was
that night, I think it was a Sunday night, and
I put it on and I heard that Hello Baby,
you know, and I said, wow, that's an interesting way
to open up an album, right, And you know, I
can remember it like it was yesterday. I'm trying to
convince myself that he sounds like David Lee Roth because
it still sounds like Eddie, you know, and I'm thinking,

(29:15):
you know what, I think this is going to work.
It sounds like Dave. But when it came to the concert,
it was a little bit different because I didn't really
want to hear Sammy sing Dave's songs, you know, right,
And you know, in nineteen eighty six, the album was
only out for a few months, So what am I
going to go hear them sing at that time? You know?

(29:38):
Get up? I mean, I wasn't that interested in it's
the way that I was hearing diver down. So did
I accept him as much as I should have? No,
And that's part of a regret when I saw them
in you know, I guess ninety five with the Balanced tour.
I was really disappointed at the time because it was
the Ambulance tour. But again I'm looking back on it

(30:01):
now thinking why didn't I appreciate it? Then you know
that that's a great album, and I love that album.
And I think that's really the theme of the book
is you know, don't take for granted what's right in
front of you, because you don't know what it's going
to be ten years down the road, twenty years down
the road. You're not going to know in life. I'm

(30:23):
not even talking about rock and roll, just in life.
You know, if something is there in front of you,
if you have an opportunity, take it, because you don't
know if you're going to regret it down the road.
And as a Van Halen fan, I do have three regrets,
and one of them has to do with Sammy in
eighty six.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
Absolutely so, did you go back and listen to all
of the same era stuff and gain an appreciation for
it more in these recent years?

Speaker 2 (30:48):
No, No, I still listen to it. I listened to
all the albums. Yeah, I listened to I listened to
fifty one to fifty A lot I listened to I
listened to OU eight one two a lot. I was
in college at the time. I was constantly listening to
that CD. I love the songs on it. I think, ironically,
one of the favorites of Sammy's era is for Unlawful

(31:10):
Carnal Knowledge. And that's when I started to lose a
little interest. And I explained in the book. You know, somebody, uh,
somebody arrived, a new band arrived that took interest away
from you know, this third Sammy era Van Allen album,
and yeah, I don't mind saying who it was. It
was Guns and Roses. You know, when Axel and Guns

(31:31):
and Roses, you know, hit the scene, that changed a
lot of things.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
You know, yeah, yeah, And in ninety one when Foreign
Off for Cardinal Knowledge was out, they had that was
around the time usually Lousion one and two were out
and Guns and Roses were huge. But still, I was
surprised to read that that you were not a fan
of for and Lawful because it's it's on the top
of the list. When you ask Van Halen fans, particularly

(31:58):
Sami era fans, what's their favorite album, A lot of
times you'll you'll see that album at the top of
the list. It's interesting, So what do you think of it? Now?

Speaker 2 (32:06):
What I think? All right? So now what I've appreciated
is a drums Oh yeah, Alex's drums on that album.
I've realized that there's a big John Bonham influence.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
Andy John's produced it.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
Yeah, so I'm really appreciative of that, and a lot
of the songs blended together. For me, it was hard
for me to separate them for some reason. I'm able
to do that a little bit better now. But the
thing that really turned me off, to be honest with you,
and again I mentioned it, is the right Now video.
To me, Van Allen were a party band, you know,

(32:41):
and all of a sudden it seemed like they were
becoming a little political, which you know, I just didn't
have an interest in. You know, at that time, I
didn't really want to be told that you know anything
about oil companies, you know, in a in a video
and a Van Allen video. I wanted to see, you know,
Dave with his scarf on stage in Oakland. That was

(33:01):
my Van Hallen. But looking again, looking back on it now,
it's a great video. It's a great music video, and
it deserved to win a Video of the Year at MTV.
So yeah, I absolutely agree that. You know, maybe I'm
more mature now, but I do appreciate the album much
more now. I love the Dallas show that was released
with the expanded edition about a year or so ago.

(33:24):
Absolutely loved the raw sound of that and everything about it.
So yeah, and Balance, I'm going to say Balance is
probably my second favorite Sammy era album, right behind fifty one.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
To fifty Oh interesting.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
Yeah, yeah, I do like it that much. It really
grew on me over the years.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
Yeah, and just to explain, you mentioned the Ambulance Tour.
For those who may not be in the know, those
who aren't huge Van Allen fans, the Ambulance Tour was
you had Alex were in a net brace, and then
you had ed who's his hip was really messed up. Yes,
so that was a band who is in pretty rough
shape at that point, and as we now know in retrospect,

(34:05):
they were not getting along.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Yeah, so I guess in fairness to me right, I
saw them in nineteen eighty four with Dave, And the
only reason I saw them in ninety five is because
my buddy Vinnie gave my wife Debbie and I first
year winning anniversary tickets to go see the band, and
we went to see them at Jones Beach and Eddie

(34:27):
can't do it. He can't do his jumps because of
his hip. Alex is wearing a neck brace. Now again,
I didn't have YouTube back then, so I had no
idea any of this was going on. I show up
the open with Right Now, which at the time was
the song that you know, I wasn't really appreciative of.
And Eddie with a hip that's bad he can't jump,

(34:51):
Alex with the neck brace. I'm saying, what is this?
You know, Sammy singing Panama? I don't know it just
it's not the type of thing that that I appreciated
at the time, but I absolutely do now. And again
that gets back to that theme I was telling me about.

Speaker 1 (35:08):
I will defend the Sami era. I'm a huge fan,
and a lot of it is the sentimental value, like
you would diver down. It's when I became a fan,
so I have that attachment there. However, I'm gonna be
transparent here, one hundred percent honesty that entire time from
nineteen eighty eight up through nineteen ninety five, I'm a

(35:30):
huge fan. Anything they put out on buying. All my
friends know this is my band. I'm a huge fan. However,
there was always that part thought in my head, like
what if Dave came back? It was so cool because
of what you said that fun era. And also again
there was that it was a mystical era. I hadn't

(35:52):
experienced it. So when ninety six comes around and Dave
walks up on that stage at the MTV Video Music Awards,
I'm telling you, man, goosebumps. I'll I remember it to
this day watching and I knew it was coming. There
was rumors you're kind of getting getting around, like I
think I think Dave's going to be showing up at

(36:12):
this award ceremony. And I can't remember where I heard it,
but I was working at the radio station in Hartford
at the time, and so I think people may have
been talking about it there. I mean, that was huge.
So absolutely tell us what was going through your mind
that night in September of ninety six.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
Yeah, I think the same as everyone else, like is
this actually happening? Like, am I actually seeing this on stage?
Is that David Lee Roth with Eddie like standing side by.

Speaker 1 (36:37):
Side and the crowd went nuts.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
They went crazy, and I was going crazy, and I
was like it was a Debbie and I in our
in our apartment at the time. I said, oh, well,
you know, you have no idea what's what's about to
happen here? You know? But yeah, it was short lived.

Speaker 1 (36:51):
Right, did you since something was off?

Speaker 2 (36:55):
I didn't.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
I didn't either. I just thought, you know, Dave's being Dave.
He's acting, is acting like Dave being on a goofy
on stage, and that's what he does and people were
eating it up. You know.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
Yeah, looking back at it, though, like when you watch
that video now, you could see his body languages like
get this guy away from me, you.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
Know now as you look pretty clear? Yeah, all right.
So Van Heleen three. You didn't buy Vanhillen three, that's
the album with Gary Sharon until fifteen years after it
came out. Was it that you had lost interest in
Van Halen? Was it that you were not happy with
the choice of lead singer. What was going through your
mind in nineteen nine.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
I didn't really have any interest at that point in
a third lead singer, you know, and you know, like
listen like I was saying, I barely accepted Sammy at
that point. I wasn't where I am now where I
listened to him constantly. I was just kind of moving
on and away from Van Haleen and this idea of

(37:54):
them having an album with a new lead singer from
extreme I thought, I don't think I've been interest in this.
I didn't even know that it was basically an Eddie
van Halen, you know, solo project, and that he was
taking a progressive route a bit that wasn't even an issue.
I had no idea what it was about. But again
another regret. It has to do with that album, and

(38:16):
you know it's it's pretty clear in the book.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
The Dark Times, late nineties into the early two thousands,
no activity from the band. Then you hear Eddie has cancered.
We had the Dave In Samy tour and O two
Dave Tordin O three Sammy returned to Van Halen O
four disastrous tour. Eddie was not in a good place.
It's not until seven that we finally get that reunion
tour with Dave back. But Wolfgang was playing bass instead

(38:43):
of Michael Anthony. So where did you stand on that?
Did you have a problem with Mike not being there?

Speaker 2 (38:48):
I don't know if I had so much a problem
with Michael Anthony not being there as I did with
the fact that basically a teenager was going to be
on stage, right.

Speaker 1 (39:01):
I mean, don't forget sixteen years old.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
Great, I was teaching, you know, middle school at the time,
and I say in the book, I thought that my
friend was playing a joke on me, like that he
super imposed one of the students in this picture, you know,
and I said, what is this and he said, no,
that's Eddie's son. Now again, looking back on it and
now Wolf I'm a huge fan of wolf We saw

(39:25):
him in New York City a few years ago at
a very small venue. But no, back then, it was
I mean, how did you feel about it? To me,
it was just an odd thing.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
I don't know, Yeah, conflicted, very excited to see Dave
back with Ed and there was there was that nostalgic
feel to it, the excitement of that. But then you're
looking at at Wolfgang at sixteen years old and she's like,
why is it like there?

Speaker 2 (39:54):
Yeah, well, you know, so it was.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
It was hard, but it was one of those like, alright,
but listen, we haven't had anything from my favorite band
in so long. I'll I'm open to it. I'll take it,
you know. But it was it was just like almost,
you know a little bit, we're right there to like
the actual real thing. That would have been a huge

(40:17):
deal if it was the original four and I think,
you know, we would have gotten that apparently from what
Wolf Kang was saying, and Eddie wanted to do the
Kitchen Sink tour and get everybody back.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
But well, looking back at that moment, they didn't release
an album, you know, and it was it was basically
a Greatest Hits concert without Michael Anthony and with Eddie's
sun and I guess, looking back, should I have gone?
I don't know if I regret not going to that

(40:48):
tour as much as other regrets because we did get
twenty twelve. If we didn't get twenty twelve, then absolutely
I would regret it much more. But we got an
album in twenty twelve, of which you know, was much
different to me, you know, I and I don't know.
Even when Dave and Sammy toured together, I had really

(41:08):
no interest in seeing them either. Now I'll see them
all the time. I'll see Dave if he's playing in
Long Island. I'll see Sammy. We're going to see Sammy
in Las Vegas in March.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
So ah, nice.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
Yeah, I'll get I'll get everything I can get. I'll
take anything I can get now, and again that plays
into those regrets, you know.

Speaker 1 (41:28):
Hey, guys, thanks so much for checking out the Booked
on Rock podcast. If you've just found the podcast, welcome.
If you've been listening, thank you so much for your support,
and make sure you tell a friend, a family member,
share on social media and let people know about Booked
on Rock. And if you do like the podcast, make
sure you subscribe give a five star review. Wherever you
listen to the Booked on Rock podcast, We're on Amazon, Apple, iHeart, Spotify, Spreaker,

(41:53):
tune in in on YouTube music. You can check out
the full episodes on video along with video highlights from
episodes the Booked on Rock YouTube channel. Find it at
Booked on Rock. Thanks again for listening. Now back to
the show. The one thing about the O seven tour,
I was pleasantly surprised by Dave his voice, the way

(42:16):
he sang, the way look he gotten himself back together,
because I tell you if you and I've been a
hardcore Dave fan, so I see him over the years
and he was in pretty rough shape. And there was
some shows that he was playing there with his voice
was not good and he just it just what he didn't.
He didn't have that swagger of the of the Dave
of old, and uh, I just I remember thinking, man,

(42:36):
this is I don't know, I mean, is this is
he going to be able to do it? Because it
had been a long time since since he had been
with the band, but also a long time since he
really sounded good. I mean he sounded he sounded good
as he got to the late nineties. I think he
knew he was he was working on trying to get
back in the band, so he was going out and
tour and playing van Hill in heavy sets, and he

(42:58):
was really it seemed like he was working hard at it.
So it was a great tour. It really was. That
O seven tour was pretty damn cool. When the show
opens and he's waving the red flag and.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
Yeah, well earlier you mentioned you know, what would it
have been like if we got you know, Dave to
come back like around the time of Van Halen three,
And I think we know what we would have gotten
because we did get it. We got me wise magic,
you know. And that song is one of my favorite
Van Halen songs.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
It's such a great song.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
And Can't get the Stuff No More? I love too.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
Yeah, yeah, I mean they sounded great, Like I don't.
It's so upsetting and I think in a previous podcast
that we shared. I think I described it as it
was a betrayal, you know.

Speaker 1 (43:44):
Back then it was a massive it was a hangover,
like a really bad hangover. When when all of a
sudden hit now Gary Sharon's there, It's like, wait a minute,
we just saw a Dave up on the stage with them,
and now we're getting these two songs and we're it
made up much hard to embrace Gary Cheron. Yeah, I
think from a from a from a public relations aspect,

(44:06):
it was just I mean, it was just like a
dumpster fire. What are you doing? You know?

Speaker 2 (44:10):
And and again that's probably one of the reasons why
I didn't accept Van Allen three, because it's supposed to
be Dave on that album, So don't tell us Dave
is coming back, and then just pull the plug on
that and and grab somebody from extreme who listens a
talented singer, you know. And looking back, like I said,
I have regrets, but it was it was not something

(44:33):
in real time, it was not something that a lot
of us were willing to accept.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
Well, that's what's shocking to me, Mike, is that they
didn't even see that, they didn't understand that auto at all.
That you go up there on stage with Dave that
the longtime fans are going to go crazy over this.
You're not understanding that because it's like, well, okay, well
just we're gonna we're gonna have them go up there
just to help promote the best of but then we're

(44:58):
gonna go back and we're gonna go find another singer.
It's like, you didn't really understand. That's like kiss getting
back with makeup and then all of a sudden saying yeah,
and you know what, we showed up the original four
with makeup, but we're going to give you Carnival of Souls.
You know, you know, you're like, well wait a minute,
you I just it just blows my mind that that

(45:20):
none of them got together and said, guys, this is
not a good idea. We put Dave up there, even
if we're thinking this is just like a one time deal.
This is gonna this is going to blow up in
our face. But that discussion apparently never happened, and they
just thought, yeah, this is a great idea.

Speaker 2 (45:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:37):
Absolutely, they underestimated the the they underestimated the excitement that
would come from Dave coming back.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
I think they did, you know, I think that they
assume that people would just forget about him at that point,
and you know, Sammy was there and they'll forget about
him just as well. But I don't know, you know,
it's it doesn't work unless they're all there, you know,
It's I mean, and there are a lot of bands
you could say that about. It's like Queen for example.
You know, Freddie Mercury. Going solo isn't a good idea.

(46:06):
You need all of the components there, you know. And
you know with Van Hall and it's not so much
going solo and not going solo, it's what will the
fans accept, because they're very loyal fans, and it's it's
not an easy thing to accept, you know, these different
late lead singers. You know, Dave was a front man,
you know, and he had a personality that Sammy did

(46:29):
not have. And I feel like when Sammy attempted it,
he didn't come off the same across the same way,
and it was hard to accept back then. But there's
other things that Sammy is good at that Dve wasn't
able to do as well as you know also, and
that's why, in hindsight, having everything that we have as

(46:51):
a Van Helen fan, is truly a blessing, you know,
because we got to even Van Allen three. We got
to see something experimental that Eddie wanted to do, almost
like a passion project. I'll tell you what, I'll throw
this out there, you know, for anyone to speculate if
all of a sudden Van Helen three demo tracks were

(47:12):
found with Gary Sharon and Eddie right and Michael Anthony
and Alex and they clean them up and put out
you know, Van Helen four, maybe ten songs. I would
be the first one to purchase it. You know, I'll
take anything I can get now. And that's again that's
part of the regrets, you know.

Speaker 1 (47:33):
Find the Booked on Rock website at bookdnrock dot com.
There you can find all the back episodes of the show,
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(47:56):
rock book releases, and before you go check out the
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merch it's all at booked on rock dot Com. We
did get the album in twenty twelve, Different Kind of Truth.
It was the tour, another tour in twenty fifteen, and
then October sixth, twenty twenty, that was the day we

(48:16):
heard Edward van Halen had passed away. Where were you
when you heard the news and what was your reaction?

Speaker 2 (48:21):
Yeah, it's really a strange story, and it's basically it's
basically how I open up the book, you know, the
Day of Music Died. It's not Buddy Holly. I'm talking about.
If you're a van Halen fan and you purchase the
book and you see the first chapters titled the Day
the Music Died, you probably know what that's about. And
I was literally setting up speakers. I had just received

(48:43):
in the mail a package of two speakers that I
had to name because when you connect your speakers to
your WiFi in the house into the app, they want
you to name it like living room, bedroom, you know whatever,
dining room. And I said, I know what, I'm gonna
name one of them Eddie, and put it downstairs and

(49:04):
name one of them Alex. I'm sorry Alex downstairs and
the other Eddie, and put it upstairs, so instead of
naming them upstairs and downstairs, I named them Eddie and Alex.
And I kid you not. I got a text from Vinnie,
who I jokingly say is constantly sending me rip messages,
you know, and it said rip Eddie van Helen, and

(49:27):
I gasped. I guess, I guessed so loudly that my
wife thought that something terrible had happened. And it did.
You know, it was so shocking, I said, like I
knew he was sick a while ago, but nothing was
really leaked about him being you know, terminal, and I

(49:48):
just couldn't believe it. And you know, to this day,
I have that Eddie speaker, you know, upstairs in my bedroom.
But it was so odd that I was doing that
at the time this message came. And I wanted to
ask you the same question. Where were you when it happen?

Speaker 1 (50:04):
Yeah, I was. I was at work. I was at
my day job, and this is this is crazy. My
boss didn't realize how big of a fan I was.
And she was on the phone with somebody who used
to work in our office that knew how much of
a fan I was, and he had apparently sent to

(50:27):
her on the phone, like, hey, you know, how's Eric doing.
You know Eddie van Halen died? I just heard and
she said, she said, she's like, Eric, did you know
Edie van Halen died? You know? And I she saw
the look on my face, like I went pale white
and kind of just like went blank for a while there.

(50:47):
And she actually like apologized later, She's like, I'm sorry,
I didn't realize you know how big of a f
I go, no, No, it's okay, But I said, this
is like you don't understand. This is like huge for me.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
This is it's a big thing.

Speaker 1 (50:59):
Now. Did you feel like I did? Like that was
the first time that that a huge chunk of my
youth had just disappeared.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
One hundred percent. And I say that in the book.
I said, I never realized that the death of a
celebrity would have such an effect on me. And and
I recalled, I don't tell this story, but I do
mention Elvis dying. I remember being at my grandparents eating
dinner when Elvis died around that time, and my mother

(51:29):
was not eating, and my father finally had something to
say about it, and he said, you know, you have
to eat. This is ridiculous, you know what, It's not
like Frank Sinatra died. He said that, and my grandmother gasped,
you know, like you know, and and I remembered that, like, yeah,
I can understand why my mother was so upset when

(51:50):
Elvis died, because I felt the same way when this happened,
you know, And I'm sure you did too.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
You know I did. And it's never been the same since.
And as much as I listen to Van Halen and
I love the fact that Sammy's out there doing his
thing and Dave's doing his thing, it's like it's just
there's there's that, there's that there's that feeling of that
possibility that something's coming next, you know, that that they're

(52:15):
going to come back with an album or tour that
is gone, it's off the table. And whether even if
they did a tribute tour, which they had talked about
with Satrianni and Dave and now it's never going to
be the same.

Speaker 2 (52:30):
No, it's.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
But having said that, on the flip side of it,
what they did is set in stone. It's there. It's
always going to be there, right, so you can always
turn to it and you can always play the music
and you can watch the videos, and you can see
the photos, you know, and take to all those pictures
that have been taken all throughout the years, and you
see them in books, and you know it's always going
to be there. So that's that's what's most important, is

(52:53):
and and we're experiencing what our parents experienced when all
their favorite musicians that you went to pass the d
right after after Eddie passed away.

Speaker 2 (53:03):
Yes, I did so. Yeah, my son moved out to California,
I want to say, maybe six seven years ago, and
I said, you know what, let me put together a
little tour. So I looked up some locations. There's Las
Luna Street, there's the liquor store in the sidewalk right
around the corner where Eddie and Alex grew up. There's

(53:27):
Dave's house on the other side of town. The gate
you know, was open there. There's the Pasadena Convention Center
right civic Yeah, thea civic center that was there with
Eddie's plaque outside. I took a picture in front of it.
Michael and I also took a ride to Sunset Sound.

(53:49):
We took a ride to the Whiskey. We took a
ride to the location of Cherokee Studios, the old location.

Speaker 1 (53:55):
Oh yeah, we went to.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
Now I didn't know this, but he lives in Sherman.
He's about a black from Ventura in Sherman Oaks and
he is literally two mile walk from fifty one to
fifty from the entrance to that road.

Speaker 1 (54:11):
Your son is, yes, he is, but I can't walk.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
You can't walk up into the hills because it's too
dangerous those roads. But we did drive there and I
you know, at the bottom of the it's on the
main road and then there's a road that goes all
the way up. You can't see the house at all.
But I did take a picture of like the entrance
to the street that drives up there. But yeah, it's

(54:36):
it's all in that area, which was really cool. So
I was able to visit a lot of those locations.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
Emotions.

Speaker 2 (54:43):
Yeah, and then so Chaz Charles, who you might be
familiar with from Van Halen regarding Van Allen.

Speaker 1 (54:49):
Three, I think on the on the Van Hellen.

Speaker 2 (54:52):
Three podcast mentioned something about it was one of the
podcasts mentioned something about the garage and said, well, you
can't see Edie. You can't see the garage from last
Luna Street. You can see the house. There's trees in
the way, but you can't see the garage. He goes, no, no,
there's a path behind the house. I said, really, okay.

(55:13):
So one of the friends I met on the podcast, Josh.
Josh is one of my witnesses in rock Court this season.
So Josh decided that he would meet me for a
cheeseburger out there, and we went to Last Lunas and
we said, let's see if Chas is right. Sure enough,
there's like an alley behind the houses that runs parallel

(55:35):
to Last Luna Street and it's where the garbage pickup
is and that's where you would park your car, I guess.
And you know, all the garages are obviously visible, but
the house where Eddie and Alex grew up, there's a
fence that goes around a stockade fence that goes around
the garage, so you can't really see it. You can
see the top of it, but you know, we took

(55:57):
a picture in front of it, and it was nice
to see.

Speaker 1 (55:59):
Yeah, that's where he was working on his guitars, painting
the guitars, right, all that stuff, that garage. It was,
it was.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
Very cool and it was it was if anybody ever
wants some ideas about where to visit. It's there are
some pretty cool locations out in the out in that
area of California, Los Angeles.

Speaker 1 (56:18):
Yeah, this was great.

Speaker 2 (56:19):
Man.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
You mentioned Rock Cort. That's our friend Cory Morris. That's podcast.

Speaker 2 (56:23):
So season two of Rock Court, I defend the Sunset
Strip and Chazz defends the new wave of British heavy metal.
And you know, I'm basically playing this hot headed attorney
who is creating some havoc in the courtroom and getting
himself in trouble, and Chaz is playing this instigator. And
we have Kevin Brown with his British accent on the bench,

(56:46):
so of course I'm calling him out being uh, you know,
being partial. You know, not an impartial judge in any way.
So we had so much fun with it, and I
really encourage I did mention you a couple of times
because you were nice enough to get back to me
with some answered questions.

Speaker 1 (57:05):
I fed you some research, yes, to bolster your case.

Speaker 2 (57:09):
Yeah, I put some of that in there, and a
couple of times I said, well, I spoke Derek Sanitch
about this.

Speaker 1 (57:14):
I was I was a witness or yeah, I was
a witness. Uh this was what episode episode six when
this was when they were it was it was it
was Sammy Hagar versus David E.

Speaker 2 (57:29):
Roth yes season one.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
And Kevin Brown was the Rock Turney representing Sammy Hagar
the defense of Sammy. So he had me on a stand.
He had me on the stand. Yeah, that was fun.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:41):
The book again, I'm going to say, Christmas is about
a week away. You order this on Amazon, you'll get
it and especially if you have if you have Primate call,
you get in a couple of days. And yeah, I
got a vanil and fan and the family or a friend.
This is perfect.

Speaker 2 (57:55):
Yeah, and like tell your friends about it because I
just want to share the story. You know, I even
have a price to share, like nine ninety nine. So
I just want people to read the story and remember
some of these things, maybe learn a few things if
they're younger. But yeah, it's it's it's it's so one quick,
one last quick thing. It's a quick read, and you

(58:15):
know it. There's a lot of information in it, and
I tried to make it very memorable as far as
the images and everything, but it's a quick read. And
my buddy Vinnie who's in it a few times. He
had his daughter time him, how long is it going
to take me to read this? And would you know
that when she hit stopped it was fifty one minutes
and fifty seconds.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
Get out here.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
I said, you know what, and I'm saying I'm telling
the story for the first time. I said, you know what. Vin,
whenever somebody asks how long should it take me to
read this, I'm going to say it's fifty one to fifty.
That is in fifty seconds.

Speaker 1 (58:48):
Oh man, that's so cool. That's so cool, Michael Pastor.
I will see you again down the road at some point,
I'm sure. Thanks so much for coming on and look
forward to having you back on again. We can do
another van Halen discussion.

Speaker 2 (59:03):
Loved it absolutely, Thank you, Eric, I really appreciate this.
This is great.

Speaker 1 (59:16):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (59:17):
It's in the books.

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Rock & Reflection: One Van Halen Fan's Journey [Episode 344]

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