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This is Fresh Air, I'm Tanya Mosley and my guest today is Alex Van Halen

of the iconic rock band Van Halen's biggest hit and it became an anthem when it came out in 1983

even though a record executive once said it sounded like the kind of music you'd

hear between baseball innings. Alex Van Halen shares this story in his new memoir

Brothers, which he wrote after the loss of his younger brother Eddie, who died of cancer in 2020,

known for their extravagant high energy performances,

Van Halen is credited with being one of the most influential rock bands of all time.

The book covers the first three decades of Eddie and Alex's music career, which

started from their arrival as kids to the United States from the Netherlands,

the influence of their father, who was a Dutch jazz musician, and the formation of their father who was a Dutch jazz musician and the formation of the

rock band in 1974 after meeting vocalist David Lee Roth and bassist Michael Anthony.

But most importantly, brothers is a love letter to the music they created and Eddie

who has been called for decades one of the greatest guitarists of all time. Van Halen disbanded after Eddie died in 2020, but

throughout their run Van Halen produced 12 studio albums, two live records and

56 singles. They were included in the Rock and Roll whole of

Fame in 2007. Alex Van Halen, welcome to fresh air. Thank you for having me.

Alex this Thank you for having me. Alex, this was a beautiful read and I feel like there is no better way to ground this conversation

than to start at the beginning of this book because the way you

...