New EVH book
New EVH book
Writer/musician has written and published a new book on Edward Van Halen. It's pretty large and features some interesting sections concerning Edward's musicianship.
Steve’s book is great. It’s certainly an indispensable work that stands with Brad Tolinski and Chris Gill’s ‘Eruption: Conversations With Eddie Van Halen’ and Greg Renoff’s ‘Van Halen Rising’ and ‘Ted Templeman: A Platinum Producer’s Life In Music’.
I found it fascinating to hear what Steve was thinking at the time of these interviews, his insecurities and his reading of those around Edward. It’s not a book for that odd brand of fan that puts Ed on a pedestal on which he never belonged. The guy was just a human being after all. Also, one has to have perspective on the times, the place and circumstances that Steve chronicles here. Everybody drank and did drugs…LOTS of cocaine. And almost no one had a clue that any of it was harmful.
Full disclosure…Steve is friendly with lots of people in the online Van Halen community, myself included. I‘ve been helping him transcribe unedited audio interviews to text which is a very long and laborious process, but I feel it’s worth the trouble to get these things available to the public and especially to the hardcore fans. In fact, I’ll soon post one on this forum that I recently completed that is good fun.
At any rate, I hope more people are able to get ‘Tonechaser’. It is a self-published work without the blessing of the family and it is tough to get it to the eyeballs of a larger audience. I can only give my recommendation to get it, for whatever that’s worth. It’s good fun and an important work.
I certainly enjoyed reading it, several times in fact. What I thought was VERY interesting was the progression of Edward becoming more famous through the 80s and how that affected his relationships with friends/family and even journalists like Rosen. In a way, I think it's more of a book on the warnings of being a celebrity while trying to live at a normal pace in life. Edward had his demons, no doubt. But, like Gary Cherone mentioned in Gill's/Tolinksi's VH book, Edward's drinking was probably more to give Ed some semblance of peace in a world where his music was a CONSTANT and consistent force to reckon with.
Still a wonderful book and Rosen really captured Edward's humanity through it.
