Author: Van Halen, Alex

Rock & Pop music

Published on 24 October 2024 by HarperCollins Publishers (HarperCollins) in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 240 pages, 20 col plates (16pp)
162 x 243 x 28 | 530g

In this intimate and open account ¨C nothing like any rock-and-roll memoir you¡¯ve ever read ¨C 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.

¡®A remarkable memoir¡¯ Classic Rock

¡®A highly emotional read¡¯ Guardian

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 ¨C the kind of mum who admonished her boys to ¡°always wear a suit¡± no matter how famous they became ¨C 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 behaviour. 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 America 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 famous, 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.