The Van Halen News Desk reports:
KISS’s Gene Simmons claims that he once had to talk Eddie Van Halen out of leaving Van Halen and joining KISS. Simmons has repeated this story a few times over the last 20 years, but we’ve never heard what Eddie Van Halen has to say about this story…until now!
The Van Halen News Desk has found a rare interview in which Van Halen was asked about this rumor. This interview, embedded below, was conducted by Alan K. Stout of The Times Leader. Alan states, ”It’s not everyday that a guy who, as a kid, wore a Van Halen t-shirt to school all the time and wore a “VH” necklace gets to chat at length with the guitar legend. But that’s what happened to me at The Times Leader back in the spring of 1995.”
It’s a typical Balance era interview until the interviewer pops the off-the-record question. Here’s the transcription of the KISS – related segment:
Alan K. Stout: I have this book [KISS’ coffee table book] KISSTORY, and there is a passage in there about you.
Eddie: Wow!
Alan K. Stout: It said back around ’82, you had dinner or lunch with Gene and Paul in L.A., and Ace [Frehley] had just quit, and you weren’t happy, and they talked about bringing you into the band. Is that true?
Eddie: Not that I know of.
Alan K. Stout: [Laughs] I didn’t think it was!
Eddie: Unless I was so fucked up I don’t remember…? They might have asked me…?
Alan K. Stout: I thought that’s a fascinating Eddie Van Halen story that I don’t think anybody knows.
Eddie: Not even me! Wow. No, I don’t have a clue. They might have just asked me in passing, and I just kind of laughed it off, probably.
Alan K. Stout: [Laughs] Yeah! I didn’t think it was something that was being seriously talked about.
Eddie: If it happened I’m sure I would have remembered.
Alan K. Stout: [Laughs] Funny story.
Eddie: That’s hilarious. Maybe they did ask me and I just thought they were joking…?
What do you think is the real story? Simmons insists this happened. Paul Stanley was just asked about this rumor, and said he never heard anything about it before. Eddie has never publicly said anything about ever wanting to join KISS. Who do you think is telling the truth? And who’s telling a different kind of truth?
Listen to the entire interview below. The KISS discussion takes place at the 15:45 mark.
source: vhnd.com
22 Responses
Can’t say any of this is surprising. It’s Gene’s world and we’re all just livin’ in it.
Good thing he didn’t join…he wouldn’t be in the rock and roll hall of fame!
Ok, now THAT is hilarious! Bravo!
(I only wish I’d thought of it first!)
HAHAHA, tell you right now I’m stealing that line. That is one of the funniest things I’ve read on here. Seriously.
Other people Gene claims wanted to join Kiss but he denied for their own sake: Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Moon, Pope John Paul II, John F Kennedy Jr., Moses, each of the Beatles, and Betty White.
Coming off of two 10+ million sellers and from that he would go off and be someone’s low paid side man? LOLOL. Gene should be checked for brain tumors.
Actually, when this was supposed to have happened (around ’82), VH didn’t have two 10+million sellers yet. 1984 wouldn’t even be released for another two years, and the first album was only about four-years-old and still some time away from clearing the 10 million mark. That said, I still think this incident has been exaggerated by Gene for notoriety reasons. It probably did happen, but was just an offhand comment by Eddie because he was angry at Dave at the time. He was also most likely intoxicated, which would explain his not remembering it.
Still, one of the problems was the massive ego that went with the name Van Halen by the Van Halens. The very idea he would give that up is laughable. Eddie is hardly the humble/likeable guy that Sammie Hagar is.
In fact he’s so humble, he doesn’t mind when you spell his name wrong. I was wondering when the first Sammy sympathizer would show up.
IT’S NOT A TUMAH!!!!!!!
Gene’s account of this “alleged” meeting/conversation is in his bio in some detail. He basically said Eddie was tired of Roth’s crap (obviously I’m paraphrasing from memory, so don’t hold me to the exact-ness of it) and he came in with a demo of “Jump” and played it for Gene. So time-wise that puts this between “Diver Down” and “1984”. Gene’s reaction to hearing the “Jump” demo was something like “so you haven’t put the guitars on here yet, right?…” and Eddie told him it was going to primarily be a keyboard-driven song (which apparently Roth was very against). Eddie asked Gene about joining KISS, but Gene’s said something like “Eddie, your shadow looms too large to be in this band. The fans will never accept it. You are the namesake of your own band…” Again, who knows if this actually ever happened?
In a kind of related rock rumor, I heard that KISS was considering hiring Angel guitarist Punky Meadows when Ace stopped showing up/couldn’t be found or whatever in the early ’80s. Story goes they passed on Punky ’cause Paul thought he was “too pretty” and Paul could be the ONLY pretty one in KISS!
Again, this may be just a bullshit rock-rumor.
So we look to you Eddie Trunk…please shed any light you have on these juicy nuggets of rock folk-lore!