Alex van halen on his new memoir | members only

ED WAS SHY — HOW DID HE HANDLE FAME? He started drinking the Kool-Aid. When people tell you how great you are and that nothing can go wrong, you start to buy it. The only person who would

tell him the truth was me. “I’m not on your payroll, Ed. Let’s talk.” I was more pragmatic, willing to trade this and that for involvement of other people — meaning Dave [David Lee Roth]. Ed

was more, "I’m doing it my way."  HOW GOOD WAS ED ON GUITAR? At 13, we’d hear these guys we thought were above us, like John Mayall, Eric Clapton. Ed picked up that stuff almost

immediately, like a sponge. He could play it note for note. He was more articulate, he was cleaner, more deliberate, he could be gentler. He played 10 or 12 hours a day, every day. DID VAN

HALEN BASSIST MICHAEL ANTHONY REALLY FIND OUT ON THE INTERNET THAT HE'D BEEN REPLACED BY ED'S TEEN SON WOLFGANG? Ed and I had been in the studio for weeks and Mikey stopped showing

up. When Wolf stepped in at 15, I said to Ed, we’ve got to call Mikey and do the right thing and we did. Wolf got the gig fair and square. Wolfgang Van Halen, David Lee Roth and Eddie Van

Halen onstage in 2012. Kevin Mazur/Getty Images What would Ed think of _Brothers_?  I think he’d be pleased because I told the truth. I didn’t sugarcoat anything other than leaving out some

obvious things that happened after the shows. YOUR DAD WAS AN ACCOMPLISHED JAZZ MUSICIAN. DID HE APPRECIATE VAN HALEN? Definitely. He motivated us to get Dave in the band. He said, “You guys

can’t just stand there. You need someone like an emcee.” We had 10 songs and we had to play four hours. You stretch it with a lot of dancing and joking and palling around. But be careful

not to let the pendulum swing too far. That was always the challenge in our band. You need a good balance. DAVID LEE ROTH, WHO WENT SOLO, COMES ACROSS AS DRIVEN, SUPPORTIVE AND AN EGOMANIAC.

Ed and I felt as long as we can make the music, we can pull him back in. Look at U2 when they made that egg that wouldn’t open on stage — they went too far, regrouped and started over. Ed

and I had no interest in the circus aspect. We were more subtle. People said we hated Dave, which was not true. We hated some of his choices. But I don’t think anyone can be above the

adulation and attention you get. “Hey Dave, you’re the man, what do you need those other guys for?” I have mostly good memories of him.