Brothers

Alex and Eddie were born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Indonesian mother Eugenia and Dutch father Jan Van Halen, a musician who played in orchestras and jazz groups all over Europe. Although Jan was a musician, Eugenia was the driving force behind the boys’ dedication to music. She thought classical pianists were respectable and “was hoping for concert pianists playing Carnegie Hall, not Van Halen with the Monsters of Rock” (7). In 1962, when Alex was eight and Ed was six, the family immigrated to the United States and settled in Pasadena, California, where one of Eugenia’s sisters lived. While they spoke no English, the brothers were able to fit in by excelling in music and sports. The brothers bonded deeply by their shared entry into “an alien, unfamiliar life together” (14).

Both brothers won city-wide classical piano contests three years consecutively, but neither felt that piano was their “voice” (17). Next, their mother pushed them into violin, but both learned to play many other instruments as well, which was made possible by their father’s bandmates in Pasadena. The brothers also began tagging along with their father to his gigs, and even playing at times, which introduced them to the idea of being professional musicians. 

However, their father’s staid music did not appeal to them: “[W]e were excited by the wildness and rebellion of rock. The whole thing with rock ‘n’ roll being bigger than life? That really appealed to us. It felt like hope” (22). The music they wanted to play could not be done with the violin and piano, so they started a paper route and other odd jobs to raise money for the instruments they wanted—a drum kit for Eddie and a Teisco Del Rey guitar for Alex. Soon, however, they discovered that Alex was the better drummer and “Ed was a guitar virtuoso,” so they switched (24).

Alex Van Halen describes his development as a drummer and his brother’s development as a guitarist. He saw Eddie’s talent as an asset, “not just to me, not just to him. It was an asset to our band, this thing that was bigger than us, that was going to be a vehicle for all our dreams” (25). Eddie refused to take guitar lessons because he did not want to “be taught how to approach the instrument” (26). This autodidactic streak was also expressed in Eddie’s learning how to alter guitars to his liking. Alex Van Halen sees Eddie’s constant altering of his instrument as an example of doing whatever it takes to “create an improved version of yourself” (29). He also points out how helpful it was to have played at his father’s gigs, to have “had a whole education in the life of a musician before we were even professional musicians” (30). At this point, being a musician, and specifically being a drummer, “was definitely starting to seep into my identity” (30).

Alex Van Halen was young when he realized the effect that alcohol had on him—”that it lifted [his] spirits like nothing else” (33). He also acknowledges that even as a kid he knew that anything that could make him feel that good was going to be a problem for him “somewhere down the line” (34). While his family was tight knit, it was also prone to violent outbursts, which became sad memories. 

Alex and Eddie were deeply attached to one another when they began playing and imitating their idols, Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton of the British rock band Cream. While Alex was gifted academically, he lacked interest in anything other than music and earned a reputation as a “troublemaker” in school (39). Meanwhile, Eddie was expelled from high school for possession of marijuana; the family was scared that they would be deported because they were not citizens yet.

When the Van Halen brothers formed their first band, the Broken Combs, and started booking gigs, Eddie served as the lead singer, but “he was a musical prodigy, not a front man” (46)—partly because he was shy and partly because “English was our second language—it just didn’t flow naturally for us the way a mother tongue does” (47). At one of their earliest booked gigs, a band named Red Ball Jet took the stage that was meant for them and a “mini riot broke out” (48). Their singer was David Lee Roth, whom Alex Van Halen describes as “a hyperactive kid” who was “desperate for an audience” (50).

The brothers changed the name of their band to Genesis; after learning that a successful British band was already named Genesis, they renamed themselves Mammoth. Mammoth played every gig possible; to rehearse, they often rented a PA system from Roth, whom they kept running into at parties. When Roth agreed to audition to become their singer, they were unimpressed with his voice and timing, but attracted to his showmanship: “we knew enough to know that a guy like Dave with his ego and charisma would give us more space to be who we really were. The audience could watch Dave while they listened to us play. He knew that was his role, and he liked it” (53).

The brothers maintained day jobs when starting out. While Alex worked in a machine shop and was eventually able to purchase his first “proper drum kit,” a Ludwig, Eddie worked for a music store where he purchased a Marshall stack amplifier. Not long after Roth formally joined the band, they were forced to change their name again after a complaint from another band named Mammoth. It was Roth who suggested “Van Halen,” which he thought sounded powerful. 

The band’s fourth member at the time was bassist Mark Stone. The Van Halens and Roth thought Stone was great, and “apparently the feeling was mutual” (63), but Stone was torn between going all in on their dreams of rock stardom and pursuing his academic career.