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The Latest Breaking News from Donn Landee

“When I first played Jump for the guys nobody wanted anything to do with it. Dave said I was a guitar hero and I shouldn’t be playing keyboards”: The story of Van Halen’s 1984, and the end of the David Lee Roth era

Creative differences led to Roth’s departure the following year, but 1984 found the band firing on all cylinders, as Eddie Van Halen embraced his pop sensibilities while retaining the musical adventurism that made him the greatest of all time

Guitar World

"I thought it was the lamest song I ever wrote in my life. It took me six months before I worked up the nerve to show the guys." The story of the Van Halen classic written to mock punk and embraced by the punk rockers

Producer Ted Templeman says Van Halen's Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love is his favourite song from all those he's worked on

Metal Hammer

“We bounced around the idea of having everyone from Joe Cocker to Phil Collins to Mike Rutherford sing”: Out went David Lee Roth and Frankenstein, in came Sammy Hagar and Kramer –the story of Van Halen’s rebirth

It was the end of an era. Roth’s exit, Frankenstein's last hurrah. But it was the start of a new one as Eddie Van Halen got experimental on 1986's blockbuster, 5150

Guitar World

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“I certainly didn’t know how to build a studio. It was all Donn’s magic”: Donn Landee, the engineer who masterminded 5150 Studios, and helped shape Van Halen’s sound, dies at 79

The recording engineer was a key figure in Van Halen’s first eight albums and made Eddie Van Halen's ahead-of-his-time vision for 5150 Studios a reality

Guitar World

"He locked himself in the studio and threatened to burn the tapes. It was a stand-off for almost a day." How Sammy Hagar helped Van Halen win the war against David Lee Roth

Van Halen lost a superstar singer when Dave Lee Roth quit the band, but new frontman Sammy Hagar and Foreigner's Mick Jones ensured the loss was short-lived

Louder

“We submitted plans for a racquetball court”: Eddie Van Halen's 5150 Studios was decades ahead of its time – but it required a white lie to build

LA homeowners were forbidden by the city's zoning laws to build a home studio on their property. But what's rock 'n' roll without breaking a rule here and there, and sticking it to the man?

Guitar World

“He went into this trance state as he played. I’d be sitting there at the console and he would lean on me while he was playing. And it was kind of weird – it was like it was coming through me”: A close encounter with the genius of Eddie Van Halen

The insider's view of how EVH reinvented himself on the 5150 album

MusicRadar

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“I saw people in the audience holding up these banners: ‘SAMMY SUCKS!' 'WE WANT DAVE!’”: How Sammy Hagar and Van Halen won their war with David Lee Roth

An epic rock battle began 40 years ago

MusicRadar

"When I first played Jump for the guys nobody wanted to have anything to do with it": How Eddie Van Halen became a superstar and the real story of Van Halen's biggest-selling album

Welcome to 1984: it was the album that would see Van Halen straddle theplanet like a rock colossus, but it would also mark the end of the originalline-up

Metal Hammer

“When I first played Jump for the guys nobody wanted anything to do with it. Dave said I was a guitar hero and I shouldn’t be playing keyboards”: The story of Van Halen’s 1984 – the Flying V, the synths and the end of the David Lee Roth era

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