Friends of the Boys: Visiting Jan Van Halen

The home where Eddie and Alex Van Halen grew up in Pasadena, as it looked in 2013. (Photo: Karen Nuremberg Sonner)

By DOUG FOX

Click, snap, clack, pop, clink ...

There's a lot of things that go through a teenager's mind while standing on a doorstep at the house where two burgeoning rocks stars live on the afternoon of their biggest concert to date -- most prevalently, "What in the world are we doing here?"

But the thing I remember most in those nerve-wracking moments between a false-bravado knock and the door opening is the mesmerizing metallic mash-up of a half-dozen locks being manipulated in well-worn sequence on the other side.

Click, snap, clack, pop, clink ...

The date was Oct. 7, 1979 -- 35 years ago today -- and there we were in front of an otherwise nondescript house on Las Lunas Street in Pasadena, California, waiting for the changing of the locks to run its course and the door to finally swing open at the family home of Eddie and Alex Van Halen.

That date is an important one in Van Halen history as it marks the night the four members of the little ol' rock band from Pasadena officially became masters of their Southern California domain, musically speaking -- headlining their first show, a sellout at that, at the L.A. Forum in Inglewood.

Everyone who has ever dreamed of being a rock star has probably pictured the scene in their mind of performing at the preeminent concert venue in their home market. In Southern California in the 1970s, that place was the Forum -- or as it was more commonly referred to, the Fabulous Forum or "The House that Jack (Kent Cooke) Built."

The Forum may primarily have been the home of the Los Angeles Lakers, but the reigning rock bands of the day held court there as well. Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Peter Frampton, Queen and the Eagles all sold out multiple-date runs at the venerable venue during a period when maxing out even one show was a sign that you had made it in the rock world. The prestige of headlining the Forum was certainly not lost on the four members of Van Halen, as they themselves had attended major concerts there as rock fans growing up in SoCal.

So what was it that brought four increasingly timid-by-the-second teenagers -- Curtis Edwards, Bob Sebesta, Mat Yeates and myself -- to the conclusion that visiting the humble Van Halen homestead eight hours or so before the band's impending homecoming coronation was somehow a good idea?

Funny you should ask ...

They Really Got Me

My own evolution as a Van Halen fan has been religiously documented before -- from the slack-jawed amazement of hearing "Eruption" for the first time to the life-changing experience of seeing the "bastard sons of a thousand maniacs" (as they were introduced on stage in the early days) in concert for the first time. That first concert experience -- occurring in Logan, Utah, on March 31, 1979 -- came in the initial week of the Van Halen II tour, the band's first headlining jaunt. The triumphant show at the Forum was just over six months later -- and, fittingly, it marked the tour's closing night.

That intervening half year served to cement my allegiance as a VH lifer -- the band was just different than anything I'd previously heard or seen. I don't suppose my experience is all that different from millions of other fans who -- whether they were struck by Eddie Van Halen's otherworldly guitar wizardry, David Lee Roth's vocal swagger and outsized personality, Michael Anthony's enthusiastic bass thumping and general class act-dom, Alex Van Halen's sheer power and technique behind the drums, or simply wowed by the collective talents of all four in one explosive entity -- flocked to the VH bandwagon in ever-increasing numbers.

So as to not tread too much on past writings, you can read a lot more about that Logan show, not to mention see some pretty fantastic photos from that night in "My Introduction to the Mighty Van Halen." Near the end of that blog post, which was written three and a half years ago, I mentioned our visit to the Van Halen home on the afternoon of their Forum debut, and said, "Ah, but that's a story for another day."

That day, as it turns out, is today.

I've told the story of stopping by the Van Halen home to various friends and acquaintances over the years, and sometimes it has grown in the retelling. I realized this a few years back when, while backstage at a concert, I overheard another one of my friends telling the story to a third party. "Yeah, and then Mr. Van Halen invited them in for a visit," I heard him say.

A few minutes later I pulled my friend aside and said, "You know that didn't really happen like that, right?"

He laughed and said, "You should let me tell the story -- I tell it better than you! The next time I tell it, I will have you sitting on the couch with your feet up on the coffee table while eating chocolate cake!"

Before that happens, I thought it best to get the story in writing and clear up a few minor embellishments I may have made on my own over the years.

Atomic Punks

I grew up in Southern California, but our family moved to Utah in the summer of 1978, right after I graduated high school. Thankfully, I had caught the sonic wave of Van Halen earlier that summer a few months after the release of Van Halen I when the band broke through on L.A. radio.

Jumping forward to the fall of 1979, I was planning a return trip to Los Angeles to visit close friends from my high school years. Looking over the concert schedule, I noticed the Van Halen Forum show and immediately settled on vacation dates surrounding what I knew would be a memorable concert. However, when we attempted to actually get tickets for the show, my friends and I discovered it was already sold out. We then looked into tickets for the San Diego show the night before, it turned out that those were long gone as well.

As I recall, we checked into obtaining tickets through one of the many second-hand ticket agencies -- but they were out of our price range. I kick myself now -- considering that those out-of-range tickets were probably only listed for $25-$30, which, of course, is a comically low amount by today's standards. But it seemed like too much for a 19-year-old on a limited budget at the time.

Sometime in the previous months, a friend, also a VH fan, who worked for a record label in Los Angeles, mentioned having come across the band members' home addresses and phone numbers through inter-label work contacts.

Somehow, in the way only a late-teenage mind can think, the combination of us not having tickets to the Forum show and my having access to the band members' addresses brainstormed into the idea of actually stopping by the Van Halen household in Pasadena, which was maybe 20 minutes away from where we were staying in La Crescenta. With the show being in L.A., and the band having played San Diego that night before, so our thought process figured, there might be a decent shot that Eddie and Alex would be home visiting their family that afternoon. Admittedly it was a harebrained idea, concocted by pie-in-the-sky dreamers who thought maybe, just maybe, there was a small, outside chance that we would be rewarded for our creative enthusiasm with extra tickets to the show or at least come away with a good story to tell.

As it turned out, it was the latter.

One Foot in the Door

So it was that the four of us piled into a car and drove to Pasadena that sunny Sunday afternoon of October 7 with an address and a map. We were in high spirits to begin with, but the closer we got to our intended location, the more the absurdity of our intended mission began to settle in on us like stink on a monkey. (I've always wanted to say that!)

The alley behind the old Van Halen home. (Karen Nuremberg Sonner)

We found the house, located in what appeared to be a quiet working-class neighborhood, and executed a slow drive-by just to check it out. By this time, of course, our previous happy-go-lucky attitude had completely deserted us, giving way to nervous anticipation.

We noticed a back alleyway, and as a further delay tactic we drove around there to check things out from that angle. Counting down the number of houses from the corner, we looked into the back yard and noticed a boat -- which seemed out of place in comparison to the rest of the neighborhood. "That's it!" I confirmed, immediately remembering a Circus magazine interview months earlier where Eddie mentioned that the first big purchase he and Alex really made when the "Van Halen II" album and tour headliner money started rolling in was a boat for their father.

And ... there ... it ... was.

The garage where Eddie and Alex honed their craft. (Karen N. Sonner)

 There was also a small garage/shed structure at the back right corner of the yard. We didn't fully realize it at the time -- I mean, even we could not have projected the band's eventual Hall of Fame trajectory at that point -- but that little structure is somewhat of a musical mecca for hard rock fans, and a Graceland of sorts for guitar aficionados.

It was there where the Van Halen brothers not only honed their chops -- and, I imagine, annoyed a fair share of their neighbors -- with hours of jamming, but also where Eddie had brought his iconic black-and-white-striped red Frankenstein guitar to life six months earlier. Music and technique developed in that humble structure would go on to shake the very foundation of rock, not to mention the walls of arenas and stadiums around the world.

Having put off the inevitable as long as possible, or so we thought, we drove back around to the front and parked several houses up the street. We got out of the car and began a slow walk down the sidewalk toward the Van Halens' home. It was at that point that our nerves entirely left us.

Somewhere in our plodding journey to the front door, there was a short retaining wall/ledge that we all sat down on for several minutes, trying to gain our wits and build up the confidence to actually go through with our mission. We nearly called the whole thing off right then and there, but we finally pep-talked ourselves back into action, stood up and headed on the pathway leading to the door.

You know how there's always those few moments after you knock, especially if you are cold calling and your visit is unexpected, where you listen intently trying to discern any movement inside? I'm sure at that moment we were all hoping to hear nothing but silence throughout the house. That sensation had us on edge, but gave way to near panic when we heard the locks begin turning.

Click, snap, clack, pop, clink ...

We had no idea who would be on the other side of the door, but when it swung open it revealed Jan Van Halen, the VH family patriarch.

We could not have been any more awkward.

"Are Eddie and Alex home?" one of us stammered.

Our immediate impression was that Mr. Van Halen was slightly perturbed -- and believe me, looking back on the whole thing over the years, he had every right to be.

"No," he said bluntly.

Our whole encounter could have ended right there as we were more than ready to immediately slink back to our car, feeling like we'd just been denied entry to see the Wizard of Oz.

But then everything changed with one question and answer.

"Are you friends of the boys?" he asked.

"Of course!" I found myself blurting out with very little thought. I mean, what were we supposed to say? "No, we're just idiot fans who thought we'd stop by your home for a visit on one of the most important days your family will ever see in the hopes we might impress you enough that you'll offer us some extra tickets?"

Whether he believed us or not -- and as unlikely as it seems, he must have -- Mr. Van Halen's whole demeanor changed in an instant. All of a sudden he was warm, friendly and thoroughly engaging.

Details of the rest of our 4- to 5-minute conversation have faded from memory except for one specific exchange, which, to me, really showed the elder Van Halen's personality.

We explained how we thought that with the Forum show being that night, and the band having been on the road for months, that there would have been a good chance that his sons would have been home visiting that afternoon.

"You would think!" he said, letting out a big laugh and shaking his head with exaggerated sarcasm as he went on a playful mini-rant. "The boys never come by here anymore!"

I think that part of the conversation has stayed with me because it proved so painfully poignant. Here was a man who was a professional musician himself, on the cusp of seeing his two sons validated in grand fashion with a sold-out show at the Forum, yet it was obvious that he also missed having them around. His sarcastic overplaying of the comment showed his humor and acceptance of the circumstances, but couldn't completely mask the truthfulness of it either.

After offering our best wishes for that night and bidding farewell, we started back down the path. Following a few moments of relieved silence, one of my friends burst out, "Whoa! Did you see all the gold records on the wall?"

The other two animatedly answered in the affirmative. "Man, that was cool!"

Previously when telling this story, I have always mentioned seeing all the gold records on the wall. But here's the deal. I never saw them. Not a single one. But my other three friends had, so I simply co-opted their eye-witnesses into my own account.

I felt a tad bit cheated. The original "Van Halen" debut was an album that changed my life and forever altered my musical listening habits. How cool would it have been to see the official gold record commemorating it -- not to mention many others apparently -- hanging on the wall of two people who actually created it?

For most of the past 35 years, I have asked myself, "How in the world could I have missed seeing those records?" In my memory, I can still see past Mr. Van Halen and onto the main front room wall. But no gold or platinum records.

It wasn't until I asked my friends for their memories of the visit a year or so ago that I finally figured it out. I had always assumed we shared similar sight lines. That proved to be inaccurate. The gold records, they said, were lining the walls of a hallway to the right, and not those in the front room to the left. The angle of the partially closed door must have blocked that view for me.

It felt good to have some closure on a question that had always bothered me regarding our visit. But I still wish I'd personally seen them.

The view from the street of the gated Roth mansion in 2013. (Karen Nuremberg Sonner)

Somebody Get Me the Doctor

Emboldened by what we viewed as a pretty positive experience at the Van Halen abode, we did the next obvious thing -- and pulled out David Lee Roth's address. His home address was also listed in Pasadena, so we figured why not give it a try since we were already in the area?

The Roths and Van Halens were only separated by about 5 miles in distance, but their separate ways were worlds apart. Where the Van Halens lived in a nondescript, regular home, the Roth compound was a huge, mostly unapproachable mansion.

There was a gardener on a nearby part of the sprawling property, so we sent one of our party over to chat him up. That effort was pretty much foiled when it became apparent the gardener only spoke broken English.

"What happened?" we asked when our friend returned to the car.

"I asked him if David Lee Roth was home," he said. "And he said, 'Dr. Roth?'

"And I said, 'No, David Lee Roth.' And he shook his head and said, 'No. Dr. Roth not home.' "

That was that. Besides, we figured if the Van Halen brothers were too busy to stop by their home base on the day of the show, the chances that Roth would be setting up Club Dave at his dad's mansion were slim to shady.

Michael Anthony's home address was listed in Monrovia, which was a bit of a distance away. Based on the intel we had received from our first two stops, we figured he wouldn't be home either. So, we left well enough alone, and recognized our visit with Jan Van Halen as the rare opportunity it was, and the clear highlight of our Sunday-afternoon-on-a-lark adventure.

Heard About It Later

Sometime in February or March of 1994, I was driving home following a late-night shift on the sports desk at the newspaper where I still work. Being completely wound up from deadlines and knowing I'd be unable to sleep for several hours still, I stopped by a 24-hour supermarket to peruse the magazines.

My eyes immediately settled on a magazine cover featuring a dynamic live shot of a young Eddie Van Halen in classic soloing pose with his guitar neck pointing toward the heavens while playing his "Bumblebee" guitar during the VH II tour. It turned out to be a Best of Guitar Player special edition, devoted entirely to Van Halen and included text from several previously unpublished interviews by Jas Obrecht culled from the band's early years.

Arriving home after buying the magazine, I settled into bed and began reading (and reading and reading ... ) the unpublished interviews section. Eighteen pages in, I read something that literally made me sit up in bed with a start.

I read it over and over, continually running the comment and its ramifications through my mind to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding something.

In this previously unpublished interview, from late December 1979, Eddie was talking about two new guitars he'd purchased and the dilemma he faced in where to store them.

"Right now, I'm trying to figure out where to keep them," he said, "because when we played the Forum, my mom and dad came. And when my mom came home, the house got ripped off for about 20 gold and platinum albums."

That's screwed up, he continued, "because playing the Forum is like a dream come true. I've seen everyone play there. It was a hell of an event for me, and I come home and the back door is smashed in and all the records are gone. It's such a drag."

I couldn't believe what I was reading. Were we literally some of the very last people to see those records on the wall before they were stolen? At that point, I had to remind myself that I hadn't actually seen them. (Thanks, self!)

But still ... our experience, I figured, gave us a unique empathy for the personal nature of that loss.

Having stood on the front porch of that home hours before the landmark show and having personally felt a father's excitement and seen the pride in his eyes first-hand -- in a weird way, I, too, felt sucker-punched by the turn of events following that first Forum concert, even though I was learning about it more than 14 years later.

To this day, I still ask myself, "I wonder what happened to those records?"

Postscript: Your Last Loose End

It's cool to me how the events of that day tend to keep on giving as the years go by.

For example, in a Facebook conversation with a high school friend several years ago, she randomly dropped the nugget that her father had sold Eddie and Alex Van Halen a boat for their father.

I'm sure she was surprised when I mentioned having actually seen the boat in person.

Vicki Adams Dorosy said she remembers the day her dad came home saying how impressed he'd been with two young musicians who had stopped into his Sportsmen's Paradise shop in Monrovia wanting to buy an ocean-going fishing boat (a Grady Little) for their father with their first big paycheck -- and then he wondered if any of his kids had ever heard of a band called Van Halen. (They had.)

Jan Van Halen died in 1986 at the age of 66. The minutes we actually spent being entertained by him back in 1979 may have been few indeed, but it provided enough of a window into his personality to say the impression perfectly jibes with the popular stories most Van Halen fans know of him.

Like the time he passed the hat around the audience while his young sons performed but only gave them a portion of the collected funds. When Eddie and Alex asked what happened to the rest of the money, the elder Van Halen responded, "Welcome to the music business!"

I can also see the man who gave Eddie his first shot of vodka and first cigarette at the age of 12 in an effort to help calm his nerves before performing, yet unknowingly turning him on to a pair of vices that would rob him of many prime years of productivity while battling addiction.

But mostly I can see the man who some eight hours or so after we'd met him was reduced to tears sitting at a monitor board at the Forum while watching Eddie perform his extended guitar solo before 18,000 adoring fans.

"He was so proud," Eddie would tell me later when I asked about that night.

Yeah, I would eventually meet Eddie and Alex Van Halen -- some 15 years and 348 days after I'd met their father.

Ah, but that's a story for another day.

Note: This article is dedicated to Curtis Edwards, Bob Sebesta, Mat Yeates, Ted "Theodore" Logan and Bill S. Preston, Esq. -- my fellow excellent adventurers.

15 Years On: Eddie Van Halen Interview Revisted

Eddie Van Halen performs in Park City, Utah, on July 14, 1998 — one week after our interview. (Daily Herald photo)

July 7, 2013

"Why?" asked the voice on the other end of the phone. "I'm just a normal schmo like anyone else."

Like Michael Jordan was just another dude that laced up Nikes.

Like Walt Disney was just your average everyday daydreamer.

Like Beethoven was simply another cat that tickled the ivories.

It's not often in life that one gets the opportunity to pick the brain of someone who is universally recognized as not only a true game changer in their profession but also on the short list of those considered the best ever -- whatever the category may be.

When the subject is greatest rock guitar players of all time, the name Eddie Van Halen is in the conversation. And that's whose voice was on the other end of the line 15 years ago today.

It was right at the beginning of our interview and I was merely trying to convey what a privilege it was for me to talk with him, when he responded with the above quote. Eddie went on to say a lot of interesting things over the course of our 40-minute conversation, but none of them have made me smile over the years as much as that spontaneous introductory declaration.

"I'm just a normal schmo like anyone else."

Anybody that knows me, recognizes my passion for the music of Van Halen -- speaking of both the guitarist and the Hall of Fame band that bears his name (and that of his brother, Alex). I wrote some time ago about how and why that dedication came to be ("My Introduction to the Mighty Van Halen"), so I'll spare the rehash here.

Looking back, I'd have to say my chat with Eddie was both the easiest and hardest musician interview I have ever done. Easy in the sense that I was well versed in every possible tidbit of Van Halen history -- having read pretty much every interview I could find throughout the band's career, which featured 20 years of "Behind the Music"-style story lines at that point in time.

The flip side was recognizing the rarity of the opportunity -- and worrying that I might somehow screw it up.

The interview almost didn't happen. The morning it was originally scheduled, I received a call from the record company rep who arranged it, informing me that Eddie had been working on a project all night in the studio and that he would be unavailable that day after all.

"Would you instead like to talk with Gary Cherone?" she asked, referring to the ex-Extreme frontman who had recently replaced Sammy Hagar behind the microphone for the "Van Halen 3" album and tour.

Child, please. No offense to Gary, and I would certainly relish talking with him someday, but I simply couldn't give up on the chance to interview the king of 10 fingers and six strings so easily.

Luckily, the publicist sensed my predicament -- and rescheduled the interview with Eddie for a couple weeks down the road. Even then, on the afternoon the duscussion did go down, Eddie had been up again the entire previous night working in the studio between tour dates. Tour manager Scotty Ross called me about 15 minutes prior to make sure I was ready, informing me that he was just going to wake the weary guitarist up.

Could This Be Magic: Eddie Van Halen on the VH III tour.

In our pre-serious interview banter, Eddie mentioned that he was looking forward to the Park City, Utah, date -- our local show -- the following week because his brother-in-law owned a home there and his wife, Valerie Bertinelli, and son, Wolfgang, were going to fly in and meet him since there were a few off days between shows.

"It'll be good," he said, "because every time I'm home, I seem to be working. I didn't sleep until 8 o'clock (this morning) because I'm trying to cut 'Josephina' down to below 4 minutes, you know, editing for a possible single."

When the real interview commenced shortly thereafter, I learned that our original discussion had been postponed because he was working on a new version of "Once," at the record label's request. I thought it odd at the time that a record company would make such demands on a band of Van Halen's renown. But "Van Halen 3" was struggling in both sales and radio airplay, especially when compared to previous efforts, so I figured Eddie was doing anything he could to up the profile of the new lineup.

Interviews generally serve as a snapshot in time. Certain sections are sure to seem outdated when glancing at them in the rearview mirror. Opinions and thoughts expressed may have since proven inaccurate or misguided. Looking back over this interview now, there are certainly points where that is true. But I think it mostly holds up and provides a look into the state of Van Halen at a very specific time, even if it was an era that ultimately proved unsuccessful when compared to previous VH standards.

A few of my favorite parts include:

-- Eddie's insight into the recording of his guitar solo for Michael Jackson's "Beat It." He recently discussed his involvement in much more detail, corresponding with the 30-year anniversary of the historic "Thriller" album. But 15 years ago, I had never seen him share some of this information before.

-- Our discussion about his sobriety and alcoholism. His comment that "when you hit 40 and you don't cut the crap, you know, you either kick the bucket or just lose it in the turn" proved somewhat prophetic. Completely off the wagon again by the mid-2000s, if he didn't lose it in the turn he was at least careening around corners with two wheels hanging over the edge. Today -- after another stint in rehab several years ago and the added incentive of having his son join the band, not to mention the strong influence of his new wife, Janie -- he appears to have rebounded. In fact, his playing on the band's 2012 "A Different Kind of Truth" tour was turning-back-the-clock phenomenal and better than anything since the "III" tour.

-- Eddie's mention of how he's not knocking people on the Internet, but he just doesn't have time for it. I'm guessing he never envisioned a day when even his dog (Kody Van Halen) would have his own Facebook page.

-- His slight scoff that there's "still people that want (David Lee) Roth in the band, you know?" Even he came back around to wanting the exact same thing eventually.

-- His memories of the band's triumphant homecoming show at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., on Oct. 7, 1979 -- the final date on the World Vacation tour. The Forum was the place every Los Angeles band dreamed of playing back in the day. It was the sure sign that you had made it. During his guitar solo that night, Eddie happened to look over and see his father sitting at the soundboard, unabashedly crying with pride. It's a story I had read years earlier and never forgotten. Probably because earlier that very day, a few friends and I had stopped by the Van Halen home in Pasadena, on a lark really, and met Jan Van Halen, Eddie's and Alex's dad, and enjoyed a brief but fun conversation with him. I've promised to write that experience up, and am finally committed to getting it done. Check back in the next few weeks for that writeup.

I remember typing up the interview into the wee hours of one morning at the office -- and immediately sharing it with the Van Halen Mailing List, a tight-knit Internet fan club of sorts with some of the most knowledgeable and dedicated fans the band has ever known. The response and feedback was extremely positive -- and that eventually led to it being published in the Inside, the band's official magazine, in 1998. It was a gratifying moment for me, and was the start of a great association with Jeff Hausman, who ran the Inside then, and now oversees the Van Halen News Desk (www.vhnd.com) and the Van Halen Store operations.

It was the last real interview with Eddie in the Inside before it eventually ceased publication amid the band's years of inactivity and media cone of silence starting in 1999 after parting ways with Cherone. The band wasn't really heard from again until the 2004 reunion tour with Hagar, and after that ended somewhat disastrously there was nothing until re-forming with Roth in 2007, this time with Wolfgang VH on bass in place of Michael Anthony. Even at that, the band in general, and Eddie in particular, have done very few interviews in the intervening years since the "III" project fell apart.

A few years after the interview, my wife and I were in a class where the teacher, attempting a grand object lesson, asked us all to envision having the opportunity to interview anyone in the world, whether it be famous athlete, celebrity or public figure. He then asked us to imagine how we would prepare, what questions we would ask and how we would react to such a unique challenge.

I offered up no response. I figured the exercise was for those who could truly imagine the assignment -- not those who had already experienced it.

Besides, I'm not sure a normal schmo would qualify.

The interview follows. Enjoy!

Caution: Normal schmo at work. (Daily Herald file photo)

 July 7, 1998

 DOUG FOX: Originally, I was supposed to interview you about two weeks ago, but it was postponed because you were up all night working on a project.

EDDIE VAN HALEN: Yeah that was for “Once,” they wanted an adult contemporary version of it. They didn’t realize what was quite involved in having to do that. I had Gary (Cherone) re-sing parts of it, it’s not a whole different song, but it’s quite different. I’m happy with the way it turned out. It’s not the way I wrote it. You know, Van Halen is not a pop band. But we write all types of different music. I don’t know, it’s like a big square peg trying to fit into a little tiny round hole, you know? And we’re not Spice. We’re not Hansen. We’re just Van Halen, you know? It’s not flavor of the month. I mean, I’m in the business of making music, not in the music business so to speak. There is a bit of a side to it and if they ask, “Can you do this please,” I go, “Well, if that’s what you want I’ll try my best to give it to ya.” But they just didn’t realize how much work was going to be involved. It took two weeks because I had to start from scratch.

DF: But you’ve said before that anything you do, no matter what you do, it still ends up sounding like Van Halen.

VAN HALEN: Oh yeah. Put it this way. I removed all the heavy guitars and replaced them with acoustic guitars and we had a friend of Gary’s, a girl, come in and do some backgrounds because when Mike and I did it, it sounded a little too manly. And just edited it.

DF: So that means I’ll be hearing it the next time I go to the dentist’s office?

VAN HALEN: There’s still no guarantee that they’ll play it because we’re Van Halen, ya know? It’s like a lot of radio stations when they hear the name, they won’t even give it a chance. It’s like in L.A., there’s not one station that will play us. There’s no AOR station, there’s no album-oriented rock station that will play us, and you know, I’ll be very, very surprised if they play us on top 40 radio.

DF: That’s amazing. I grew up there and I graduated in 1978 right when you guys came out and I think the station that I listened to then was like KWEST or something like that ...

VAN HALEN: Hey, right, right, right ... it’s very bizarre because every record that we make, you know, it always feels like that (first one). ... I’ll never forget hearing “You Really Got Me” at two o’clock in the morning the very first time on the radio. I ran and woke up my mom and dad, going, “We’re on the radio! We’re on the radio!” And it’s like that every time, even 13 albums later. Except this time it’s like, “oh,” you know, the album’s released and nothing. But I still get just as excited hearing us on the radio now as I did then. I have not yet heard anything on the radio. It’s kind of depressing, you know. Like wow.

DF: I’m sorry about that, but I’m hoping that this new album will get out cause it’s really good.

VAN HALEN: Well in a funny way, if I have to relate it to any other record, it’s kind of like “Fair Warning,” which was also a sleeper so to speak because there was no hit. It was the first record where I really started experimenting and overdubbing, layering and stuff, I don’t know. Radio wouldn’t play it. A lot of people didn’t get it, but they did a few years down the road. Then they went back and went, “Hey, that was a good record.”

DF: It’s funny you mention that because that’s one of my favorite albums ...

VAN HALEN: But it probably wasn’t when it first came out.

DF: Well, actually I was gone for two years on a church thing, so I didn’t hear it, but when I got back, I went right out and got it.

VAN HALEN: A lot of people when it first came out went, “Well, what is this?” This (new) record is not a one-listen record, you know? There’s a lot of depth to it and lot of diversity. To me, rock and roll is free-form music, and it’s there to take chances — to not fit a mold or be trendy, or this and that. So, no, it wasn’t the right time with a brand new singer to start experimenting and doing tripped-out stuff. But, hey, it’s rock and roll. Ask me if I’ll do it again and yes, you know, that’s what rock and roll is all about to me. It’s not about fitting into any mold or, “Hey, this is flavor of the month” or “Hey, let’s do that.” We do what we do. So we know what we do.

"I think when you hit around 40 and you don't cut the crap ... you either kick the bucket or lose it in the turn."

DF: So going back to your music theory class at Pasadena City College, I remember your teacher said, “If it sounds good, it is good.”

VAN HALEN: Yeah, his name was Truman Fisher, and he was a great teacher. Frank Zappa was one of his students. That shows you right there the difference, what a great teacher he was, you know, to not have molded his students, like, “This is the right way to do it.” I mean, it’s called music theory — not music fact.

DF: Hey, how’s Alex doing?

VAN HALEN: Oh, that guy, he never ceases to blow my mind. I mean we had a month off, we had to cancel our European tour because of the ceiling coming down. A brick just about the size of a cinder block, broke his arm (right forearm), during soundcheck. An inch and a half torn muscle, and our first gig (back) was Phoenix last week. I couldn’t believe it. I’d been in the studio, so I hadn’t played guitar in like a month, which is a long time for me to not play. So for the first gig, it was like, “Whoa!” It was like an athlete not keeping in shape, man, it’s like my fingers were locking up. And here’s Al just cooking, you know? And he hadn’t played in a month, on top of being injured. It just blew my mind. He can’t put a hard cast on because it heals short, the muscle’s torn. There’s a fine line to how much you move it. You can’t overuse it. I just don’t see how he pulled it off. He’s playing better than ever. I think the whole band is. I mean, I really think that if you don’t see the band live, you’re missing it, because this is the best we’ve ever been.

DF: I was wondering how much a process of development goes on since you’ve added a new member, is it taking some time to get used to each other?

VAN HALEN: Not at all. It’s like we’ve known each other, it’s like he’s a long-lost brother. I swear. In a funny way, when I think about it, my father was a traveling musician, so who knows? (laughs) The first gig we did together was at the Billboard Club the evening of the record release party, and it was like we’d played together all our lives. There was no need to get comfortable, no feeling each other out. It was just (makes sound like “VAROOSH”). He just fits like a glove. It was just meant to be.

DF: I’ve been reading the reviews of your shows on the Van Halen Mailing List and everyone is commenting on how happy you seem and how exuberant.

VAN HALEN: (I’m the) happiest I’ve ever been in my life.

DF: Is that mainly because of the musical situation, or is simply everything in your life combining to make it that way?

VAN HALEN: Everything. I think everything kind of relates. If you’re not happy at your work, you come home and kick your dog, you know what I’m sayin’? So yeah, it’s got a lot to do with Gary and (having) a musical soulmate, and he actually lives here with us in the guest house. And he’s just a wonderful human being. His passion for music is the same as mine. It’s not about money or how many records we sell. There’s just no ego, it’s truly a band now. You definitely feel that when you see us live.

DF: I read where originally you got a tape from Gary, and weren’t really impressed with it.

VAN HALEN: No, I wasn’t at all. Because what he tried to do was second guess me and do what he thought I would want. And that’s the last thing I want. So I told him, why don’t you just come out. You know, over the phone just doesn’t work.

DF: At what point did you know he was your guy?

"(I'm the) happiest I've ever been in my life." -- EVH, 1998

VAN HALEN: Actually when he hopped out of the car, I just looked at him and said, “He’s a brother.” Just no attitude. Just a real sweetheart from heaven. We blazed through eight older Van Halen songs, four Roth-era tunes and four Sammy-era tunes, and he just blew our minds. We took a little break and 45 minutes later “Without You” was written — the first day. And if that ain’t chemistry, I don’t know what the hell is. That evening I played him all kinds of bizarre music that I make (laughs) just to let him know that he is not in any way confined to “Panama” or “Jump,” hey, anything goes in this band. Any idea is worth pursuing. I just wanted to let him know that there are no boundaries in this band. I kind of overloaded him and the next morning I just told him, “As far as I’m concerned, you’re in the band, you’re the guy.” I hadn’t spoken with Mike and Alex, but I just told him, you know, “They’re going to make up their own mind, but as far as I’m concerned, you’re in.”

DF: Speaking of stretching boundaries, you’re singing lead for the first time on “How Many Say I” ...

VAN HALEN: Well, that wasn’t on purpose. That was not my call (laughs). It just so happened, this is like a milestone in my life. Never ever have lyrics inspired me to write anything. It was always music first, then squeeze a melody out of it and throw some lyrics on it. Well Gary just kind of stuck me some lyrics and goes, “Here check these out when you got time.” Well, of course, I looked at them immediately, and as long as that song is is as long as it took. It just came right through me. Not to get bizarre or spiritual on you, but it was almost like an out-of-body experience. I was like sitting there watching myself while I’m singing and playing. I had goosebumps, and I’m going, ‘Where is this coming from?’ I’ve always known, you know, where do ideas come from, if you really think about it? Once you start thinking you’re responsible, forget it. I mean, I’m just a conduit. The ideas are given. Now, it’s like I can’t write without him handing me lyrics. Then I write the melody, and I sing it and he re-sings them. That one, Mike Post and Gary said, “Hey, why should I sing it when the vibe is there?” That’s kind of a Tom Waits kind of, you know, I’m not really a singer.

DF: How hard was it to sing the first time in concert?

VAN HALEN: I was a little nervous, but you know, I sing backgrounds. I mean, I used to lead sing for the band before Roth was in the band. It’s just I never learned properly how to sing, so after about four or five songs my voice would be shot.

DF: In the past you’ve compared the band’s albums to children, obviously the newest child will get the most attention ...

Michael Anthony and Gary Cherone. (Daily Herald file photo)

VAN HALEN: No, that’s another thing. We’re playing everything. Gary asked, "How come you never do any of the old stuff?" You know, certain people didn’t want to sing it. So we gave him free rein and we said, “Yeah you pick the tunes and we’ll do ’em.” So I had to go back and listen to “Van Halen I” and learn “I’m the One.”

DF: Was it challenging to have to relearn some of those older songs?

VAN HALEN: Oh, it sure blew my mind — I didn’t realize how much my playing has changed over the years. You know, it’s an unconscious thing, but there’s a lick in the beginning that I’m going, “Man, how in the hell did I do that?” And it took me a while to learn.

DF: Now you know what the rest of us go through when we try to learn it!

VAN HALEN: (laughs) I guess I know how you feel now.

DF: At least you know you were able to do it once.

VAN HALEN: Yeah, well I can still do it. It’s amazing after 20 years you just kind of evolve or change and not necessarily for, I’m not saying I’m any better now or anything. But let’s say (Eric) Clapton for instance, you know? Look at him during Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and the Dominoes — and what he’s doing now, it’s completely different. I’m sure unconsciously, you know what I mean? I just think it’s a natural evolution or growth or whatever you want to call it. That’s the way I look at the band, too. I kind of look at it like we’re kind of like this huge oak tree that the seed was planted back in ’74 and it sprouted in ’78 with the first record, and we just continue to branch out and experiment. I think once you stop branching out and moving forward, then the tree dies.

DF: Well, you’ve sure provided a lot of shade for people over the years.

VAN HALEN: Well, it’s my life. I thank God every night for having found my gift, so to speak. I love doing it. I don’t know. That’s what I’m here for. I think everybody’s born with a gift, some people just never find it or bother to try and find it, you know?

DF: What’s the hardest song for you to play each night?

VAN HALEN: I don’t know. None of them are really hard. It just depends on if I remember how to play it or not! (laughs) ’Cause sometimes you get so wrapped up, I don’t know, it’s such a loose thing that we just kind of have a skeleton of a setlist, and sometimes we don’t follow it and we’ll go into a song that we haven’t played in a while and, yeah, then it’s tough. Then I’ve got to think — and I don’t like to think.

DF: Hey, do you mind if we talk about your sobriety for a minute?

VAN HALEN: No, not at all.

DF: How’s everything going there?

VAN HALEN: Excellent.

DF: What’s it been, like two to three years?

VAN HALEN: Oh, more than that. See, Oct. 2, ’94. Whatever, I’m not an A.A. kind of guy where I count the days. I’ve had a glass of wine here and there, it just doesn’t control me like it used to.

DF: I’d read where your dad had given you your first drink before to calm you down before you played ...

VAN HALEN: Yeah, my first cigarette and my first shot of vodka.

DF: I was wondering, with everything you’ve gone through and the experience of hindsight, if you were offered that first drink again, would you still take it?

VAN HALEN: I have no idea. I don’t know. That’s an interesting question. ’Cause I’ve never really looked back ... put it this way, if I had to do it all over again, I don’t think I would change anything ’cause I think it took that to get to where I am.

DF: ’Cause I was wondering if it was the kind of thing where having gone through the experience, you’re better off now, knowing what you know than never having done it?

VAN HALEN: Probably, yeah. But I wouldn’t know because that’s the way it was, you know what I mean? I think I caught it just in time. I think when you hit around 40 and you don’t cut the crap, you know, you either kick the bucket or just lose it in the turn.

The full Van Halen 3 lineup rockin' it in Park City on July 14, 1998. (Daily Herald file photo)

 DF: One of the other more memorable things I’ve heard you say, because you were talking about your dad just a little before, when he went and watched you play at the Forum ...

VAN HALEN: Oh, yeah ...

DF: I grew up there and I went to a lot of concerts there, so that was always the big place in my mind. I imagine it was for you, too?

VAN HALEN: It was always a dream to play there. A friend of Alex’s drew a poster when we used to play backyard parties, you know the band used to be called Genesis before it was Mammoth, and then we walked into a record store and go, “Hey, we’ve got a record out, Alex.” (laughs) Then, of course, we changed it. But the poster said “Genesis at the Forum.” You know, that was the place where we used to go see Zeppelin and Grand Funk and, you know, so yeah, it was a dream come true to play there.

DF: But you mentioned that you were playing there (at the first Forum show), and you looked out during your guitar solo and saw your dad was sitting there and he was crying ...

VAN HALEN: Oh, yeah, he was sitting by a monitor board. He was so proud.

DF: You know, when I used to crank up the guitar at home my dad used to cry, too, but it was for a different reason than that ... (laughs)

VAN HALEN: Well, that was my mom. My mom, used to always say, “Why do you make that high crying noise?” ... “It bought you a house, didn’t it?” (laughs)

DF: That must be very special to have a moment like that that you can remember and look back on.

VAN HALEN: Oh, yeah. The funny thing is, my father who was the musician, did not at all push us, you know? It was my mom who pushed us, to “Well, if you’re going to make music, do something respectable. You’ve got to play classical piano.” So we did that for a few years like the movie “Shine.” You ever seen the movie?

DF: “Shine?” No.

VAN HALEN: The Australian guy? Well, basically, you sit there and you practice one piece of music for a whole damn year, and they put you in a category of how many years you’ve played and what piece of music and it’s a contest. And, you know, I actually won three years in a row, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea, you know? There was no room for improv or to do what I wanted to do. You had to play what was on the paper. It was so funny because I never really learned how to read, so the judge’s comments were, “Very interesting interpretation.” I thought I was playing it right! (laughs)

DF: It probably sounded good though.

VAN HALEN: Well, (laughing) I won!

DF: How do you think your dad would enjoy the third incarnation of the band?

VAN HALEN: Oh, he would love it! Definitely. He’s up there, you know, watching over us.

DF: That’s a good feeling.

VAN HALEN: Oh, yeah.

DF: With the Internet and everything, you know, I’m on the Van Halen Mailing List, I get so much information and I can’t get enough of it, but then again, I look to the show next Tuesday (in Utah) and in a way, I wish I knew nothing about the show going in.

VAN HALEN: I still think that whatever people say, you’ve got to read the book, you can’t have someone explain it to you, you know what I mean?

DF: Having so much information out there about what you’re playing ...

VAN HALEN: I don’t even know ’cause I don’t even know how to run a computer. Valerie does and every now and then she goes, “Ummmmmmm errrrrrr ehhhhh” and I go. “OK.” There’s people that still want Roth in the band, you know? Of course. Now, I just think it’s funny, I mean, I’m not knocking people on the Internet, you know, but I just don’t have the time for it.

DF: What CDs have you been listening to?

VAN HALEN: I’m so into cello right now, Yo Yo Ma. He’s a Japanese-American cellist. I just listen to him and just like with guitar, I just listen and emulate.

DF: You’re not going to start playing cello now too are you?

VAN HALEN: Yeah, I am playing cello. I sit in a racquetball court. It just sounds amazing.

DF: You should have put that on “Once.”

VAN HALEN: No, I wasn’t that good yet. Oh, you mean for the remix?

DF: Yeah, for the top 40 (version).

VAN HALEN: (Laughs) I didn’t think about that.

DF: Have you ever thought about including the “Beat It” guitar solo in your guitar solo during the shows?

VAN HALEN: Oh, it was just an improv you know? I just walked in, blew two solos, “You guys just pick whichever one you want,” and then I left.

DF: That’s one of my favorite solos. Just hearing it when the song came out, you knew it was you.

VAN HALEN: Yeah, it’s funny, of all people, Ted Templeman happened to be in a record store and the song was playing and there were some people standing next to him and they said, “Oh, it’s just someone else trying to copy Eddie Van Halen,” and he goes, “It is.” (laughs) He’s the one, Quincy Jones called him and Ted gave him my phone number. It’s funny, when I walked in the studio I asked Quincy, “What do you want me to do?” And he goes, “Anything you want.” So I ended up rearranging the song, and little did I know the trouble I caused because there were two 24-track machines locked up with SMPTE code. It wasn’t my fault, but the engineer should have known that you don’t cut master 2-inch tape with SMPTE code on it. So he was editing master tape with code so it wouldn’t lock up afterwards. So thank God the idea I had worked, because, “Hey, let’s try this.” I thought he was just doing it on the two track and testing it. But it took them like months to piece it back together — and all they had was my guitar solo and Michael’s voice.

DF: Well, it turned out good!

VAN HALEN: Yeah, I guess it was fine. It was funny too because back then the guys really didn’t like me playing on other people’s records and stuff. Everybody was out of town and I figured, “Ah, who’s going to know if I play on this kid’s record?” And it ends up being song of the year. It was hilarious.

DF: That phantom riff at the end of “Women and Children First” (called “Growth”), that would have made a great song. Have you ever thought of developing that? Do you know which one I’m talking about?

VAN HALEN: I think you mean at the end of the second record. (Hums “Growth” riff.)

DF: Isn’t that on “Women and Children First”?

VAN HALEN: No, it’s on the second album, I think? I think it’s on Van Halen II.

DF: Yeah, but that is the riff. That would make a great song.

VAN HALEN: Yeah, I forgot about that. There’s so much music, you know? I mean, we were actually thinking about putting out a double CD with Gary, you know, the first one, we have so much material. You just keep writing and writing, just about every day.

DF: I bet you just have tons of tape ...

VAN HALEN: Oh, I’ve got so much music. I look at all the tapes and I go, “Ugh, I don’t have time to go back and listen to all of that, I got new stuff, you know?”

DF: I know Eric Clapton was your idol growing up, if you could ask him one question, what would it be?

VAN HALEN: Wow. I wouldn’t have any questions, I would just say, “Thank you.” And I have. I’ve met him a few times and it’s, you know, it’s just amazing because now, over the years I’ve met ... Jeff Beck is a really good friend, Jimmy Page is a real sweetheart, David Gilmour is just incredible. All these guys, Clapton ... you know, we’re just normal people making music.

DF: I guess that’s what I’d like to tell you is just thanks for all the years of making music. I can’t even begin to tell you how much listening to your music has meant to me over the past 20 years.

VAN HALEN: Thank you very much. I think that’s what music is all about. It’s a universal language. I think if it comes from the heart, which definitely with Gary now it does, it’s not contrived, you know? I mean, it’s not, “Hey, skateboarding’s in, let’s write a song about that,” you know what I mean? It’s definitely heartfelt and we don’t let it out unless we like it. And the whole purpose is to maybe touch some people’s lives with it, you know? Whether it be 10 people or 10 million.

DF: Well, you definitely have, and I just wanted to tell you thanks.

VAN HALEN: Well, you’re very welcome and I thank God for having the opportunity to do it.

My wife, Jenn, and I got to meet up with the band one week after my interview.

Related content: I have waxed poetic about the world's greatest rock band on more than one occasion. Here are a select few of the many other stories.

My introduction to the mighty Van Halen.
A 'Different Kind of Truth' sets Van Halen fans free.
Running with the Tiger: Van Halen at Tiger Jam XI
Where Have All the Good Times Gone? Fractured Van Halen inducted into Hall of Fame.
You Had Me at 'I Live My Life Like There's No Tomorrow.'
Van Halen Rocks Delta Center on 2004 Tour.
Sammy Hagar, Alex Van Halen Discuss 2004 Reunion Tour

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Tuning up with Journey's Neal Schon

Journey guitarist Neal Schon.  (Photo: Travis Shinn)

My first visit behind the curtain, as it were, to the mystical concert realm reverently referred to as "backstage" occurred on Aug. 26, 1978, and I was a recently graduated 17-year-old who had no real clue what he was doing while wandering aimlessly around hoping to catch a glimpse of rock stars in their natural habitat.

My family had just moved from Los Angeles to Utah earlier that summer, but I excitedly made the 11-hour drive back down to Southern California to catch the most anticipated concert of the year. The Electric Light Orchestra, then at the peak of its popularity, was headlining at Anaheim Stadium. I recognize that statement might sound a little funny now, but trust me, ELO was the biggest band in America that year, touring behind its definitive double-album opus, "Out of the Blue," even though the Jeff Lynne-led group experienced a rather dramatic fade in the ensuing years -- due in large part to its out-of-left field, disco-tinged followup, "Discovery," but I digress. The word on the street in that pre-Internet daze was that ELO was performing inside a giant spaceship stage with an array of dazzling effects, creating a show that was not to be missed. Certainly I was not going to allow something as minor as a multi-state move be a roadblock to attending.

  As it so happened, a friend who worked for one of the major record labels at the time and knew I was traveling down for the show, kindly arranged for a pair of backstage passes. Alas, they came with one caveat: I had to pretend to be a British newspaper journalist. (Because every respectable British tabloid flies a non-accented, 17-year-old overseas to cover a random concert in Los Angeles!) Figuring I had nothing really to lose and an unparalleled backstage opportunity to gain, I accepted.

The passes, as it turned out, were arranged through the management of Journey, the main support band that day. Journey was just starting to break nationally at that time behind the arrival of a new lead singer, Steve Perry, and the strength of their current release, "Infinity." I had the album -- or rather a crackling and hissing cassette tape that had been copied from a friend's vinyl album (the 1970s version of Napster) -- and had been wearing it out while grooving to great songs like "Wheel in the Sky," "Lights" and "La-Do-Da." One thing I knew: The band's guitarist, Neal Schon, could flat-out rock.

On the day of the show, backstage check-in was at a door somewhere behind left-center field at the stadium. Another friend and accomplice, Paul Moore, and I approached the burly -- and extremely brusque guard and waited while he attempted to find our names on the hallowed list. Of course, they weren't on there. Fortunately, I had been given a phone number for the nearby hotel where Journey was staying and the name of the band's tour manager, Pat Morrow, in case there were any problems. So I rang him up.

"You're on the list, I just barely went over it," Morrow said. "We're just getting ready to leave the hotel, so we'll be there in 10 minutes. We'll be pulling up in four limos. Meet me there."

Buoyed by the positive response, we went back and waited in the parking lot near the backstage entrance. The same security guard saw us and ordered us to leave. I explained the situation -- but the guard clearly didn't believe us, and, in retrospect, who could blame him? I countered by saying the band would be pulling up in four limos shortly and he would see all was in order. He scoffed and told us to wait outside of the immediate parking lot.

We felt no small amount of vindication when the quartet of limos -- precisely as promised -- pulled up a few minutes later, and members of the band and their contingent piled out. One man glanced toward us and yelled out my name. We hurried up and were greeted by Mr. Morrow, who was every bit as friendly and inviting as the backstage security guard was rude and gruff. The security guard actually balked as Morrow cleared the band -- and us -- through the door.

"They're with me," Morrow said a wee bit dismissively -- to my amusement. Once inside, I thanked him by name, but he quickly corrected me. "Call me Bubba," he said. "All my friends call me Bubba."

With that, Bubba turned us loose in the backstage area -- where we had absolutely no idea what we should or should not be doing. During the first two acts, bands named Trickster and Kingfish, we wandered out and watched the show from right in front of the stage, in the pit separating the stage from the vast stadium audience. It was surreal.

We were wandering around at some point between the band performances when we noticed a few trailers off to one side. One trailer had an open door and a sign that said "Tuning Room." I wandered up and looked inside and that's where I had my first real interaction with Schon -- a guitarist who would go on to write the riffs and melodic leads to some of the best-known songs of the 1980s. Journey may have been supporting that day, but in a matter of years, it would be the San Francisco-based band headlining stadium shows.

That memorable first backstage meeting with Schon, at least for me, is detailed in this interview. I like to think that experience 34 years ago, at least in some fashion, eventually helped influence a legitimate career in music journalism. One that no longer requires a fake British accent.

This interview -- which touches on a variety of topics, including Schon's upcoming two solo albums, his memories of seeing guitarist Eddie Van Halen live for the first time when Van Halen opened for Journey on the band's first tour and his year in the tabloids as a result of his relationship with reality TV starlet Michaele Salahi -- took place on July 24, the day of the third stop on Journey's U.S. tour with Pat Benatar and Loverboy. The show makes a stop tonight at USANA Amphitheatre in West Valley City.

DOUG FOX: Now, where am I reaching you at today, are you in Paso Robles, is that what I saw?

NEAL SCHON: Yes I am. I’m here and we’re playing here tonight and then we’ve got a long-ass drive.

DF: Where are you going tomorrow then?

SCHON: We’re going to Cheyenne, Wyoming.

DF: That is a long drive.

SCHON: Well, it was either that or take a zillion little tiny flights to get there. And I hate the airport anymore, anytime I have to do a connection and then another connection, I say screw it, we’ll drive — but it’s 18 hours. It’s an 18-hour drive. So that’s our day off, it’s an 18-hour drive.

DF: Well, if it’s any consolation, I think a lot of that terrain is good to sleep through.

SCHON: Exactly. That’s just what I’m looking forward to doing actually, you know. Sometimes I get more sleep on tour than when I’m at home.

DF: You know, I can believe that.

SCHON: So I’m going to catch up on some sleep.

DF: OK, well good. In starting, I must say that it’s a pleasure to finally get to speak with you because the first time our paths crossed — which was just about 34 years ago — you left me completely and utterly speechless ...

SCHON: What did I do?

DF: Well, it’s funny. It goes back to when, I know you’ve played a thousand shows since then, but this was a pretty big one and it’s still one of the best concerts I’ve ever witnessed from top to bottom, so I think you’ll remember it, but it was when you opened for ELO at Anaheim Stadium back in 1978.

SCHON: Oh ... so this was pre-Steve Perry?

DF: No, Steve was there. It was the “Infinity” tour. 

SCHON: Oh, and we were opening for ELO? 

DF: Yes. Do you remember that? 

SCHON: It must have been right in the very beginning when he first got in the band. 

DF: Yeah, you were touring for “Infinity” I remember, that was the big album then. 

SCHON: Right. 

DF: But the thing is, that summer I was just fresh out of high school and I had a friend in the record industry who was able to set me up with a backstage pass through Pat Morrow ... 

SCHON: Yeah, Pat. I love Pat. 

DF: And that was like my first backstage experience and of course I didn’t have a clue what I was doing back there, I was just kind of walking around and soaking in the atmosphere, but there was a series of trailers that were there and I noticed one of them had a sign that said “Tuning Room” on it, and the door was open. So I wandered over there, just to kind of get a peek inside to see what was going on. So I was there looking in the door, and there you are, like 10 feet away sitting in a chair, like, warming up ... and I’m just standing there thinking, “Oh, wow, this is so cool to watch.” I must have been there like 10-15 seconds just watching and then all of a sudden, I guess you kind of realized that I was standing there, and you suddenly turned and stared at me. And the look on your face to me, as I interpreted it, was “Whaddya want, kid? I’m getting ready to play before a stadium full of people, what are you doing here?” That was just the look on your face, of course. But I totally panicked, I was like a deer in the headlights. 

SCHON: Oh, sorry, man! I was probably in the zone trying to get ready for everything. 

DF: Yeah, I know that’s totally what you were doing. I was just so out of my element, I was like, “Oh, no, what do I do now?” And I just turned and walked away. But that’s still one of my favorite backstage stories to this day. 

SCHON: Oh, that’s funny, man. Well, if you come to this one, I won’t be shocked if you’re standing there looking! [laughs] 

DF: And I think I’ve grown up a lot since then, I think I could at least get a few questions out before turning and walking away. 
SCHON: Yeah. 

DF: Well, you’ve got so much on your plate these days, I mean, it’s almost hard to pick where to start off, but since you kind of mentioned it already and the tour has just barely kicked off, the brand new tour you’ve got with Pat Benatar and Loverboy, how have the first few shows gone? 

SCHON: Doing great. I’ve heard that the reviews are really outstanding, I haven’t read any yet, but you know, really, the first show all I was trying to do was remember the songs. We did very little rehearsal, really all we did was fly down to San Bernardino and we were able to set up our gear in the actual place we were playing, that was San Manuel the amphitheater. So we had new video content, our whole crew was there and we were sort of doing run-throughs of the show with new content, but the band had not actually played for close to 10 months, the last 10 months. So, you know, I was just trying to remember songs. I had a couple train wrecks, you know, [laughs] up on stage I did some fast editing in my mind — that sometimes works in the studio, but it doesn’t work on stage. So I’m playing an extra chorus and I’m looking around at everybody going, “Where are you guys,” you know? So we had some real moments like that, but I think overall it was good. And our show in Lake Tahoe the night before last was very strong. I mean, I felt like I had a good show, and the band had a good show. The altitude is very high. Right now we’re playing in A4-40, which is the original key. And then there was a fire that broke out, a forest fire. And so all through the set I was watching these ashes come down. My lungs were filling up. And they’ve got the high altitude and I’m sitting there singing and I’m going, “ ... I can’t even breathe.” And so I’m going, “I don’t know how he’s doing it.” He really did well I thought. He got through it with not such a great environment to try and sing in. But, you know, that’s what the road is. You deal with all these different elements from time to time, things that happen. That’s what it is. Sometimes you get dealt lemons, you make lemonade, you know? 

DF: I’ve got to say, that’s kind of the rock ’n’ roll attitude. And I think, though, in listening to you talk about that and having seen you play live so many times over the years, as well as so many other great musicians — I assume you guys make some mistakes, but most of the time in the audience we don’t figure that out. Do you find that those things happen occasionally or more than that? 

SCHON: I think usually the mistakes are so minimal and so small that nobody would notice it except for us — or someone that’s really a “muso” guitar player or somebody that plays keyboards as an actual musician, and he would go, “Oh, that was terrible, what was that clunker?” Then there’s train wrecks, you know. [laughs] And usually those never happen, but I mean, if we had rehearsed more it wouldn’t have. But I think we ended up playing a lot of material when we were soundchecking and will continue to do that. We’re working up a bunch of stuff and plan on moving things around a bit more than we usually do. Sometimes we get locked into a set that works really well and we just kind of stick to it. I think we’ll just keep mixing it up, because I think, not just us but any other band, that plays the same thing all the time, you get kind of just worn out with it in a longer tour. You’ve got to just kind of put in some new elements once in a while to keep everybody thinking and creative. 

DF: And building on that, I know that you’re kind of locked in, I’ve heard Jonathan [Cain, keyboardist] refer to them as “The Dirty Dozen,” you know, your hit singles that you really have to play a certain amount of those, but are there any old album tracks that you personally would love to see in the setlist? And do you get the chance to break those in once in a while. 

SCHON: Well that’s what I was just saying. We just rehearsed a bunch of older stuff. I mean, we rehearsed a bunch of “Infinity” stuff that we haven’t played for years. A lot of stuff. We’ve got a lot of material. Yeah, we do have to play the greatest hits, that’s what everybody comes to see, but, you know, we have stuck in a couple songs that we didn’t play last tour from “Revelation,” which was our first record we did with Arnel [Pineda, vocalist], and we’ve been playing those, so who knows what we’ll throw in? But we have our little slots, I believe there’s like three or four slots where there’s interchangeable songs, that we have right now. So far, the first two shows we’ve moved things around. 

DF: I saw some setlist from not too long ago where you opened with “Majestic”? 

SCHON: We just did that the other night, yeah. And that was something we did that was in our “Live in Manila” DVD that’s close to a three-hour show. So we went back to that because we didn’t use any intro the prior tour. You know, you do so many things throughout the years, you don’t want to go out every two years or every other year and go, “Oh, let’s not do exactly the same thing.” We do have to play the hits, there’s no getting around that. I mean, we’re a classic rock band and, you know, we’re selling out. It was just really great news, we did better business the last couple nights than we ever did in the past. And oversold. I think it’s a good package, once again. Pat Benatar’s very strong, Loverboy’s great. You know, we toured with Loverboy in the 80s, and we did a few shows with Benatar and Neil [Giraldo, Benatar’s husband and guitarist]. I think the music goes together really well. It’s definitely a classic rock show. 

DF: I was going to mention that because delving back into my Journey history, I also caught your “Escape” tour show with Loverboy at the Forum in L.A. ...  

SCHON: Right. 

DF: And that was such a dynamic pairing back then. As I recall, “Escape” had just gone to No. 1, and Loverboy’s “Get Lucky” was also really big. What kind of memories does this pairing rekindle for you? 

SCHON: You know, we always got along with those guys really great. They were great guys. I remember I was in Canada in Vancouver, mixing the second Bad English record that I did when I was in that band with John Waite, Jon Cain and Deen [Castronovo, Journey drummer] and Ricky [Phillips, bass, now in Styx], and Mike Reno [Loverboy vocalist] was in the back studio — same studio, another room — doing a solo record. Well, the Bad English band had broken up, in fact, while I was in the studio — mixing this record, you know, we decided that we were not going to continue, so I kind of just bolted down to the other studio to see what Mike was doing and I ended up playing on his solo record. [laughs] 

DF: It seems to me today, with all the people I’ve talked to involved with the packaged tours that have really popular, the thing that stands out to me is it seems like there’s a really cooperative spirit between all the bands and a healthy camaraderie, but that hasn’t always been the case, right? In the old days didn’t it get pretty competitive between the headliner and the support acts? 

SCHON: Well, you know what, I think everybody’s still competitive, it’s something that keeps everybody alive and kicking. But there’s no reason to be, like, weird about it. It’s like, everybody’s good. It’s like that. It’s like just play as good as you can and it’s going to be great. 

DF: As far as lead guitarists, what’s been the most competitive tour that you’ve ever been on? 

SCHON: With other guitar players? 

DF: Yeah, with other guitar players on the bill. 

SCHON: Well, absolutely I’d have to say, hands down, it was our first “Infinity” tour that we did that we were headlining, with Van Halen — that was their very first tour. It was Van Halen, Montrose — Steve Smith was then playing with Ronnie Montrose, it was instrumental — then us. All I remember saying is I was glad that I was not following Eddie [Van Halen] back then — even though, you know, I had my flaming moments too. We were all on fire but Ed was like coming out of left field at that time and nobody knew what the hell he was doing with the tapping, you know? I mean, I sat in a bedroom and tried to figure out his stuff with a record player, slowing it down to a slower speed and the whole thing and I still couldn’t — I’d never seen anybody do a triplet thing with their other hand, you know, with tapping. Until I met Ed and he showed me what it was, I was like, “You got me. This completely stumped me.” And he was just on fire. You know, I don’t think he ever plays bad, but in the very beginning, Eddie was just ... the whole thing, those guys were just rockin’. You know, that was a great guitar show. 

DF: What was it like to see him live for the first time? 

SCHON: It was just, really I was like, “Wow! This guy is so on fire.” I loved the whole attitude of it, you know? He had a really different tone than anybody back then and it was interesting. He had a lot of interesting things he did to get that sound. The power alternator, all kind of things that made the amp head get hotter, like run hotter, they sound better. They blow up more frequently, but they sound better, you know? So he was like a mad little scientist, you know? Ed and I became really close. We hung out a lot. Later we jammed and hung out for years after that. And Sammy Hagar — Ed and I were hanging in my room one night, I think after he played, and I had just done the record with HSAS [Hagar, Schon, Aaronson, Shrieve] and I had a boombox in my room, and I was playing Eddie this record and he was like, “Wow, this is pretty cool.” And he was going back and he kept listening to some riff that I did in some song back before, and I said, “Let the thing run, listen to the whole thing!” And then he goes, “Well who’s the singer?” And I go, “It’s Sammy Hagar.” So shortly after that, Sammy Hagar was in the band, so I think I brought awareness of him to Ed at that point. 

DF: Well I would love the day when the tape surfaces of those jam sessions that you and Eddie had. 

SCHON: Well, I don’t know if there is any tape — we jammed a few times on stage. One was a NAMM show, one was at a little place in Marin County, close to where I live, called Uncle Charlie’s, and I jammed in there with Albert King, and a lot of people. I used to play with Albert a lot when he came through town. And B.B. You know, there was a lot more music going on in the ’80s all the way around, in clubs. Clubs are kind of non-existent right now for the most part. There’s a few, but I think they’re trying to get back on their feet. I hope they do for the sake of a lot of younger bands that are trying to get out there because there’s just no other way that they’re going to be heard. 

DF: I know that despite your main time commitment to Journey over the years, and you’ve just touched on this again, but all the solo and side projects — HSAS, Bad English, Planet Us, and everything along the way — do you ever have any down time when you’re not playing? 

SCHON: Actually, you know what? I’ve just had 10 months off and I worked my ass off. [laughs] My manager just said to me yesterday, she’s just like “Work like a dog!” I had recorded two solo records in my down time. Actually right after we did “Eclipse,” the last Journey record with Arnel, we had a month of time off, so I decided I was going to stay in the studio and I knocked out a new solo record that’s coming out Oct. 29, “The Calling.” 

DF: Yeah, I was going to ask if there was a release date for that yet. 

SCHON: Yeah, it’s now coming out on Frontiers worldwide, and EMI in the United States. Yeah, I was hoping it was going to come out sooner because it’s done and ready to go, but I’m really proud of this record. It came out of nowhere. I just kind of improvised the whole record with Steve [Smith]. I played bass on the record. I had Igor Len on keyboards, who worked on “I on U” and “Electric World” before with me. He plays a lot of great acoustic piano, a blazing Moog solo. And then I also had Jan Hammer did me the honor and played on a couple songs and played a couple of blazing solos. And the record is really well rounded musically. There’s a lot of different variety on it, which I’m happy about. So when I got done with that record, I decided, “Well, I’m going to stay in and I’m going to do another record.” [laughs] I had the creative juices flowing, you know? That’s how it is with me, once I get going ... if I get going and get off to a good start, I sort of have endless creative ideas. So I did another record with Marco Mendoza on bass and lead vocals, and Deen Castronovo, on lead vocals and drums, and then I also sang. And then Jack Blades came in to help round out songwriting. I got together with Jack and him and I wrote lyrics for a lot of the songs. And I wrote some lyrics with Marco on a couple tunes, and that record is just being finished right now, I’m tweaking the mixes right now, but it’s done and it sounds really strong. Very experimental, every song is a bit different. You go, “Are those the same guys?” Really jamming stuff, pretty cool. 

DF: They’re sending me “The Calling” in the mail but it hasn’t gotten here yet, but I’m really looking forward to listening to it. 

SCHON: Yeah, I really feel it’s one of the more musical solo records I’ve ever done — instrumentally anyway. 

DF: And it’s a full instrumental album? 

SCHON: Yeah. 

DF: Listening to you talk about getting the creative juices going, all of a sudden I’m remembering a quote from Sammy Hagar back in the HSAS days where he said playing with you was like turning on a water faucet, you know, once the faucet’s open you can’t slow it back down to a drip, it’s like flowing non-stop. I’ve always remembered that. 

SCHON: Yeah, I’ve always had a lot of ideas, and Sammy has actually given credit to the whole project that we did together. He’s told me before and he’s told a lot of other people that I’ve read, that he just said, “Had I not done that project with Neal, I probably would have never known where to start in the Van Halen realm.” I think that we got really experimental. Him and I wrote everything in two weeks. We wrote like, I don’t know, I think close to 20 songs, and then rehearsed for two weeks with the guys and then we played lived, and that was that. 

DF: Have you had a chance, I assume you have, to listen to “A Different Kind of Truth” — the new Van Halen record? 

SCHON: I have listened ... I just actually downloaded it a while ago and I’ve listened to a few tracks. I have not gotten through the whole record because I have so much new stuff that I downloaded, I’m kind of like moving around and checking everything out a little bit, but I definitely am going to get through it. 

DF: Yeah, I just wondered what your thoughts were from a guitar player’s standpoint. 

SCHON: You know, I think it’s really good. I have to be completely honest. I think Wolfie sounds really good and competent as a bass player, more than competent, he sounds like a great player. I kind of miss Michael Anthony in the realm of things because I just feel that he was like the glue that kind of glues everything together — even though it’s very good. You know, but a lot of people feel the same about us. You know, you change one element of a band, it always sounds different. It still sounds very good and very strong. 

DF: As fans, at least as far as my thought process is, we can’t make bands stay together in their original lineups, sometimes change turns out even for the better. All we can do is listen to and judge the current product. 

SCHON: All I know is that we always have fans like that, that say, “You guys are not Journey” without this, without that or without Steve. And I’m like, “Well, obviously we are because we’re doing better than we’ve ever done.” The last tour was the best we had done in 20 years, and this tour is already doing better than we’ve done in the markets prior to this. So we’re off to a good start again. 

DF: You opened that last tour here in Salt Lake. 

SCHON: Yeah. 

DF: Now throughout your career you’ve been used to a certain amount of attention, like as a rock star, but this past year or so has really taken things to another level with the lawsuits, tabloids and everything involved with that ...  

SCHON: [laughs] 

DF: Now I understand you have a reality TV show coming out too? 

SCHON: Well, there’s lots of offers and I’m dabbling with the idea of it, but I’m also, like, thinking about it very carefully. I can definitely tell you that I would not get involved with anything that I’m not controlling. I’d have to be executive producer, and then I would consider it. I’d only consider it at that point. But, yeah, it’s been a lot to digest, a big learning curve, though, for me, because I never knew any of this stuff existed out there. And then, bam! [laughs] “What is going on?” It was crazy, really kind of surreal. But people have been really great through it all to myself and Michaele. Everywhere we go, people are very, very nice and supportive. You know, we were just dealing with some crazy things — the fact that everything went so ballistically public, in TV and everything, you know? I’ve had my divorces before but everything was taken care of behind closed doors, and so the fact that everything was brought out into the open, and brought on “Good Morning America” and this and that, I was just like, “Wow, this is insane!” But we’re alive and well, and skin has gotten thicker and we’re still smiling [laughs]. All is good, you know? 

DF: Well, that’s great to hear. I think we’ve gone past our allotted time so I don’t want to keep you hanging on, but I’ve enjoyed talking with you. 

SCHON: Oh, thank you. 

DF: And hopefully if I see you in Salt Lake, I’ll be able to say something this time. 

SCHON: Yeah, say hello. 

DF: Thanks, Neal. 

SCHON: All right, buddy.