Van Halen:History of an Iconic Band from the 70s and 80s

It all started with the Van Halen brothers in 1964, Eddie and Alex with Eddie on guitar and Alex on drums.

The two brothers were both born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands in 1953 and 1955 to to a Dutch musician Jan Van Halen Eugenia Van Beers, in 1962 their family moved to Pasadena, California and that is where Eddie began studying and playing Classical piano music before teaming up with Alex on Electric Guitar, then the Van Halen band was born in 1972 and from there until 1977 the two brothers comprised the sound. At the beginning of the 1980s the David Lee Roth generation began, bringing us hits like "Jump", "Ain't Talkin bout Love" and "When it's Love" which is one I consider to be my one of my favorites from the 5150 album, the first album of this era would be released in 1978 with the title "Van Halen" with the song "Runnin With the Devil" topping the Billboard Hot 100. I have to say that is quite impressive for the band that blends rock and metal into one great masterpiece, even though I wasn't part of their heyday I still find time to rock out be it in the car or at my house.

In the Summer of 2004 the tour they did grossed nearly $55 million in sales just in tickets fans purchased, which is a great thing if you consider the band to be popular among music lovers and concert goers. One year at The Home Depot Center Eddie got with country singer Kenny Chesney and sang a few songs with him during his tour, this was not the first time the singer got with artists outside of his genre, Eddie had invited Scandal's Patty Smith to come and replace Roth as guitarist but she refused, so while at an auto mechanic shop he met Sammy Hegar, the "I can't Drive 55" singer was happy to replace Roth so he did and turned out to do well for a while before there was a reunion with Roth in 1996 for a short time before returning to Hegar.

In 1986 the album 5150 was released for the first time and reached number 1 on the Billboard charts that same year, my first car I have came out that same year, that is quite an accomplishment for a great band with many hits through the decades that brought so many listeners to be influenced musically through stories of life in general, that's what I like about a lot of bands, when they write a song it relates to the world in a lot of ways.

Keep rocking out Van Halen, I will loyally be listening with my radio to live and love one of the greatest bands to hit the scene.

-Tristan