Brothers

By Alex Van Halen

Book Overview

In this intimate and open account--nothing like any rock-and-roll memoir you've ever read--Alex Van Halen shares his personal story of family, friendship, music and brotherly love in a remarkable tribute to his beloved brother and band mate.

Told with acclaimed New Yorker writer Ariel Levy Brothers is seventy-year-old drummer Alex Van Halen's love letter to his younger brother, Edward, (Maybe "Ed," but never "Eddie"), written while still mourning his untimely death.

In his rough yet sweet voice, Alex recounts the brothers' childhood, first in the Netherlands and then in working class Pasadena, California, with an itinerant musician father and a very proper Indonesian-born mother--the kind of mom who admonished her boys to "always wear a suit" no matter how famous they became--a woman who was both proud and practical, nonchalant about taking a doggie bag from a star-studded dinner. He also shares tales of musical politics, infighting, and plenty of bad-boy behavior. But mostly his is a story of brotherhood, music, and enduring love.

"I was with him from day one," Alex writes. "We shared the experience of coming to this country and figuring out how to fit in. We shared a record player, an 800 square foot house, a mom and dad, and a work ethic. Later, we shared the back of a tour bus, alcoholism, the experience of becoming successful, of becoming fathers and uncles, and of spending more hours in the studio than I've spent doing anything else in this life. We shared a depth of understanding that most people can only hope to achieve in a lifetime."

There has never been an accurate account of them or the band, and Alex wants to set the record straight on Edward's life and death.

Brothers includes never-before-seen photos from the author's private archives.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0063265702
• ISBN13: 9780063265707
• Release Date: October 2024
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.2" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Very entertaining, but to short

I loved this book, but it was to darn short! Alex's writing style was very honest, without being over critical, and I understood his love for his brother so much better after reading this. The book covers from their childhood and first coming to America, to the breakup with David Lee Roth. Unfortunately, there was much more to Van Halen's career than just the Roth years. Why nothing about the Sammy Hager years? It was the bands most commercially successful years, but Sammy Hager's name is only mentioned in passing, 2-3 times in the whole book. Forget the Gary Cerone years, nothing. Nothing about playing with Eddie and Wolfgang, nothing about letting bassist Michael Anthony go after all those years. The book just seemed so incomplete, unless his planning a separate book on the later years. That's the only thing keeping me from rating it 5 stars, because it's to short!