GreggFromJoisey
03-09-2007, 10:54 AM
BREAKING VAN HALEN UPDATES:
It is a morning of breaking Van Halen news! This letter from Edward Van Halen has been sent out this afternoon LA time to a number of media outlets, including myself. It reads:
"I would like Van Halen fans to know how much I truly appreciate each and every one of you. Without you there is no Van Halen.
I have always and will always feel a responsibility to give you my best. At the moment I do not feel that I can give you my best. That's why I have decided to enter a rehabilitation facility to work on myself, so that in the future I can deliver the 110% that I feel I owe you and want to give you.
Some of the issues surrounding the 2007 Van Halen tour are within my ability to change and some are not. As far as my rehab is concerned, it is within my ability to change and change for the better. I want you to know that is exactly what I'm doing, so that I may continue to give you the very best I am capable of.
I look forward to seeing you in the future better than ever and I thank you with all my heart.
Love,
Ed."
Let me stand up and say - well done Edward Van Halen. Thank you for having the personal fortitude and courage to face your issues head on, accept the fact that you need help and deal with everything that goes with making such an admission.
I dare say that the entire Van Halen fan base is behind you in your desire to get clean and healthy and I cannot say strongly enough - we all wish you the very best and look forward to what will now without doubt, be a brighter future.
If you have been following the recent Van Halen updates here and especially the news of the 2007 tour being postponed, you might have already read between the lines as far as the turmoil within the Van Halen camp. No, there hasn't been any sparring between David Lee Roth and any of the members and no, there were no issues about Wolfgang Van Halen filling the bassist position.
The main issues revolved around Eddie's health and the reluctance of people involved in putting on and promoting the 2007 to commit to it without Edward first seeing help. It is fantastic to see Eddie comment on that. It reached a point where nothing had happened and the tour was pulled.
But, Ed has found the strength needed to deal with this and has checked himself into rehab. Not only is this the best possible option for Ed on a personal level, but it also gives renewed hope that those behind the tour will now have the confidence to get the ball rolling again.
Obviously Eddie needs time to deal with this and no one will be rushing him back onto the tour circuit. Time frames and schedules are not something that will be looked at for a while yet, but safe to say that the tour with David Lee Roth looks more likely to happen today, than it did yesterday.
At the same time as this has been going down - David Lee Roth has spat the dummy with Hall Of Fame officials and has pulled the plug on appearing at the ceremony!
LA Times writer Geoff Boucher states in an article today that Michael Anthony will be the only original member of the band to appear at the ceremony, appearing along with second vocalist and friend Sammy Hagar.
The LA Time article is as follows:
Roth not allowed to perform at gala honoring the band
Of the original band, only deposed bassist Michael Anthony will appear at the induction ceremony.
By Geoff Boucher, Times Staff Writer
March 9, 2007
- Van Halen's road plans have taken a rocky turn
How did that old Van Halen song go? "I found the simple life ain't so simple ... " The iconic Los Angeles metal band is set to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at a lavish New York banquet Monday night, but now it appears that only one original member, bassist Michael Anthony, will even show up.
David Lee Roth, the band's frontman for its first decade, said Thursday he will not attend the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel ceremony because event officials have turned down his repeated overtures to perform.
"I don't make speeches for a living; I sing and dance for my dinner," Roth said, adding that the decision to skip the event "rips my heart out."
The hall of fame's event organizers plan for Velvet Revolver to perform some Van Halen classics, much as Metallica stood in last year to play Black Sabbath songs while that band's members watched from the audience. "So it appears this is a television producer's decision," Roth said.
The choice of Velvet Revolver was in response to a sticky situation as far as what lineup of Van Halen could take the stage to perform with Roth. Van Halen's revered guitar hero, Eddie Van Halen, and his brother, drummer Alex, had already sent signals that they would not be in New York. The Van Halen's have been in lock-down mode since their plans for a summer reunion tour with Roth collapsed last month. Roth said he last spoke to Eddie Van Halen's camp a week ago, and he said he could not determine the truth about reports that the guitarist is seeking help for alcohol problems.
"Ed is indisposed and working toward a better future here," Roth said. "If Ed ever dries up, this is going to be a stadium act, man.... What's happening here with this [New York event] is part and parcel of the same spiral that *****ed up the tour."
Without the Brothers Van Halen, the Hall faced the prospect of putting Roth on stage with bass player Michael Anthony, who is the lone founding member expected to attend, and Sammy Hagar, Roth's replacement in the band and longtime foil, who logged more than a decade as the band's frontman. Hagar confirmed Thursday he is attending.
Roth said Thursday he had been preparing since December for the chance to perform for the industry elite, the media and a television audience that will be watching the ceremony live on VH1 Classics.
"It's just not an option for me to go and watch some other band — who are only performing because they have some new record coming out — do our music," Roth said. "I have nothing against Velvet Revolver — I'm not familiar with their music — but that was my 3 minutes and 22 seconds up there."
The other inductees this year are R.E.M., Patti Smith, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and the Ronettes. The 2007 inductees were chosen by the 600 voters of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. Artists are eligible for inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25 years after their first recording was released. The ceremony will also be streamed live on AOL at spinner.aol.com/rockhall.
Journalist and commentator Bob Lefsetz weighs in with this article just released:
"This business went in the crapper when the executives started believing they were bigger than the acts, that the audience was interested in THEM, not the performers.
And why be interested in the acts, they were just tools of the machine. Picked on their looks, singing the songs of hacks, the music lost its soul, its religion, its sense of theatre, its VAUDEVILLE HISTORY!
Van Halen was no James Cameron production, no slick artifice, it was just four guys from Pasadena working their way up from beer parties to the TOP, testing limits, getting better every step of the way.
We all agree Eddie Van Halen is a genius, but without David Lee Roth Van Halen never would have broken through. Sammy may have a better voice, I love "Best Of Both Worlds", but without DLR there IS NO Van Halen, no notice. A band without a frontman is...the NICE?
You need a singer, someone who can enrapture the audience, someone who can make the audience pay attention. That person in Van Halen's case was David Lee Roth. Better David Lee Roth with ANYBODY behind him than ANYBODY in Velvet Revolver or Audioslave (is there a difference, aren't both made up of has-beens who can't work on their own?)
Stunningly, David Lee Roth can still work on his own. Granted, to an ever-dwindling audience. But people still want to be touched. Want to remember when they were in high school, and DIDN'T GIVE A ----! Van Halen was music for people enmeshed in the system who wanted a WAY OUT! That's what music used to provide. Back when it was a culture of notes, not *****s with $5,000 suits and multiple assistants.
This is the last nail in the coffin for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This is the final joke. When you don't even let the INDUCTEES perform.
Why not? Because it's on TELEVISION? Doesn't that prove the point? That when you start worrying about the audience rather than the music you've lost the thread?
Back when Van Halen reigned, the ultimate goal was to get backstage. To hang with the band, whether male or female. It not only made your night, but maybe your life. To get that close. To the talented who played by their own rules.
That's what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony was. A private party. That the public LONGED to attend. Back when there was no question the inductees were legends.
An edited show for VH1 was bad enough. A live broadcast? Why? Is this any different from the Paris Hilton sex tape? A staged event, distributed for publicity?
The R&RHOF needs cash. It needs to perpetuate itself. When it's the MUSIC that's important, that will outlive this lame organization run by men and women who never had the adoration of tens of thousands of fans, who never held them in the palm of their hands, who never knew the POWER of being a star.
You can be rich, but that doesn't make you a star.
And the biggest star amongst this year's inductees has now been refused the right to perform at his own party. Isn't that like not allowing the President to attend his own inauguration?
Let every table at the Waldorf-Astoria be adorned with a bowl of brown M&M's. And when it comes time for Van Halen to be inducted, let everybody THROW THEM AT THE DAIS!
That's the rock and roll spirit. Throwing out decorum, knowing that a big star plays by his OWN RULES!
If only the *****s who made this decision had one iota of David Lee Roth's star power. If only they realized they're what's killing not only the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but the record business too.
If Michael Stipe had any balls he'd refuse to attend unless DLR could come and perform too. What, Paul Shaffer gets to play all these years but David Lee Roth CAN'T?
Visit the archive: lefsetz.com/wordpress
It is a morning of breaking Van Halen news! This letter from Edward Van Halen has been sent out this afternoon LA time to a number of media outlets, including myself. It reads:
"I would like Van Halen fans to know how much I truly appreciate each and every one of you. Without you there is no Van Halen.
I have always and will always feel a responsibility to give you my best. At the moment I do not feel that I can give you my best. That's why I have decided to enter a rehabilitation facility to work on myself, so that in the future I can deliver the 110% that I feel I owe you and want to give you.
Some of the issues surrounding the 2007 Van Halen tour are within my ability to change and some are not. As far as my rehab is concerned, it is within my ability to change and change for the better. I want you to know that is exactly what I'm doing, so that I may continue to give you the very best I am capable of.
I look forward to seeing you in the future better than ever and I thank you with all my heart.
Love,
Ed."
Let me stand up and say - well done Edward Van Halen. Thank you for having the personal fortitude and courage to face your issues head on, accept the fact that you need help and deal with everything that goes with making such an admission.
I dare say that the entire Van Halen fan base is behind you in your desire to get clean and healthy and I cannot say strongly enough - we all wish you the very best and look forward to what will now without doubt, be a brighter future.
If you have been following the recent Van Halen updates here and especially the news of the 2007 tour being postponed, you might have already read between the lines as far as the turmoil within the Van Halen camp. No, there hasn't been any sparring between David Lee Roth and any of the members and no, there were no issues about Wolfgang Van Halen filling the bassist position.
The main issues revolved around Eddie's health and the reluctance of people involved in putting on and promoting the 2007 to commit to it without Edward first seeing help. It is fantastic to see Eddie comment on that. It reached a point where nothing had happened and the tour was pulled.
But, Ed has found the strength needed to deal with this and has checked himself into rehab. Not only is this the best possible option for Ed on a personal level, but it also gives renewed hope that those behind the tour will now have the confidence to get the ball rolling again.
Obviously Eddie needs time to deal with this and no one will be rushing him back onto the tour circuit. Time frames and schedules are not something that will be looked at for a while yet, but safe to say that the tour with David Lee Roth looks more likely to happen today, than it did yesterday.
At the same time as this has been going down - David Lee Roth has spat the dummy with Hall Of Fame officials and has pulled the plug on appearing at the ceremony!
LA Times writer Geoff Boucher states in an article today that Michael Anthony will be the only original member of the band to appear at the ceremony, appearing along with second vocalist and friend Sammy Hagar.
The LA Time article is as follows:
Roth not allowed to perform at gala honoring the band
Of the original band, only deposed bassist Michael Anthony will appear at the induction ceremony.
By Geoff Boucher, Times Staff Writer
March 9, 2007
- Van Halen's road plans have taken a rocky turn
How did that old Van Halen song go? "I found the simple life ain't so simple ... " The iconic Los Angeles metal band is set to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at a lavish New York banquet Monday night, but now it appears that only one original member, bassist Michael Anthony, will even show up.
David Lee Roth, the band's frontman for its first decade, said Thursday he will not attend the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel ceremony because event officials have turned down his repeated overtures to perform.
"I don't make speeches for a living; I sing and dance for my dinner," Roth said, adding that the decision to skip the event "rips my heart out."
The hall of fame's event organizers plan for Velvet Revolver to perform some Van Halen classics, much as Metallica stood in last year to play Black Sabbath songs while that band's members watched from the audience. "So it appears this is a television producer's decision," Roth said.
The choice of Velvet Revolver was in response to a sticky situation as far as what lineup of Van Halen could take the stage to perform with Roth. Van Halen's revered guitar hero, Eddie Van Halen, and his brother, drummer Alex, had already sent signals that they would not be in New York. The Van Halen's have been in lock-down mode since their plans for a summer reunion tour with Roth collapsed last month. Roth said he last spoke to Eddie Van Halen's camp a week ago, and he said he could not determine the truth about reports that the guitarist is seeking help for alcohol problems.
"Ed is indisposed and working toward a better future here," Roth said. "If Ed ever dries up, this is going to be a stadium act, man.... What's happening here with this [New York event] is part and parcel of the same spiral that *****ed up the tour."
Without the Brothers Van Halen, the Hall faced the prospect of putting Roth on stage with bass player Michael Anthony, who is the lone founding member expected to attend, and Sammy Hagar, Roth's replacement in the band and longtime foil, who logged more than a decade as the band's frontman. Hagar confirmed Thursday he is attending.
Roth said Thursday he had been preparing since December for the chance to perform for the industry elite, the media and a television audience that will be watching the ceremony live on VH1 Classics.
"It's just not an option for me to go and watch some other band — who are only performing because they have some new record coming out — do our music," Roth said. "I have nothing against Velvet Revolver — I'm not familiar with their music — but that was my 3 minutes and 22 seconds up there."
The other inductees this year are R.E.M., Patti Smith, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and the Ronettes. The 2007 inductees were chosen by the 600 voters of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. Artists are eligible for inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25 years after their first recording was released. The ceremony will also be streamed live on AOL at spinner.aol.com/rockhall.
Journalist and commentator Bob Lefsetz weighs in with this article just released:
"This business went in the crapper when the executives started believing they were bigger than the acts, that the audience was interested in THEM, not the performers.
And why be interested in the acts, they were just tools of the machine. Picked on their looks, singing the songs of hacks, the music lost its soul, its religion, its sense of theatre, its VAUDEVILLE HISTORY!
Van Halen was no James Cameron production, no slick artifice, it was just four guys from Pasadena working their way up from beer parties to the TOP, testing limits, getting better every step of the way.
We all agree Eddie Van Halen is a genius, but without David Lee Roth Van Halen never would have broken through. Sammy may have a better voice, I love "Best Of Both Worlds", but without DLR there IS NO Van Halen, no notice. A band without a frontman is...the NICE?
You need a singer, someone who can enrapture the audience, someone who can make the audience pay attention. That person in Van Halen's case was David Lee Roth. Better David Lee Roth with ANYBODY behind him than ANYBODY in Velvet Revolver or Audioslave (is there a difference, aren't both made up of has-beens who can't work on their own?)
Stunningly, David Lee Roth can still work on his own. Granted, to an ever-dwindling audience. But people still want to be touched. Want to remember when they were in high school, and DIDN'T GIVE A ----! Van Halen was music for people enmeshed in the system who wanted a WAY OUT! That's what music used to provide. Back when it was a culture of notes, not *****s with $5,000 suits and multiple assistants.
This is the last nail in the coffin for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This is the final joke. When you don't even let the INDUCTEES perform.
Why not? Because it's on TELEVISION? Doesn't that prove the point? That when you start worrying about the audience rather than the music you've lost the thread?
Back when Van Halen reigned, the ultimate goal was to get backstage. To hang with the band, whether male or female. It not only made your night, but maybe your life. To get that close. To the talented who played by their own rules.
That's what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony was. A private party. That the public LONGED to attend. Back when there was no question the inductees were legends.
An edited show for VH1 was bad enough. A live broadcast? Why? Is this any different from the Paris Hilton sex tape? A staged event, distributed for publicity?
The R&RHOF needs cash. It needs to perpetuate itself. When it's the MUSIC that's important, that will outlive this lame organization run by men and women who never had the adoration of tens of thousands of fans, who never held them in the palm of their hands, who never knew the POWER of being a star.
You can be rich, but that doesn't make you a star.
And the biggest star amongst this year's inductees has now been refused the right to perform at his own party. Isn't that like not allowing the President to attend his own inauguration?
Let every table at the Waldorf-Astoria be adorned with a bowl of brown M&M's. And when it comes time for Van Halen to be inducted, let everybody THROW THEM AT THE DAIS!
That's the rock and roll spirit. Throwing out decorum, knowing that a big star plays by his OWN RULES!
If only the *****s who made this decision had one iota of David Lee Roth's star power. If only they realized they're what's killing not only the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but the record business too.
If Michael Stipe had any balls he'd refuse to attend unless DLR could come and perform too. What, Paul Shaffer gets to play all these years but David Lee Roth CAN'T?
Visit the archive: lefsetz.com/wordpress