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Running with the Devil (book) - who has read it?


Rod in Toronto
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I just finished reading this book, and highly recommend it to anyone who is a Van Halen fan. It's interesting even if you don't like the band. Tales of debauchery on and off the road, personal conflicts, creative differences, childish behavior, and excessive drugs and alcohol... there's a bit of everything. The author is Noel Monk, who was Van Halen's manager from 78 to 84, and he tells the story of how the biggest band of the 80's imploded in the midst of egoes, cocaine and alcohol.

 

The most surprising revelation for me was that Michael Anthony has been basically an employee of Van Halen since the 1984 tour...they tore up the contract that established the equal split between band members and got him to waive all rights to royalties from then on.

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Rod, thanks

 

I will definitely look into this, but I am curious - does Eddie come across as unreasonable or difficult ??

 

I know that he's had his issues with drugs, but overall, could he be painted as an ahole ??

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They must have got the idea from Gene Simmons, they basically did the same thing. The difference is Gene and Paul only did this with new people who hadn't been in the band before or ex-band members who had already agreed to it and been paid off already. The Van Halens did it to a guy who had been the band all along and still was.
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Pink Floyd forced keyboardist Richard Wright out of the band, but retained him as a salaried keyboardist. Roger later admitted (with regret) to bullying Wright out of the band.

 

If I had been in Michael Anthony's place, I would have told the Van Halen boys to stick it. :moon:

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Rod, thanks

 

I will definitely look into this, but I am curious - does Eddie come across as unreasonable or difficult ??

 

I know that he's had his issues with drugs, but overall, could he be painted as an ahole ??

 

In the book, Eddie comes across as a quiet and insecure genius who, like Roth and Alex, had trouble to address issues when they came, and more often than not had too much cocaine and alcohol in his system to think and talk things through.

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Pink Floyd forced keyboardist Richard Wright out of the band, but retained him as a salaried keyboardist. Roger later admitted (with regret) to bullying Wright out of the band.

 

If I had been in Michael Anthony's place, I would have told the Van Halen boys to stick it. :moon:

I'm sure that Anthony was fairly compensated for his contribution to the band. More than fairly.

 

ETA: Her's not called "the luckiest man in rock" for nothing.

Edited by goose
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Treeduck and Principled Man, I had no idea that this was common practice, especially with members who have been in the band since the beginning, like Richard Wright. I think that deep inside Michael Anthony knew he would have trouble finding another gig, as good a player as he was, and accepted the offer without any resistance. Noel says he was always the nicest and most down to earth member, did not party hard as the others, never trashed his room, and hardly took any drugs, aside from his love for Jack Daniel's.
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Pink Floyd forced keyboardist Richard Wright out of the band, but retained him as a salaried keyboardist. Roger later admitted (with regret) to bullying Wright out of the band.

 

If I had been in Michael Anthony's place, I would have told the Van Halen boys to stick it. :moon:

I'm sure that Anthony was fairly compensated for his contribution to the band. More than fairly.

 

ETA: Her's not called "the luckiest man in rock" for nothing.

 

He was screwed in 1984, and stayed in the band until the end of the reunion tour with Sammy in 2004, so I guess you have a point. But still, the way the agreement was written was quite disrespectful: he had to waive any rights to royalties from the album 1984 AFTER they recorded, released and were already profiting from and touring to promote it.

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Pink Floyd forced keyboardist Richard Wright out of the band, but retained him as a salaried keyboardist. Roger later admitted (with regret) to bullying Wright out of the band.

 

If I had been in Michael Anthony's place, I would have told the Van Halen boys to stick it. :moon:

I'm sure that Anthony was fairly compensated for his contribution to the band. More than fairly.

 

ETA: Her's not called "the luckiest man in rock" for nothing.

 

He was screwed in 1984, and stayed in the band until the end of the reunion tour with Sammy in 2004, so I guess you have a point. But still, the way the agreement was written was quite disrespectful: he had to waive any rights to royalties from the album 1984 AFTER they recorded, released and were already profiting from and touring to promote it.

The VH Bros. were/are dicks, for sure.
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Treeduck and Principled Man, I had no idea that this was common practice, especially with members who have been in the band since the beginning, like Richard Wright. I think that deep inside Michael Anthony knew he would have trouble finding another gig, as good a player as he was, and accepted the offer without any resistance. Noel says he was always the nicest and most down to earth member, did not party hard as the others, never trashed his room, and hardly took any drugs, aside from his love for Jack Daniel's.

 

I don't know if it is common practice, but it does happen in some bands.

 

We will never know all the gory details of the business side of rock & roll. I don't want to know. I'm sure that it is quite vile..... :(

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I’ve read the Hagar book and, no surprise, EVH comes off as a total douchebag.

 

Hagar's objective, unbiased book? :P

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I’ve read the Hagar book and, no surprise, EVH comes off as a total douchebag.

 

Hagar's objective, unbiased book? :P

It's got me hooked so far. Sammy's a character. I'm only up to him joining VH and working on 5150.

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I’ve read the Hagar book and, no surprise, EVH comes off as a total douchebag.

 

Hagar's objective, unbiased book? :P

It's got me hooked so far. Sammy's a character. I'm only up to him joining VH and working on 5150.

 

Ray Danniels doesn't come off sounding too great in Hagar's book either.

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Pink Floyd forced keyboardist Richard Wright out of the band, but retained him as a salaried keyboardist. Roger later admitted (with regret) to bullying Wright out of the band.

 

If I had been in Michael Anthony's place, I would have told the Van Halen boys to stick it. :moon:

I'm sure that Anthony was fairly compensated for his contribution to the band. More than fairly.

 

ETA: Her's not called "the luckiest man in rock" for nothing.

 

He was screwed in 1984, and stayed in the band until the end of the reunion tour with Sammy in 2004, so I guess you have a point. But still, the way the agreement was written was quite disrespectful: he had to waive any rights to royalties from the album 1984 AFTER they recorded, released and were already profiting from and touring to promote it.

The pre 1984 was their peak, so I think Mike should still profit quite well from those royalties, as would (likely) Dave. The balance of VH is with EVH, so they could easily push Mike around or find another bass player. The same thing with Richard Wright...the PF keyboards were pretty simple so not like they had to replace Keith Emerson.

 

I can't comprehend how someone's ego or greed would be that out of control that they would feel the need to push other members out. How many mansions and fame are enough for you? Are you that insecure that you feel the bass or keyboard player is stealing your spotlight?

 

This all sounds like typical rock band drama and politics and it's happened over and over again. I was watching the Dan Rather interview with Michael Stipe and Mike Mills and they said Peter Buck layed down the law when REM started by dividing publishing equally and there was never another discussion about it. I find that very admirable. I guess when you have other bands where members feel they're more important than others then the drama BS gets stirred up. That's why I'm glad Rush was very democratic because it was impossible to argue that one member was more critical than the others.

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I’ve read the Hagar book and, no surprise, EVH comes off as a total douchebag.

 

Hagar's objective, unbiased book? :P

It's got me hooked so far. Sammy's a character. I'm only up to him joining VH and working on 5150.

 

Ray Danniels doesn't come off sounding too great in Hagar's book either.

Danniels is nothing but a flaming opportunist and everyone knows it...including him.
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Mike Anthony was a crucial part of the VH sound. His backing vocals were essential to the whole gig.

 

F**k the VH brothers.

 

Remember when Eddie replaced Mike on the album covers with pictures of his Chaz Bono lookalike son?

 

The fans told him to go get f**ked, and rightly so.

 

He quickly changed them back to avoid further rebuke.

 

Total cockwomble.

Edited by Turbine Freight
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I’ve read the Hagar book and, no surprise, EVH comes off as a total douchebag.

 

Hagar's objective, unbiased book? :P

It's got me hooked so far. Sammy's a character. I'm only up to him joining VH and working on 5150.

 

He’s got the same laid back personality of the likes of Joe Walsh and Dave Grohl. I trust Hagar more than EVH any day.

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I’ve read the Hagar book and, no surprise, EVH comes off as a total douchebag.

 

Hagar's objective, unbiased book? :P

It's got me hooked so far. Sammy's a character. I'm only up to him joining VH and working on 5150.

 

He’s got the same laid back personality of the likes of Joe Walsh and Dave Grohl. I trust Hagar more than EVH any day.

:yes:
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I read Sammy's book too, and the chapter called "Samurai Hair" is just sad. It shows Eddie's descent into dangerous territory - nobody knew what he was on at the time, and there's been reports of him using crack. This was at last taking a toll on his ability to play - the 2004 tour was a disaster by all counts. In my opinion, he only recovered in full from all that halfway through the reunion tour with Dave. Even that tour had a few dates cancelled due to Eddie's health issues.
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