Edward Van Halen: A Definitive Biography by Kevin Dodds Read Free Book Online

at that time, Eddie said, “He got better—otherwise we wouldn’t have continued on with him.”
    In late 1973, when Eddie was a freshman in college, David Lee Roth officially joined Ed, Alex, and Mark in Mammoth. The most important thing Dave provided Eddie was intangible. Dave gave Edward the freedom of movement and concentration that he had absolutely never had in his performance career to date. His playing style would shift to playing fills off the vocals rather than awkwardly playing around his own. Edward summed up the early college scene: “We played everywhere and anywhere, from backyard parties to places the size of your bathroom. And we did it all without a manager, agent, or record company. We used to print up flyers announcing where we were going to play and stuff them into high school lockers.”
    Mammoth played odd gigs, to say the least. One of which would no doubt be a traumatizing incident for anyone young or old. Edward recalled: “We did forty-five minute sets each night while these bikers drank and got crazy. One night, two bikers started arguing about whose motorcycle was quicker. One guy whipped out a hunting knife and stabbed the other one right in front of us while we were playing ‘You Really Got Me.’ The biker’s guts were hanging out and he died the next day… The next night we moved our equipment about two feet from the wall so we could get out fast if there was any trouble.”
    David Lee Roth Names the Band Van Halen
    Shortly after the New Year, the band would find out that their name was, again, already taken. It turned out that the use of the name Mammoth was indeed copyrighted. This warranted yet another name change.
    David had a suggestion that sounded a little odd at first. He suggested Van Halen. Dave gets all due credit for settling on the band name that would not only dominate rock music, but would immediately raise Edward’s, and his brother’s, and their mother and fathers’ profiles. Edward would take an enormous sense of pride in putting his family name on the line, so to speak. In no time, Edward was referring to the band “Van Halen” in the third person, as his family name was now indeed something bigger than just himself.
    Dave said, “I figured if we named it after a human being, especially Van Halen, it sounds strong. It sounds like it has power to it. At the same time a classical piano player could be a Van Halen. Also in that way the band can evolve. But if you call yourself the Electric Plotz, three years from now you’re expected to sound like an Electric Plotz.” Dave later added the he felt the name Van Halen was essentially the same as Santana. It’s just a name—it’s not tied down to any one thing at all. And it was unique.
    With the naming of the band Van Halen, Dave also ends up perpetually intertwined with the surname himself. Some could argue that at times, Dave would’ve been the first person one thought of when the term Van Halen was used in the third person. In fact, Dave was early on referred to as “Van” when doing business with club owners who thought Dave’s name was actually Van Halen (first name-last name); this was specifically true about Bill Gazzari. It’s a bit of the Jethro Tull/Marshall Tucker syndrome except that Van Halen is a real person’s name. Yet Dave, literally by virtue of his center position on the stage, became the front and center representative for Van Halen (in the third person).
    Dave was bearing the weight of representing Eddie and his family name as the band’s unofficial leader. No one intended to fail. Between Dave’s street smarts and the brothers’ experience in music thus far—and their father’s experience heaped on top—the marriage of David Lee Roth and Edward Van Halen was sown. However, their partnership would ultimately prove to be more complex than just any regular marriage—this particular relationship is not that simple.
    On a more complex level, Edward turned over his fortune to Dave in