Australia’s Triple M recently conducted a short interview with Eddie and Alex Van Halen. Read it below.
Triple M: Eddie is it true your dad gave you a shot of vodka and a cigarette when you were 12-years-old to help combat nerves?
Eddie: Yes, to help calm my nerves. Worked for him and worked for me for a lot of years, but those days are over now. I quit smoking and quit drinking about five or six years ago. There goes the neighborhood.”
Triple M: Alex, you are an ordained minister?
Alex: I don’t promote it but I don’t deny it. I’m in a rock band so you have to take everything with a grain of salt.
Triple M: Van Halen are actually the band KISS without make-up?
Alex: I think we’re much better looking.
Triple M: Of course, Van Halen hit Australia this April with the old dog, David Lee Roth on vocals. Is it good to have Diamond Dave back in the band?
Alex: It’s like you walk into the studio and we haven’t been together for a while and there’s this overwhelming sense of ‘coming home.’ That’s the best way I can describe it.
All the time we were apart was if it hadn’t existed and we picked up the fisti-cuffs right away. It’s like a pair of jeans that just fit right.
Triple M: Eddie’s son Wolfgang has been playing bass in the band for the past seven years, after replacing original bassist Michael Anthony in 2006.
Eddie: Of course it’s exciting, and he keeps us young.
Alex: It’s good to have a different perspective on the music we recorded 35 years ago. We’re really happy the music has stood the test time and I think having a different generation involved with it gives us a different perspective.
source: triplem.com.au