Eruption: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen by Brad Tolinski and Chris Gill

A narrative rendering of the best interviews with Eddie Van Halen culled from over 50 hours of conversations with Guitar World magazine, telling his own story in his own words

When rock legend Eddie Van Halen died of cancer on October 6, 2020, the entire world—already steeped in the grief of political unrest and a raging pandemic—seemed to stop and grieve the devastating blow to the music world. Since Van Halen burst onto the scene with their self-titled debut album in 1978, Eddie had been hailed as an icon not only to fans of heavy metal and rock music, but to performers across all genres and around the world. Van Halen’s debut sounded unlike anything that listeners had heard before, largely due to Eddie’s mastery of guitar. Even Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, who rarely handed out compliments, had to admit: ““For my money, Van Halen is the first significant new kid on the block. Very dazzling. He flies the flag well.” Over the course of more than four decades, Eddie gained renown for his innovative guitar playing, and particularly for popularizing the tapping guitar solo technique. Unfortunately for Eddie and his legions of fans, he died before he was ever able to put his life down to paper in his own words, and much of his compelling backstory has remained elusive—until now.

In Eruption, music journalists Brad Tolinski and Chris Gill share with fans, new and old alike, a completely new look at this music legend via this groundbreaking oral history, composed of more than 50+ hours of unreleased interviews that they’d recorded with Eddie over the years. Admired by both Eddie and his family, Brad and Chris were two of the closest interviewers to Eddie in the decade prior to his death and were frequent visitors at the infamous 5150 studio in Eddie’s backyard. Arranged chronologically in a Q&A format, the chapters in this book showcase the past parts of these intimate and wide-ranging talks, and each will feature a lengthy introduction, during which the authors will talk about Eddie’s family, friends, and colleagues, and offer other crucial background details not covered in the interviews.

As entertaining as it is revealing, this oral history is the closest we’ll ever get to hearing Eddie’s side of the story when it comes to his extraordinary life—and the authors are determined to memorialize Eddie’s words with the dignity they deserve. Perfect for fans of Van Halen, heavy metal and rock music, and books that take readers behind the scenes of iconic moments in the history of music, Eruption will be the go-to resource for those determined to keep Eddie’s memory alive and kickin’.

Publisher : Hachette Books (October 5, 2021)
Price : $28.00
Hardcover : 320 pages
ISBN-10 : 0306826658
ISBN-13 : 978-0306826658

About the Author
BRAD TOLINSKI was the Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine, the best-selling magazine for musicians in the world, for over 25 years. He is also the author of Light & Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page and Play it Loud: An Epic History of the Style, Sound and Revolution of the Electric Guitar, which was the inspiration for the Play It Loud exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2019. He lives in New York.

CHRIS GILL was the editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine and a regular contributor to Guitar World magazine.

http://bravewords.com/news/van-halen-eruption-conversations-with-eddie-van-halen-book-available-in-october

VAN HALEN – Eruption: Conversations With Eddie Van Halen Book Available In October
September 9, 2021

Hachette Books has set October 5 as the release date for the new 336-page hardcover book, Eruption: Conversations With Eddie Van Halen, by music journalists Brad Tolinski and Chris Gill.

Eruption offers a new look at guitar legend Eddie Van Halen via a groundbreaking oral history composed of more than 50+ hours of interviews with Eddie, his family, and friends.

Published to coincide with the 1st anniversary of his death from cancer on October 6, 2020, the book highlights his greatest triumphs as a groundbreaking musician, including an unprecedented dive into Van Halen’s masterpiece 1984. It takes an unflinching look at Eddie’s early struggles as a young Dutch immigrant unable to speak English, which resulted in lifelong issues with social anxiety and substance abuse. It also examines his brilliance as an inventor who changed the face of guitar manufacturing, as well as his turbulent marriage to Valerie Bertinelli and his relationships with bandmates David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar.

As entertaining as it is revealing, Eruption is the closest readers will ever get to hearing Eddie’s side of the story regarding his extraordinary life.

Highlights include:

- Details of his childhood struggles as the son of biracial and immigrant parents
- Eddie’s battles with social anxiety, which encouraged later problems with alcohol and cocaine
- His impact on the guitar industry, including how he built his own guitar with spare parts, known as “Frankenstein,” and created a trend that eventually changed the way electric guitars were made, revolutionizing the guitar industry
- His often-stormy relationships with Van Halen’s trio of singers David Lee Roth, Sammy Hagar, and Gary Cherone
- His long and complicated marriage to Valerie Bertinelli; his close relationship with his son/bassist Wolfgang Van Halen; and his marriage to second wife and publicist Janie Liszewski, who helped him recover from substance abuse and supported him through his many cancer treatments
- Details of his 20-year cancer battle and death

Description: When rock legend Eddie Van Halen died of cancer on October 6, 2020, the entire world seemed to stop and grieve. Since his band Van Halen burst onto the scene with their self-titled debut album in 1978, Eddie had been hailed as an icon not only to fans of rock music and heavy metal, but to performers across all genres and around the world. Van Halen’s debut sounded unlike anything that listeners had heard before and remains a quintessential rock album of the era.

Over the course of more than four decades, Eddie gained renown for his innovative guitar playing, and particularly for popularizing the tapping guitar solo technique. Unfortunately for Eddie and his legions of fans, he died before he was ever able to put his life down to paper in his own words, and much of his compelling backstory has remained elusive – until now.

In Eruption, music journalists Brad Tolinski and Chris Gill share with fans, new and old alike, a candid, compulsively readable, and definitive oral history of the most influential rock guitarist since Jimi Hendrix. It is based on more than 50+ hours of unreleased interviews they recorded with Eddie Van Halen over the years, most of them conducted at the legendary 5150 studios at Ed’s home in Los Angeles. The heart of Eruption is drawn from these intimate and wide-ranging talks, as well as conversations with family, friends, and colleagues.

In addition to discussing his greatest triumphs as a groundbreaking musician, including an unprecedented dive into Van Halen’s masterpiece 1984, the book also takes an unflinching look at Edward’s early struggles as young Dutch immigrant unable to speak the English language, which resulted in lifelong issues with social anxiety and substance abuse. Eruption: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen also examines his brilliance as an inventor who changed the face of guitar manufacturing.

As entertaining as it is revealing, Eruption is the closest readers will ever get to hearing Eddie’s side of the story when it comes to his extraordinary life.

Find pre-order options here.
http://www.hachettebooks.com/titles/brad-tolinski/eruption/9780306826672/

Brad and Chris on the Johnny Beane show on the weekend talking about the new book…

SUMMARY OF ERUPTION BY BRAD TOLINSKI AND CHRIS GILL: Conversations With Eddie Van Halen

This exciting and deeply revealing book made me more impressed with all the talent that was possessed and explored by one man. This summary is definitely a must read if you want to understand the main book because it captures the life of Eddie Van Halen, his challenges and how he was able to build a massively successful career in music.While this summary aptly captures what Brad Tolinski and Chris Gill penned down in ERUPTION, James D. Franklin has also added some points you may have missed out in this must-read summary.

This book Eruption is technical especially for someone who isn’t deep into music. It may not appeal to the average reader. but this detailed summary made it a highly enjoyable read for a non-musician like myself. The author touched every aspect of the story, highlighting the key conversations in a way that reads seamlessly and easily. I’d recommend this book to any guitarist, fan of rock or fan of music legend, Eddie Van Halen.

There central ideas behind a lot of technical jargon and discussion of details in the book, Eruption was captured. Especially on conversations involving guitar techniques, guitar parts, and the interesting ways Eddie modified them.

If you’re a fan of Eddie Van Halen or you’re interested in knowing how rock has transformed for over the last forty years, The Summary of “Eruption” is definitely a book you should read alongside the original work!

This Summary does not serve as a replacement of the original work, neither is it an endorsed version by the authors of Eruption, it is rather a carefully drafted summary that contains details you cannot find in any other synopsis of the original work

Paperback ‏ : ‎ 28 pages

Someone is selling their Cliff Notes version of the original book? Are you kidding me? I didn’t think the original book was that technical. Sure, there are some parts where they discuss the guitar and since I’m not a player, some of that stuff goes over my head. And these interviews were originally for a guitar magazine so of course that’s what they’re going to talk about. But that wasn’t all they talked about and the book is much more than that.

Excerpts in the Nov 2021 issue of Guitar Player magazine

I started reading this book several months ago bit by bit. Now that I’m on the graveyard shift for the next 4 months I’m able to completely immerse myself in it, and so far it’s been a very good read. I really think it’s one of the best Van Halen books I have ever read.

I still have “Unchained: The Eddie Van Halen Story” and “Van Halen: The Eruption and the Aftershock” on deck.

I started to read this one a few days ago. Not too far into it, but I do have a couple of notes.

The text is not chronological. The authors jump around the VH timeline. It’s not super jumpy, but it also isn’t a straight line from birth in the ’50s forward.

I wish the interview portions of the text would have been dated. You can kinda tell when some of them took place based on the topics covered, etc… But it would have been nice for them to have been dated. Maybe that’s somewhere in an index that I haven’t seen yet.

I’m definitely gonna keep reading, it’s interesting!

I addition to what I said in the last post, after completing the book, I found myself missing something.

I’m not sure where I read it, but I thought this book was supposed to have the most complete chronological timeline of the construction of the FrankenStrat. But either I missed it (I did go back to the ToC, and also flip thru), or I mis-remembered that this is where that timeline was supposed to be featured.

However, given all of the above, I can still recommend this book.

Now someone tell me where that FrankenStrat timeline is!

Just started listening to a podcast with Chris Gill (and Greg Renoff), and was a little surprised to find out that the paperback edition of this book is slightly different from the hardcover. Apparently, the Van Halen family wanted something from the original text removed, so it was for the paperback. I don’t know what the change was.

ron: Just started listening to a podcast with Chris Gill (and Greg Renoff), and was a little surprised to find out that the paperback edition of this book is slightly different from the hardcover.Apparently, the Van Halen family wanted something from the original text removed, so it was for the paperback.I don’t know what the change was.

You mean that they removed some text from the paperback edition?I hope so i bought the hard cover one

unchainedheart: You mean that they removed some text from the paperback edition?

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Correct

ron: Correct

thanks

So what was removed for the paperback version ?