Gary James' Interview With The Author Of
Tone Chaser. Understanding Edward:
My 26 Year Journey With Edward Van Halen
Steve Rosen



How many of us would have wanted to count Eddie Van Halen as a friend? Probably everyone. Steve Rosen has the honor and distinction of being friends with Eddie Van Halen, and he's written a book about that friendship. Titled Tone Chaser. Understanding Edward: My 26 Year Journey With Edward Van Halen, it's a close-up look at what made one of Rock's greatest guitar players tick. We spoke with Steve Rosen about his book.

Q - Steve, the first thing that strikes me about your book is underneath Tone Chaser. Understanding Edward: My 26 Year Journey With Edward Van Halen. The public always referred to him as Eddie Van Halen. Did he prefer to be called Edward Van Halen?

A - He did, yes. The reason I knew that was twofold: One, he always called himself that. So, whenever he called me he'd go, "Hi Steve, Edward," which is kind of funny in itself because after awhile obviously I recognized his voice. He'd always say, "Steve, Edward," like I wouldn't recognize his voice. He'd identify himself, which is pretty funny. Then I had a conversation with him to ask him about that. I said, "Ed, Edward. Some people call you Eddie. Some people call you Ed. I call you Edward. What do you prefer?" Fans kind of know him as Ed or Eddie. He actually never cared for that. He never cared for Eddie. He always thought that was sort of a name for a little kid. Alex used to call him Ed. He always preferred Edward. Obviously it's a much more formal name. I think he just felt more comfortable using that.

Q - This book came about because of what you call "The Twilight Tapes", 50 interviews with Edward conducted late at night. How late at night would he call you?

A - I was living up in the Hollywood Hills at the time. My cat would wake up at midnight or one in the morning and he'd be hungry. I'd try to sleep. I tried to ignore him. Eventually I just had to get up. I had this little house and the bedroom was upstairs. The kitchen was downstairs. So, I'd had to walk down these stairs at midnight, one in the morning, give him a can of cat food and then I'd walk back up the stairs and try to fall back to sleep. But, but then I was a little bit wired. I was kind of awake. So, at a point in time instead of trying to fall back asleep I went to my little office in the guest house in Hollywood Hills and started writing. I actually remember the day. It was August 24th, my birthday. I'd been thinking about the book off and on for many years. I stopped seeing Edward in 2003. So, this is 2020, seventeen years later. I just kind of sat down not really to write a book. It wasn't specifically "I'm going to write the book about Edward now." It was more just trying to put my ideas down and let me see what happens. So, I sat down and I just started banging out on the computer and I came out with the intro of the book. I finished that and I thought, "Wow! That's pretty interesting. I've never read anything like that. It has a certain pulse. It has a heart to it." And, I just kept writing. Not only was the book sort of written in those twilight hours, but eventually my cat, Arpeggio, would wake up later and later. So now he'd wake up at one, two or three in the morning. I go into the office and write literally until the sun came up, like eight or nine in the morning. So, not only was the book created in the twilight hours, but when I started writing I just started looking at all the interviews I'd done with Ed. I had everything on cassette. I see this one binder on my shelf. It's a black binder and its not labeled. I open it up and I'm not really sure what it is. Then labels were kind of cryptic. I put on this one tape and it said something like "Relationship", but it was just "Rel." I go, "What is that?" Anyway, I put that on, and this is what I would ultimately call "The Twilight Tapes." These were the very personal conversations I would have with Edward, typically in the twilight hours. He would be up at one in the morning, two in the morning. He would call me and he wanted to talk. So, these weren't scripted interviews. These were conversations. We talked about all kinds of things. He'd talk about his family, and that was what that tape was all about, relationships, the relationship between he and his father specifically. I realized what a treasure I had found. Honestly, I had forgotten about those tapes because basically they were unlabeled in this one binder. They had never been transcribed. I realized, "Wow! This is pretty special." That was really the impetus to keep writing. I thought this stuff is so amazing. I thought that people would be so blown away by reading about this. I just sort of pushed forward. Fourteen months later, Tone Chaser was born.

Q - Those conversations were recorded on a cassette tape, correct?

A - Correct.

Q - You actually have over 1,500 hours of interviews on tape with all the major Rock stars of the 1970s and 1980s. What is it you'd like to do with those tapes? Are you trying to get the tapes used in a radio show or documentary?

A - Actually, as we speak, I am doing that. Over the years I've licensed my interviews to various companies. There was a couple English companies. One was called Chrome Drains. They did about seven CD interviews. They were basically my interviews on CD. I wrote the liner copy for the jacket cover, the inside of the little booklet. I think I did one of KISS, Ozzy, Zappa, Zeppelin, and there was another company who licensed maybe thirty or more interviews that they used. They did a thing where they would enclose a CD, an audio CD of my interviews. One was with The Who, Sabbath, Asia. In response to your question, I've been talking to a company who is very interested licensing my interviews. The thing about audio interviews is that it's really kind of a rare kind of archive. There are archives out there of film footage, out-takes from Woodstock. That kind of thing, or television shows, Rock shows, Midnight Special. All those types of episodes. But to have an audio archive of my size is pretty rare. So, to put together where it's accessible and cleaned up is a major undertaking. So, this company is very interested and we're talking about it, so we will see what develops.

Q - I interviewed Noel Monk (Van Halen's manager) when his book came out a few years back and I asked him why Edward Van Halen didn't give more interviews. His response was, "The guy is the most brilliant guitar player in the world. When it comes to the brain side of it, it's very lacking." Edward Van Halen come off pretty well in your book.

A - Yeah.

Q - I don't see what Noel Monk was talking about.

A - I was actually approached to write that book. Noel approached me. I was interested. Then I realized the kind of book he wanted to write and I just wasn't interested in writing that kind of a book. The book is well done. It's well written. He found a writer, I forget his name, a terrific writer. But look man, I don't know what went on between them (Noel and Van Halen). I think I met Noel once. Edward told me some things in the book. He was not really happy with Noel. For Noel to make that kind of a statement, honesty, he just didn't understand. Edward didn't do a lot of interviews because he didn't like doing interviews. He didn't like the process of talking about himself or his music. However, when I spoke with him I know he felt very comfortable, and those conversations I had with him were enlightening. They were deep. They were thoughtful. They were smart. They were funny. My interviews appeared in many magazines, most famously Guitar World. I had three covers on Ed back in the '80s, and those interviews are still being talked about to this day. Edward was an incredibly smart guy in his way. He didn't read a lot of books. But just because you don't read a lot of books doesn't mean you can't be unbelievably bright and insightful. I really disagree with Noel's opinion there.

Q - So, if Edward didn't like giving interviews, why didn't we see Alex Van Halen or Michael Anthony give interviews?

A - They did, but anybody interviewing Van Halen wanted to speak to Ed or Dave. But I interviewed Mike for the book. I interviewed Dave. I think they did interviews. I don't think they did as many of them, but they certainly did them.

Q - Would there have been any female reporters around in the 1970s and 1980s who were interviewing the groups you interviewed?

A - Yeah. There were a couple. Jann Uhelski.

Q - Creem magazine.

A - Yeah. She's a real heavy writer. She's a very good writer. There were a couple of others. I can't remember their names, but they were around. They had the same access that any guy did if the band thought they were worth speaking to.

Q - I always thought Michael Anthony was the odd man out in Van Halen. He came across as a solid, no-nonsense guy.

A - Michael always characterized himself as Switzerland. He was the neutral one. He was the one who always stood between Edward and Dave. Mike was the quiet one. He had a family. He was married before any of the other guys. I wouldn't say he was the odd man out. He was just quiet I think.

Q - Would Van Halen have become successful had they not had David Lee Roth fronting the band?

A - That is really an impossible question to answer. I mean, Ed was writing the songs. He had those riffs. So if somebody else came in with a different set of lyrics and a different melody and a different kind of voice over them, would that have been successful? I don't know. Dave was critical to their success. The reality is at first Warner Bros. didn't think that Van Halen were going to do anything. They didn't think they were going to sell any records at all. Van Halen went on the road and they started selling a lot of records.

Q - Why didn't Warner Bros. think they weren't going to sell any records?

A - They just thought they were another Rock 'n' Roll band. They had no idea. They came up at a time when it was all Punk. So, they thought, "This Rock band, we don't have any high hopes." That idea was soon shattered when they started touring and blowing off the bands that they were opening for and selling records. Then Warners said, "Wow! We have something here." But, Dave was critical. Dave was the ego. Dave was the front guy. Dave was the bigger than life guy, and Edward was none of those things. Edward was smart. He knew he needed somebody like that up front.

Q - Did anyone ever tell Edward to curtail his cigarette smoking? I believe there's been a warning from the Surgeon General about the dangers of cigarette smoking since 1964.

A - Right. You have to understand that Edward had probably been smoking since he was 13 or 14 years old. His father smoked. In Europe, smoking is way more prevalent when you're young like that. The reality is how many million and millions of people continue to smoke and get sick despite the warnings? So, people know what they're doing is unhealthy for them, but they continue to do so. I write in my book that, yes his smoking was terrible. I wish I had said something to him. I never did. I wish I had because that's ultimately what took him, was smoking.

Q - When I saw Van Halen, I saw them in a venue that held over 30,000 people. Was there ever talk in the group of maybe scaling down the size of the venues they were performing in?

A - No. No band wants to go backwards. You work your entire life to become the C.E.O. I feel guilty? I'm going back and become a secretary? Life just doesn't work like that, man.

Official Website: www.ToneChaserBook.com

© Gary James. All rights reserved.



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