Today (Tuesday 10/22) famed drummer Alex Van Halen of Van Halen released his new book Brothers. That’s big enough news as the book promises a very inside look at the lives behind the scenes of one of the most legendary bands in rock history as told through the eyes of the drummer. Alex of course is the brother of one of the most influential guitar players in history, Eddie Van Halen. Well, with the release of the book, Alex has released the final song he recorded with Eddie called “Unfinished.” The song is a 6-minute instrumental ballad, but to hear Eddie’s guitar again is chilling.
The song is available for download on Van Halen’s website.
One of the stories we’ve heard about the book is the fact that despite David Lee Roth quitting Van Halen and not being easy to work with, Alex told Billboard that he harbors no ill will.
“I’m not angry at all with Dave. He was one of the three main components of the band. At the time we didn’t recognize it because we were constantly battling things out. That’s why I mentioned (in my memoir, Brothers) that the first person I called when Ed died was Dave because I felt like I owed him that, to the work we had done together and the fact that our families knew each other and the fact that everybody was sort of on the same level, if you will, when we first started. I don’t know where things went wrong…I have nothing but the utmost respect for Dave and his work ethic. I just think some of his choices were really strange to me, but that’s not my job to figure it out.”
It should be noted that David Lee Roth even put a stop to an Eddie Van Halen tribute tour that would have featured David, Alex and original bassist Michael Anthony with Joe Satriani playing the part of Eddie. Joe did that instead with the other Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar this summer on his “Best of Both Worlds” Tour.
Back to the book, Alex said that Roth quitting Van Halen in 1985 was “the most disappointing thing I’d experienced in my life, the thing that seemed the most wasteful and unjust. Until I lost my brother.”
Brothers is available now and can be bought at a great local bookstore or from Amazon.
