Jump into the history of Van Halen with author and historian Greg Renoff, who once again joins Nestor to discuss the new Alex Van Halen book “Brothers” on his life with Eddie and the sensation of the “5150” residue on last summer’s Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony tour and bringing the best of both worlds back to Las Vegas for a residency next spring.
Nestor Aparicio and Greg Renoff discuss the legacy of Van Halen, focusing on the Sammy Hagar era and the recent release of Alex Van Halen’s book. Nestor highlights his passion for music, mentioning his Maryland crab cake tour and his admiration for Sammy Hagar’s performances. Greg shares insights from his book “Van Halen Rising,” which traces the band’s origins, and discusses Alex’s book, which delves into his family dynamics and relationship with his brother Eddie. They also touch on the challenges of writing music biographies and the impact of COVID-19 on live performances.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Van Halen, Sammy Hagar, Alex Van Halen, 5150 tour, music history, concert experiences, rock and roll, band dynamics, family influence, Ted Templeman, recording process, yacht rock, music biography, concert reviews, music passion
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Greg Renoff
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We’re Baltimore positive.com. Please come on out and check us out on the interwebs and subscribe and click here and do all the things I don’t even know anything about. The Marilyn lottery gives me these Raven scratch offs to give away. We’ve been arguing about the Raven front facing bird logo. We’ll be doing this throughout the holidays. The Maryland crab cake tour is coming near you. We’re going to be green mount station this week. And then for the holidays, we’re going to be Cocos on the fourth and having eggnog, and it’ll be spiked. And then on the fifth we’re going to be over at the BMA doing art and crab cakes, as well as a theater with Dan Roderick, so who is a writer in residence at the Baltimore Sun for 45 years of doing his play. All are brought to you by friends at Jiffy Lube MultiCare, as well as our friends at the Maryland lottery. Making a big announcement here in this segment, but you’ll be hearing it throughout the week. This will be the only fresh one I do this week that is music oriented. It came to my attention that November 22 is International Music Day. I looked this up, and it’s not some Hallmark holiday thing. This thing goes back to, like, the 18th century. This thing goes back to like, you know, real music, Bach and, you know, the stuff that Billy Joel listens to these days. And I just wanted to, like, freshen up some music stuff. But I’ve interviewed so many Rock and Roll Hall of Famers in modern times, including Gina shock, who’s going to be joining us down a Costas on the 18th. We’ll be Danny Don dog talking about the Go Go’s reunion next year, because Belinda just put the band back together. That’s pretty good. Gina’s gonna if she hears that, she’s gonna poop. Um, but so I’m doing whole rock and roll thing. If you listen this week with the Ravens in in LA playing the Monday night game. I’ve just gotten into a music state of mind. It’s what makes me happy doing things like at the end of the year, I get all wistful now that I’m 56 the best part of the year for me, certainly not for any Ravens fan would not be, you know, losing to the Chiefs either time. But sports, not really. It’s what concert Did you see this year? Where did you go? What did you see? And I sort of chased Sammy Hagar around knowing that it was going to be good, because the internet allows you to see rehearsals. And I’m like, he’s gonna play 5150 what with sat Tria, what? So I put my I drove with a bad back to Cleveland to go to blossom, to see it for the third time and hang out with Thomas Dolby. And there’s only one Van Halen guy that it comes into this honest. He wrote a book about the Dave era. And lots folks love Dave. And so, you know, the book sells nice. And then Alex is writing a book. Sammy just is that on the internet. Michael, Anthony just appears really happy to be singing a few songs on stage and enjoying his life and golfing and doing whatever he’s doing. Greg renoff is enjoying his life as now a writer in residence in the universe. He’s the writer of writings. I call him the good professor. I think he’s Jersey born and bred. He’s got some ticket stubs lying around from the Brendan burn arena back in the day, and it allows me to bring out my Van Halen belt buckles. And you know, I’ll let everybody tell you, you can tell the story of what you do and who you are and but you’re the Van Halen author in my world. But you took a really interesting take on Van Halen, because it was almost a little bit of a prequel to their success in a lot of ways. And I love your history, and I love seeing your postings. And I’m like, once or twice a year I get to have run off on and you know, a year when I’m chasing Sammy around, chasing 1986 1987 in my childhood. And Alex writes this book. I thought it’d be great to have you on. So how are you? My rock and roll friend? I
Greg Renoff 04:01
am. Well, thanks for that wonderful introduction. Always a pleasure. I will tell you that I spent a lot of time listening to Sammy Hagar era Van Halen at a dorm at the University of Maryland College Park, an eight story, all male dorm, cranking. Oh, you 812, and other Van Halen albums. So come by.
Nestor Aparicio 04:22
Yeah. And then everybody in the dorm knew Hell’s about to break loose, you know, straight on through, because you’re not turning, you know, best of both worlds. You don’t say, turn that one off. Skip through that, you know, like it was, Are you? I mean, I’ll start the party for anybody that hadn’t been here. Greg and I’ve done a couple of chats and go read them about his book, and we’ll weave through this because we we weave the tale because it really is amazing that it isn’t over in a lot of ways, right? Like Ed has passed away. Wolfgang is out doing this thing, and I’d love to get Wolfie, if you’re listening, come on the show. I haven’t invited you, but I just did. But, like, I sort of can’t. Enough of it, and it was so good. This summer, Sammy was just so I was there the first night in West Palm. And, you know, I’ve drank wine with Sammy in a vault alone. We have mutual friends. I didn’t bother. I bought a ticket with my buddy John, who’s a guitarist, you know, we went and and then I saw it with my I took my wife, and I bought her a seat in the fifth row. Said, you just need to be really close to this like, you know, like, and then I went out to Cleveland with my buddy Bernard. I had a night alone, just me and some Mexican food and some margaritas in the parking lot. I had never been to blossom, and they were the three best nights of my summer. And, like, and I guess that’s why I would buy your book, right? I mean, you have to pimp your book and what you do, but it’s like seeing friends gather the night down at Jiffy Lube live. You know, I just saw so many friends, and it really does, it’s nostalgic, but it’s still really good dude. You know,
Greg Renoff 05:52
that’s kind of the through line for me with Van Halen. I did write a book about Van Halen beginnings called Van Halen rising, which traces their rise out of Pasadena to the worldwide stage, but you talked about the feeling you had the summer seeing Sammy at blossom and at West Palm Beach. And it’s just, it’s a reminder that that’s kind of the through line, is the good time vibe that has really been, that’s really been the, you know, there is obviously been a lot of negativity surrounded with breakups and these types of things. But for me, that was what always, was the party atmosphere. That was what always got me interested in listening to more Van Halen, and kept me listening to Van Halen all the way the way through. And that was what, you know, that was what made us crank up Van Halen albums in the dorm and party before we went to lacrosse games and party before we went to football games. And living, living in College Park. I mean, so that’s always been the thing that has been consistent for me, whatever album I’m listening to, I hear that just that positivity. I mean, there really is from the music, again, the politics inside the band, between the members. Sometimes it’s not always pretty, but I think the music is a different story. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 06:55
as I’ve said, there’s a third act going on with the offspring of Ed and Valerie. But there’s also the first they’re really two different bands and offshoot bands, and when you go see Hagar do this best of all worlds thing, and it is going to be a part two of that next summer, and I guess they’re going to come back and play a couple of the songs they couldn’t play. I should have gone to Japan, even though I’ve seen the videos. I mean, like, of all, and I love, love, love Japan. So, like, had I thought more about it? I probably, and had it, had I known he was going to drop some new tracks over there when it’s love and some other stuff? Um, and I’m not the guy that went to the island with Sammy, and I’m not necessarily a Monster Killer guy, or really in I don’t consider myself a red rocker in that way, although I love you, Sammy, you know, I love you, but this is my favorite era. And for him to bring it back, I think he’s been a little shocked at how the fan but there is no more they did the day thing, right? They’ve got back. There’s that era that’s all available on YouTube with the short air, and some of that was really good, and we can go through that, but you talk about your book and the beginnings of the feeling of they were sort of a backyard California party band, and for a kid from Baltimore or a kitchen I don’t know we had backyard bands, but my buddy John Allen and Nikki K and my guys at Child’s Play, maybe They disagree. We have more clubs than backyard bands or whatever, but it kept the California vibe that you portray in your book and the roots of where it came from, surf culture, the beach, the strip, Hollywood, television, all of that baked into this band, right? And starting with Roth, which was really the showmanship is what drew you to the band, beside the guitar playing, because it could have been inve Malmsteen too. You know what could have been a different band?
Greg Renoff 08:49
Yeah, I think, I think you, you nailed it with the California culture. I mean, that was one of the things that I really wanted to try to bring out in the book. When I wrote about it, was to understand that different bands come out of different scenes and different vibes get transmitted through basically the culture of the surroundings. And that definitely was something to all of those pieces that you’ve kind of tweaked, that you teased out, the Hollywood part, the surf part, that kind of came to be part and parcel of what Van Halen is, I think about what Ted Templeman talked about when I worked with him on on his autobiography, was that he heard in the Van Halen, background vocalist, a little bit of a Beach Boys thing. Now, it wasn’t that, wasn’t that Van Halen was trying to cop The Beach Boys, but he said, I hear this sunshine, this harmony, this Southern California positivity coming through here. But I also hear this dark, heavy metal, you know, maybe this sort of, like this heavier thing that comes out of another going
Nestor Aparicio 09:40
yacht rock there for a minute, right? Yeah, well,
Greg Renoff 09:44
I mean, you know,
Nestor Aparicio 09:46
right? You know, I mean, those kinds of bands, you know, it was all in that. And I know that yacht rock thing, we’re gonna love that in a couple weeks. It’s coming out of HBO. But, like, but it’s baked into that. That’s what that’s odo, California, yeah, Linda Ronstadt, you know. All of that. Joe Walsh, right, yeah. And
Greg Renoff 10:01
I think definitely, and I think that’s what, you know, the if you don’t have an understanding of Pasadena and what the suburb, the suburbs were like. And that’s why backyard parties were things, because you had these large houses on big, big estate, like, you know, state type land. You could put 500 1000 kids in the backyard. You could pack them in. You probably can’t do that happened
Nestor Aparicio 10:23
in teenage sex comedies in the age that was real thing. I mean, that was what. That
Greg Renoff 10:26
was one of the, that was one of the, you know, that was one of the pitches for me, for the book of people. I was like, you’ve seen the movie Days, to confuse. I mean, this was really, this is like, Daisy confused in Pasadena, really was. It was the era of muscle cars. It was the era of 7475 all that, that great music that came out of that period of times, easy top, Alice Cooper Van Halen was playing all those covers, and they were doing that, that music to build a fan base. And I think, you know, for me, understanding the the origins of Van Halen, and then kicking it up through the up the president. I mean, that’s the thing is that with, with Sammy and Mike, you know, they are carrying on the era that, you know, I kind of when I came of age Van Halen, I started with 1984 but really, as I’ve told people many times, you know, Sammy Hagar was my main era of Van Halen fan hood, because that was from 85 to 9596 when they broke up. That was my, you know, kind of my prime years as a teenager loving Van Halen, and sammy’s waving that flag. And I think credit, credit to him is that he did see the response and is doubling down on it to say they’re going to go, sound like they’re going to go out again next summer. That seems to be the plan. And they’re recording new music. It seems like it’s, you know, there is going to be no more, quote, unquote, Van Halen, as we’ve talked about you and I have talked about the past me Ed is gone. And I think Alex is right when he says, but there’s no Ed, you can’t have a Van Halen and Wolfgang says the same thing, but you can still celebrate the music and and and play the songs, right? And that’s what they’re doing. I don’t think, I don’t think anybody is going to see Sammy Hagar and Mike and saying, Oh, this is just like seeing Van Halen. It’s just more. This is, this is the spirit of Van Halen living on through these great songs. But these two guys were in Van Halen for a very, very, very long time, obviously. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 12:00
I mean, we’re all trying to have credibility and authenticity in everything we do, right? Like, I mean, literally, it’s a hallmark of what I try to do, and to bring Satriani in on it at this point. And I went to the West Palm show hot as I have never say I do hot yoga. I mean, I’m a, I’m a dude in that way, and I sweat more that night. I mean, I just was going through. It was so hot, and we were going to get tickets down in the pit. It was a little pricey, what, you know, whatever. And I’m like, we’re going to swelter. I’m not going to spend all that. So we got seats in the band and spend a lot of money. It was any it was, you know, at the end, it was okay, sat in the back of the pavilion, but I was with a real guitar player, and, you know, a guy who who knows stuff and loves the the band and has tried to emulate you do all that stuff, right? The eruption stuff, and a song and two into it, he’s like, man sat channel is, like, got his tone, like it’s channeling, in some way, was truly and the way he played. It was a celebration, like to you say, and and, like it was on. It was just, it was on in a way that, like you could never have envisioned. I couldn’t have envisioned sitting with Sammy Hagar when I first interviewed him, or sat with him in 1994 backstage. Said you’re going to be 76 say and do and running around singing, run around and honest, and Mike’s going to be hitting harmonies, and there’s going to be things that help you sound better. But you’re going to be doing this, dude, you’re gonna be not Mariah Carey’s Christmas, Lin sync and celebrate this. You’re gonna be, you’re gonna have to, you’re gonna go out and earn your money. And fans are not gonna want something half assed. It’s hidden. Willie Mays playing for the Mets. No offense, you know. I mean, this isn’t where LeBron is now. It’s where he has to be. And I, and I tell you, man, I just the fact that I saw it once, and saw it three times, and got in my car and drove to Ohio to see it and and the only reason I went to Ohio is because we didn’t go to New Jersey. I was going to go to the Jersey show on the Saturday night, and I regretted it. And I woke up Sunday morning, I said to my wife, I’m driving to Cleveland today. She’s like, You’re what? And I’m like, I’m going to drive to Cleveland. I’m just going to have an experience. So I went. That’s it was the highlight of my year. That’s I maybe. And it’s made this music thing this week for what I’m trying to do on the air. And I think guys like you that write books that, not to say, keep the legend alive, but feed a guy like me that had Van Halen one on a thing and said, Where did all this come from? Because I shook my ass at a good time. And I remember the girls and the the driest Ocean City and this cassettes, or whatever it is, but there’s a really rich tapestry that goes into all of this as we get older, to say, man, they’re alive and still making this happen. And we miss Ed. And I think the reason I reached to you was it was the five year anniversary, maybe, of Ed’s departure, and it showed up all over my timeline because of me and you and my rock and roll almost. Famous nest, all the Rock and Roll stuff I’ve done, and I thought, I’m going to reach to you. I mean, all these years later. I mean, if you do, you find more information about their youth that you could have would have put into a book had you known, because I would think you’re the dude people like me come to and we’re like, tell me more about Van Halen. Greg ran off. Yeah. I
Greg Renoff 15:20
mean, I think there’s always, there’s always more things that kind of come to light. That’s why I enjoyed, I enjoyed Alex’s book, which came out, what about a month ago?
Nestor Aparicio 15:28
Came and read it. So I want to get a little primer. Yeah, no spoilers. I
Greg Renoff 15:32
won’t give any spoilers. People should dive into it. To me, the best parts of the book, and the parts I enjoyed the most was the parts where Alex was talking about his parents, his father, particularly, and his relationship with his parents and his brother, basically the nuclear family unit, and how that operated, really, that’s the kind of the inside to pun a song from 5150 the inside there that I think that you couldn’t get into without having ed or al talk about it in that sort of way. And really, particularly, I thought it was remarkable to hear from Alex talking about how his father was an influence of his father, who was flawed in some ways, but was always a musical influence, and sort of a person who taught the brothers about the meaning of what it meant to be able to play music for people and what that meant to be a career. And I thought so. I thought that was actually my favorite parts of the book. And that’s the stuff to me, you know, learning, as a guy who wrote a book about Van Halen, wrote the book with Ted Templeman, you know, that stuff didn’t really, nobody had gotten inside because, unless there was just a passing quote here and there for an interview talking about their parents, no one had really ever talked at length about it. And that was super, super interesting. And one of the real, the real gems of the book, and I got a no spoilers for you. I want you to enjoy the book. It’s a good it’s a good read.
Nestor Aparicio 16:44
You know, I can get all James Lipton on you, because I’ve been that. I’ve been Jack Torrance. I’ve had to go off and write books and be left alone for 100 days and not talk to anybody and not shave and probably smell like Steve Jobs, you know, before it’s all over with. And you’re doing this professionally. Craig ran offstar guest. He’s a Van Halen biographer, historian, and the Sammy Hagar thing this summer, and the Alex Van Halen book, and the five year passing of Eddie. And I’ve interviewed all of the band members at one point or another, or I’ve been in the room with them. Alex famously on the 5150 tour. I’ve unearthed some of that stuff. I’m going to put it on the air, along with every Bon Jovi and every other thing in my modern I had Rick Emmett on this year. I’ve had Lawrence Gowan from sticks on this year, also Steven page from bare naked ladies. The great, great Todd rungren spent an hour with me last month. So so some rock and roll stuff. But when I bring guys like you on about this, and maybe one day, I’ll chase Sammy down, or Michael, and they’ll come in and tell me all of this, but I don’t want to write a book on them. I want to read a book on them, and I want to ask questions, or have them on my show, or have people like you that have wise information to promote wise markets one of our sponsors. But when you read Alex’s book, and I’m not trying to get you to spoil any of it. I’m trying to get into your head. As the author of if you had access to them, or would have been able to ask them more things that would have enriched your book, which is your book is basically everything that happened before they hit it big, and Van Halen won, right, right? So that’s all of that you’re trying to get into the headspace. And I would ask you how much biographical information was even made available. And I would only bring a little sports into this, because my buddy John Miller, not the broadcaster, but the author, Wall Street Journal author. He just did a big biography on Earl Weaver, and he told me how hard it was to get anybody to find the old school stuff, because Earl never talked about it, and I don’t know how much Ed and Alex ever talked out loud in sobriety, in any way, in some Rolling Stone interview, or any of that that you that tip you off to information that helped you with the book. And how much Alex and how much still will remain some sort of mystery, even the Valerie and Wolfgang in there, right?
Greg Renoff 19:02
Well, the one good piece of info, well, the good news for me was that, of course, Alex and Ed did a lot of interviews over the years. Man, that’s just a matter of just be if you’re in the biz and you’re trying to promote a record, you’re going to do interviews, and particularly the early years, meaning 7879 when the bank was first starting, you ended up getting a lot of people who had not interviewed you before. You’re also trying to introduce yourself as an artist to an A rock audience out there, rather than being a band with the sixth or seventh album. So there’s a lot of tell us your story, and a lot of that got repetitive. But you know, one of the benefits for me of being a fan who wrote a book about Van Halen was that I had been reading this stuff since I was a kid. I mean, going back to circus magazine, and then years on, sort of collecting, you know, weekly, you know, weekly readers out of New Jersey, like the East Coast rock or the aquarium, that would be these sort of, these things that oftentimes got thrown away, but the bands would do interviews. And I collected a lot of the stuff. I had boxes and boxes and stuff, and so I had quite a bit of information. But. That’s what’s my point about, information on the brothers, but that was my point about Alex and the stuff about his family. I mean, no one’s really going to say, tell us about your dad, like, don’t you know, in a radio interview, but they might say, How did you guys get your start? Where did you play, what record labels were looking at you? You would get that type of information and get feedback from from the band members in conversations that were either printed or recorded radio interviews or TV interviews, but guys doing that stuff, right? Yeah, right. There’s
Nestor Aparicio 20:26
global information. And then there was the time Debbie Harry told me that Ted Bundy kidnapped her, yeah, sort of pops up, right, right, and then that story’s still out there 40 years later. Like, yeah, you just never know, right?
Greg Renoff 20:42
So I had sort of put the put up on point on it. I had quite a bit of information from interviews of the brothers speaking at length about their experiences. But yes, to have this sort of profile from a perspective from Alex and his profile of his family is absolutely valuable, really. It’s wonderful.
Nestor Aparicio 21:00
Greg ran off. Is a great biographer of all things, Van eyn, and they’ve been on my mind. So you’ve been on my mind. Tell me what you do and your authorship and how to get your book and like all that stuff. Because if I’ve titillated anybody here to sit and look at me wearing and I’m a blunt person shirt and hold up my Van Halen belt buckles. This my favorite one, by the way, the this is the flying page. This is more Van Halen, too. And this is more Van Halen, yeah, and then, and then I have the silver one, which is really kind of a weirdly rare one. So, yeah, so I’m an old school classic rock guy. I guess I know enough to write a really bad book about something, right? You know, I mean, in that way. But I don’t prefer that. I prefer to be a fan. And if I can get the living members on to talk about not just the old times, but talk about it as a 70 year old, and what it all means all these years later, where are you and you, because you’re like, not a professor, and I still call you to professor.
Greg Renoff 21:57
Yeah, so I’ve taken on full time writing. And you know, the last book I did was the TED Templeman book, which came out a few years ago. And that was really that one transitioned out of the Van Halen book. I did the Van Halen book, and I got to interview their record producer, Ted Templeman, who had did the first six records with them, and then also worked on foreign lawful car knowledge with Andy John’s co producing their that record as well. And so I got to know Ted through doing the Van Halen book. And at the end of that process of doing the Van Halen book, I approached him about doing a biography. And as we were joking about yacht rock, Ted has had a very long and illustrious career, and did quite a bit of work with the Doobie Brothers and with little feet and Nicolette Larson. So he was a, he was sort of an architect of yacht rock, and it
Nestor Aparicio 22:38
was a Grammy Award winning artist, yes.
Greg Renoff 22:41
He was, yeah. So I talked to him, and I said, you know, what do you think about trying to do a book? And he was like, Oh, no one’s gonna want to read a book about me. And I’m like, I’m not sure about that. So I had to sort of sell him on the idea, and sort of gave him a little bit of, you know, perspective on that. There’s, there’s an interesting story here. You were an artist, as I mentioned, Ted was a member of a band called Harper’s Bazaar, which was a soft rock band like the association, or the fifth dimension, that was very popular in the late 60s. And then he transitioned to becoming an executive for Warner Brothers. Eventually, he started at the very bottom of Warner Brothers as a tape listener. Discover the Doobie Brothers. Discovers, discovers air quotes. Van Halen discovers Nicolette Larson, again, air quotes. And so had this, this, uh, really great run as an artist and as a producer and as an executive rising to the very top at Warner Brothers. And so that was the other book I did, which was, you know, another way for me to kind of explore what I’m interested about music, which is creativity. I love the band origin stories, as that’s clear from the Van Halen book. But I really, really enjoyed working with Ted, because we got to talk about how records were built, and really understand, especially in the 70s and the 80s into the 90s, how important are, you know, working together in a recording studio, and having the infrastructure in place of having an engineer, Ben Hillen, had a great engineer, Don Landy, who did the first six records with Ted. You have a great producer, Ted, Templeman, but you also have a record label that’s, you know, loaning you money which is going to be spent by the band and promoting the band, and that whole dynamic between selling records and and working with the label to sort of get your, you know, get get recompensated for your for your work, while those deals aren’t always fair. So that whole constellation of things that were involved with being a record executive and being an artist and being a producer for Ted made that book a great fit for me.
Nestor Aparicio 24:21
Well, you know, I knew Ed Leffler a little bit, you know, through the years, so I have never it would be an honor to have Ted Templeman on my show talking about your book, or anything ever written, or anything he would want to talk about to promote or even a charity, because I like those kinds of I mean, like you, I just seek to talk to Todd Rundgren for 40 minutes and learn how he wound up in a y and how he’s brilliant and what he’s doing with art. And, you know, like so at this point in my life, they’re fascinating people. And to your point, it’s what was it really like to do this, especially a guy like him who went under radar because he could get on planes and people wouldn’t know who he is.
Greg Renoff 24:59
Correct. Correct. I think that’s the thing that’s, like, interesting about Todd too. Like Todd was a, was such a huge rock icon, and yet, here’s a guy who not only did beat loaf, but also did Grand Funk. I mean, talk about a guy who’s diverse XTC, right? I mean, he’s, you know, this is a guy who was, I think, you know, for me, as a person who was real passionate about rock music, the the whole sort of rise and fall off the rock bridges. I mean fall, meaning that, you know, records are made today a lot of times in people’s basements, or they make them in their their garages, with laptops. It’s not the same because there’s not the same money involved in terms of the the record labels and what’s the way that’s like word for word,
Nestor Aparicio 25:32
exactly the way Todd runger and explained why he was in York, Pennsylvania, playing at the Appel Center. He literally said those exact words. Literally,
Greg Renoff 25:43
yeah. I mean, I think it’s fascinating, right, to think about how things have kind of come full circle. But someone like, you know, Todd their ears, that’s the thing is. And I’m not sure the system was necessarily better in all sorts of ways, but there were guys who had great ears for songs. That’s the TED Templeman. That’s a Tod rungreen. That’s a people who could hear something in a song idea and go, keep working on that. That’s what Ted would talk about. You know, I got to talk to Pat Simmons and some of the other guys at Doobie Brothers about this, how, how Ted could hear the beginnings of Black Water and go, there’s something to that. That’s interesting song. Keep working on that. Or, you know, what a full belief telling Michael McDonald like, this is a good idea, even though Michael McDonald kept telling Ted, oh, this is terrible. I This is terrible. And Ted was like, keep going, keep working. It’s going to work. And so, you know, that’s the type of thing that Todd could do, too, that you hear, you hear the potential first piece of music where other people might go, ah, that’s not any good. Or just, or just maybe listen to the artist you know, and say that’s bad, or vice versa, tell the artist the honest truth of going, This isn’t good enough, this, this isn’t good enough. And have that sort of, that cred, right as someone like a TED Templeman or a Todd rungren, or, you know, any number of the other great, great producers that were out there who made their bones by being able to say, Yeah, I’ve sold millions of records.
Nestor Aparicio 26:56
You know, I had this little thing called inspiration and perspiration as a category at Baltimore positive, and it’s just more stories of people that sort of pick up the passion and do something. And for me, from the first time I ever held a kiss record over my cousin Nelson’s up in his attic, and I told Alice Cooper this when I met him, because that’s the first time I heard an Alice Cooper song. I got kiss alive. One probably changed my life, right? Like so in some sort of way. And I saw D period child, and I saw a coin, a, U, C, O, I n, these names, and later in life, you know, I collect these belt buckles, and they all say a coin on the back, because he was the he was the guy who bought them and made them glittery and made them kiss, um, and then I interviewed Desmond Child, who’s this really mild mannered, quiet, shy, almost introverted fellow who did a half an hour. She’s a beautiful man. And when we ended, he said, How did I do? Was it okay? And I’m like, You’re Desmond effing child. You wrote love and use. And it is an amazing thing, and, you know, and I’ll make you laugh with this, and we’ll go back talk some more. Van Halen, but kiss is an interesting thing, because I’d like to chase Paul Stanley, because you’ve been very magnanimous to his life with me. But I remember when I was a little boy and I got kiss fever, and I wanted to join kiss army and the kiss fan club and the kiss jacket and the belt buckles and all that. My dad, who starved as a kid in 1929 born in 1919 depression, worked in the war in Martin Marietta. It’s all in my documentary. But like he said to me when I’m 10 years old, and he’s in his 50s, he’s like, kiss doesn’t care about you kiss, you know, like so he says this to me, and as Paul Stanley has me in his suite at the dullest Hyatt on, you know what I mean, like, literally, on the creatures tour, whatever the hell tour it was, at the Patriot center. And he’s, he’s buying me drinks and offering me chicken dinner. I think I even said this to him. I’m saying, you know, my dad said you would never do anything for me. So, you know, God Gave Rock and Roll to you. You know what I mean? Off is here you’re, you know, we believe in rock and roll, or, as Bruce Springsteen would say, the power of rock and roll, you know. And I think all of these years later, part of the reason I’m doing Music Week and having you on my show is like, I can’t take one more pissed off call or one more racist caller about quarterbacks or coaches or fire, like I’ve done all of that right, and I can talk about sports, but like, there’s something about music that’s really communal at this point, that is cathartic at this point in these troubled times, that I hope Sammy puts the band together and the weather’s perfect. That’s all I hope. You know it’s
Greg Renoff 29:44
going to be. I mean, I’m really, really happy they’re going to do another, another run. I will tell you that when I saw Sammy and Mike in Arkansas, the thing was, the show was long, relatively speaking, and you still felt like there was so much more meat on the bone. He did. He did, uh. Couple of Montrose songs, but he didn’t do rock candy, as I recall. And of course, that’s sort of the to me, one of the iconic Montrose songs, and just thinking, oh, there’s like, so much more stuff. And I know he talked about the struggles of building the set list, of trying to do stuff from his solo career, and doing the Montrose stuff, and then also doing the Van Halen the Van Halen stuff. But great, just a great, great, great band that night. Interestingly enough, that was the night before Jason Bonham left the tour. Jason’s mom, who had taken ill, and Sammy sort of said that, sort of under his breath as he was giving giving him a hug on stage. You can see Jason was kind of tearing up saying, you know, you know, he’s got a real situation back home with his mom, but, you know, he stayed here with us. And it was very it was very moving and very powerful to see that you could see sort of Jason’s love for for Sammy. And that was, that was a, you know, there is, there’s those moments that you can only see live on a stage like that. And the songs just sort of all make it, just make it so great. It was just a wonderful and it was, like, you said it was hot. It was hot in Arkansas. It was, you know, and I’m thinking, sammy’s up there, and it’s 77 years old, and it’s like, you know, he’s pouring sweat, and
Nestor Aparicio 31:00
he’s every night he’s made his working for his money.
Greg Renoff 31:04
We all know he’s Richard. We all know he’s richer than God, but he’s working for his money. He really is. I mean, he’s, you know, he really is so well,
Nestor Aparicio 31:11
it’s inspiring. It’s we’re seeing Springsteen right now. I’m watching him run through Western Canada. And really, I should have gone because it’s good again, if you know what I mean, like, he’s mixing the sets up a little bit. And I think the thing with Sammy is he was even before saying, I don’t, I’m losing words here, and I don’t, you remember like and watching him put the effort in it, it is like watching a 40 year old basketball player go out and do it. And I love that part of it, and I love that. It brings me to people like you to help you sell your books and our passion. And I’m going to say this to you, and I’ve I’m going to tell Julio Bermejo, and I don’t care where he’s going, um, sammy’s birthday is October 13. My birthday is October 14. I’ve never been to Cabo, because every time I go to Mexico, sorry, Julio, I get sick. And I don’t like being sick, sick for like, a month, and I don’t like being sick, especially as I get older. So I have never gone down to Cabo for the thing, right? And then he’s doing this Vegas thing now, which I’m a dumb ass for not going, especially if I didn’t go to Tokyo, because there’s nothing I enjoy more, right? Like, it’s the best couple hours of the year for me, right? And I and, like, I love Brian Adams, and I love sticks, and I love bands, and I have friends in bands and a lot in and I even like mediocre concerts, quite frankly, and little concerts. And it doesn’t have to be a big stadium thing for me or a international superstar to get me excited about it at all when it involves music. But there was a great couple of hours that I’m starting to think, like next year the birthday thing in Vegas, based on two different set list, Kenny Aaron also gonna play some songs. Rick Springfield’s gonna, who knows who’s gonna show up, because everybody kind of likes Sammy. You know what I mean? Like coming in, I we have no idea how any of us, how long any of us are gonna live. I’m feeling like I’m gonna have to at least circle that and my buddy Holyoke get me into Cabo, if I ever put my ish together, and like, really had to figure it out, I would figure out a way to get in, whether I want to or not. I don’t know. I used to have this excuse, like a football press pass in football season, and it’s and baseball team might be making the World Series again, because we’re decent, and it’s october 14, but I want to go to Vegas, based on what I saw, and meet me in Vegas. That’s my only offer. Drinks are on me for as long as you’re there. I don’t know how much you drink, or if you drink, it’s iced tea. That’s fine, too. Arnold Palmer’s, but you know, the communal part of doing this with fans is part of what? Dude, he’s 77 right? I mean, you know
Greg Renoff 33:39
what I mean, and you’re gonna get it. And really, I mean, look, I had a great time in Arkansas. Great time in Cleveland. You know, there’s fun to be outdoors in those venues. It really is. I mean, that they call them the sheds, and sort of get a bad rap and like, again, it’s not the garden. But on the other hand, if there is something fun about being outside in the with the moon shining down and that that whole or around, but you’re going to get a better show. I mean, honestly, think about how any of us feel traveling as we get older, like going from place to place, and then have to go outside and stand in the humidity and sing. You’re going to get a better a better show indoors. Just just those guys are going to be able to feel better, get better rest, and you’re just going to probably get, you know, maybe you’ll get a longer set list. I think it’s, I think it’s it makes sense, and it just makes sense, especially look, as I said last summer, all those outdoor shows and that heat, that’s a killer. I mean, it’s an absolute killer, killer for anybody, no, and after COVID. I mean,
Nestor Aparicio 34:26
I, I can’t begin to tell you since, maybe since the last time we got together, I know, when did your book come out on Van Halen, I want to promote that from you make sure we sell that. It came out in 2015, 15. I think I found you in about 19. Is before the plague. And then, yeah, I went out there in the plague, and I flew to Oakland, and Pearl Jam didn’t have a drummer, and they brought this kid in from Marin County. Wow. Who you? Eddie’s daughter loved the band, and he came in, and they just played greatest hit. I saw John Mayer at Madison Square Garden. He came out on a stool in the middle of the sob Rock Tour, and he’s like, everybody in the band’s got COVID. Can’t play, can’t play the song. So I’m gonna play what I play quest. Love showed up at 10 o’clock in a cab and got onto like, I saw COVID stuff. I mean, I saw sticks without JY one night, you know, when his wife passed. And like, so like, I saw sort of really weirdly awkwardly bands missing people for different reasons during all of this. And Springsteen. I saw Springsteen in Austin without Nils Lofgren, you know, I mean, the conductor the band didn’t play, my friend, you know, so but show goes on as much as it can. I’m with you, dude. Like, do whatever you need. Do a residency. I’m good with that. Yeah, just don’t charge me 800 bucks, dude. Come on. Play a place big enough that I can get in. You know what? I mean, come on, Sam Right, right?
Greg Renoff 35:41
That’s all, yeah, I think, I think that I always believe that Samuel put the interest of the fans at the top of his list. So I, you know, who knows what the prices will be, but I he’s never, he’s never struck me as the type of guy who has to do the cash grab. I think, you know, because he’s got the cash, got the cash, though, it’s okay. It’s like, that’s a great thing when you have a guy who’s that successful in so many different venues? I remember there was this great quote from Sammy or something, says, I lose, you know, I lose 750,000 every dollar every time I make an album or something. He said, that’s, that’s okay. I need the tax write off anyway, which is probably true. He
Nestor Aparicio 36:16
sold one of his cars for like, a billion bucks. Yeah,
Greg Renoff 36:18
exactly. It’s like, right? It’s like, yeah, you know, it’s, it’s all good, as far as he can turn it, he’s, you know, he’s, he’s, he’s built his, his empire, so to speak, where his other operations fund his music, you know, and so and look, the lights were great. There was a great screen. Sound was great. Everything was 100% top shelf. When you saw there was never, you know, you never got a sense that it was like, Oh, this is, you know, corners are being cut here or whatnot. It was, it was great. I mean, it was really a great, great, great show. And everyone, you know, everyone gets to shine too. It’s a great thing about Sammy. He knows how to put the spotlight other people puts a spotlight on Mike. We should talk about Mike. Mike sang a couple of like, saying one song, I I think what he Which song did he sing? Oh, he talking about love. He sang, I’m sure he’s saying the same thing for you. And it was great. And that was an acknowledgement there of Ed, where he pulled into this guy and said, this one’s for you, Ed. And that was special. And, you know, he just really knows how to, I think, show his appreciation for the guys who play with him. And that was the real feeling, too, that you got. But those guys generally, all like being up there together. And there’s not a sort of, oh, I have to do this to sort of pay the bills, not at all, not anything like that.
Nestor Aparicio 37:21
Well, that’s why the the Vegas thing, to me felt like, I felt like, well, if there’s ever a thing to go to where you’re going to have a good time and it’s going to be a good little thing. And that’s why, Hey, Sam, if you’re listening, man, you know, I figure it out with well, figure out a way to go see it, because it is so much fun. Last thing, last for you. Or first thing, first. David Lee Roth and his place in life at this point, um, which, you know, he’s always been an offbeat, iconoclastic, eccentric, unique folk, you know? I mean, he just needs it. He’s a different kind of cat, right? And, and I would say for him, he’s lived an amazing life, right in his own, in that way, and he’s not out doing this, shaking his butt and doing that. He was off making art. Last I saw him, right? Yeah, he thought a few, he’s offering
Greg Renoff 38:11
a few shows with Steve Stevens. Like the name of that group that act, um, escapes them, but they, Steve has a little side project where he’ll do play corporate gigs. And Dave came out and did a couple, a couple of those shows to them, but yeah, I mean, I think we don’t see or hear very much of Dave. Dave puts up videos. It’s always interesting, because you’re not quite sure sometimes how old they are. Some of them are really date back to the 90s. Some of the stuff he puts out on his YouTube channel, some of it seems more recent, but, yeah, interesting too, because when you get into Alice’s book, there’s a lot of Dave talk, you know, some positive, some negative, I think mostly, I’ll just say without again, without spoiling a mostly positive take from Alex on on his relationship with Dave and the clearly, a lot of appreciation and also respect for what Dave brought to Van Halen, which is cool to read. But, yeah, you know the thing I keep hoping, as an author, I keep hoping that Dave will pick up, pick up his pen and start writing another write another book, sit down and write another book. Is his biography came out. And want to say like 1997 or 1996 the crazy from the heat bio, which is out of print, which is also insane to me, that the book is out of print. Or Dave do an audio book, the book never came out as an audio book. Read your book from the, you know, from 2530 years ago. It’s a great read. And I think a lot of people, you know, a whole new generation of people, have read the book. And it’s because you can’t, you can buy it on eBay, but it’s not. My point is, it’s not being currently published or printed, right? So it’s, it seems to be something that could be unearthed expanded edition. I would love to see Dave, sort of, you know, kind of give his final say on Van Halen, sort of his, you know, final, final thoughts. Maybe this would be his last book, you know, kind of get that down on paper, because the book was super entertaining. It’s definitely not your traditional narrative, so to speak. It jumps around from thing to thing. You’re basically reading about one thing, and then, you know, 10 years or. Earlier, I did this, and then 15 years later, I climbed Mount Everest, or whatever Dave says, so it’s, it’s, it’s a unusual journey through his mind, but it’s a very unique book, and I would love to see him do another one.
Nestor Aparicio 40:11
You can’t get enough, can you?
Greg Renoff 40:13
I love it. I mean, I just literally,
Nestor Aparicio 40:16
well, look the Alex book in retrospect, for you, you were satiated by it, and you can’t get, I mean, your guy can’t get enough, and right? And I like to tour on stage, so that’s one part of Van Halen. I liked everything about it, for all the reasons we talked about the value and just the spirit, just all of it, it was all freaking great. And then this book comes out, and some of it, obviously, it needs dirt to sell. That’s part of the whole game, right? Whatever. And he would be the disgruntled guy, and they he drank, and they all partied and like all of that. But you read it, you learned a lot. You learned enough. You wanted more. Where would you say you know more about vanilla? Anybody’s that I’ve ever met like that? I’ll ever well again. I want to
Greg Renoff 40:59
give people opportunity who haven’t read the book. I don’t want to spoil it. There’s not as much. Spoil it. There’s not as much dirt in the book as maybe people think. There’s definitely a lot more book dirt in Sammy book. If people want to read dirt about Van Halen, I recommend people pick up red, which is a great read. Reportedly, that’s a major reason why Alex and Sammy don’t get on which I don’t think there’s ever been 100% confirmed by Alex, but I seems to be fairly likely that some of the stuff in that book didn’t sit well with with Alex, in terms of how Ed was described, and maybe Alex was described in the book that said, you know, there was a lot of stuff that was covered in this book brothers that I would have liked to see more depth put to but I say that, understanding that the book wasn’t meant to be a history of Van Halen. It wasn’t meant to be Alex’s life diary. It was meant to be a tribute to his brother. And I think in terms of that purpose, if I’m going to say, like, what was the purpose of the book, when I look at a book and try to assess it, what was the purpose of the book, what was it meant to do? And I think about it was meant to pay tribute to his brother and talk about the relationship with him and his relationship with his family. I think that’s really where it did the best work. But there was, you know, always a million, a million questions. But you know, the other thing too, I would say to people, is that Alex did a, did a, a sit down in Culver City for his book tour, sat down with his co author, and did a 45 minute, basically Q and A directed by her, where she was asking the questions, and she, you know, covered a lot of topics. And there’s another opportunity to kind of get more more on what Alex thinks about things. But, you know, at the end of the day, and I’ll wrap it with this, in terms of this topic, is that, if you had asked me five years ago, I always said, there’s almost no chance. I find it impossible to believe that Alice will ever write a book, but here we are. He wrote a book. So credit to
Nestor Aparicio 42:44
him. Yeah. Okay. Well, great. I mean, and I, I think if it is truly a tribute to his brother, to sort of set the record straight, you know what I mean? Sometimes I say to my wife, I’m, like, if I die tomorrow, don’t let them say that about me. You know what I mean, because that’s not true. You know what I mean, right? Like, so, like, literally, and I’m, you know, being a 40 year public figure here, you know, I hear and see things. I’m like, Man, how? You know, I had employees that got fight, like, all of it. I’m like, that’s not even true. And you want, at some point to fire back with man, you know, we were one of the greatest bands in the world. There was something that went into that in the relationship. It makes me want to read his book. Tell everybody how to read your book, or books. Now we have Ted temple involved in this.
Greg Renoff 43:28
Yeah, hold them up. Hold
Nestor Aparicio 43:30
them up. You got him. Come on, man Reno and there you go,
Greg Renoff 43:37
the TED devil book. And, yeah, I said right right by right by right by me here, yeah, they’re available on amazon.com. You can order sign books for me too. You just reach out to me through Twitter. Acts like I have a link there. You can click on it, and I’m happy to personalize or sign books. So people want books, but I’m still very appreciative that people are interested in reading my books. And we’re here. We are years later, and they’re still chugging along. So it’s been a great experience.
Nestor Aparicio 44:00
All right, I’ll drop some. I’ll meet you half the way. Reference here, if probably halfway between the Luxor and the stratosphere, if they do some Vegas thing, Greg run offs a good man, the former professor, reform professor, yeah, well, he’s now just an author, R, E, N, O, F, F, Greg ran off. You can find him out on the interwebs, as well as his fine, fine work on the Van Halen band that you know never seems to end. So I hope they put the band back together, and I hope to gather some friends and go shake my ass some more, spend too much money, sweat a lot and and wear my sneakers and dance around and have my knees hurt the next day I am Nestor. It’s a lot of rock and roll going on here. We’re celebrating International Music Day on November 22 you can Google it, and I’m just doing a whole lot of rock and roll. And part of the inspiration is about 10 years ago, my wife had cancer, and I went through all my old tapes and digitized them all, and I gathered everyone that was a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer then and put it on. Radio put it on the air, and then I struck up this crazy friendship with Gina shock, and then she’s in the Hall of Fame. And like, I have all of this other stuff, and I’ve interviewed these other people that went into the hall of fame. And then so anyway, there’ll be a bunch of fresh stuff coming your way at am 1570 as well as that on our YouTube channel and at Baltimore positive proper and our podcast, I am Nestor, we are W, N, S, D and 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore positive sometimes that’s music. Do?
