Ep: 004 Eat 'Em & Smile VS. 5150

What happens when the two most anticipated albums in Van Halen history arrive just months apart?

In Episode 004 of The Mighty Van Halen Podcast, hosts Tommy London and Tor dive headfirst into the ultimate 1986 showdown: David Lee Roth’s Eat ’Em and Smile versus Van Halen’s 5150. Following one of rock’s most dramatic breakups, both camps had something to prove and neither disappointed.

From the musicians and producers involved to the songs, tours, sales, videos, and cultural impact, Tommy and Tor compare these landmark releases and discuss how each album helped shape the future of the Van Halen story. Which record aged better? Which one made the bigger statement? And forty years later, who really won the battle of 1986?

Tune in and decide for yourself.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

All right, welcome back to the party that is the Mighty VH podcast. I'm one of your hosts. My name is Tor. The guy next to me, his name is Tommy London. Tommy, tell them what they're in for today.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Today is uh one of the ultimate bouts that have been discussed uh throughout the years uh with uh the Van Halen fans. And I'm not talking about Sammy versus Dave, though. That is a discussion that uh uh does get brought up more than just time to time. I'm talking about the debut records when Sammy went to Van Halen uh and it turned into a Van Hagar 5150 against Davy Roth's debut solo, full-length debut solo album, Eat Hem and Smile. And I wanted to be known that uh Tor and I did not discuss what we were wearing today before we arrived here. This is hilarious. I couldn't believe it when uh we got on here. I was laughing my ass.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Who would have thought two guys doing a podcast about Van Halen might wear the same thing once in a while? Who would have thought that?

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Oh man, I don't have I I I don't have an Eatam and Smile shirt, not saying I would avoid instead of this, but I don't I didn't have that choice. And with the theme, I ran with this, and uh it's such an iconic album cover, and uh we'll we'll get into all that today. And uh uh it's gonna be a fun episode.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Basically, it's it's two albums, two futures in 1986. Suddenly, you had you the most anticipated releases of the year. You had 5150 coming out in March. Uh, I believe uh Dave's Edom and Smile came out a couple months later, which we'll get into. Um, but both very eagerly awaited. Uh, I can recall when um, you know, I was walking down the street one day, I I want to say, you know, the year before when it was announced that Sammy Hagar was gonna be the singer in Van Halen. And I happened to not be, it was one of the few moments I wasn't glued to MTV. And I'm walking down the street headed to a friend's house, and another guy pops out of his another friend, pops out of his door and says, Hey, Sammy Hagar's gonna be the new singer of Van Halen, and like it was pandemonium from that moment on. Like, oh, that's an interesting choice, and you know.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Yeah, I remember that buzz too now that you bring that up. I haven't thought about that um uh really since then. Uh yeah, hearing that he was the singer, thinking, well, he's great. We all know that he's great, and everyone was trying to figure out who would be the singer for being honest. David Roth was trying to figure out what they were gonna do. Probably I think he thought to himself, there ain't no way that they're gonna, yeah, there it we'll get back together and it'll be fine. Like, let me just do this real quick, you know, whatever. And uh, you know, but um yeah, that was wild saying, and you know what the anticipation um built up from the magazines that you know we picked up from the news and the hip raiders and all that stuff, and MTV, uh, they were building this moment up uh for us all, got us even more jacked up to see and hear what was.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Right. I mean, listen, it was it was a time when you know what else was going on in rock and roll, like this was the big story that hit all the magazines every month. They were talking about the new albums coming, or once they were out, the battle between the two camps, etc. It was it still remains to be headline news to this day. Anytime someone talks about it, any of the former members talk about that period, they've got to make a headline out of it. Uh, you know, which you know, to be honest with you, I'm I'm a little tired of, but uh, you know, I'm all I'm all for a good headline.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

You know, I'm glad I don't think there's ever been a band like this where it was a soap opera or a wrestling match that tied in with the band. I mean, there is like this, this was it. And this was this was you know, look, you you heard all the stories of Van Halen when Dave was there, the fun stories. Uh, and you know, maybe you're they did or didn't get along, whatever. But after is when all the soap opera stuff really came about, and it was I was just as uh glued to that as I was to hearing when the music came out, you know.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Right, I don't think yeah, I think to your point, I I can't really think of another band situation where there was such a soap opera. I mean, listen, a few years later on, you know, there was the Motley Crue Vince Neil thing, which had its own headlines, but I think that that became headlines, constant headlines, because there was the always the the he said, he said sort of situation that Van Halen also had. But I think prior to Van Halen, they were in a very unique situation in that um, you know, it's not like the singer died, right? So ACDC, Bon Scott dies, they get a new singer. That's the end of the story. To a certain extent, there's certainly no finger pointing after that fact, Bon Scott's dead. With Van Halen, they had a big, you know, had big shoes to fill as well, but the singer's still alive. Like he's still, you know, his toes are still tapping, so to speak. And, you know, he's got something to say about it, and no one's gonna stop Dave from saying anything, uh, which we came to find months and months uh after the release at years, decades after the release of these albums. So let's get into it. 5150 released on March 24th, 1986. It hits the Billboard number one position on April 26th for one week. Okay, it's not like a multi-week, multi-month takeover, but for a week they had the number one album in the country. Um, by May 28th, by two months later, basically, the album had already hit double platinum status. By October of that year, it hit triple platinum status. By 1989, it hit quadruple platinum status. By 94, slowed down, sales have slowed down by 94, but still hit five times platinum. And by 2004, by the reunion with Sammy, uh, you've got a six-time platinum debut album by this formation of the band, which is a testament to you know, the staying power, whether you're pro Sammy, pro Dave, whatever, we're not going to get into it, but you've got to admit, like an album that sells six million copies is a pretty good album, is probably a pretty good album, you know. Hard to argue against that. Yeah, let's note one thing no videos propelled, really. I mean, really, right? Right, not any official videos, right? So, what we wound up having with Van Halen was a band who you know was gonna finally call was a band that was gonna call their own shots. The singer and you know, the former singer was pushing videos. These guys were like, Ah, we don't need videos, I don't want to do videos. And they had the clout and the juice to not to tell their record label we're not doing videos in a time when video was everything, you couldn't put out an album without a video. So they really bucked the system by not putting out a video, and they had great radio play. And while they didn't have videos on MTV, MTV was not gonna let them skate by without covering Van Halen because again, big is a big story in the music world. So they did the unleashed, uh, I think it was either half hour or hour special that they they played a few uh many times. And then I mean, I can't tell you how many times they played it because I know I recorded it on VHS and watched it to the point where I knew every little breath of dialogue that was uttered in that in that special. And so while MTV didn't have videos to play, they played that a bunch and they were constantly in the music news, right? The MTV music news. Even if it was just a random stop on the tour, they would make note of it just because people tuned in. When you're talking about Van Halen, people tuned in. Uh, and this the same thing went for Dave, obviously. But with uh with 5150, you have uh, you know, why can't this be loved released as a single uh hit number three? You have um you have Dreams released as a single, as an actual single, which then, you know, I'm not sure how it came about, and and I really couldn't find any research on why the Blue Angels released this promotional video with this song, Van Halen song Dreams on it. I don't know where the collaboration came from. The song absolutely kind of fits that vibe of flying, and it's such an uplifting, you know, major uh type song, you know, very happy uplifting type uh sounding song. Uh the vibe is there. So it it matched, but it wasn't an official video from the band themselves. You weren't watching Eddie play, you weren't you weren't seeing Sammy sing or anything. So hard to really take it in an age of extravagant videos, big budgets, that was hardly a Van Halen video. You know, it wasn't until later on when they do the MTV Music Awards on September 5th of that year, where they are simulcast during the awards ceremony. And uh they were actually playing LA at the time, and they played a couple of songs that they simulcast live. I believe it was uh Summer Nights and uh uh Best of Both Worlds was what they played on. But other than that, to your point, no MTV video.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

I was wondering though, if behind the scenes the the record label will might have said, hey, you know, I I find that hard to believe too that that the label went along with let's let the music do the talking, you know. But maybe they were in fear of David Roth. He he ran the the visual and and MTV, uh in comparison to the the rest of the guys in Van Halen. I'm just Sammy Hagar had some fun videos, they weren't at Davy Roth's stature. But when when you have um uh the the blue angels, uh yeah, like how did that come about? I mean, I I'm thinking behind the curtain, like I said, the label was like, hey, we gotta put something out there. And if you guys aren't into it, you don't have to be in it, but uh we're gonna go this way. Someone in that corporate office thought this was a great idea, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:45

I mean, it absolutely could be. You never know those sort of like under the table sort of conversations or behind you know closed boardroom doors, like what are we we gotta do something about this? Um, because there was money to be made, and if they were doing this well without a video, they could be doing this better with a video. And uh, but let's not forget Van Halen and David Lee Roth both on the same label, right? So they're both on Warner Brothers. It's not as if they had separate camps, you know. If they had to do press or meet with their AR guy or whatever, and they had to go up to the the offices, they might have crossed paths, you know. Uh, so you never know with that. But also, Van Halen had the juice, they were on top of the world where they could be like, We're not doing a video, like we're just not gonna do it, guys. Like, capture us live. They were all the press at the time, any interviews you read with them, they were all about how great the band was, how great the four they were finally a band. It was four musicians. It wasn't three musicians and a singer, and so they wanted the music to do the talking. So I think that that whole live thing, you know, they had an opportunity. Oh, MTV wants to shoot us at a show, perfect, you know, like let it rip. You know, and I I remember, you know, I saw that tour in August, and then seeing them on MTV uh doing simulcast live. I mean, they were so tight, they sounded so like that might as well have been live without a net, you know, with a little fix here and there. There was no reason to fix any of it. They were broadcasting it live on MTV, and it was great. They they were on top of the world, so to speak.

SPEAKER_02 11:13

Yeah, no pun intended.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

I remember the uh 45 um when the when the song had dropped, uh had the picture of the band with uh the strait jackets on. Did you do you have that picture?

SPEAKER_00 11:25

Uh I had that, yeah. We'll put it up on the screen here. Yes, I I still do have it. I don't have it in front of me. But um do you remember the B side to that? Was it get up? It was get up, yeah. So now the first song you're hearing from this new band is is you know, Why Can't This Be Love? Oh my god, what a great track! Totally different than anything Dave would have done, and then you've got get up on the other side, and you're like, What this band is insane? What is this song? It was the most energetic. You thought Hotford Teacher was like you know, cinematic and drum heavy and fast-paced, but man, you hear get up, and it was like, Oh, they kicked it up a notch or two from that.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

Yeah, I think they had to do that on the B side because they had this poppy song, and they had to say, Hey, don't we didn't forget you? Uh, we're gonna turn turn it up. But uh, here's a little uh teaser as to what's to come.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

All right, so let's get into Eat Him and Smile. Tommy, what do you got?

SPEAKER_01 12:23

So before we go into Eat Him and Smile, let's take a funny little transition here that I've always found interesting. All right. Early on in Van Halen's career, when they first started, Ted Templeman produced all the Van Halen stuff with Dave. That first record, Ted, and he said this in his autobiography, wasn't sold on Dave. That he actually pitched to the label about replacing David Lee Roth with a guy by the name of Sammy Hagar. Ten years roughly, it became a reality. So here's Ted who was like, I don't want to maybe work with this guy, whatever. The next day, apparently, Dave won him over. History was made. Here's the irony of this whole thing. After Van Halen runs his course with Dave, uh, right before uh Van Hagar had become a thing, Sammy does a solo record called VOA. Ted Templeman produced that record, okay? And then Sammy joins Van Halen. This guy's premonition from day one, and he doesn't produce that record 5150. Oh no, he goes over with Dave to produce Eat Him and Smile. You can't make this shit up, man.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Right, right. And and interesting to do that. I wonder, I wonder if it was artistic allegiance or if there were money, if there was money involved, right? So is Dave just giving him a better deal? Like, hey, I'll give you points on the album, I'll give you this, I'll give you that. Like, is there is there an incentive for Ted to go? Because Ted's long, you know, long-standing engineer Don Landy sticks around in the Van Halen camp. He wants to work at 5150 with Ed. They had a great relationship. And so basically the band and Don Landy make 5150, with you know, Mick Jones from from Farner overseeing it, to what degree is a little fuzzy. Um, but they made a great record with Don and the band. And now Ted Templeman is over in in Dave in Dave country doing doing the Dave thing. I just I always wondered that as well, but I I question the incentive there.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

That's a really good question. And the one thing I've often wondered is because even though they weren't um friends or friendly in terms of the van, I'll I'm gonna say Van Hagar so we can uh you know differentiate here uh with Dave. Um there's definitely um hey, did you hear anything over there? Like that has to be going on, man. Like, hey, what's he's working? Who's on who's in the band? You know, that has to be they can deny it until whatever, but that's just how it is. That's the reality. Someone's snooping, right? For sure.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

You know, listen, we we've all been in in bands where like someone leaves the band and your next new song you write is like, oh man, they're gonna wish that they were part of this, you know, that sort of thing comes about, and I'm sure that they were both feeling that as the songs were kind of coming to fruition for the albums, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:09

Right, and that's why I think maybe, oh, is Ted not doing their record? Let me reach out to Ted because I'm gonna keep that Van Halen sound as much as I can.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

Oh, interesting, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 15:19

Oh, wait, they don't have Ted. Okay, I'm gonna get Ted and I'm gonna make this bombastic record.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

I so I'm of the impression and have been under the impression that as soon as Dave jumped ship, he gathered his troops. Well, like he approached Ted at that point, knowing he was gonna be making an album. You know, he he grabbed Ted. And if maybe not right away, you know, because if we recall, if we all recall, like Dave was working on a movie called Edom and uh Crazy from the Heat. Yes, right, and so that I think that's one of the reasons Dave's album comes out so much later than 5150, right? So 50150 comes out basically at the end of March, you know, Dave's album doesn't come out until June. Um, and I think that that that those dates sort of correlate with, you know, the movie project kind of going south, and now he's playing catch up to do an album, which he was eventually going to do anyway, obviously. Um, but I I always thought it was odd that those albums didn't come out at the same time or closer together, you know. Um and we can kind of get into the Eat Him and Smile stuff as as we dive into it. My my my particular thoughts on that.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Yeah, but I and I'm I'll get into that right now with Eat Him and Smile. But one thing too, do you think maybe that was a strategic move on Dave's part? Well, let me hear what they got going on. Oh well, it's a keyboard kind of driven record. Here we go, you know, and yeah, and then it's who knows? I we I don't know, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Because you know, the I mean, realistically, they both had to be working on the albums around the same time, give or take, right? So unless someone's sneaking Dave some stuff, you know, some you know, a cassette or something, uh, no one's hearing anything, you know what I mean? Like, unless stuff is leaking out, no one's really hearing anything because then the album comes out. Dave doesn't certainly put an album together in two months, you know, like between March and July, or however many months that is. Um, but you know, listen, all of that sort of folklore, etc., um, is great to kind of dive into and wish we could like be a fly on the wall when, you know.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

Um that's the one thing, too, man, is that they they act like after the records came out from that one moving forward. Each each camp has said, I've never listened to any of uh his or theirs records. Stop it, of course you did. You were in a supermarket, and why can't this be love? Came on, Dave. I got news for you. It did, right? Okay, hey uh uh I could see like Sammy Hagar definitely checked it out, not because of anything like uh, I'm here and you're there, or just he's a music guy, he's probably like, Wow, let me hear what this what's he got what's he got going on, you know? Just just out of just a love of music, I would have to think. Sure. Eddie and Alex had to have tuned in and be like, oh, let's let's oh that let me see. They got that Steve I guy, and uh, you know, this and that, whatever it is, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

So it's it's crazy. So I don't know. Well, listen, I I'll I'll I'll take it a step further. In one of my uh one of my dreams is that someone out there, an AI fanatic out there, will take the music from the Sammy era and put in Dave vocals. Yeah, someone in a in AI land needs to, you know, get the Dave cadence of lyrics and delivery and all that stuff, program that into AI, take the Van Halen music straight from those years without Dave. And I'd love to hear what Dave would have done with all this music that Eddie wrote post-Dave years, you know, summer nights with Dave vocals, not singing summer nights, right? Dave would have written something different, or what would he have even done for dreams if he would have even bothered listening to it because he he didn't like the keyboard direction, you know, whatever, finish what you started with Dave. You know, what would that have been like? You know, yeah. I'm I'm and nowadays, like I've been wondering that since forever, but nowadays it can be done. So anyone out there listening who's into AI and needs a project to do, get back to us. And Tommy, tell them where they can email us.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

But oh, at the mighty vanhalen podcast at gmail.com. Hey, you know what? Uh to add to that, I've always thought it'd be cool, and now you can do it even more so. Take the isolated vocals off of the first two Dave records, or even go deeper if you want the other ones, and then just get the music on some of the Van Hagar stuff and see how it matches up. You might have to, you yeah, you might have to speed up a vocal, a little Alvin and the chipmunks kind of thing going on, maybe, or the music or whatever, and then you have to really do a lot of work. Like get up, could work with something like Yankee Rose. I don't know. Like, I interested you have to really do the math, you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

But all of those mashups are you know, they're my favorite. I love a good mashup, or a mashup, yeah, yeah, for sure. And listen, we're we're too busy doing this podcast, you guys. Someone else out there needs to do this and and hit us up because we've just got too much going on. But you guys hit some buttons and make that happen. We just make it happen. That'd be great.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

But you're right. A mat I haven't heard a mashup of a Dave solo with uh uh the Van Hagar stuff. But that leads us into Eat Him and Smile, Davely Roth's debut solo record. Don't argue with me and tell me crazy from the heat was the debut that was an EP. This is his first full-length rock record. His response to Van Halen's 5150. You fired first, I will fire last, and I'm bringing the cannons. I built a band that's filled with Eddie Van Halen's, and they include Steve Bai, Billy Sheen on the bass, Steve Bye on guitar, if you're not aware, and um Greg Bissinet on the drums. He came out with all guns ablazing, and he did use MTV, unlike his former bandmates. Um Edom and Smile hit number four on the Billboard charts, and uh Yankee Rose, the debut single, which uh came out uh right before the summer, right in the summer. The album itself came out on June 7th. He was going for that whole, you know, firecracking on the 4th of July sort of thing, I guess. And Yankee Rose was actually uh written about the Statue of Liberty that was celebrating its 100th uh anniversary that year. Yes, it was. You know, he's Billy Idol's right-hand man. I think they were working on Whiplash Smile around that time. Oh, interesting. And so he he couldn't do it. Though I'll tell you what, I would have loved to have heard, even if it was just a song, uh, I think Steve Stevens would have been a strong choice with uh Dave as well. You know, oh for sure. For sure.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

You know, one of the things about Steve Vai's playing just inherently as a guitarist. First of all, I just want to say off the off the bat, Steve I is like my number two guy next to Ed. I love Steve I. I've always loved him, even before he was uh hooked up with Dave, but I think Steve. Is an incredible guitarist. Um, one of the things that makes uh Eddie so special is that he's a virtuoso who can write a riff and who can write a song and who can put together these songs that are that uh transcend time, so to speak. Uh not every guitarist can do that. A lot of guitarists are just great guitarists, they not can't necessarily write, but they can really play, you know. And they can write, but they can't write hit songs, they can't write classic songs, they can write these kinds of songs, not those kinds of songs. So there's just because you're a guitarist or just because you're a musician doesn't make you a great writer. Steve is a great guitarist, but when you listen to Eat Hem and Smile, I look for the hook. I look for the riff. Like, what is that riff, you know? And Steve definitely brought to the table, he was the right guy for the right job. There, there wasn't, in my opinion, a better guy suited to stand next to Dave on stage than Steve Vai, hands down. I was so upset when Steve and Dave weren't working together anymore. Um, but when you listen to Yankee Rose, what's the riff? You know, it's the lyric. You got the lyric down, and you've got this great arrangement, which is fantastic, and you've got a really strong song. But I think one of the reasons that you still hear Summer Nights on the radio or Why Can't This Be Love on the radio, and you don't hear Yankee Rose much on the radio anymore, is because it's missing a certain element uh that I think was kind of missing from the whole album. But that's just me in my opinion. Let's go back to the stats. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

Well, it did sell over millions of copies, and uh, you know, it was a huge success for Dave, but it didn't hit, like I mentioned, it hit number four, it didn't hit number one. Uh Davely Roth actually has never had a number one album. Uh Dave uh Van Hagar has always had a number one album, though. That being said, Van Hagar has never had a number one song, and Dave did with uh Van Halen and Jump. Um, but the the tour was a huge success as well. Did now did you see the Edom and Smile tour? I actually did not see the Edem and Smile tour, and I regret it to this day. Yeah, me too. I forget why I didn't go.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

I did see the 5150 tour, that was actually which is why we both have these shirts, and neither one of us has a Dave shirt because we didn't go to the show.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

Hey, I'm just surprised it still fits. But um, yeah, I remember just uh you know seeing some of the footage on MTV, you know, because oh Davy Ross on the road and and whatever. But with the record off the success of Davidly Ross EP, Crazy from the Heat, um, that's why I think they also had like That's Life and I'm Easy on the record as a little segue of coming out of that EP into this rock album. And surprisingly enough, I don't know if you knew this, those two songs were released as singles. No video. There was a video for that's life, but it was barely played on MTV. Um, but they weren't pushed, and I think maybe they were a last ditch effort because the other songs didn't really, you know, um crazy uh going crazy, which was the second single, hit number 66. So it wasn't like a top 10 smash, whatever. I think it was just an MTV thing, but I guess that didn't transcend into someone calling the radio station and uh and and saying, Hey, play this song. But I think that's why maybe those two songs were released as singles, because they were more in the just a gigolo type of vibe, the the crown of the lounge singer thing. Uh but they didn't take off for uh Dave in that way. And um, I think it was a smart play for Dave to come out with um the whole, you know, like I mentioned before, the guns ablazing, because when uh when Van Halen kind of softened their sound, and that's not a disc because I love all those records, but they went for uh more um uh you know, dreams, great song, but it is definitely softer than stuff we were used to from from Van Halen with Dave. Uh I I that's why I also feel like I'm not saying he wasn't recording this album while uh uh uh Sandy was with uh Van Halen there, but he probably had somebody snooping or when it when it came out was probably like, hey, you know what, we're turning it up because I know these guys are gonna stick to this.

SPEAKER_00 26:04

So uh I think that uh I think that Edom and Smile was definitely more bombastic, you know. It was definitely Dave, it was definitely more showy and was bigger, it was more colorful. I mean, even the even the the cover, you know, you've got you've got Dave's cover with every color imaginable, and then you've got Van Allen, which is just a couple of colors, and it's a great cover, iconic, etc. It's stood the test of time, but but kind of you know, less dimensional than than Eatham and Smile, you know. Um, and I I always thought it was interesting that uh, you know, Dave being Dave, how many covers on Eatham and Smile, right? His debut album, he's got three or four covers on there. You know, was that because he was pressed to get an album out quick and like you know, they weren't writing as many songs or they didn't have the time, or maybe that was just Dave's thing. Dave loves a good cover, you know. Yeah, well, he denying that.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Um, uh, there's something I don't know if if you're aware of this, and and or anyone listening, if you're not aware, I want you to do me a favor and check this out. A friend of mine mentioned this to me a while back. Uh, there's a guy by the name of Kim Mitchell. Uh, he's an amazing artist, all right. And he has a song. You have to go listen to this song, you have to promise me. It's called Kids in Action. All right. This song was going to be covered by Dave. Uh, they were gonna do this song on Eatham and Smile. And when you hear it, it sounds like it came off. Not that it sounds like a song that came off of Edom and Smile, not a song that was gonna be put on Eden and Smile. It's it's got it's got a um uh it's got a Ladies' Night in Buffalo kind of riff to it. It maybe that actually inspired Ladies and Buffalo, uh Ladies' Night in Buffalo. I'm not I'm not certain, but you have to check this out. Kim Mitchell, Kids in Action, uh, was a song that was supposed to be recorded for Edom and Smile. And that's another thing. There is no way that they only recorded 10 songs. There have maybe even the song I just mentioned, there has to be a demo of it, even if it's or instrumentals. There's no way that just 10 songs were recorded. What else is there? I ran into Greg Bissinet at one of the rock and roll fantasy camps a while back, and that was my first question for him. I said, There has to be more. Like what where's it at? What's going on? He claimed that they did record more songs. Now, I don't know if he means recorders in Ted Templeman produced them, or they produced songs, or they just they got into a room and let's see which ones we like, you know. Uh demos, maybe they're instrumentals with Steve Vai just ripping it. I want to hear that too. Yeah. Um, why why don't they put out a deluxe edition of this? You know, side note, it's the 40th anniversary of both these records, and they did put out a 40th anniversary of 5150, beautiful deluxe edition. If you don't have it or not familiar, you should check it out. It really is well put together. And I'm just like, why didn't they or Dave? It's it's probably the label who uh is in charge. Uh, but if if David Lee Roth wanted to do something, I don't think they would say no, right? And why why not move forward and go, hey, let's put a deluxe edition of eat him and smile in there?

SPEAKER_00 29:10

Well, you know, I'll tell you, you know, one of the reasons that we love this band or this group of musicians is they're so frustrating, right? Like, why don't they give us more? Why don't why do they do this? Why do they do that? You know, for a while, listen, different kind of truth wasn't available for streaming, and that was apparently Dave. Why would he why right because because that's why, because it gets us talking, we're talking about it, right? Yeah, so why isn't there a box set for Eatom and Smile? Uh, you know, just uh part and parcel, it's part and parcel of who these guys are. Just when you think you know, you don't know, yeah, and you want them to do something, they don't do something. You know, it's it's just part of the little game that is the universe of Van Halen.

SPEAKER_01 29:56

Well, Billy Sheehan, a while back, did an interview and he mentioned that they have a pro shot. I'm sure they have more than one, but he was talking about one particular show that was a pro shot of the Edem and Smile Tour. He says, Man, it's it's beautiful, it sounds great, it's like perfect, I guess, with the camera shots, whatever. I guess it was edited or whatever. And he was like, I would love to release it because he has it. He goes, but you know, he can't legally uh Daily Roth or whatever has to do it. He goes, I wish Dave would just put it out. Listen, I don't really buy DVDs anymore, I would buy those DVDs like that, right? You know, because I'd want to have it and in case it was never online again or something. Um I there there's a market here for uh for this stuff.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

I listen, I mean, even that all that footage that came out, you know, uh last couple years from you know Donnington in '84 with Van Halen playing Monsters of Rock, that footage looks great, you know, and and a few other uh shows from the 1984 tour, like you've seen pro shot footage come out, you know, slipping away on YouTube uh before it gets taken down. There's some great looking stuff out there, yeah. Man, you know they have it. You know they have it. Uh what are we doing, guys?

SPEAKER_01 31:03

Come on, come on, give it you know, that's the one thing I'll say about Kiss. And and by the way, that just dawned on me that KISS kind of had a soap opera thing, kind of not really, not like Van Halen, in my opinion, but like if if Ace did an interview, uh he he he knew how to get you to read it, you know. I'm all gonna throw these guys under the bus, and then they're like making records together behind the scenes, anyway.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

But again, but again, just to throw this in there, true, but you didn't really hear of that until after this went down. You didn't hear about like KISS and former members in 1986, like there was no headlines talking about that. It wasn't until much later did did they make headlines where they were squabbling and talking shit about each other. You know, listen, 10 years after this, KISS reunites, you know. So, you know, you don't have the the chit talk from the KISS camp until much later on. But again, I think that this situation, to your point, this this soap bar proved to be marketable, yeah, yeah. To keep the band's name and the headlines and record sales would you know reflect that. So oh, for sure, you know how much of it is organic and how much of it is marketing, and you know, someone just pushing a little story from the the label, who knows? Yeah, we'll never really know.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

But uh hey, uh Rolling Stone magazine, when they had to choose between both these records, which one do you think they chose? Eat them and smile at 5150.

SPEAKER_00 32:23

That's a great question. I I'm gonna guess by the tone of your voice, Eat Him and Smile.

SPEAKER_02 32:29

Yes, they did choose Eat Him and Smile, right?

SPEAKER_00 32:32

Even though Van Halen, you know, I think Dave was only on the cover once, and Van Halen was on the cover uh three times, right? You had two with Van Halen and one with Eddie. Uh, and then I think later on, like in the 2000s, you had you know some commemorative stuff with Eddie, but you know, in the heyday, I think you really only had three covers. So they liked the band more, but they like the album, they like Eatham Smile a little better. Interesting that they would choose that.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

Yeah, yeah, they were they said uh Ladies' Night in Buffalo was their go-to track, according to Rolling Stone. Interesting. Before we get into the videos here, there's something I gotta try with this screen. I want to see what this looks like. Does it look like I'm David Lee Roth right now if I do this? Hold on.

SPEAKER_00 33:17

It it absolutely does 100%. Dave, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 33:20

Dave, Dave wearing a 5150 shirt. Wow, what are the odds? Look. I can't wait to see that footage. If I really look like David Lee Roth with the uh native face, I still want to be there for Halloween. One of these uh times I will you absolutely should.

SPEAKER_00 33:37

Yeah, I would yeah, please do that.

SPEAKER_01 33:39

Please do that and and you gotta be the muscle guy on the uh 5150.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Yeah, okay. All right, well, we're interested when you when you read about um you know the the album artwork. Um, I'm always surprised that Dave doesn't get more credit for that album cover because it's so Dave, it's so colorful, it's so and it's his face. Like, could you talk more about uh a self-centered type singer, which he was always referred to as um, you know, it's it's his it's his face, but it's his face, you know, playing and having fun, you know. And with the Van Halen cover, like they've got this guy with the Van Halen thing over his shoulders, the weight of the world is on this guy's shoulders because honestly, the band probably felt the weight of the world on their shoulders. Were they gonna be able to pull this off? Was anybody gonna buy this? Um, but I I remember I was hearing and reading that from the from the first song, from the first time they jammed, these guys knew they had something special, and they were all very, very pumped about it throughout the making uh of this album. So I think that their confidence level was high, and maybe the weight of the world was on the label shoulders, and they weren't as convinced as the band was, but the band was very much, you know, all the interviews that you ever saw or heard of with Van Halen back in those days, they were so psyched to be together with Sammy.

SPEAKER_01 34:58

Well, you you know what's something uh that isn't discussed often is out of everyone involved in this, in my opinion, the person who rolled the dice the most was Sammy Hagar. You gotta remember, he came off of a huge record VOA. I Can't Drive 55 was all over MTV, and this was right before the big wave of the 80s bands and the videos were about to come in. And Sammy was definitely gonna be on that wave. Uh, he, you know, he had cool look, he he knew how to write a uh a catchy song. Um, he he's proven, and he was gonna ride that wave, okay? Whether he was in Van Halen or not. Dave never left Van Halen, Sammy was riding that wave along with them, okay. And then he gets this offer, hey, you want to join this band? I mean, he knew the band is not like it was some band down the street playing the local pub, but it was like right now you get all the marbles, but if you know, how do you feel about splitting it four ways? That was that couldn't have been an easy decision. Wait a minute, I gotta I gotta replace Davidley Roth. Now, that being said, Sammy Hagar didn't replace David Roth. I always say he brought his own pair of shoes for sure, you know, and and and he pulled it off in a different band, and it worked out great. But uh, yeah, what what part of his brain because he wasn't allowed, keep in mind, he wasn't allowed to do solo stuff if he joined. So put that into your stipulation, too. Like, hey, you're in, we want you in. Oh, here's the catch. You can't do any solo stuff, right? And here's a guy who likes to write and do his thing, and now he was gonna be uh pinned down and have to sing someone else's songs, right?

SPEAKER_00 36:38

You know, he's gonna sing a few old songs.

SPEAKER_01 36:41

Something in his brain, and he definitely has the business smarts, and we'll save that for another show with the tequila and uh you know he had a travel agency and stuff. Uh talks about his autobiography. Very uh smart man, Sammy Hagar. Uh, even outside of music smarts, but he was he was wise enough to know this is this is the route, and and it it it worked, right?

SPEAKER_00 37:03

Well, you know, I remember always uh hearing and reading that he was considering retiring at that point. I mean, he had been around since the 70s, even earlier than Van Halen with Montrose. So he had been in the game for a while, and you know, had he not chosen to join Van Halen and retired on top with VOA, you know he would have come back a few years later because that's rockers never retire. We all know this. I mean, Ozzy's Ozzy's retirement career was longer than his actual career, if you do the math. Um so, but at the same time, you know, I I absolutely agree with you. The credit goes to Sammy for taking that leap of faith. But I think, and I think that you probably agree with me on this, that the energy between those four guys, especially when they first got together, before there was any baggage and they were just playing organically together in the studio and making music, it was so refreshing for all of them. It was refreshing for Sammy not to carry all the weight as the band leader and the songwriter and all the, you know, he didn't have to do everything. He had three other guys who were more than competent. And the band had a singer who was into being in a band and wasn't about all about him. It was about the four of them as opposed to the one of him. Um, so everyone was so excited. I think that that energy carried over into his decision-making process. It had to, it just felt too good to walk away from, I'm sure. And while he didn't get all the marbles uh by joining a band, he got a lot more marbles. So, you know, the Van Allen was at the top of their game in the mid-80s, like you didn't get a bigger band at the time. Um, and you know, seemingly all everything changed 1985, you know, like right in the middle of the 80s. Um, but I'll throw this, I'll throw this out and and I see your Sammy Hagar, and I'm I I I met you with a Dave. So, how about Dave leaving the band and having to start brand like from scratch? He's got nothing, right? He's walking out of the house. He doesn't have anything, he doesn't have a band, he doesn't have songs, he doesn't have a brand. He's David Lee Roth, and he they put out this sort of exploratory, you know, EP that kind of gave him a boost of confidence, like, okay, you can do this. The world loves you, Dave. Go go forth and conquer. Um, so he had that sort of confidence behind him in terms of his marketability, but he had to start from scratch. Like, who's the guitar player going to be? And Ed wrote all the music. Who's gonna write all the music for Dave? Like, who could do that? You couldn't get your average rock guy to fill Eddie's shoes. You couldn't, you couldn't get your average guitar player, like a session guy to come in. It needed to be Steve I. It couldn't be anybody else but Steve I, maybe a Steve Stevens. And there might have been a a small handful of guitarists at the time that could have possibly filled those shoes to the degree that Ed had, you know, originally worn them. But you know, Dave started from scratch, he had nothing. And I think the math sort of rolls itself out, and we can kind of see it and look back on it now and say the record sales were this, the tour sales were that, etc., and see that Dave had a much bigger uphill battle to win over the crowd than the band did. You know, the band had three guys, Dave was one guy, so right there the math is is not equal. And Dave's starting from scratch and trying to build up from the ground up, which not for nothing, but back to the videos. I mean, the videos sold it. The videos sold it. That first video, Yankee Rose, you were like, you're in, you were in, and how everybody bouncing around on that stage. It was fantastic. And I can remember, I can remember the world premiere of that video coming up, and I'm studying for like a math final. And I let me put it this way, I had to pass this final, or I was not, I wasn't going to the next grade, like it was it was do or die with this math final. But that video was getting world premiered the night before that test, and I was watching that video every hour on the hour on MTV, no matter what, you know, and uh and I can remember, you know, sort of studying and then you know, counting down the minutes until that video was shown again on MTV because I watch it every single time for that you know, 12-hour period or whatever. Um, and Van Halen didn't own that realm, right? Van Halen wasn't interested in the video realm, but Dave really went to town. Let's let's talk about the going crazy video. How awesome is that video? You take the California girls video, you take the Yankee Rose video, you put them together, and you've got this, you know, going crazy video where Dave's got this big prosthetic fat suit on and he's doing the whole preamble scripted thing. And and and how about Yankee Rose, the preamble to that video with his makeup on in the 7-Eleven convenience store sort of thing with the characters coming in. Yeah, yeah. I mean, how how many times back then, if you were around back then, if you were a fan and you're listening to this, you know that for months you're repeating the lines from the beginning of that video in school every day. You guys, you and your friends were going back and forth with you know, let me get a bottle of anything and a glazed donut to go. You know, how many times did we all say that to each other? Not the musto, you don't so good.

SPEAKER_01 42:16

What was the one from wait? What was the one from going um going crazy? I used to love my favorite one in going crazy was no Urana, yes, Your Honor.

SPEAKER_02 42:25

Nice time, Your Honor. Try the Cloudberg over at Herbs.

SPEAKER_00 42:29

Like it was just I mean, just fantastic, fantastic, you know. Steve Vai and his flame guitar. Oh my god. I was in hook, line, and sinker. I was in, you know, the other challenges that I think Dave was facing at the time was he was kind of polarizing too, right? So, like, as a fan, you're not gonna not get behind Eddie, right? Like, you've all got to appreciate the musical genius there, but Dave's shtick you either loved or you didn't love. And maybe you tolerated because you loved Eddie and the band. Uh but if you weren't like into Dave, here's a good reason not to go buy his solo stuff, you know. Like you could just stick with the band. And that's why Sammy, I think, was so successful with the band, was he was the polar opposite of Dave. He was just the exact opposite. Dave was all show. Sammy was a musician. Dave wasn't a musician, he was a showman. Like it's two different species there, you know. Comparing those two is like apples and stakes, you know, it's just two different categories. Um, so it's it's an unfair sort of conversation. They're just two different uh types of musicians, two types of performers. But Dave, I feel like just had a bigger uphill battle ahead of him uh than Van Halen. Right. You know, Van Halen would go on to do many albums that were super successful, and Dave's popularity for other, you know, various reasons kind of ebbed and flowed a little bit more than Van Halen did.

SPEAKER_01 43:57

Well, you know what's interesting too, if you think about it, here's Van Uh Hagar 5150 uh with the number one album. Here's David Roth, uh, who, like I said earlier, you know, didn't have a number one record, didn't make the top 10. How did the fans not buy it both? There are fans out there who did not buy both. As a matter of fact, I remember as a kid working. Give me names. I want names. We want your names. You know, I'd be curious. If you did not buy both these records when they came out, I want to know why. Now, I remember working with this guy at a supermarket who all of a sudden one day said Van Halen this, Van Halen that. And this was when 5150 came out. He didn't know anything about I'm I promise you, the guy knew nothing about Van Halen prior. I never heard him mention it, never heard him blasting it from his car stereo. Uh, and all of a sudden, he's this huge Van Halen fan. So he's one of the many who were, I guess, won over at that moment and weren't into the past. They didn't, or he didn't know on chain, then he discovered it. Uh, but I'd be curious to see how many people got turned on to Van Halen from the Sammy Hagar 5150 record than anything before. For sure.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

You know, listen, Sammy Sammy, Sammy brought the the the real blues-based rock singer to the band, right? He he was a working man's lead singer, right? He was so he was one of us. He was the he was the same as you and me, so to speak. Dave was a guy from another planet who you were just amazed by, and you you just watch wide-eyed because, like, what's he gonna do next? What's he gonna say next? You know, what's the next song gonna be? You know, with Sammy, it was more of a relatable thing. And I think that a lot of people, you know, sort of tuned into that. And with the change in Eddie's sort of direction musically, those two things kind of crossed at the perfect time. They were the perfect storm, and then created this new band and this new sound that was ripe for the picking because you had all these old Van Halen diehards who were not gonna leave no matter who the singer was. And then you had all these new fans. Sammy brought fans to the party too, you know, that people who just believed in him. Dave didn't have anybody. I mean, how many fans was Billy Sheen bringing to the party? You know what I mean? Like Dave had to carry that whole machine, you know. And while guitarists were super hyped on Steve Vai, how many of us were there that were just gonna listen to anything Steve did? You know, a lot of people didn't even know who he was at the time. Uh, was still kind of young in his career. So again, I think Dave had a had a harder, harder battle to fight than than the Van Halen boys. But let me throw this out at you. I read recently uh someone had said, I always wondered what Van Halen would have sounded like if they would have chosen Billy Squire to be their singer. Okay. So now think about think about the the time, right? And who's out there? Who are we gonna pick as our singer? Who are we gonna find as a singer? And there's always these stories. There was that story that they were gonna have um, you know, Patty Smythe um you know sing, and because she was she was in Scandal, but she was Valerie's friend and whatever, and you know, that just wasn't gonna fly. But um, you know, there was there was all kinds of speculation that they were talking to different singers, but I mean Billy Squire and Sammy Hagar to me were always this sort of blue jean pure rock rock. You know, it was the most, it was the rock, it wasn't metal, it wasn't hard rock, it was just pure rock. Sammy Hagar did it. Billy Squire did it. I feel like Billy could have, you know, and Billy has a great soprano voice, like he could have hit these high notes, he could have done the Zeppelin-esque type thing. Um, so it's an interesting idea that there were other singers out there, and who knows what could have been. So, again, AI folks out there, let's hear some Billy Squire.

SPEAKER_01 47:43

Listen, you got me thinking when you said that because I'd never thought about that. And musically, I think Billy Squire would have worked. Where Billy Squire would have failed, and he can write a melody and all that sorts of stuff, uh, and a hook. Where he would have failed, uh, I think would have been the personality thing in the interviews. Uh, as I recall, Sammy Hagar, when he entered the room to join Van Halen, or not even really officially joined the jam, he said one of the things he sensed was, What do you mean I'm in charge? Like this is your band, and I'm running the show. That told him that Dave Lee Roth, you know, steered the ship. You know, Eddie and the boys powered the boat, but Dave steered the ship. And Sammy walked into this going, Okay, well, here's I guess here's how I do things, and and whatever. I don't know if Billy Squire has that. I don't know him personally to say that, but I mean, with the interviews he's done, Sammy Hagar was able to go in there and and and and be confident and and say whatever and go toe to toe with the Daily Roth. Sammy was a boxer, so maybe that's where that comes from.

SPEAKER_00 48:39

Yeah, maybe, maybe. But you know, I mean Sammy, I think Sammy too had the right personality in terms of he was happy go lucky, right? Like he was very he was a happy dude. He still is, he's still like, you know, like always a smile with Sammy. Life is a smile with him, you know, and I think he brings that energy. And who knows what Billy would have brought to the band because chemistry plays a big, big part in a band. As you know, anybody who's ever had a band, as soon as you replace one person, whether they're a pain in the ass or not, the chemistry changes, and you know, everything might go sideways after that, even though you you got rid of that hangnail suddenly. Right, we can't write we can't write a song, you know. Who knows? So, chemistry, I think, is played such a huge role in the success of a band. Who knows what anybody else in who would have filled Dave's shoes would have done. You know, I think they just happened to get lucky with it. And and Dave got lucky too. I mean, listen, that band for that album was magic, right? Like that band from Edom and that Edom and Smile band, band, those songs, everything about that album. I'm a huge fan of it. And I and again, like to go back to what we were talking about before, who didn't buy both albums? Yeah, man, who didn't buy both albums? Who didn't buy both albums? I mean, I want to throw out the question to you. Like, okay, it's 1986. Like, you wake up on a random day in the summer, what album are you putting on first? Because I know you're listening to both, right? Like you're gonna go through your your albums or your CDs or your cassettes at that point. What are we putting on today? You know, which one do you go to first?

SPEAKER_01 50:05

It it has to be, you know what? I'm not trying to uh to uh back out of this question, but I will say it really depends on the mood. Yeah, if I want to have the the you know windows down and I want to roll through the neighborhood and I want everyone to know that I'm passing by, I'm putting out Eatam and Smile.

unknown 50:25

Right.

SPEAKER_01 50:26

If I just want to crank up a uh a catchy pop tune to sing along uh to, uh, you know, like why can't this be love? I'm gonna throw on 5150. Um, I love both records just the same. Um are we choosing now? Is that what's going on? Are we leading to this we have to choose sort of thing? Because I don't know if I can, but um I won't make you choose, dude.

SPEAKER_00 50:49

Like we no pressure, no pressure here.

SPEAKER_01 50:52

All right. I'll I'll run, I'll run with one. I'll go with um, like I said, depends on my mood. Today's mood, I'm kind of vibing Edom and Smile, so I'll go with the Eatham and Smile record.

SPEAKER_00 51:01

Yeah, I mean, I think that overall, over the years, I've probably listened to 5150 more than Eatham and Smile, you know. Um, but again, yeah, it depends on which way the wind's blowing that day. I I completely agree with you. Um, and I wonder like how many times I've listened to both. Like, don't you ever wonder that when you hear like, let's say, Bohemian Rhapsody on the radio, and you're like, Man, how many times have I actually heard this song? I wish I could know how many times since it came out, since I was a little kid. Is this the one millionth time I've heard this song? Or like, you know, because you hear it weekly at least, you know, or or songs like that, you know, or you know, even especially Van Halen's songs, like Why Can't This Be Love? How many times do you think you've heard that?

SPEAKER_01 51:38

You know, when's the first time you heard it? Do you remember when you first heard uh Why Can't This Be Love the Davie single?

SPEAKER_00 51:45

So I can remember waking up one day for school and uh you know, it was it was a different time back then. Everybody'll remember uh if you were around back then, that you didn't really know you were hard pressed to find out when an album was coming out. A lot of times you would read the board at like the local Sam Goody or Musicland or whatever your record store was that would say upcoming releases, and you'd have like a little board behind the cash register that would tell you when something was coming out. Because other than that, you certainly didn't have the internet that you could check for a release date. And sometimes you'd get it in a magazine, but maybe you missed it. So record release dates were not as seemingly as important back then or or as accessible as they are now. Um, but I can remember waking up one day, getting ready for school, and the DJ on my stereo said, Coming up at the top of the hour, we're gonna play the brand new Van Halen song. And you know, I was like, everything stopped. Like I stopped mid teeth brushing to you know, like hear this song. And I can remember listening to it and just being like, my jaw was on the floor, like, uh, what is this song? Like, what is that sound? Is that keyboard? Is that guitar? Like, I couldn't even really tell because it was like a distorted keyboard, sort of, and it was you didn't know what it was, but it was good. You knew it was good. That's what you know. Um, that's basically you know, my my introduction to this thing. What about you? What was your first time?

SPEAKER_01 53:09

I was uh on on the school bus heading to school. That's what you do when you're on a school bus. And I remember I had my um uh transistor radio. Well, it was actually like a Sony Walkman with the radio on it. Oh, Deluxe. Yeah, and I don't know how I can't remember if I caught wind that they were gonna debut the new Van Halen song. And and and like you said, there wasn't an internet thing, and it was strictly word of mouth or magazine, but I don't know how I knew. Uh or I was, or maybe I was just listening to the radio that morning, but I remember the DJ coming on. It was WMMR, Philadelphia. Uh John DeBella was the morning DJ at the time. And he had said that he had the new Van Halen song. And I'm freaking out. I'm like, here it is. Oh my god, I've you know I've heard so much about this, and that he was gonna play it. He didn't give a time frame, hey, uh, it's coming up next, or in the next hour. It was just stay glued to your to your headphones. So I got the little orange puffy headphones on, you know, the Sony Walkman, and it's going in and out. I'm playing the radio, but it's like it's going in and out, the bad reception. So I'm like, yo, I gotta hear this song. And now he's about to play it. I'm like, oh shit, we need to fix this radio like real quick, right? So I I put my hand out the window with the with the walkman there to get uh at the school bus window, at the school bus window. This was I guess I was creating an antenna, right? So I put this out and now I have it's clear, and I'm here. I'm like, okay, all right, what's going on? And I I thought it was a great song. I still do. I think it is a fantastic song, and I think it asks uh a great question. I was like, Oh yeah, why can't this be love? Like, you know, I thought it was really smart anyway. I love the tune. I'm listening. The bus driver is freaking out that my hand, my arm actually, my whole arm is like, I'm out the window like this. Uh, she's like, You gotta pull your arm back in the in the bus, or or I'm gonna pull over. We're on our way to school. You think I give a shit if we make it to school or not on time? I don't feel tardy. So I'm like, all right. So I got this arm out the window. I'm listening. Everyone's the kids are looking at me. Some are looking at me like, yo, why don't you just put your arm back in? I'm like, what's wrong with this kid? Right? Who cares if we get to school on time? And the other kids are like, What are you doing? And uh, you know, some of them are like, Well, what's it sound like? You know, what's going on? I go, Van Allen song, ban. So she threatens to pull over, she does pull over. I'd say she held it there for about three seconds. I called her bluff. I was like, Yeah, I'm not this, I'm not, that's not gonna happen. Like, you just you do your job, I'll do mine. I'm gonna listen to you. And uh after the song, of course. Then she got moving. Like I said, a few seconds, she got moving, pulled my arm in, and I got to hear uh why can't this be love? I thought about it all day at school, and then uh that weekend I went out and bought that 45 record we were talking about earlier with the uh picture sleeve, um, with them with the strait jackets that I still have uh to this day as well.

SPEAKER_00 55:59

Um I like to think of the bus driver in that story, you know, being being David Lee Roth from the Hot Pot.

SPEAKER_01 56:14

And I'm a lot of like no in the back of the bus, I'm a lot of that's so funny, you know. Maybe you're right, or maybe it was like David Lee Roth's mom or somebody, it had to be somebody part of the Roth camp or Patty or Patty Smythe, maybe. But God bless them. You know what?

SPEAKER_00 56:29

She pulled over the bus and then just waited. She pulled over the bus, dude. Real talk for like, but it you know, she wasn't there she didn't get up and then come back and you know, slap you upside the head, you know, with a cigarette dangling out of her mouth.

SPEAKER_01 56:40

You know, she let you listen to the song and was like, pull your. I was like, I'm ignoring you because I want to hear this song. You're ruining the moment right now, bus driver. My family pays taxes. We paid for this bus. Just do what you're supposed to do. All right, just get moving. She held over there for, like I said, three, five seconds, and then um, she gave up because I was not giving. I was like, nope, after the song, we got three minutes and we're good. You know, fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 57:04

Stop it. All right. Well, listen, man, I think it's safe to say that both albums stand up. Both albums are basically on any Van Halen's regular rotation. And uh, you know, I like to walk away from an album for a while and come back to it refreshed, you know, with with fresh ears and not listen to something um, you know, to death. As soon as I feel like I've listened to it enough, like or almost enough, I back away from it for a while. And I recently came back to 5150 and um man, it it holds up, it's great. It's it's it's it's timeless in a way, even though it has the you know, Alex has the the the electronic drums, like you still have a sound, and Eddie's sound, you know, his tone is so indicative of that album and that era. You know, he's got the the headless guitar, the Steinberger that he plays on get up and and a few of the other songs. Um it's all so of the time, but at the same time timeless. And the same can be said for Edom and Smile, you know, it's of the time, it's Dave at his most Dave, you know, and the lyrics and the the bombast of that album is pure David Lee Roth. And Steve Vai, as I said before, you couldn't find a better guitarist to be Dave's foil for sure. Um, and so they're both a snapshot of a moment in time, but again, to your point, timeless for sure.

SPEAKER_01 58:25

And hey, you know, you brought up the video before of uh Yankee Rose. Two things that came to mind of that video, besides the things we mentioned, was the larger than life microphone that he was jumping on, whatever happened to that thing, right? And uh when he when he shook his ass at me and on the screen there, remember Daly Ross puts his butt cheeks there up to the screen and uh with his assless chaps.

SPEAKER_00 58:46

You know, um uh I was recently told that Ashless Chats chaps is a uh as an oxymoron. Chaps are assless, that's how they are. You don't need to say assless in front of it. And I was corrected by my kids for an almost an entire dinner once over that. So I can't. I'm sorry, I got a little PTSD. I've got to correct you as well. But anyway, Dave Dave proved you wrong. Dave proved everyone wrong.

SPEAKER_02 59:14

No, this is why they're called this.

SPEAKER_00 59:16

The thing about Dave is that he he did always take chances, right? Like, I mean, even on the 1984 tour, you saw him in these outfits where he's wearing like a red jock strap over his spandex. Like, what are we doing, Dave? Like, what is that? Somehow the ladies loved him, like he could do no wrong. And so when it comes to eat him and smile, he's wearing the ass less chaps, which he wore through Van Halen too. But like, you know, the the sort of outfits he was wearing were clearly based from the the ladies section of the store, you know, like they just are his eyeliner, his haircut, like um, but that was the time, and it was it was what bands work headed back towards, and he was leading the charge as he did, you know. Yeah, so I say, listen, thumbs up to both albums. Um, as soon as we're done here, I'm gonna go put one of those on. I guess we'll see. Here's what you do. Here's what you do.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:03

If you if if it's I agree, thumbs up for both records. You play side A of one and you play side B of the other. That could be another argument or discussion. I'll take it.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:13

I'll take you one step further as I try to as at all times. Put them both on a playlist and hit shuffle and see what comes out. One song after the other. Crazy talk. You know, that's smoking.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:25

Hey, before before we sign off here, before we sign off here, I have to share this with you. I know you're not expecting this. And I want, and I know you'll remember this, okay. So uh, for those of you uh listening here, Tor and I have known each other for uh uh years, years upon years, and our first and as of now, most recent conversation, always about Van Halen. Okay, that's how this all came about. Anyhow, um year a few man, I'm going back some years. We were hanging out and you brought me a gift. Do you remember what the gift was? I do. The t-shirt?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:00

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:00

Yep. So I have it right here now. I wanted to share this on here. And I I was I was just thrilled and honored that you gave me this shirt because I know that you collect t-shirts. So for you to give this to me meant the world to me, right? And I was like, I I remember when you when you first gave it to me, I was like, I can't take this. Like, I need to I don't I don't know if this is cool. You should probably keep this. You're like, no, dude, you need to have this shirt. And uh that I've never seen this shirt prior until you uh gave it to me. So I want to share it here. So can we let me know if we can't see it fully in the screen? Yeah, but it's the uh a fabulous Picasso Brothers obviously. Put it over your face, put it over your face, uh going crazy video and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:44

Up, up, up, higher. There we go. Yes, yeah, that's better, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:49

Say it the great shirt. Look at that in the character.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:52

I'm gonna pull close here, get a look at the character and then always background with the mud flap girls on the background.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:58

Yeah, fantastic, and then the back of the shirt. Forget about it. Forget about it. So good. Dude, I even have the tag on here. I dude, I I can't wear this shirt because I'm a I'm afraid. You know what I mean? I was like, I I pad it up on my wall in in uh the lower east side when when I was living there, and uh, I was like, there's no way I I don't want to fuck up this shirt, you know what I mean? It's fucking off, dude. I can't thank you enough. I should have worn this one today, maybe, but as like I said, I don't want to miss it.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:32

Dude, that yeah, I you know what I honestly I don't remember that shirt. Okay. To be honest, when you were talking about a shirt, I thought I gave you a Dave TV shirt. No, did I give you a white t-shirt that said Dave TV from the logo from the uh from the uh just the gigolo video where they have the Dave TV logo on there? Didn't did I not give you that shirt?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:57

I maybe you meant to, and I got this one instead, and now you're like really pissed off.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:03

No, no, no, I forgot now that I see it, I totally remember the situation, and you know, I you absolutely needed to have it because I knew that you were such a Dave fan, and as am I, but you know, and I love a good vintage tea, especially that one, man, because I've never seen it anywhere before or after. I was gonna sprain it for sure. It's it's super rare. Um, but the one I'm thinking of was just uh a red and black, it was a white t-shirt with a red and black logo of the Dave TV thing from the uh just the Jubalo video. And um, I thought that's the one that I gave you. Who did I give that one to? I don't know, but I'm finally giving away some t-shirts. What the hell's going on? Right? Man, those three of cups days, those were those are some good times, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:45

Oh, that was a bar we hung out at, man. That was yeah, those were good times. And these are good times here now on the Mighty Van Halen podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:52

That's right, everybody. Listen, until we see you again, be sure to follow us on Instagram at Mighty VH Podcast. That's Mighty underscore VH underscore podcast on Instagram. And be sure to watch our our our episodes on YouTube. You can listen to them on Spotify, you can listen to them on Apple Music and just about any other platform that's out there that hosts fine podcasts such as this one. And Tommy, tell them once again where they can email us with any questions, comments, or complaints.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:21

The mighty Van Halen podcast at gmail.com. Hey, hit us up with uh with out what album do you think is best or worst or whatever. Maybe you don't care, but if you didn't care, you wouldn't be here with us now. We are pretty cute. Get the hell out of me. What are you doing here? You're in the wrong podcast, pal. You just spent an hour hanging out in the wrong room. What are you waiting for? New kids on the block update or something? You're in the wrong house.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:47

Anyway, all right, everybody. Until next time, happy trails. Happy trails.