HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 26: Artist Robert Vargas stands next to his painting during unveiling of his Eddie Van Halen mural "Long Live The King" at Guitar Center on January 26, 2021 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
On Eddie Van Halen's birthday (he would have been 68 today) we're taking a look back at a bunch of the unbelievable music the guitar master himself left behind for us to enjoy and marvel at. The "Balance" album celebrates the 28-year anniversary of its release this week, and Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony reflected on what turned out to be Hagar's last album with Van Halen.
Hagar said, "Happy anniversary to Balance! The Balance record was such a great record, but it was during hard times for the band, and a very hard record to make. A lot of painful dark images, bickering amongst the band, health issues..."
While Anthony added, "By the time the Balance record came out, there was lots of tension within the band, personally and professionally. One thing that was understood though was that the music was the important thing, and when we got together to play live we kicked ass, be it in concert or guesting on a TV show."
Kevin from The Paul and Al Show and Van Halen fanatic here: While "Balance" is certainly not by any means the most definitive album of Van Halen's career, I still have always loved it. Obviously, as Sammy and Michael said above, it was written and recorded in a very dark period of the band's history (a band not unfamiliar with dark times), and that heaviness is apparent in some of the music on the record. But that's part of what I love about it. Plus, that anger and in-fighting later led to the wonderfully rage-filled "Humans Being" from the "Twister" movie soundtrack. Listen to that song and watch that video and you can see that the earlier lovefest from when Eddie and Sammy first hooked up for "5150" was LONG over.
Read the full story HERE, and check out the video Hagar and Anthony both shared of Van Halen performing "Amsterdam" from Balance on "The Jon Stewart Show" in 1995...
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