Alex Van Halen Interview w/Ariel Levy video

**Dutchie5150** · 10.30.24, 12:59 AM

I put this in it's own thread in case people who want to see it wont miss it...

God know how long it will be up for...

**Brett** · 10.30.24, 01:21 AM

Yep, that was it. Unfortunately they never show him walking in and getting a big standing ovation, and walking out. Maybe they did it because they didn’t want you to see how frail he was. I don’t know. Or maybe they just don’t show the entrance and the exit.

**rvk5150** · 10.30.24, 02:49 AM

My wife and I watched the stream....it was good. I am happy all this is happening and look forward to the book coming in as part of this package.

**VH Fan Adelaide AU** · 10.30.24, 04:36 AM

Thankyou for posting this video here Dutchie....very much appreciated!!!

**Jedi McFly** · 10.30.24, 05:06 AM

Good lookin' out Dutchie. Thanks for posting!

**Simon Ribeiro** · 10.30.24, 05:09 AM

Thanks for sharing the video, Dutchie!

**WhoHalen** · 10.30.24, 05:37 AM

Really enjoyed listening to that. The tone of that interview was more consistent with what my brain expects to hear from him. Thank you for sharing it!

**James in New York** · 10.30.24, 07:45 AM

Made my day, Dutchie!!

**Simon Ribeiro** · 10.30.24, 08:32 AM

Originally Posted by Brett

Yep, that was it. Unfortunately they never show him walking in and getting a big standing ovation, and walking out. Maybe they did it because they didn’t want you to see how frail he was. I don’t know. Or maybe they just don’t show the entrance and the exit.

I believe that, Boss!!

**dart93** · 10.30.24, 09:56 AM

That 70 minutes or so flew by. Al is a good storyteller. I suspect he needed the writer more to "rein him in" and structure the stories than to tell them. I could have listened to another 3 hours of his reflections.

**edwardv** · 10.30.24, 10:09 AM

If I ever need a cane I'm getting the Barnabas Collins model.

Sent from my TMRV065G using Tapatalk

**jagerdave** · 10.30.24, 10:24 AM

That's a great interview. Thanks for sharing.

**Flet** · 10.30.24, 11:35 AM

Interesting that towards the end he does say that he's working on putting songs together in hopes of a release of some kind. Around 1:02:30 That's positive. But he also says that it will otherwise stay under lock and key and maybe Wolf will want to do stuff with it in "20-30 years".

**Ashe** · 10.30.24, 12:34 PM

Kind of surprised to hear how shocked even Alex was of Eddie's talent on the guitar. Of course I knew Alex always thought Eddie was great, but in this interview, I got the sense that as soon as he heard Eddie play the guitar, he was like, "Whoa...ok he is different than anyone else." Playing songs note for note only after a couple of days at his young age...crazy. That's like prodigy level stuff. I'm sure Eddie's years of playing piano helped develop his ears, but still.

**Van Hampshire** · 10.30.24, 12:51 PM

Originally Posted by Ashe

Kind of surprised to hear how shocked even Alex was of Eddie's talent on the guitar. Of course I knew Alex always thought Eddie was great, but in this interview, I got the sense that as soon as he heard Eddie play the guitar, he was like, "Whoa...ok he is different than anyone else." Playing songs note for note only after a couple of days at his young age...crazy. That's like prodigy level stuff. I'm sure Eddie's years of playing piano helped develop his ears, but still.

I'm actually not too surprised to hear this. Sometimes I don't think Alex gives himself enough credit because of this as Edward was on a whole other plane than most people. I'm not saying that Alex was an equal to Edward as I don't think anyone really was. I do think Alex was way above average drummer level and he did have a lot in common with the way Edward was wired. That's why the worked so well together. I have heard plenty of recordings where Edward played without Alex and his playing is just not the same without Alex behind him. Those are the kind of things that I feel that Noel Monk completely missed the boat on. The same goes for Michael. If you have a guy like Edward and then an incredible drummer like Alex already in your band, there isn't a whole lot of room for you to get too far out there. At the same time it's pretty hard to find a musician like Mike that is there to play a certain way to keep the whole thing together. Those three would have been screwed if Mike was either a songwriter or a big attention hog as all those personalities would have exploded. It's probably why the Beatles only lasted 10 years. In the beginning, George was just a guitar player that sang harmony and the occasional song that John or Paul threw his way. By the late 60's he blossomed into an incredible songwriter. Imagine if Mike had done that by the 1984 album. The whole thing would have imploded as Mike would have been frustrated like George was. I don't think those guys really knew how good they had it with Mike.

I loved this interview. Alex does not sound miserable at all to me. He sounds as happy as can be and in great spirits. Thanks for posting!