Van Halen Rising cover art

Van Halen Rising

How a Southern California Backyard Party Band Saved Heavy Metal

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Van Halen Rising

By: Greg Renoff
Narrated by: Sean Runnette
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About this listen

After years of gigging everywhere from suburban backyards to dive bars, Van Halen - led by frontman extraordinaire David Lee Roth and guitar virtuoso Edward Van Halen - had the songs, the swagger, and the talent to turn the rock world on its ear.

The quartet's classic 1978 debut, Van Halen, sold more than a million copies within months of release and rocketed the band to the stratosphere of rock success. On tour, Van Halen's high-energy show wowed audiences and prompted headlining acts like Black Sabbath to concede that they'd been blown off the stage. By the year's end, Van Halen had established themselves as superstars and reinvigorated heavy metal in the process.

Based on more than 230 original interviews - including with former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony and power players like Pete Angelus, Marshall Berle, Donn Landee, Ted Templeman, and Neil Zlozower - Van Halen Rising is the first book to tell the untold story of how these rock legends made the unlikely journey from Pasadena, California, to the worldwide stage.

©2015 Greg Renoff (P)2016 Tantor Entertainment & Celebrities Music Celebrity Inspiring Guitar

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Critic reviews

"Renoff's book is a thoroughly entertaining read that will appeal to every hard rock fan." ( Publishers Weekly)
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Van Halen Rising by @GregRenoff. If you want to succeed in the music industry you better play your arse off like VH and learn piano 🎹 to get a classical grounding. I liked everything about this well-researched book.📚5/5🌟 #BookReview but if I could turn it up to 11 i would.

Follow me on Twitter for more reviews @zennyreadsalot

Turn it up to 11 just like spinal tap

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A superb recollection of when a band really was a band. Beautiful bit of modern history.

Just a story of greatness

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Interesting book charting the rise of Van Halen. Not the best book about Van Halen but still worth buying.

Interesting

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this is an absolute awesome inside in the start to greatness this book is also very inspirational for any guitar player / musician

an absolutely awesome book

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Insightful as to how VH became one of the most important hard rock groups of all time due to EVH's musical brilliance and DLR's determination - cherished every second of it, Renoff delivers the goods

An amazing story of perseverance and greatness

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I've been living with these guys in my head for 36 years. And I have gone through all the phases that VH fans have gone through, with all the genius and turbulence the band was mired in.

But I never really knew how hard it was for them to get to where they are. How much dedication they had to put in and how much adversity the faced. You can learn life lessons from listening to this book.

And most importantly the book humanises them in a way that none of the hundreds of interviews out there do. The book is about a bunch of young kids doing something extraordinary.

Loved it.

A MUST listen for old and new VH fans

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this is a really interesting and entertaining book, well written and read. check it

every rock and metal fan should listen to this

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A good book for Van Halen fans taking them up to early success. Quite long & repetitive. A lot of cover song yard parties discussed. I didn't realise the influence of Dave Lee Roth. Worth a listen.

Good but long & repetitive

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An interesting collection of interviews from a multitude of sources. Differs from other accounts of events as press interviews often do.

The narrator?was a little uninspiring.

Interesting but limited

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