The following is the last official bio from the band...... rumor has it that David Lee Roth is back in the band, but so far the VH camp has kept a tight lip on the new lineup..... check out the Van Halen News Desk for the latest news on VH
When
Van Halen undergoes a lineup change, it’s big news. For the third time
in their illustrious twenty years together, the members of Van Halen
have welcomed a new lead singer, Gary Cherone, formerly of the group Extreme.
“I’ve been looking for a singer like Gary all my life,” says an admiring
Eddie Van Halen of his new colleague. Not surprisingly, this match-made-in-heaven
has resulted in one of Van Halen’s finest albums to date, VAN HALEN III,
which marks the third incarnation in the life of America’s supreme rock
‘n’ roll band.
Produced
by Mike Post and Eddie Van Halen, and written, as usual, by the band, VAN
HALEN III is over an hour of richly textured music, all of which
will amaze long-time fans of the band and will undoubtedly rein in a new,
younger throng of admirers. Recorded and mixed at Eddie’s 5150 Studios
in L.A., the album’s eleven tracks cross every musical boundary, and take
the band to undiscovered terrain, as the opening piece, the aptly-titled
acoustic instrumental “Neworld,” suggests.
Of
course, anyone who has followed Van Halen over the years has come to expect
the unexpected from them.
From
the start, the band established its own rules, and then broke them
at will. Brothers Alex and Edward were born in Holland, where they
lived until 1962, when the family moved to Pasadena, California. Both began
playing guitar and drums at an early age, and throughout high school played
in cover bands, with Eddie often singing lead. The brothers’ first serious
band was named Mammoth, which by the mid-‘70s had featured the lineup of
the Van Halen brothers, bassist Michael Anthony and singer David Lee Roth.
Because another band had come up with the name Mammoth, the band members
settled on the simpler moniker, Van Halen.
By
1977, after establishing themselves solidly on the L.A. club circuit,
Warner Bros. Records staff producer Ted Templeman convinced label chief
Mo Ostin to sign the band, and in February 1978, their self-titled debut
album was released. The band met with instant and overwhelming international
success, with Van Halen going on to sell more than 10 million copies worldwide.
From
there, a string of multi-platinum hit albums ensued, including Van
Halen II (1979), Women and Children First (1980), Fair Warning (1981),
Diver Down (1982), and 1984 MCMLXXXIV (1984), which spawned the No.
1 smash hit “Jump.” The world had by then long acknowledged Eddie
Van Halen as an unparalleled musical genius, both as a guitarist and composer.
In
1985, Sammy Hagar joined Van Halen as lead singer, and the band’s
next album, 5150, took them to the No. 1 spot on the charts. They repeated
this feat with their next two albums, OU812 (1988) and For Unlawful Carnal
Knowledge (1991). Van Halen followed this up with LIVE: Right here, right
now (1993) and Balance (1995), their last studio album, which entered the
charts at No. 1. The group ventured into the realm of film scoring with
the songs “Humans Being” (the last Van Halen song to feature lead vocals
by Sammy Hagar) and “Respect The Wind” (written and performed by Eddie
and Alex) for the soundtrack to the smash hit movie Twister.
In
1996, Van Halen released Van Halen - Best of - Volume 1, yet another No.1
album - which included two new tracks, “Can’t Get This Stuff No More” and
“Me Wise Magic.” Last year, as the band sought a new lead singer, Van Halen
manager Ray Danniels suggested Boston-native Gary Cherone as a possible
new singer for the band, after Cherone’s group Extreme had disbanded. Gary
met with Van Halen, jammed a little with them, and was immediately invited
to join the band. Most of 1997 was devoted to the writing and recording
of VAN HALEN III, which is now ready for unveiling.
Already
well-known throughout the world for his dynamic stage presence, Gary Cherone
has brought a fresh, youthful energy to Van Halen, both with his extraordinary
vocals as well as his skills as a co-writer and lyricist.
Everyone
close to the band, as well as Eddie, Alex and Michael, agrees that Gary
has contributed to the group reaching a new artistic level. As they gear
up for a year of touring (which will include stops in locales the band
has never played before), it’s worth remembering that Van Halen is truly
an international band. A quick scan of the more than 100 Van Halen websites
- some in Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch and Japanese - attests to
the group’s enduring global appeal. That’s not bad for a little ol’ rock
‘n’ roll band from L.A., which, twenty years on, is still having as much
fun as ever. If some skeptics ever wonder whether it’s possible for the
best to get better, let them look to VAN HALEN III for the answer.
