Eruption Conversations with Eddie Van Halen

Music writers Tolinski (Light & Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page) and Gill (Guitar Legends: The Definitive Guide to the World's Greatest Guitar Players) combed through hours of their previously unpublished interviews with Eddie Van Halen for a revealing biography of the guitar god, who died in 2020. Most chapters have a substantial introduction, an interview with Van Halen, and sometimes a page devoted to the guitarist's gear. The authors also work in their interviews with insiders: Van Halen's bandmates Michael Anthony, Gary Cherone, and Wolfgang Van Halen (the guitarist's son); manager Ray Danniels; and fellow guitarists Tony Iommi, Steve Lukather, and Steve Vai. Tolinski and Gill illuminate Van Halen's difficult childhood in California as a Dutch immigrant who spoke no English; his rise to fame on the Los Angeles club circuit; and his achievement of stardom, with millions of albums sold. There's particular focus on Van Halen's guitar tapping technique; his heavily modified guitars, including the Frankenstrat; and his persistent health problems and untimely death from cancer. VERDICT Fans and guitar enthusiasts will appreciate this fresh look at the legendary Van Halen, with an emphasis on his technical wizardry; their work will supplement other books about the Van Halen legacy.--David P. Szatmary, formerly at Univ. of Washington, Seattle

Extended interviews with Eddie Van Halen (1955-2020), conducted across the hard-rock guitar virtuoso's idiosyncratic career. Tolinski and Gill are both veteran guitar-magazine journalists, so, inevitably, they consider their subject through a gearhead's lens. Casual fans might drowse at Van Halen's longueurs about Marshall amp voltage, and a late chapter is dedicated to his name-brand guitar and amp company, implying it was his final triumph before his death from a brain tumor. Still, the conversations make a reasonable case that Van Halen is perhaps best understood as an inveterate tinkerer. Beneath the band's hard-partying reputation, the guitarist was obsessed with guitar modifications, innovative playing techniques (most notably, finger-tapping), and tweaking his home studio to his perfectionistic standards, all of which he discusses in depth here. In that light, it's also easier to understand why his band was so often in disarray. His insecurities, he explains here, drove wedges between him and frontmen David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar and led to serious substance-abuse issues. While working on Fair Warning (1981), "he kept himself awake and inspired by ingesting copious amounts of alcohol and cocaine but barely any food." The negative critical reaction to Van Halen III, the band's 1998 album with frontman Gary Cherone (of Extreme fame), prompted a 20-plus-year self-exile from recording. Van Halen could be blunt about band mates (he dismisses Michael Anthony's bass playing) and a touch arrogant about his legacy (competitors "don't play like me--they just try to"). However, it's clear the band's success (and failure) was largely dependent on the guitarist's vision and focus. The book is filled out with sidebars on some of his quirkier guitars and interviews with others in Van Halen's orbit, including Anthony and Van Halen's son (later VH bassist), Wolfgang. Conspicuously absent, though, are Roth and Hagar, whose input might've given the book a less hagiographic feel. A respectful and detailed, if slightly distorted, tribute to a guitar legend. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.