Updates for January 22, 2012

Mike Wood sent in a new date for the Invasion Tour. He has a ticket stub and some great memories of a 11/06/80 show in South Bend, IN. Ramon Tripp also provided a ticket stub for the 05/08/80 show in New Haven, CT. The entry was also updated with the inclusion of Alex's drum kit from the tour in the Rock Hall of Fame.

The Everybody Wants Some!! entry was updated with new links and the appearance of the song in the movie Zombieland.

The On Fire entry was updated with info about Stryper's 2011 cover of the song.

The (Oh) Pretty Woman entry was updated with references to Pete Angelus's interview in the book, MTV Ruled the World.

The Jump entry was updated to include the contraversial banning of the song from the DVD and U.S. versions of the Ricky Gervais show, An Idiot Abroad.

The Hot for Teacher entry was updated with the Glee episode covering the song.

The 1984 entry was updated with the true story of the cover image relayed by the artist.

Time's a Waste entry was added. I'm not sure if it qualifies as a full, unreleased song, but fan lore says it does.

Van Halen Tour Update

Added a new date to the 1978 Van Halen Tour, 09/18/78, courtesy of reader Rick Dennis and the proof comes courtesy of Black-Sabbath.com.

Fair Warning and For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge Tour Updates

Updated the Fair Warning Tour, 6/09/81 show, thanks to reader Dave Hayes, and the For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge Tour, 04/06/92 show, thanks to reader "Mike."

Van Halen III Tour Updated

Revised, updated and published the new version of the Van Halen III Tour.

Invasion Tour Update

A Van Halen fan from France sent a correction for the 06/01/80 Invasion Tour date with proof.

Balance Tour Revised

I revised, updated and posted the Balance Tour.

Updates for July

Added the For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge Tour and the Right Here, Right Now Tour.

Updates for May

Added 05/03/80 tour date based on ticket stub provided by a reader.

Added the working title of Sinner's Swing based on this article.

Revelations from Sammy Hagar's New Book

While the press focuses on Sammy's alien abduction story and the sex tents under the For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge Tour stage, I'm focusing on the stuff that never appeared in the Van Halen Encyclopedia, because I either didn't know about it or didn't have a source to confirm it.

Here's a few things I'll be updating the site with that were news to me:

• Valerie forced Eddie to listen to the lyrics of Love Walks In. Eddie didn't care at all about lyrics during the Dave years. This is point when Eddie and Sammy first starting really collaborating as writers.
• The band had an intervention for Alex after the 5150 Tour and he went to rehab.
• For the F.U.C.K. album, Sammy says of their famous (Led Zeppelin veteran) producer, "Andy Johns was a disaster." Sammy hated him (at the time, that is - he would return to him many years later). Sammy brought in Ted Templeman to help produce the vocals and mix the album.
• Sucker in a 3-Piece was written in Cabo, when Sammy and beautiful woman exchanged glances - she was with a rich, old man wearing a 3-piece, but seemingly interested in Sammy.
• Cabo Wabo was originally written to the music of Make It Last (the vocals) and Eddie and Alex wrote music the night before independently, which also sounded like Make It Last. The two creations were combined to create the song.
• Don't Tell Me What Love Can Do was originally titled "I Want to Show You What Love Can Do" (more along of what the song was really about - Kurt Cobain's suicide), but Eddie and Alex lobbied against the title.
• Mike apparently volunteered to take a lesser cut of the band's royalties earlier than thought during the Sammy era, long before the much publicized huge cut he took in 2004 to play on the reunion tour. The original cut was due to his lack of participation in the band's songwriting.

Starting the Sammy Tours

I'm starting to post the Sammy-era tours, beginning tonight with the 5150 Tour. The Sammy tours require a greater attention to detail (more fans meant more witnesses and more facts to go over). A few updates were made to the 5150 Tour entry, but many more updates had to be made to the songs linked to in the entry. Enjoy!