Van Halen drummer Alex Van Halen is explaining why he made “the conscientious decision” to end his recently released book, “Brothers,” in 1984.
In a new interview, he said, “Because the original band was the band that was the driving force. That was the connection between the disparate parts of the musical world, if you will. And we were young. The first record going platinum; it’s incredible. That’s something you can really never expect to happen again. Later on, it was different — that’s for another book.”
The interviewer later noted that Alex’s attitude is “true rock and roll,” and Alex said, “Bingo. That’s exactly right. You just hit the nail on the head. That’s why the book ends in 1984, because that was true rock and roll. After that, it became much more — I don’t know; I can’t explain it. But it’s not to say that it was not any good. We always did our best at whatever we were doing, but it wasn’t the same.”