After the disastrous reunion tour of 2004, Van Halen again went into hiding. Nothing really seemed to change for the once mighty and cohesive group. There seemed to be such a long time where nothing but silence was observed from the group. Barely anything seemed to come out of this.

In 2006, some changes occurred, however. Firstly, Michael Anthony, long time bass player of Van Halen was dumped from the band in favour of Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang. For many older fans in particular, this seemed a criminal move. Why on earth would Van Halen do such a thing?

The renewed Van Halen seemed to once again really understand why they were there for rock and roll in the first place.

Picture courtesy http://www.vhnd.com/2014/09/27/7-years-ago-van-halen-launches-first-tour-with-david-lee-roth-since-1984/

Turns out that from a logical marketing point, it was very clever. Although Wolfgang was only in his teen years at the time, he grew into the role very quickly. To this day, Wolfgang Van Halen has proven an excellent singer and bass player, and has ventured outside of Van Halen musically to do his own thing with other groups quite well. Although neither can be compared to one another, Wolfgang Van Halen perhaps seems more musically active than Michael Anthony ever really was in his own right in Van Halen.

Once this had occurred, the three Van Halens worked on the next idea: David Lee Roth coming back to Van Halen. The question was though, how would it be done?

Strategically driven, Wolfgang Van Halen gave a call to David Lee Roth in 2006 and asked if he would be interested in rejoining Van Halen. After consideration, David Lee Roth said yes and rejoined the group.

Although relations between David Lee Roth and the Van Halens are never perfect, the group of four are happier and more productive than ever.

Picture courtesy http://aarontallent.com/?p=4061

Also, Eddie Van Halen cleaned up his state of mind around this time. Inspired by his young son Wolfgang, he began a fight to overcome his addictions. Although taking one step back in 2007 by visiting a rehabilitation clinic for addiction to a substitute drug for alcohol, Eddie took two steps forward and is now alcohol free and much more focused. He also switched from smoking cigarettes to smoking an electronic cigarette in an effort to clean up.

Eventually by 2007 Van Halen were ready to tour again and did just that. The tour of that year was a critical and commercial success, and gave Eddie Van Halen the chance to test his new Fender prototype gear along the way. This happened with a lot of effort, patience and understanding from the Van Halen fans in particular. But now Van Halen were on a definite up, and never looking back.

Now that Van Halen were working properly once again, they fared very well with their contemporaries in music.

Picture courtesy http://aintitbalenews.com/node/2622/van-halen

 

References:

1. Eddie Van Halen’s Struggle With Alcohol And Drugs: What’s The Root Cause? 2013. Clarity Way. https://www.clarityway.com/blog/van-halens-struggle/