Family Affair
Alex Van Halen Tells All About Life With Eddie in New Book: ‘I Was With Him From Day One’
Van Halen's new memoir, Brothers, due Oct. 22, will tell the story behind one of the closest family partnerships in rock
Eddie and Alex Van Halen had the closest musical relationship imaginable, playing together for nearly six decades — even in Van Halen’s most fallow periods, when the band was between singers, the brothers would rehearse at Eddie’s 5150 Studios to rehearse just about every day. Alex, Van Halen’s drummer, has been almost entirely silent since Eddie’s death from cancer in October 2020, sharing only a brief statement: “Hey, Ed. Love you. See you on the other side. Your brother, Al.”
Alex Van Halen has a lot more to say about his late brother, though, and it’ll all come out in his new memoir Brothers, due out Oct. 22. “I was with him from day one,” Alex writes. “We shared the experience of coming to this country and figuring out how to fit in. We shared a record player, an 800-square-foot house, a mom and dad, and a work ethic. Later, we shared the back of a tour bus, alcoholism, the experience of becoming successful, of becoming fathers and uncles, and of spending more hours in the studio than I’ve spent doing anything else in this life. We shared a depth of understanding that most people can only hope to achieve in a lifetime.”
The book’s editor, Sara Nelson of HarperCollins, calls the memoir “a chronicle of family and talent and the passion to create … the definitive take on Edward Van Halen’s life and death from the one who knew and loved him best.”
Van Halen singers David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar have both released memoirs over the years, and there has been no shortage of other Van Halen books, including early manager Noel Monk’s memoir Runnin’ With the Devil: A Backstage Pass to the Wild Times, Loud Rock, and the Down and Dirty Truth Behind the Making of Van Halen and Greg Renoff’s impeccably researched Van Halen Rising: How a Southern California Backyard Party Band Saved Heavy Metal. But Alex apparently isn’t a fan of any of them. “All these people are writing books about the band, and they know nothing about the inner workings of this band,” Alex told Modern Drummer in August 2020. “And Ed and I don’t say anything because we’re not in the business of bullshitting on the internet and books and all that kind of crap. We just want to play. It’s that simple.”
Read Rolling Stone‘s own deep-dive cover story on the life and music of Eddie Van Halen here.