Van Halen Pt. 2: Pulling a Gun on Fred Durst, Racing Ferraris and Lambos, and Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Most Faithful Servant

In 1985, David Lee Roth was out and Sammy Hagar was in. One of the biggest lead singer shakeups in music history led to some of the biggest sales of Van Halen's career. It also led to more drama, to Lamborghinis and Ferraris racing through the streets of Los Angeles, to military assault vehicles storming Beverly Hills, to crazed fans and loaded guns – and at the middle of it all, a modern-day warrior, a man with a code, trying to orchestrate his own survival. If there were a Mount Rushmore of guitarists, which four players should have their faces on it? Tell Jake at 617-906-6638, [email protected], or on socials @disgracelandpod. Remember, you can only choose four! To see the full list of contributors, see the show notes at ⁠⁠www.disgracelandpod.com⁠⁠ https://cms.megaphone.fm/organizations/c83125d2-8508-11ed-bd28-ff0aff7ee233/podcasts/efca2ef8-85f9-11ed-8fe3-bb208936046f/episodes/29bc673e-85fa-11ed-9d9c-cffe44583488/www.disgracelandpod.com. To listen to Disgraceland ad free and get access to a monthly exclusive episode, weekly bonus content and more, become a Disgraceland All Access member at ⁠⁠disgracelandpod.com/membership⁠⁠ https://disgracelandpod.com/membership. Sign up for our newsletter and get the inside dirt on events, merch and other awesomeness - ⁠⁠GET THE NEWSLETTER⁠⁠ https://mailchi.mp/doubleelvis/disgraceland-email-newsletter Follow Jake and DISGRACELAND: ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/disgracelandpod/ ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@disgracelandpod ⁠⁠X⁠⁠ https://twitter.com/disgracelandpod (formerly Twitter) ⁠⁠Facebook Fan Group⁠⁠ https://www.facebook.com/groups/491024204626127/ ⁠⁠TikTok https://tiktok.com/disgracelandpod To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  This is Exactly Right.

• 0:10Jake Brennan?

  Double Elvis.

• 0:13Jake Brennan?

  I like a story with a twist as much as anyone, but some of the best traditions don't have one. They just started and kept going. That's something that's great about Chateau St. Michelle. They've been leading Washington wine since 1967 with wines that are balanced, expressive, and easy to enjoy. Choosing the right bottle shouldn't feel complicated. It should be something you open with confidence every time. So for once, here's a story with no twist, just a good bottle. Redefine your rituals with Chateau St. Michelle.

• 0:45Speaker 02

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• 1:27Speaker 02

  plenty of fluids, urinate often, use contraception, and talk to your doctor about ways to reduce the risk of exposing others to radiation during and after treatment. Pluvicto can cause low levels of blood cell counts, kidney problems, and infertility. Tell your doctor if you have weakness, pale skin, shortness of breath, bleeding or bruising more easily, an infection or changes in urination. Side effects include decreased blood cell counts, tiredness, dry mouth, nausea, appetite loss, joint or back pain, and constipation. Ask your doctor about Pluvicto, because every day without cancer progression is a victory. Visit pluvicto.com to learn more.

• 2:00Speaker 03

  OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 2:28Jake Brennan?

  Disgrace Land is a production of Double Elvis.

• 2:44Jake Brennan?

  This is a story about a modern-day warrior. A man with a code. A man out of time. A musician with a take-no-shit-violent streak. A Beretta to the head of Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst. A military assault vehicle tearing ass through the tony streets of Beverly Hills. It's about an Alex, a Michael, a Sammy, even a Dave, and of course, it's about an Eddie. This is a story about Van Halen and one of the four guitarists who belongs on the Mount Rushmore of guitar-playing. It's about a band who made great music. Unlike that music I played for you at the top of the show, that wasn't great music.

• 3:28Jake Brennan?

  That was a preset loop from my Mellotron called "Let Me Get Some of That Pod Cake", MK1. I played you that loop because I can't afford the rights to "These Dreams" by Heart. And why would I play you that specific slice of authentic sibling cheese? Could I afford it? Because that was the number-one song in America on March 24, 1986. And that was the day that Van Halen released their seventh studio album, 5150, their first with new lead singer Sammy Hagar. An album that allowed the band to reach new commercial heights while unresolved problems continued to bubble unseen beneath the surface.

• 4:10Jake Brennan?

  On this episode: Anthemic sibling cheese, a military assault vehicle, a Beretta, a code, and Van Halen. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland.

• 4:49Jake Brennan?

  Eddie Van Halen jammed his combat boot down on the gas pedal. The assault vehicle he'd recently bought at auction roared to life, tearing ass down the quiet streets of upscale Beverly Hills. There was no weapon in the machine gun mouth, but that didn't make the vehicle anymore street legal. This decommissioned slab of government steel was very much illegal. But Eddie didn't care. Just like he didn't care about the gun he was holding. He was on a mission. And to carry out that mission, he required a certain level of comfort. Beverly Hills made him uncomfortable. And that's not because he wasn't welcome. It was 2001, after all, and Eddie Van Halen, the guitar player of his generation,

• 5:34Jake Brennan?

  the one and the same who just decades earlier had reinvented the instrument and, in many ways, revitalized the genre, was very rich and very famous. It was the pretension that bugged him, though. The vulgar display of one's wealth, status, and power. Eddie didn't play that game. He wasn't a star. He was just a regular guy. A kid stuck in a grown man's body who liked to play guitar. But if he went and did something dumb, like keep one of his guitars locked up in your fancy mansion, then did something equally dumb, like not answer his phone calls to arrange a time for him to come pick up that guitar like a normal person, that kind of Beverly Hills bullshit lit a fire under Eddie Van Halen's regular ass.

• 6:18Jake Brennan?

  So Eddie Van Halen tore ass in his military assault vehicle through the 90210 zip code with no shirt on. His tattered pants were being held up by a piece of rope while he drove, and the boots on his feet, the ones that were managing the gas pedal and the brake at the moment, those were wrapped up in duct tape, and his long hair was up in a bun as a samurai in feudal Japan centuries ago would have worn it. And just like those samurais of old, Eddie Van Halen sought enlightenment, believed in salvation, and lived by a code. Enlightenment came through his music, salvation came from within, and his code was governed

• 6:57Jake Brennan?

  by three points: honor, discipline, and morality. This was how he lived his life, or how he tried to at least. And God rewards those who seek Him and all of that. Eddie Van Halen was a seeker, a searcher, just like that other iconic American, John Wayne. A man who made westerns about anti-hero cowboys that often borrowed from Japanese samurai films. The same ones who wore their hair like Eddie was now wearing his. Samurai's, cowboys, John Wayne, Eddie Van Halen, it was all connected.

• 7:33Jake Brennan?

  And now, at 46 years old, with the days of routinely putting up hits on the billboard charts seemingly behind him, Eddie Van Halen's purpose was more elusive than ever in a shifting landscape of grunge, new metal, and Britney Spears. Eddie sought more than just his signature tone. He was looking for yet another new singer for the band that bore his name: Van Halen. A band which had famously, or infamously, burned through three vocalists over the course of its storied career. I'll get to all that in a minute. And he was looking for meaning, too, after recently separating from his wife of two decades, Valerie Bertinelli. And he was looking for a cure for the cancer that was growing in his tongue.

• 8:18Jake Brennan?

  But at this very moment, what Eddie Van Halen was really looking for was his guitar. And he knew just where it was. Held captive inside the Beverly Hills home of one Fred Durst. That backwards Red Hat enthusiast and lead vocalist of Limp Bizkit. The band which just two years earlier had incited a riot at Woodstock 99 with their macho fucko anthem, "Break Stuff." Today, however, it was Eddie who was doing the inciting. He drove his assault vehicle onto Fred's well-manicured front lawn, put it in park, or however you get those things to stop, and let it idle nice and loud. He jumped from the driver's seat, pulled the gun from his waistband, and made a beeline for the front door of the house. He knocked. Red Hat answered.

• 9:02Jake Brennan?

  Eddie wasted no time. He put his gun to that stupid fucking lid sitting on top of Fred Durst's stupid fucking face and said, "Hey, where's my shit, motherfucker?"

• 9:15Jake Brennan?

  Twenty-four hours earlier, the vibe was way different. Eddie was hanging out with Fred, a man he'd only just met. And he was hanging out with him inside of Fred's house, jamming with Limp Bizkit, minus guitarist Wes Borland, who had recently left the group. Now, if you know anything about Eddie Van Halen and about Limp Bizkit, you're probably thinking, "What the fuck?" And yeah, even Fred Durst himself, when a mutual friend suggested he audition Eddie for Limp Bizkit's new lead guitarist, said, and I quote, "That would be hilarious. The greatest guitar player ever jams with the worst band ever." Again, that's a Fred Durst quote. But also, consider this. Eddie Van Halen hadn't actually bought a new record since Peter Gabriel's album, "So",

• 10:00Jake Brennan?

  which came out in 1986. That's 15 years before the scene that I'm describing to you took place. So it's entirely plausible that Eddie Van Halen had no idea what he was getting into when he agreed to jam with Limp Bizkit. Maybe, in this vulnerable moment of searching for something new, maybe Eddie was just open to an opportunity, any opportunity, just like he and Van Halen were once upon a time, open to crazy opportunities as well. Like jamming with Joe Cocker, or Ozzy Osbourne, and even Darryl Hall to fill their lead singer's empty shoes. No shit. Look it up. But the insane pipe dream of Limp Bizkit with Eddie Van Halen on lead guitar was not meant to be. Eddie knew it as soon as he walked inside it was hit by a cloud of marijuana smoke.

• 10:45Jake Brennan?

  Eddie didn't do weed, but when it came to Eddie's stimulant and depressant of choice, that'd be cocaine and alcohol. And they were tools to help him work, he thought, not something he used to unwind and party with the guys. Eddie told Fred, "Thanks, but no thanks." He bounced, fast. Said he'd be back for his guitar and gear the next day. And that next morning, he called Fred to schedule a time to go pick up his stuff, but Fred never answered, and Fred never called him back. Fred Durst gave Eddie Van Halen the brush-off. And now Fred Durst was regretting that decision, that inaction, that lack of respect. Or so Eddie Van Halen would like to think. The greatest guitar player ever was standing on the lawn of the frontman of the worst

• 11:28Jake Brennan?

  band ever, still aiming his gun at that stupid fucking hat, while some clowns on Fred's payroll load a gear into Eddie's assault vehicle. And this was such a bad idea that Eddie thought to himself. There was only one musician he was compatible with, and I mean compatible in the eternal mind meld kind of way, that was his big brother Alex, Van Halen's drummer. No other musical relationship ever lasted, not with David Lee Roth, Van Halen's original lead singer, who, depending on who you ask, either quit or was fired from the band back in 1985, and definitely not with Gary Sharone, the guy from Extreme, whose tenure as Van Halen's frontman at the end of the 90s was as short as one of the cigarettes that burned down to the filter in the headstock of Eddie's guitar.

• 12:10Jake Brennan?

  Then there was the one they called the Red Rocker, Sammy Hagar. He eventually went the way of Diamond Dave, out on the skids after his initial winning dynamic with the Van Halen brothers turned sour. But not before he helped take the band higher and higher. Straight up they climbed, higher than they had ever gone before or since. Eddie wanted to go there again. Not for the money or the fame. He had all that. He wanted relevance. He wanted to matter again. What had it been? Six years since Sammy left? Eddie wondered if it was all just water under the bridge, if you could go home again. And as he watched Fred Durst Musso load his gear into his illegal assault vehicle, Eddie Van Halen decided to do two things pronto.

• 12:56Jake Brennan?

  Number one, get the fuck out of Beverly Hills before he was handcuffed and tossed into the back of a police cruiser. And number two, ring up his old friend, Sammy Hagar.

• 13:28Jake Brennan?

  I like a story with a twist as much as anyone, but some of the best traditions don't have one. They just started and kept going. That's something that's great about Chateau St. Michelle. They've been leading Washington wine since 1967 with wines that are balanced, expressive, and easy to enjoy. Choosing the right bottle shouldn't feel complicated. It should be something you open with confidence every time. So for once, here's a story with no twist, just a good bottle. Redefine your rituals with Chateau St. Michelle.

• 13:59Speaker 04

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• 14:29Speaker 05

  Hi, I'm Jenna Oshkowitz. You might know me from Glee. This is At the Table, the food allergy podcast, a show about food, connection, and what it really looks like to live with food allergies. Each episode, we hear stories from real people like Daniel.

• 14:44Speaker 06

  People would always think I was lactose intolerant, so I just kind of shortened my explanation to I'm deathly allergic, in a big way that defined a lot of my childhood.

• 14:55Speaker 05

  And while there are challenges, there are moments that remind you you're not alone.

• 15:00Speaker 07

  One of the best guys that I dated, he made a point to memorize all my food allergies.

• 15:06Speaker 05

  So join us and hear their stories and more. Because living with food allergies isn't just about what you can't eat. It's about still having your seat at the table. Brought to you by Genentech and Novartis. Listen to At The Table, the food allergy podcast, on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow At The Table and start listening on the free iHeart Radio app today.

• 15:29Jake Brennan?

  16 years earlier, in 1985, Eddie Van Halen was once again behind the driver's seat. This time, it wasn't an old military vehicle, but instead, his equally attention-grabbing Lamborghini. He pumped the clutch with his left foot, downshifted, and then let the Lambo hug the steep curve of ahead. Then the road straightened out. This was the part Eddie loved. Clutch, stick, gas. The Lambo swooned like one of those busty coeds riding the rail at the show, leaving Malibu in the dust and setting its sights in the valley over the hill. In the next lane over, a jet-black Ferrari suddenly appeared, keeping pace.

• 16:11Jake Brennan?

  Eddie looked over at Sammy Hagar, sitting behind the wheel of his 512BB. Eddie gave Sammy that world-famous ear-to-ear grin, the one typically reserved for when he had a guitar in his hands and was blowing even his own mind. Eddie was as fast behind the wheel as he was on a fretboard, and almost as happy. The two cars shot up the open road together. Eighty, ninety, a hundred miles an hour. Eddie clearly with a new lease on life, and Sammy proving that the boast he'd made in his most recent hit single was 100% authentic. He could not drive 55. Only now, Sammy Hagar was no longer going the road alone as a solo artist, but as the new lead singer for one of the biggest bands in the world, Van Halen.

• 16:57Jake Brennan?

  Sammy could hardly believe it. For Eddie and Alex Van Halen, it wasn't just believable. After all the circus cheeseball bullshit that they'd endured with their original singer, David Lee Roth, it was absolutely necessary. To quote Alex at the time, "We had a toothache for about 11 years, went to the dentist and had it extracted, and now we have a crown with a gold cap on it." And a gold cap crown is as a gold cap crown does. So Sammy Hagar bought a place near Eddie's second house in Malibu. And each afternoon, the two would race their fancy cars to Eddie's other house and studio in the San Fernando Valley, specifically Studio City. And work on the band's seventh studio album, their first with Sammy on the mic, and then

• 17:40Jake Brennan?

  race each other home after dark and after Eddie was good and shitfaced. Sometimes Sammy would take his E-Jag or his Cobra. Today, it was a sleek midnight machine, as sleek as the music he was now making with Eddie, Alex, and Michael Anthony, Van Halen's long-suffering bass player. And holy shit was the music sleek and huge sounding. Van Halen 2.0 sounded just like that metallic sphere looked on the cover of their album, 5150, which is to say polished, glossy, and yes, heavy. 5150, named after Eddie's home studio, which itself was named after a section of the California Penal Code that allowed for the detention of an adult suffering a mental health crisis,

• 18:24Jake Brennan?

  5150 was produced not by Van Halen's longtime collaborator Ted Templeton, but by foreigners Mick Jones, who you should know is also the stepfather of Mark Ronson, but that's beside the point. But back to the point, Mick Jones gave that record that Van Halen was making a modern sheen. When it hit shelves on March 24th, 1986, supported by monster singles like "Why Can't This Be Love?" and "Dreams," 5150 went gangbusters. In the mid-'80s, Van Halen mattered. The OG metalheads, on the other hand, begged to disagree. Van Halen could never be Van Halen without their beloved David Lee Roth. Call it a vocal minority, because all that bitching and moaning was taking place as 5150 raced straight to the top.

• 19:09Jake Brennan?

  And look, man, I don't care who you are, you have got to give it up for Sammy Hagar. Maybe you liked the Dave Years better, hell, I liked the Dave Years better. But maybe you go even further, maybe you think they were more pure, or they had less power ballads and fewer keyboards, or maybe you condescendingly refer to Sammy's tenure as Van Hagar, or whatever, but it doesn't matter. Sooner or later, you're gonna come around to the Sammy Hagar version of Van Halen. Okay? It also doesn't matter that Sammy Hagar came from a pressed shirt kinda world, and Eddie and Alex were the equivalent of a beer-soaked, stale, beer-smelling dorm room. You know, best of both worlds. But here are the facts: Van Halen with Sammy Hagar went to number one on the Billboard album chart.

• 19:52Jake Brennan?

  And not just in 1986, but four times in a row over the next nine years, which is a feat that the band was never able to pull off with David Lee Roth. I love David Lee Roth, now this is no doubt. Dave was flashy as shit, he got your attention with those mid-air splits off the drum riser, he was goofy and schlocky, showbiz to his core, in the best kinda way, and he delighted in being Van Halen's mouthpiece. But David Lee Roth ran that mouth like a cocky 16-year-old, just as Eddie here was running his Lambo. Not that Eddie wasn't still a 16-year-old himself, because in many ways, he most certainly was. But unlike Dave, Eddie was a musical genius, faithfully serving his master like a samurai of old. The thing was, for Eddie, his master was his music.

• 20:37Jake Brennan?

  And music, to quote Eddie Van Halen, "overpowers bullshit." That was the answer Eddie gave after he was asked if he felt vindicated when 5150 went to number one following the messy split with David Lee Roth. Eddie was in a great place. In Eddie's eyes, Sammy was not a peacock like Dave, but a true musician. And since Sammy played guitar, Eddie could stretch out in concert and play keyboards, which Dave always gave him shit about. But without Dave, the music continued to reward Eddie Van Halen, its most humble servant. He didn't even need a samurai bun in his hair at this point to be the noble warrior that he was.

• 21:17Jake Brennan?

  But the music wasn't the only thing holding Van Halen, the band, together. Despite outward appearances, this was still a fragile unit of four men. Every day, something threatened to destroy it all. The boozing, the drugging, the non-stop fucking that was taking place in pup tents beneath the stage. Yes, all four guys had their own tent in which they indulged in their wildest sexual fantasies, and those tents were set up beneath the stage at their concerts. Don't ask me how, it just happened, so that they could act upon those sexual fantasies while the show went on. Eddie and Al, both addicts, were just as prodigious when it came to hand-to-hand sibling combat as it did to musical telepathy.

• 22:01Jake Brennan?

  Sammy, meanwhile, had girl problems. All his sleeping around on the sly got him at least one extortion attempt from a former Playboy bunny who said she was carrying his child. All while his wife's panic attacks caused her to nearly jump from a plane. Bassist Michael Anthony, meanwhile, was once again getting the shaft when it came to money, watching his share of the music publishing shrink down to a measly 10%. These tensions were enough to break up any band. But add to it Eddie and Alex's increasing belief that Sammy wasn't working as hard as they were, a suspicion that they'd previously experienced with Dave, and it's crazy that things didn't fall apart sooner than they did. And the reason things didn't all fall apart wasn't because of the music.

• 22:44Jake Brennan?

  It was because of Ed Lefler.

• 22:49Jake Brennan?

  Ed Lefler was more than just a rock and roll manager. He was a father who wanted to make all of his children happy. When he was brought on board along with Sammy, Lefler's first order of business was to make sure that relations between the Van Halen brothers and Sammy didn't go the way they went with Dave. Ed Lefler ran interference. Ed Lefler maintained a proper balance of power. Ed Lefler would take a bullet for his clients. In fact, he took a fist to the face, over and over and over, trapped inside an elevator at a show in Dallas where an unknown assailant beat the living piss out of him and put him in a hospital.

• 23:27Jake Brennan?

  The guys never had to worry about Ed Lefler's loyalty, but they did worry about his health. First, there was that assault in Dallas, and soon after, there was his cancer diagnosis, and it looked bad. As bad as the scene Eddie was now witnessing outside the window of his Studio City house every night. Some creep parking a van across the street, watching him, watching his wife, Valerie, and their newborn son, Wolfgang. No one ever got out of the van. It just sat there, and the cops could only do so much. And Eddie called them, and they came and made the van move. And the van left, and then the van came back. Eddie wasn't about to sit idly by like an idiot, only to find out the hard way that the person inside was a demented psycho.

• 24:11Jake Brennan?

  So, just as it was once his job to protect his musical innovations, to protect his brand and his legacy from companies making money illegally off of those innovations, it was now his job to protect his young family. Which is how, in the early 1990s, an anxious Eddie Van Halen became the owner of a 25 caliber Beretta.

• 24:34Speaker 00

  We'll be right back after this.

• 24:40Jake Brennan?

  I like a story with a twist as much as anyone, but some of the best traditions don't have one. They just started and kept going. That's something that's great about Chateau St. Michelle. They've been leading Washington wine since 1967 with wines that are balanced, expressive, and easy to enjoy. Choosing the right bottle shouldn't feel complicated. It should be something you open with confidence every time. So for once, here's a story with no twist, just a good bottle. Redefine your rituals with Chateau St. Michelle.

• 25:10Speaker 04

  OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 help make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of 5-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 25:40Speaker 05

  Hi, I'm Jenna Ushkowitz. You might know me from Glee. This is At the Table, the food allergy podcast, a show about food, connection, and what it really looks like to live with food allergies. Each episode, we hear stories from real people like Daniel.

• 25:55Speaker 06

  People would always think I was lactose intolerant, so I just kind of shortened my explanation to I'm deathly allergic in a big way that defined a lot of my childhood.

• 26:06Speaker 05

  And while there are challenges, there are moments that remind you you're not alone.

• 26:11Speaker 07

  One of the best guys that I dated, he made a point to memorize all my food allergies.

• 26:17Speaker 05

  So join us and hear their stories and more, because living with food allergies isn't just about what you can't eat. It's about still having your seat at the table. Brought to you by Genentech and Novartis. Listen to At the Table, the food allergy podcast, on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow At the Table and start listening on the free iHeart radio app today.

• 26:40Jake Brennan?

  Dude, Eddie Van Halen is a fucking legend.

• 26:48Jake Brennan?

  Did you see him play his guitar in that new video? With a power drill. And dude, dude, get this. Van Halen's new record,

• 27:00Jake Brennan?

  For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, dude. Check it out, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. F U C K, fuck. They named their new record Fuck.

• 27:16Jake Brennan?

  If you were high in high school in 1991, you'll remember this sort of thing being said pretty much verbatim by a kid in a jean jacket with a peach fuzz stash leaning up against the hood of his car out in the parking lot next to yours. Just moments before, he dipped into the pocket of his flannel shirt to pull out a Camel Light to rip after just toking that joint. Maybe that kid was you, and if so, I salute you. Who cared about Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page playing his guitar with a violin bow anymore? Old fucking news, man. Jimmy's little trick couldn't hold a candle to Eddie's Makita as it revved up the strings of his brand new Ernie Ball Music Man guitar in the video for Pound Cake, the lead single from Van Halen's ninth studio album, third with Sammy, titled For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge,

• 28:00Jake Brennan?

  which, yes, was named that way on purpose for the juvenile acronym.

• 28:06Jake Brennan?

  But calling the album for "unlawful kernel knowledge" saved it from being slapped with the dreaded "Parental Advisory" sticker that was cropping up on other notable albums released in 1991, such as The Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Blood Sugar Sex Magic", Ween's "The Pod", and the Guns N' Roses' double album "Use Your Illusion 1 & 2". And though Van Halen's new album was hailed by many as a return to form, a capital "R" rock record, such praise by Van Halen's fanbase couldn't save them from a 2 out of 5 stars review in Rolling Stone magazine. Only months later, that same publication would give Nirvana's "Nevermind" only 1 star higher than that, so what the fuck did Rolling Stone know anyways? When Pepsi came calling to use "Right Now",

• 28:49Jake Brennan?

  the album's socially-conscious 3rd single, for a commercial marketing their brand-new Crystal Pepsi, Eddie, the band, and their manager Ed Lefler were making the kind of money Rolling Stone could only dream of. Ed Lefler, for one, used his steady hand to guide Van Halen through their most commercially viable years. He was a fixer at heart. The only thing it seemed he couldn't fix was the cancer in his thyroid. And by 1993, Ed Lefler needed more than Crystal Pepsi money. He needed a miracle. So Sammy Hagar went looking for one. Sammy knew that whether or not he ended up just another blip on the Van Halen radar was in large part due to Lefler's influence. Sammy went above and beyond, and then he went under.

• 29:34Jake Brennan?

  The table, that is. Below the border. All the way to Mexico, where samples of Ed Lefler's urine were sent. Neurotransmitters were extracted from that urine, and then sent back in tiny vials. The idea was that you'd shoot up those tiny miracle vials directly into your muscles, and the healing would begin. Which, according to Sammy, is what Lefler did. Sammy even did it along with him. Whackadoo? I don't know. But desperate times, you know? Ultimately, however, neurotransmitter-extracted urine was no match for the big C. In the fall of '93, Ed Lefler was dead. Suddenly, the layer of protection that Lefler once provided, both internally amongst band members

• 30:19Jake Brennan?

  and from the external forces beating down on them, was gone.

• 30:25Jake Brennan?

  The wheels slowly began to come off, but not before Eddie Van Halen's hair came off first. Eddie was sad about Ed Lefler's death. He was pissed and he was frustrated too. He was overwhelmed by everyone who wanted a piece and offended by the human behavior that his dead manager had so fiercely shielded him from. The wine bottle in his hand was just about empty, and he brought it to his lips and put the thing out of its misery. His own misery was just beginning. He walked into the bathroom, grabbed an electric razor, and shaved his head till every strand of his trademark long hair was on the floor. He stared at himself and tried to understand. He didn't know why he'd just done that.

• 31:06Jake Brennan?

  But the more he looked at himself, the more he saw his bald head as a clean slate, a fresh start. He quit drinking, just like his brother Alex had done some years earlier with the help of rehab. Eddie didn't do it that way. He just put his mind to it. Some Zen Buddhist-type stuff, salvation, coming from within and all that. Being sober was a total mindfuck. He had relied on alcohol for so long as part of his playing, as part of his work, of how he served his lord, the music. Booze lowered his inhibitions, which, in his mind, allowed him to attempt things he never would have attempted had he been straight. Now he no longer felt comfortable in his own skin.

• 31:46Jake Brennan?

  In fact, he was noticing just how much he hurt. His hips were killing him. Van Halen called their 1995 tour behind their 10th album Balance, "The Ambulance Tour", because Eddie was getting around with a cane, and Alex was wearing a neck brace so that he could play through three ruptured discs in his vertebrae. It was on this tour, in April of 1995, that Eddie Van Halen found himself racing through the Burbank Airport to catch a flight down to a show in San Diego. The carry-on bag was gripped tight in his hand. He hobbled his way to security, those bad hips screaming at him, just burning. He wasn't accustomed to running from terminal to terminal on his own like this.

• 32:29Jake Brennan?

  He was used to a charmed life of private jets, even if he claimed to reject all that rock star bullshit that came along with it. He was no rock star, he was just a regular old guitar player, and this is just a regular old commercial flight that he was about to board. So he handed that regular carry-on bag to an airport security officer. And the officer unzipped it and looked inside. His eyes went wide like, "There's something very, very wrong here wide." He turned his gaze from the open bag to Eddie and then back again. And this gave Eddie pause. Eddie began to freak, his stomach was in his throat, and the officer stuck his hand inside the bag and then, very slowly, very carefully, he pulled out Eddie Van Halen's

• 33:12Jake Brennan?

  loaded Beretta. One week later, Eddie stood before a judge, rocking that regular guy charm, explaining how the .25 caliber gun was something he'd initially bought for protection. "You get it, right, Judge? You've got a family, right?" A judge has got to understand better than most that the world is full of freaks and weirdos, all of them moving in ways the rest of us can't comprehend. And when Eddie Van Halen is moving, moving through space and time, from one town to the next, on tour, he regularly brings that same piece of protection with him. The Beretta is second nature, just like one of his guitars. The thing is, he normally travels on private flights, where he gets to make the rules.

• 33:56Jake Brennan?

  This whole thing is just a simple, stupid mistake. Eddie copped a plea. A thousand dollar fine, one-year probation, barely a crime.

• 34:07Jake Brennan?

  The bigger crime in Eddie's eyes was whatever Sammy was trying to pull. And I'm not talking about that mess down in Mexico in Cabo Wabo, the club Sammy had built with the investment help of his Van Halen bandmates, the one that cut them a ton of MTV airtime but was starting to feel like an albatross around their necks. I'm talking about the greatest hits album Sammy was assembling in order to pay for his divorce. A collection of solo greatest hits, which, whatever, you do you, Sammy. But he was tacking on two brand-new songs to squeeze moss to narrow from the record company, and not just any two songs, but two songs he had workshopped with Van Halen. The fuck was up with that, Sammy Hagar?

• 34:47Jake Brennan?

  Eddie and Alex were operating sans booze, but they were also operating without the usual smokescreen of Ed Lefler. So instead of this whole thing being a simple means to an end, a project which, frankly, the less Eddie knew about, the better, instead of all that, it looked to Eddie and Alex like Sammy was about to big-time them the way they thought David Lee Roth once had. Sammy prioritizing his solo career and not giving his all to the band. The band was the thing. The band was it. The band was family. In the eyes of Eddie Van Halen, Sammy Hagar was clearly going against that family, against that code, the code of honor, discipline, and morality. And if a man doesn't have a family, doesn't have a code, then what does he even have?

• 35:55Jake Brennan?

  In the 1870s, the modern era had arrived in Japan, and the samurais suddenly found themselves obsolete. By 1876, even carrying a sword was illegal. Some of the country's most respected warriors became beggars. Others assimilated into modern society and found callings as merchants or farmers.

• 36:17Jake Brennan?

  Well over a hundred years later, across the Pacific, in California, the modern era found Eddie Van Halen trying to make sense of his place inside of it. His Samurai bun hairstyle echoed into the distant past as he rode upon his faithful steed, an old military assault vehicle, leaving Beverly Hills and the house of Fred Durst for more regular guy pastures back in the valley. Back to where he belonged, reunited with his gear. He then reunited the band with Sammy Hagar, which didn't last. Just as the two reunions with David Lee Roth didn't last. The Van Halen timeline, perhaps more than that of any other rock band in history, is full of this kind of confounding musical chairs.

• 36:59Jake Brennan?

  Even Eddie's son, Wolfgang, eventually replaced Michael Anthony on bass. Keeping it all straight is beside the point. And besides, Eddie Van Halen didn't do timelines. Maybe it was 2001, but to Eddie, it was still 1978 in his heart and 1986 in his mind. Who knows if the year 2020 actually felt like 2020 to Eddie Van Halen? He was 65, no longer wearing his hair like the Samurai. But his fate remained tied to those warriors of old. Eddie's kind was now the antiquated one. The innovator who did what he had to because he had no other choice, no means, only an unquenchable creative drive. Now, in 2020, there was nothing but choices.

• 37:44Jake Brennan?

  Cheap guitars, kinda decent, I guess, available at the click of a button. Free apps on which you could record your own songs. The world's music library from all of human existence on your phone. There was even a video game in which you held a piece of plastic in your hands and you were the guitar hero. Eddie Van Halen was a dying breed. And dying, by the way, was part of the whole deal. You live by your code, you serve your lord, which for Eddie was the music, even if it kills you. And death was coming for him.

• 38:22Jake Brennan?

  First, it tried to strike him in his tongue, part of which was removed to cut out the cancer. Eddie went into experimental mode, just like years ago when he experimented on the edge of his bed with his Frankenstrat and a six-pack of Schlitz Tals. Only this time, the experiments were medical. In a 2006 interview with Howard Stern, Eddie revealed that he'd secretly started a pathology lab in Long Island with a doctor, and that through that lab, he'd beaten his tongue cancer, but that he couldn't reveal exactly how he'd beat it, because by doing so, he'd piss off Big Pharma and maybe go to jail. Which sounds crazy to some of you, I know, but a few years later, Sammy Hagar in his memoir wrote that what Eddie had done was to take a piece of his tongue, a healthy

• 39:04Jake Brennan?

  piece, liquefy it, and then inject it back into his body. If this sounds like the failed Ed Lefler fix all over again, you're not wrong. But did Eddie Van Halen's fix actually work? Eddie thought so, at least for the moment, at least until the cancer came back later, stronger, and this time, fatal. Despite the chemo he received, and also despite the fact that he was using again not just alcohol, but drugs. He was also convinced that the cancer came not from the enormous amount of cigarettes he smoked throughout his life, but from the metal guitar picks he would hold in his mouth whenever he needed both hands free to exhibit his two-handed tapping technique. I'm not saying that Eddie Van Halen thought he was superhuman, though.

• 39:48Jake Brennan?

  To many of us, he certainly seemed so. But from a very young age, he pursued alternative methods when it came to overcoming obstacles. A guy who has to create his own guitar, create his own style, is gonna be the same guy who creates his own cure when he's staring down a fatal disease. But Eddie Van Halen was no doctor. He was a guitar player, who was incapable of any other profession, just a regular guy trying to stay in music's good graces. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgrace Land.

• 40:36Jake Brennan?

  All right. Hope you dug this episode. Apple Podcast listeners, make sure you have auto downloads turned on so you never miss an episode of Disgrace Land. This week's question of the week is not easy. Which four guitar players belong on the Mount Rushmore of guitar playing? It's Eddie Van Halen, that's for sure. Is it all dudes? Are there any women? Does Clapton make the cut? All I know is Eddie is on it. Hit me up. Voicemail and text 617-906-6638 and let me know. I can also be reached on Instagram, Facebook, and X at @disgracelandpod and [email protected] if you want to send me an email. Leave a review for the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and win some free merch. All right, here comes some credits.

• 41:16Jake Brennan?

  Disgrace Land was created by yours truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found on the show notes page at disgracelandpod.com. If you're listening as a Disgrace Land All Access member, thank you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it. And if not, you can become a member right now by going to disgracelandpod.com/membership. Members can listen to every episode of Disgrace Land ad-free. Plus, you'll get one brand-new exclusive episode every month, weekly unscripted bonus episodes, special audio collections, and early access to merchandise and events. Visit disgracelandpod.com/membership for details. Rate and review the show and follow us on

• 41:58Jake Brennan?

  Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook @disgracelandpod and on YouTube at youtube.com/disgracelandpod. Rock-a-rola.

• 42:11Speaker 08

  He's a bad, bad man.

• 42:14Jake Brennan?

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• 42:45Speaker 09

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• 42:58Speaker 10

  Zolair 150mg is a prescription medication used to treat food allergy in people one year of age and older to reduce allergic reactions due to accidental exposure to one or more foods. While taking Zolair, you should continue to avoid all foods to which you are allergic. Don't use if you are allergic to Zolair. Zolair may cause a severe, life-threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. Tell your doctor if you ever had anaphylaxis. Get help right away if you have trouble breathing or if you have swelling of your throat or tongue. Zolair should not be used for the emergency treatment of allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. Zolair is for maintenance use to reduce allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, while avoiding food allergens. Serious side effects such as cancer, fever, muscle aches and rash, parasitic infection, or heart and circulation problems have been reported. Please see zolair.com for full prescribing information. Ask an allergist about Zolair. This is an advertisement for Zolair

• 43:43Speaker 10

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