Just got around to reading “Edward Van Halen: A Definitive Biography” by Kevin Dodds on my e-reader. The book came out last year and I just haven’t had a chance to check it out. GREAT BOOK! Lot’s of details that I never knew about the whole Roth/Hagar fiasco and a whole bunch of new stuff on the recent reformation. The guy really did his homework and as far as I know it’s really the only full bio completely about EVH.

It’s about 400 pages. If anyone has an e-reader, just shoot me a message and I’ll dropbox it for you as a “loner”. Its in epub, but I can convert it to just about any format – mobi/kindle/nook etc. I guess if you like it purchase it and erase the “loner” copy, that way the dude can get his well deserved cash.

http://i685.photobucket.com/albums/vv219/Metaltim/October11/312875_261217643921907_261217513921920_750594_484100442_n.jpg

Or, you could help Kevin out and buy the book….

I’m glad you liked it. I didn’t enjoy it very much. It should have been titled “How Eddie Van Halen influenced my life by Kevin Dodds”. He spent half the book on his brother and how Eddie influenced his playing. At one point he was even trying to prove how the chord progression to WCTBL was inferior. No disrespect, but I enjoyed Everybody Wants Some more than the EVH Definitive Biography. Even Everybody Wants Some is biased. The Van Halen Encyclopedia is about the only non biased book out there.

Here’s the link to Kevin’s book. He worked hard on it and I agree he deserves to be paid for his work. He certainly didn’t get rich off writing it, that’s for sure. A real labor of love:

http://www.amazon.com/Edward-Van-Halen-Definitive-Biography/dp/1462054803

And just a reminder, I’m plugging away on my early days book. It’s going be comprehensive and revelatory, and largely based on original research rather than stuff that’s already in print. Blog here:

http://vanhalenrising.tumblr.com/

ffoner: Here’s the link to Kevin’s book. He worked hard on it and I agree he deserves to be paid for his work. He certainly didn’t get rich off writing it, that’s for sure. A real labor of love/
http://www.amazon.com/Edward-Van-Halen-Definitive-Biography/dp/1462054803
And just a reminder, I’m plugging away on my early days book. It’s going be comprehensive and revelatory, and largely based on original research rather than stuff that’s already in print.Blog here:
http://vanhalenrising.tumblr.com/

I agree and want to clarify: I paid for the book and will be glad to loan it on the honors system (this seems like a mature honest board) that if you like it / keep it, please buy it from Kevin. He does deserve it.
I will also buy your book too, sounds interesting. Any estimated release date yet?

alittlebitmoretotheright: I agree and want to clarify:I paid for the book

At $3.03 for the electronic version, no-one should have any trouble coming up with the change for a copy.

ron: At $3.03 for the electronic version, no-one should have any trouble coming up with the change for a copy.

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But I don’t ever bother carrying around pennies anymore … dammit …

guitard: But I don’t ever bother carrying around pennies anymore … dammit …

That is because you carry around that damn foreign money

alittlebitmoretotheright: I agree and want to clarify:I paid for the book and will be glad to loan it on the honors system (this seems like a mature honest board) that if you like it / keep it, please buy it from Kevin.He does deserve it. I will also buy your book too, sounds interesting.Any estimated release date yet?

Hi alittlemore,… (love the screen name, BTW).

I’m about 1.5 years from publication, I’d estimate.

Kevin Dodds’ EVH book bubbled to the top of my ‘to read’ pile a short while ago, and I finished it the other day.

Overall, I quite liked it up until about 2004. Then (like EVH and the band) it kinda went sideways for me. The word-for-word multi-page transcriptions of the Two Dorks interviews were a bit mind-numbing.

Given the resources available at the time, I think Kevin did a very good job. Yes, he’s a big Sammy hater, but I felt he kept things EVH-centric for the most part.

I went back and re-listened to the Dave’s interview with Kevin from early 2017 http://www.vhtrading.com/topic/vh-fans-launch-podcast/page/2/#post-55584
https://www.spreaker.com/user/daveanddaveunchained/dave-dave-unchained-a-van-halen-podcast-_10
He (Kevin) seemed like he was going to update the book, with a hopefully release in late 2018. That didn’t happen, but I still hope that Kevin is out there somewhere, and will put out a 2nd edition at some point.