LLFHS

Probably the sole thing that kept the whole affair together.


And yes....Ed's son is to be addressed as "the" Wolfgang Van Halen.

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LLFHS

Yup.....endured this harsh lesson a few times after some nights of major boozification.

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It's amazing how things turn around, and good stuff starts to happen when you put the cork in the bottle.
- The Duke

Dutchie5150

Ed and Dave having their dressing rooms as far away as possible isn't that uncommon. Jagger & Richards (Stones) and Tyler & Perry (Aerosmith) also do the same thing as do a few other that I can't remember at the moment.. I saw it on a doco last year.

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If you have nothing nice to say about Eddie Van Halen, you're at the right web page. - Me (A few months ago)

"People take Van Halen much more seriously than we do" - David Lee Roth (1980's)

"I don't sit on the end of your bed while you're trying to make a living" - David Lee Roth (1988)

Menlow

Yep. It's more and more apparent that the only real difference between 2004 and 2007 was that while Sam thought "I don't need this shit", Dave thought "Just keep swallowing this shit."

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broken9500

nothing on the rider was all that shocking or even particularly interesting...it was a pretty tame one. I did think it was kind of neat seeing all the specific fruits and snacks they Alex, Dave and Wolf preferred.

As for the distance between Dave's room and the rest, not all that surprising because if he's doing meditation/martial arts/Tai Chi and what not it would make sense to have it furthest away from the boys.

As for Ed's four mini bottles of cheap wine...no big deal...it's not like he was requesting gallons of it. There wasn't even any in his dressing room rider.

Van Squalen

Daisy Hill

having known many people who are involved in martial arts, that's the second thing I thought...first thing was of course, the obvious

but as for the 4 small bottles of wine.....it is a big deal for a recovering alcoholic....if alcoholics could stop at four little bottles....well...they wouldn't be alcoholic, would they?


funny thing on Dr Drew's celebrity rehab tonite...Steven Adler was talking about going out on the road with his band, and Dr Drew was trying to impress upon him that he had treated many musicians and going back on the road, particularly in the first year of sobriety, was a sure path to relapse....it was an interesting point.

chefcraig

It's not really an interesting point, considering things (and no, I'm not taking a shot at you DH for mentioning it) that the road exposes one to. Anyone that has seen The Last Waltz knows what a life on the road does to a band. Let's be realistic here: You travel. You spend countless hours doing...nothing. Then, the entire momentum of a day or two of this is worked off in (for example, time-wise) a mere ninety minutes or so of...what, exactly? Adulation? Justification is more than likely the key, and that is only for performers that people are willing to see.

So outside of that ninety minutes, the rest of the 24-48 hour period is spent how? Devouring paperback novels? Picking up a degree via a correspondence school? Running marathons for charity? Shit, no. Unless a recovery patient has had somebody line up a series of activities in each and every town he/she visits, complete with a support structure in place from the minute the first bus rolls out of town, to use a clinical term, they are more or less completely fucked.

Look, if you spend a month/week/afternoon at some sort of rehab joint that says "OK, go get 'em...and here's our card just in case", it is not a reflection upon that institution. Rather it is a reflection upon the fucker who is "attempting" rehabilitation. It also points toward the awkward juxtaposition of art/commerce.

Getting sober is a monumental quest for most folks. Yet getting functional is far more important, and apparently acceptable for a "so-called" artist in our society today. Think about what that ultimately says about us (whomever we are), in general.

No shit...sorta confusing, ain't it? The truth is we need our entertainers, and apparently we live and die with their heroic rises and ghastly falls from grace. Look at the recent spell of notoriety that heaped upon Robert Downey Jr. for his role of Iron Man: Yeah, he was a junky, but he's redeemed himself.

Don't you now feel better about yourself?

Let me ask a second question...Why do you (or we) feel that way?

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Bullwinkle

Good post, craig. I hope you don't mind if I stick my nose in.

I used to think, since I mostly hang out with artists, that artistic people were a special breed and, because of their special sensitive nature, were more prone to substance abuse. I have since revised that opinion completely.

I think, now, that a certain percentage of the population are alcoholics and drug abusers, regardless of their profession. There may be a difference in the fact that musicians, and the like, party more often, and so they tend to crash and burn out earlier, but I'm not sure even of that.

A public figure, like Robert Downey, gives us a chance to experience his trials and tribluations as though he was a personal friend of ours. We may sit in the theater and cheer him on for beating his drug addiction while unaware that the person sitting behind us may be going through the same struggle and enjoying the same victory.

I don't follow Robert's career too closely, but the few times I've seen him talk about his drug problems he's been honest about it. His attitude, what I've seen of it, has been, "I've made some mistakes, I've got problems, and I'm working on it." As a friend, I respect that.

That, sadly, is the difference between Robert and our friend Edward. Because he's a public figure, we know a lot about him, and we think of him as a personal friend. But our friend has an annoying tendency to give us a line of bullshit, and friends aren't supposed to do that to each other.

With Edward, it's always, "I'm completely cured! My health is 100%! This new band is the best! We'll be together forever!" We've all had friends who have lied to us, and after a while you stop trusting them. Pretty soon they're not your friend any more.

The last time I can recall Edward being totally honest about his health was when he had his hip replaced. Nobody ever had a problem with it, of course. Why would they?

The thing is, alcohol and drug problems mess with everybody's self esteem in a way that's totally unreasonable. If you've got a bad hip, you say, "I have a medical problem here. I'm going to see a professional and get it fixed so I can get on with my life." You could say the exact same thing about alcoholism, but nobody ever does. Too bad.

Lounge Machine

broken9500

Edward Van Halen and Robert Downey Jr do not owe me honesty about whatever problem they think they're going through nor do they owe me any sort of explanation for their actions. So when I read a Downey Jr interview where he talks about his addictions or whatever I take it for what it is, an actor giving a candid interview but it doesn't really win him points with me. I love his work, he's one of my favourite actors and I'm glad he's working. He's gotten sober and if that's working for him and it's what he wants/needs than awesome.

When I see Ed NOT give candid interviews, I take it for what it, a guy who doesn't want to. Fine by me. It doesn't lose points with me. If he's found a point where he can handle his drink and not go crazy and that's working for him, great. I'm glad it's working for him and I'm glad he went on tour and hopefully he keeps working. If he's fooling himself and ends up face down in a gutter, well, that will be unfortunate but I'm not going to diagnose him through my nifty little cable modem.

As someone who knows more than a little bit about addictions and whatnot, "recovery" is different for different people. Some people's concept of recovery is simply not drinking, ever. That's the only want to manage their addiction that never goes away. If that's what works for you, great, don't ever drink again, keep hitting your meetings, work your steps. For others "recovery" means getting to where you can live your life and still have some wine or a jack-and-coke or a few beers and have control over it. If Ed is working on this then good for him. If he's kidding himself, well I guess that blows. Not really any of my business per say so I'll keep doing what I always do, I hope he's happy and I hope he decides to put out some cool music and I hope I get to see him live at least one more time.

As for the rider, like I said the first time, I don't see anything even remotely gratuitious or alarming...it's a pretty tame and very reasonable rider.

Bullwinkle

I disagree. Don't you think that everybody owes everybody honesty?

Here's another example to throw in: Neil Peart of Rush.

Neil's wife and daughter both died in the same year and, naturally, Neil was pretty messed up about it. The band released a press statement saying, "Neil has had some personal tragedies and would appreciate it if you respect his privacy during this time."
For years after that, Neil wouldn't do interviews. He wanted to keep his private life private and people respected that. It was honest. (Later, Neil wrote a book about it.)

When an interviewer sits down with a celebrity, the interviewer always asks, "Is there any subject we should avoid? Anything you don't want to talk about before I turn on the recorder?" The celebrity always has an option
about what he wants to discuss.

Edward, apparently, allows the subject of his drinking to be brought up and then lies about it. Why? I don't know. But it's not respectable.

As to your point about a recovering alcoholic being able to drink moderately; I think we get into a problem of definition here. Every "alcoholic" I know struggled for years to "drink like other people" before giving that up. They either stop drinking entirely, or they die. I've seen it happen both ways. A friend of mine likes to say, "If I could drink like normal people, I'd drink all day long." That about sums it up for me as well.
The problem is, nobody gets to decide whether you're an alcoholic or not. Only you can make that call. If you can drink moderately, maybe you're not an alcoholic. Maybe Ed's not an alcoholic. Only he can make that call. It could be that all of his past behaviors have been blown out of proportion by us and the media. What do you think?



(Note: It is impossible for me to write a post about Rush without mentioning that Geddy Lee is God.)

MF5150

This is 100%, 10/10, no more calls, BANG ON! Wow.

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EvH_316_5150 06/06/04 - 09/11/09

MF5150

I'm sorry broken but HONESTY should be something that EVERYBODY on this planet owes to each other. Why in God's name are Ed and Robert Downey Jr any different?

I still don't care anymore when I know Ed is lying because I can't change anything. Like you said, it is what it is.

But HONESTY is not just something to take for granted. Although in society today it is I guess after all the shit that has gone on.

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EvH_316_5150 06/06/04 - 09/11/09

broken9500

celebrities owe themselves and their loved ones honesty to the same degree that we do...but they don't owe me or any of you honesty per say. If they want to spin things or flat out lie, well, that's their perogative and it's up to me and you and everyone else to formulate their opinions from that. I don't see how some celebrity owes some anonymous "fan" some intimate degree of insight into their lives and I think the whole press release asking for privacy is pretty silly myself. As for lying, again, if someone in their position wants to lie in an interview, I don't particularly care because I don't know them, I'm not emotionally invested or personally involved in how they live their lives. If that's their thing, well, that's their thing.

As for Ed's alcoholism/non-alcoholism, spot on, it's HIS call...I can't decide for him that he's an "alcoholic" anymore than I can decide anyone else is. It's his monkey to carry or play with or whatever...not for me to use as a way to spew my own self-righteousness about how he should or shouldn't conduct himself...