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The Latest Breaking News from Ted Templeman

“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

“Dave had a beat-up, noisy cassette of Steve Vai. We listened together in some garage with the tape player on the fender of a car. I said to Dave, ‘That’s the guy’”: How David Lee Roth put Van Halen behind him with one of rock's greatest supergroups

In late 1985, Diamond Dave's Hollywood dreams were dashed – but with some help from Vai, Billy Sheehan, and Gregg Bissonette, he firmly established himself as a superstar in his own right

Guitar World

“What makes this album so interesting is the fact that there are guitars that are not totally in tune – but good luck trying to get a take as good as that!”: The creative genius and ‘insane’ methodology in Van Halen’s biggest selling album

“Eddie and Alex jammed for hours and hours, day after day, until they hit upon something so unique that is so perfectly natural”

MusicRadar

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“He did all the Ozzy stuff you’d think he would do – he got down on his knees and performed. I was like, ‘Oh, my God. This is so weird’”: A hair-metal hero turned nu-metal synth-guitar maverick who impressed Ozzy Osbourne – who is the real Amir Derakh?

Derakh replaced Craig Goldy in Rough Cutt, was edged out by Zakk Wylde for the Ozzy gig, and has been an undercover guitar-synth master all along

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

“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

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“Even when we went to collect the Grammy for Song of the Year in 1980, I was thinking, ‘How did this happen?’”: This No.1 hit is the pinnacle of yacht rock, but its smooth sound belies its tortuous creation

When Michael McDonald teamed up with Kenny Loggins, there was magic in the air

MusicRadar

“It was the most coveted guitar chair in rock. I adored Edward’s playing, so I understood that people would be skeptical”: How Steve Vai lived his ultimate guitar rockstar fantasy on David Lee Roth’s Eat ’Em and Smile

Working with David Lee Roth was like "being strapped to a rocket made of charisma and fueled by tequila” – and the music was pretty fun, too

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

"They got signed on their talent, on their original material, but also on their looks. They looked like Robert Plant and Jimmy Page." The story of the album that rescued rock'n'roll from the darkness and built a brighter future

Rock was stale, and dinosaurs were lumbering. Then an album arrived that was an effervescent shot in the arm for an entire genre

Louder

“Eddie was always experimenting. Keyboards entered the mix, but it didn’t sound like a keyboard because Eddie played this cheap little Wurlitzer blazing through Marshalls”: Van Halen's Michael Anthony on the band’s cult classic Women And Children First

Less surprisingly, he said “it was party time in the studio”

MusicRadar

“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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Guitar World

“We were getting comfortable being back together – that was part of the reason we went out on the road without a record deal. Another reason was that we couldn’t get a record deal...” Why Aerosmith’s ’80s misfire, Done With Mirrors, was the making of them

After a few weird years with replacement guitarists, the Bad Boys from Boston were back and ready to prove themselves. It did not quite go to plan. We’ll let Joe Perry explain the rest…

Guitar World

Free Eddie Van Halen mini-documentary explores the origins of Eruption and his two-hand tapping technique – and it’s partly narrated by the man himself

The latest in-depth documentary from Simon Alkin focuses on the talent behind Eruption – a song that changed the guitar world forever

Guitar World

“I always felt like that record could have been better if we had worked on it some more”: Looking for a blockbuster comeback album, Aerosmith turned to Van Halen producer Ted Templeman. For Joe Perry, it served as a learning experience

Having been impressed by the producer’s touch on Van Halen's “monstrous” records, Templeman was tasked with reigniting the band’s spark

MusicRadar

“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

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Louder

“Things had got pretty bad. I don’t know what demons Steven was fighting, but we definitely both had our ups and downs”: How Done With Mirrors put Aerosmith back on the long road to redemption

In 1985, the reunited Aerosmith had a long way to go to recapture old glories –and Done With Mirrors was the first step

Metal Hammer

"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

Guitar World

“I was approached to join David Lee Roth’s band, initially… I didn’t want to be Eddie Van Halen part two”: Steve Stevens on laying down the Dirty Diana solo with Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones, recording Rebel Yell – and why Vai got it right with Roth

Billy Idol guitarist discusses the folk guitar lick he adapted for one of his boss’ biggest hits, his secret-weapon amp, and how his early work is echoed in Idol’s upcoming return-to-punk record

The Guardian - US

Alex Van Halen on his brother Eddie: ‘I’m not done dealing with this yet’

In the new book Brothers, the drummer writes candidly about life in the spotlight alongside his late sibling and their many highs and lows

Guitar World

“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

MusicRadar

"It’s not one of my favourite things. It’s stupid because I produced it, but the keyboards just hit me as wrong": Van Halen's Jump is 40 years old. Here's how the most famous keyboard riff of all time was created (and how you can do it, too)

Or the most irritating? You decide…

Louder

"Kids came in their thousands, and the first two rows looked like Attila The Hun’s frontline troops – frothing at the mouth": four years on the road with America's ultimate party band, Van Halen

At the tag end of the 70s, Van Halen were poised to become one of the biggest-grossing acts on the planet... but the cracks were beginning to show

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