van halen 1984 world tour

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35 Years Ago: Revisiting Van Halen’s Ill-Fated ‘1984’ Tour

On paper and in the bank, Van Halen had everything going for them as their 1984 Tour commenced.

The band's sixth album, also titled 1984 , had just been released, and lead track " Jump " was five weeks away from becoming their first No. 1 single. New deals cut by manager Noel Monk meant Van Halen were finally making real money from their world-class success, and they had recently set a show-fee record after being paid $1.5 million for their appearance at the U.S. Festival .

The group had everything to play for – only some of the members didn’t see it that way. Things hadn’t been good behind the scenes for some time. It’s possible they'd never been good, as a result of what frontman David Lee Roth once referred to as the members’ “immigrant energy,” which he believed was a result of family histories that left them as “desperate people seeking desperate fortune – with a smile.”

The catalyst that forced the rollercoaster off the rails may have been their 1983 cover of “Dancing in the Street,” which, despite its success, represented a battle of wills between Roth and Eddie Van Halen . The guitarist wanted his synth riff to become a Peter Gabriel kind of song, but was coerced into allowing it to be used as the cover version. After losing that fight, Eddie determined to never lose another, and moved the band towards pop-rock and away from hard rock, as demonstrated with the groundbreaking “Jump” – a track Van Halen said no one originally wanted to record.

Sensing his loss of control, Roth began talking up his plans to pursue a solo career, suggesting that if Van Halen’s music no longer suited him, he didn’t need to front it. "I've always been a showoff," he said during the tour . "But I've also always had something to say. I will express myself through other avenues. Just so long as I'm famous; so long as the spotlight's on Dave."

From behind the drumkit, the perspective seems to have been a little clearer for Alex Van Halen – although that didn’t mean he could do anything about it. “We were in the middle of this thing and it was getting bigger and bigger," he said later. "Individually, we were so far apart that it was like night and day. We were never together, although it looked like we were from the public's standpoint. That's why in 1984, it was very natural for it to fall apart. We saw it coming, even though when it actually materialized it was a surprise.”

Of course, it didn’t happen overnight. The band set about planning the 101-date North American road trip with all the rock ’n’ roll attitude they could muster. “Our live show for the 1984 tour just could not get any bigger,” Eddie recalled , “but it was so over the top that we never made any money from it. We had 18 trucks hauling the stage and equipment. That was unheard of. The standard lighting rig had 500 to 700 lights, and we had over 2,000. We could never have topped that. … Great memories.”

Watch Van Halen Perform 'Jump'

Bassist Michael Anthony recalled the fun and energy of the first tour stop on Jan. 18 at the Coliseum in Jacksonville, Fla. “[W]e were doing ‘Running With the Devil’ and I went into a squat during the number while Dave flipped over my back. … I realized my pants ripped from front to back, and there I was, left playing the rest of the number hunched over. When it was over, Dave went into his rap, which gave me a chance to run into the quick-change booth onstage to change.”

The good feeling wasn’t to last. Perhaps the success of “Jump” had an increasingly negative impact on Roth; and perhaps his comments about going solo did the same to Van Halen. “We accused each other of betrayal and thievery and lies and treachery,” the frontman said later . “And it was all true. We were all guilty.”

Monk pointed out the single event he believes shook Van Halen's foundations apart, while also demonstrating the naivety of its leading members. In his 2017 book Runnin’ With the Devil: A Backstage Pass Into the Wild Times, Loud Rock and the Down and Dirty Truth Behind the Making of Van Halen , he detailed how Anthony was trapped in no man’s land after the battle lines had been drawn.

Roth had personal power as lead singer, and the Van Halen brothers had each other, so the bassist stood alone – and Monk says that’s why, midway through the tour, he was forced to renounce his equal partnership in the band, and accept a backdated loss of songwriting royalties. “In all my years in the business, it was the most disgusting thing I ever saw," Monk said . “They didn't just cut him out; they did it in the middle of one of their biggest records. He was the nicest guy in the world and they didn't even let him get the benefit of that album. He lost millions. MILLIONS. My stomach turned flips."

Incredibly, Anthony remained on the road, and indeed remained in the band until he was dismissed in favor of Eddie’s then-teenage son Wolfgang in 2006. Yet, there’s no doubt that backstage relations soured – and Monk’s own tenure was to end following the road trip’s completion with five appearances across Europe on the Monsters of Rock touring festival. By then, the situation onstage wasn’t as much fun anymore either. “[T]he tension level started to rise,” Anthony recalled . “[Roth would] do something to piss off a male fan, and then he’d say, ‘Hey buddy, after the show I’m going to fuck your girl,’ and point right at them. And boy, sometimes some guys would get heated up for that. …  Some nights you want to just laugh, and other nights you want to go, ‘Oh, I don't want to stand near this.’”

Eddie Van Halen recalled how he and Roth had begun rattlling each other during performances: "All my solos end with a nod to Al, so I just keep going until I turn around. I have no idea what's the longest I've gone – about 20 minutes, probably. That's when I started getting ragged on by a certain person: 'Your solo's gettin' too long!' I'd say, 'Fuck you. Your raps are getting longer!' It used to be nothing but talk, man. It was three-fourths talk. But as soon as I got up there to do my solo… he couldn't stop me anyway."

The Van Halen story, of course, wound on and on. Roth was replaced by Sammy Hagar, who was replaced by Roth, who was replaced by Gary Cherone , who was replaced by Hagar, who was replaced by Roth. Monk hasn’t spoken to his former colleagues since they terminated his 30-day rolling contract in what he called a “greedy” bid to “get 20 percent more” – but with the distance of time he can look back fondly.

“If you take away Eddie, Dave is not Van Halen. If you take away Dave, Eddie is not Van Halen," Monk said. "We drove on buses for thousands of miles; you can't do that and not get along. I loved Eddie. He was my closest relationship in the band. He was incredibly naive, but he was brilliant.”

The Best Song on Every Van Halen Album

See Rock’s Epic Fails: Van Halen Edition

More From Ultimate Classic Rock

Epic five-part documentary focusing on Van Halen's crucial 1983-1984 period announced

2.5 hours in total, the film will be free to watch on YouTube, and covers the construction of 5150 Studios, the band's legendary US Festival performance, the making of 1984, and the intra-band tensions that led to David Lee Roth's departure

1983 and 1984 were two of the most pivotal years in Van Halen's four-decade-plus career.

It was a period that saw Eddie Van Halen build 5150 Studios – a location that would serve as the electric guitar hero's headquarters and creative laboratory for the rest of his life – and Van Halen play their biggest gig ever at the mammoth US Festival.

Of course, it also saw them record 1984 , a smash hit album that contained their first and only chart-topping hit, the synth-powered Jump , and subsequently embark on the biggest tour of their career up to that point. It would also – with frontman David Lee Roth leaving the band in 1985 – mark the beginning of the end of the band's first era, after which they would begin another with new singer Sammy Hagar.

This crucial period for Van Halen is the focus of an upcoming documentary by Alan Berry, the man who made the 2022 film, Steve Vai: His First 30 Years .

You can see a trailer for the film below. 

The documentary will be split into five parts, which will focus, in order, on: the construction of 5150 Studios, the lead-up to, and aftermath of, the band's performance at the US Festival, the making of 1984 , the 1984 tour, and what led to frontman David Lee Roth's departure from Van Halen.

The first two parts of the film premiere this Wednesday, May 24, with the third, fourth, and fifth segments set to be released on June 7, 14, and 21, respectively.

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All five parts of the documentary will be free to watch on The Tapes Archive YouTube channel .

In a 2014 interview with Guitar World , Eddie Van Halen himself reflected on the importance, and hectic pace, of that time period.

"We did the US Festival in the middle of recording the  1984  album, and before that we toured the U.S., Canada, and South America and played about 120 shows," Van Halen said . "And I also had to build the [5150] studio during that period, too! I don’t know how I pulled all of that off."

"Having built 5150, it was a very special time in my life, and that shows in the music."

For more on the Van Halen film, and Berry's other work, visit The Tapes Archive's website .

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Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player . Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded . Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.

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The Tapes Archive

The 1984 tour, the fan-made van halen 1984 documentary episode 4.

The 1984 Van Halen tour marked the peak of their mainstream success, with the original lineup inching closer to their downfall. Despite grossing millions in ticket sales, the tour exposed cracks within the band. The tour featured a massive stage setup, new performance elements, and MTV’s highly successful “Lost Weekend” contest. Behind the scenes, substance abuse and egos were causing turmoil. The band members’ struggles and conflicts culminated in the possible mistreatment of Michael Anthony, leading to a change in his contract terms. David Lee Roth’s solo endeavors further strained relations. The Monsters of Rock tour in Europe marked the last time the original Van Halen lineup would perform together. The tour’s success and backstage issues symbolized Van Halen’s rise and fall.

The 1984 Tour transcript:

The tour for 1984 was the pinnacle for Van Halen, grossing over $15 million in ticket sales alone. It’s also where the final cracks would start to show and lead soon after to a complete breakdown.

When concerts first started becoming mainstream in the ‘60s and ‘70s, the primary way to make money was only through ticket sales. By the early ’80s, Van Halen’s manager, Noel Monk, convinced the boys to all chip in $50k and start a merchandising company. Most bands at the time would farm out merchandise to companies like famed concert promoter Bill Graham’s Winterland. Within a couple of years, this move paid off huge dividends. By 1982, Van Halen was making $250k a night on the merchandise alone, and half of that was pure profit.

Sponsorship Deal: In 1983, the new revenue stream for the concert business was the highly lucrative and low-maintenance world of sponsorship. Monk was able to score a sponsorship deal with Sparkomatic, a company specializing in high-end audio products, primarily for the automotive industry. The band would receive $1.2 million upfront, plus additional revenue for advertising. In return, they would put the company’s name on some of their licensed merchandise in tiny letters, which seemed like easy money to Monk.

But when Monk presented the deal to Roth over the phone, Roth was not impressed and said he’d never heard of Sparkomatic. Roth supposedly put Monk on hold and informed the rest of the band, and they said “No.” According to Monk, Roth didn’t present it to the band. Or it was the shortest band meeting ever. Roth returned and said, “You want to get us a sponsorship, fine. Make it Marlboro or Levi’s. Otherwise, it’s fuck you.”

Monk, dumbfounded, went back to Sparkomatic and told them the deal was off. A couple of weeks later, Alex asked Monk if he could ask if he could still get the deal. But Monk couldn’t; by then, Sparkomatic had given the sponsorship deal to Supertramp. It’s incredible rather than getting paid for allowing Sparkomatic to put its logo on some of its merchandise; Van Halen ended up negotiating with another company to allow them to use a portion of its logo. That business was Western Exterminator Company, whose logo included a character known as The Little Man, a dapper gent in a black coat and top hat wielding a huge wooden mallet, presumably used to obliterate various types of pests in the greater L.A. area. Roth loved this image and wanted to use The Little Man as a mascot for the 1984 tour. Monk made the deal, and The Little Man was plastered everywhere for the tour.

Roth would, of course, rewrite history and only tell his version to the press when asked if they tried to get a sponsor. “We went after a sponsor and tried to get them to put up some money and then we could be in their advertisements and help sell their stereos and their toothpaste or whatever, and nobody wanted us. I guess our image was wrong. So, we decided that we’ll be the first band to sponsor a company. So we took the logo from the Western Exterminator Company in Los Angeles.”

Stage: The 1984 touring stage was one of the biggest ever taken on tour. One hundred seventy-five tons of equipment (including 1.5 million watts of light) loaded onto nine trucks and five buses, with a crew of 75 members. Van Halen gave custom Van Halen rings to all the crew members at the end of the tour.

“Metropolis,” designed by Pete Angelus and Roth, was a collection of metal beams, grids, spotlights, speakers, and backdrops. During the final encore each night, a massive light setup spelled out 1984.

Although their PA was one of the loudest at the time, many speakers on stage were just props. The top wall of the speakers was a curtain with speakers printed on it. Every so often, a breeze would come from backstage, and the whole thing moved. The ’84 stage was the same as the ’81 Fair Warning tour, except for more lighting, a more expansive stage with platforms, and a different backdrop. The backdrop with the speakers was from the Diver Down tour. The three backdrops for 1984 were the sky/clouds with the rigging, the hammer guy, and the same pattern as the stage floor.

New Elements to the show: The band unveiled several new aspects to their live show on this tour. Eddie played keyboards for “I’ll Wait” and “Jump,” with the latter featuring a guitar solo entirely on keys. David Lee Roth took his turn in the solo spotlight, bringing out his inner Elvis Presley by doing a kung fu-style sword dance. The dance, known as “Dave’s Tai Chi Solo,” was developed by Roth and kung fu master Paulie Zink and performed against a rousing synthesizer backdrop from Edward. That same instrumental piece also appeared in the 1984 movie scored by Edward, The Wild Life.

Edward brought a new aspect to his unaccompanied guitar solo spotlight by adding his newly patented guitar gear. He outfitted his guitar with a clear, plexiglass tray table that allowed him to lay the guitar flat, perpendicular to his body. He would then hammer out chords with both hands on the neck. The technique began taking shape in 1982 but only surfaced on this tour. He patented the tray table, thinking that slide players might get use out of it, though it has never been marketed.

T-Shirt Band: For the first part of the tour, Van Halen needed what they called a “T-shirt band,” a.k.a. a band that nobody wants to watch, and they go and buy a Van Halen T-Shirt when they’re playing. Nowadays you could just go to VanHalenStore.com and buy official shirts but back then concerts was the main place to pick up new gear. Autograph got the nod to fill the opening act slot without having a record deal or an album out. Autograph’s drummer Keni Richards was a jogging partner of Roth’s. So Roth pushed for Autograph to open for Van Halen, and after hearing their band tape, Eddie and the boys agreed to let the band open up many dates on the 1984 tour. It was reported on the first night of the tour that Autograph was unannounced and unadvertised. Horrified when the lights dimmed at 8:30 and a bunch of guys who were not Van Halen came out on stage, fans unanimously rejected them. Autograph endured a never-ending barrage of garbage and insults tossed at it. Roundly booed at the end of each tune, the group left the stage after six songs. The second half of the tour was opened by the forgettable band The Velcros.

The North American arena tour consisted of 101 dates between January and July 1984, including two- and sometimes three-night stands in several cities. Van Halen did not need a lot of promotions to put butts in seats, but one idea they had was incredibly successful.

MTV’s Lost Weekend: When MTV announced its Lost Weekend with Van Halen contest in early 1984, the network received over one million postcard entries for a chance to spend three days with the band during their 1984 tour. The promotion’s title was inspired by the 1945 Billy Wilder film, The Lost Weekend, about an alcoholic on a four-day binge. What Van Halen got in return would be $2 million worth of free advertising for their tour and album.

MTV’s Martha Quinn announced that winner Kurt Jefferis and his best friend would be flying to Detroit, where they “barely survived” the April 5 and 6 shows at the Cobo Arena.

MTV did not know that the winner, Jefferis, had a metal plate in his head from a tragic accident a few months before. One misstep and Jefferis could have quickly gone back into a coma with a good chance of dying. That fact did not stop Jefferis from snorting coke, drinking Jack, and partying with the band. Roth even got him laid by a stripper named Tammy. By the last night, Jefferis’ best friend, his plus-one for the trip, was worried about Jefferis and came clean to the MTV folks about his accident. MTV, worried about the legal implications if their winner died under their watch, quickly locked him up in his hotel room until it was time for him to go home. Jefferis would later say: “How many people can say they smoked a fatty with David Lee Roth, man? It was a high point, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Decay from within: Watching the band via MTV made it look like they were the best of friends and at a party that would never end. But as everyone knows today, that wasn’t the case. Although the 1984 tour would be one of the year’s highest-grossing tours, it would be the band’s last.

Their manager from 1979-1985, Noel Monk, details many indicators in his book that the band was falling apart during the 1984 tour in more ways than one. He would also publicize how three of the four band members would unfairly treat the nicest guy in the group.

According to Monk, here are some of the cracks in the band’s future looking glass:

• By now, Alex was a full-blown alcoholic having to drink pretty much anytime he was awake to starve off alcohol-withdrawal syndrome. This led to bad decision-making, like telling Monk’s wife he wanted to have sex with her while sitting right behind Monk on an airplane.
• Eddie had a personal coke dealer that would fly around and meet him on tour.* Eddie had to take many cash advances to fill his Peruvian flakes bottles. Eddie liked the booze as well. Others said this was not true.
• Roth would also partake in coke, weed, and alcohol, but the worst thing about Roth on that tour, according to Monk, was his ego and his dictatorial preening. Roth would order everyone around during soundcheck and then point out everyone’s little mistake at the post-concert meal.

Backstage after the show, Dave held court in the Van Halen hospitality area as if still performing. He set up his PA system and indulged as only he could ever do. Meanwhile, the rest of the band were like wallflowers, anxious to leave the crime scene, as it were. And each band member had their own limousine standing by to whisk them back to their hotel, communications between the four virtually non-existent.

Journalist Malcolm Dome confirmed Roth’s meanness firsthand backstage after the Vancouver show. He said: “That night in Vancouver, Dave humiliated the rest of the band — either unwittingly or deliberately (personally, I think the latter). It was as if he was on a solo tour. If there was a moment for me when it became obvious that Van Halen in its original state was over, then this was it. Dave Roth was playing for high stakes; the rest of the band were simply biding their time before finally ridding themselves of the man who was becoming their nemesis.”

DEA Band: Monk would call Van Halen the DEA Band: drugs, ego, alcohol. Besides the rampant drug and alcohol abuse, all three would go to Monk and bitch and moan about the other band members. One night they all surprisingly unified to team up against, by all accounts, the nicest, most humble person in the band: Michael Anthony.

It was a typical post-concert meal, with Roth telling everyone what they did wrong when Ed spoke up. Not to put Roth in his place, but to call out not only Anthony’s performance but also his role in the band.

Excerpt from Monk’s book: “Michael doesn’t contribute as much as the rest of us,” Edward observed. “Michael doesn’t write music or lyrics. Why does Michael get the same share as the rest of us?” Al jumped in behind Edward, asking the same sorts of questions and offering similar observations about Michael’s value — or lack thereof — to the band. For the most part, Michael just sat there quietly and took it — until David stood up from his seat, a plate of food in hand, and walked around the table. He stopped when he reached Michael’s seat and stood over him for a moment, glaring menacingly but saying nothing. Without saying a word, David slammed his full plate of food down on top of Michael’s full plate. The effect was startling. Food went flying everywhere. Glasses tipped over and shattered. Silverware fell to the floor. And all conversation stopped. Anthony said nothing, stood up, and walked out of the room.

A couple of weeks later, the trio returns to Monk and says, “We want to cut Michael out of the royalties.” They felt since he didn’t write any of the music, he didn’t deserve writing credit or song royalties. (I guess they forgot that neither did Alex.) And not only moving forward but also for the latest album, 1984, which had already been released. At the top of their fame and fortune, they decided to renege on someone that was with them essentially since the beginning. [Insert Jeff Spicoli. “You Dick”] You don’t hear anyone talk bad about Michael Anthony; not even notorious ballbuster and Van Halen photographer Neil Zlozower has a bad word to say about Anthony.

New Contract: On June 20th, 1984, Michael Anthony, on his 30th birthday, signed a new agreement with Van Halen where he was no longer entitled to any writing credits or royalties derived from publishing from the 1984 album and moving forward.

Since he already had a contract, why did Anthony sign this new agreement? Was he afraid that Van Halen would kick him out of the band in the middle of the tour if he didn’t sign it?

Around the same time, Ed was showing nimble-fingered bassist Billy Sheehan the 1984 concert stage and floated the possibility of him joining Van Halen. The Talas bassist was interested, but there was no official offer. This might have been Ed’s backup plan if he needed to let Anthony go because he didn’t sign the new contract.

Why did Roth, Alex, and Ed decide to do this to their band brother at this time, amid the height of their fame? Could it have been a deep-rooted jealousy of Anthony? Angry with him because he wasn’t as miserable as they were? Anthony was happily married, could party within reason, was well-loved by everyone, and seemed to be the only one genuinely grateful at this point for being in Van Halen.

Or was it a fair and equitable move and something that had been building for years? Roth and especially Ed did write the music and deserved fair compensation for their role in the band. And it had been ten years since they had sat down at Dave’s father’s mansion and decided to split the writing credits — and therefore the royalty money — four ways. If you read Steve Rosen’s Tonechaser, you will see that Ed loved Anthony but was irked by him way before the 1984 tour, and maybe rightly so. Anthony was well aware of this issue before being asked to sign the new contract.

In May of 1982, Rosen posed the question of why they didn’t have a publishing agreement between him and Roth like Lennon and McCartney or Page and Plant. Ed responded with: “Jimmy Page and Plant didn’t have a brother in the band cuz I love my brother, and I don’t give a fuck. The only person that eats my ass away is Mike because he makes as much as Al, Dave, and I, and he does nothing. He does nothing, but I feel sorry for him because if he was ever out of this band, he would never play again because he’s not good enough.”

According to Ed, Anthony was never around to jam with and never brought one idea to the band. Ed said: “He walks around like he’s Joe Bitching when he does nothing. I’m telling ya, ya can ask out Al, ya can ask Dave, ya can ask Valerie, ya can ask Noel, you can ask anybody. He does nothing, but he’s part of the band.”

Anthony had almost been kicked out for these reasons before, but he was allowed to stay on the agreement that he showed up every time the band got together, even if he didn’t have anything to add.

Ed went on to say, “Mike doesn’t deserve anything. He should just be paid $100 a week for playing. But you can’t do that because he’s part of the band now, and he has been since the first album. What the fuck do you do? Oh, god. What am I doing?”

As far as I could find, Michael Anthony has never spoken publicly about any of this. With the exception of some Roth comments, he almost always takes the high road when talking about Van Halen.

Late breaking Van Halen news alert: Just as I was about to publish this video, I got word from a very reliable inside source that although Anthony did sign this new contract, it was never enforced. And in late April 2023, Sammy Hagar appeared on the Steve O podcast and implied that Anthony owned an equal 4th of the publishing. Saying “because we co-wrote everything publishing as a team the four…Eddie and I wrote everything Mike and Alex publishing company and yessup recording was owned by all of us equally ” So, as with a lot of Van Halen information..Who the fuck knows.

The last straw: The U.S. leg of the 1984 tour ended on July 16th, 1984; it would start back up for a short Monsters of Rock tour in Europe a little over a month later. Never wanting to waste a moment, Roth headed to New York to lay down his vocal tracks for his first solo album.

In the early summer of ‘84, while Van Halen was touring, Templeman helped put together a killer group of musicians to help Roth croon four cover songs. (Edgar Winter would run point man for the musicians.) So Roth headed into Power Station Studio and knocked out four songs in under two weeks. (Or, according to Roth, in four days.) Templeman did not believe Roth had plans to leave Van Halen at the time. He thought it was a good idea too. Templeman said: “As a label executive, I thought the EP was a good move. It would keep Dave working and creating, we’d sell some records, and it would keep Van Halen, via Dave, in the public eye for a few months in early 1985. If I’d gotten even the slightest sense that he saw this as step one of David Lee Roth’s post–Van Halen solo career, I wouldn’t have done the record. I never ever wanted to do anything to threaten the future of Van Halen. I can’t emphasize this enough.”

To be fair to Roth, it’s not like this was the first time a member had stepped outside the Van Halen family and recorded with someone else. Eddie had recorded several things outside the band, with one of his contributions helping one album sell more copies than all the Van Halen albums combined. That album is still today the best-selling record of all time.

In the late summer of 1982, producer Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson were determined to make a rock song that would appeal to all tastes and spent weeks looking for a suitable guitarist for the song “Beat It.” They decided they wanted the Dutch Master Eddie Van Halen. Jones got Ed’s number via Templeman, but when Jones called Ed, Ed thought it was a prank and hung up on him. They got it sorted; Eddie went to the studio and nailed the song in two takes after doing a bit of rearranging, and in Ed’s mind, that was it. He thought no one would ever know it was him in the song. And against his manager’s advice, Ed took $0 in fees. One of the main reasons this song would win over the mainstream is Eddie’s R&B/rock riff flavor that opened up rock radio to Jackson. He deserved to be paid but did not want it. In late 2022 “Beat It” studio musician and friend to Eddie, Steve Lukather, revealed that Eddie actually did the solo at 5150. With 5150 not being built by the time “Beat It” was recorded, it’s very probable Lukather is mistaken about where the solo was recorded.

The following year in April of 1983, Queen’s Brian May invited Ed out for a jam session which turned into the album Brian May and Friends Star Fleet Project. Besides both being soft-spoken, incredible musicians, they shared the challenges of dealing with a flamboyant and headstrong lead singer.

You can see the similarities in band dynamics in May’s response to a question posed to him at the time.

For context, May was coming off of one of Queen’s worst-received albums, Hot Space, which was Freddie Mercury-driven and not to the liking of the more rocking May.

Reporter: “A lot of the Outside World who do think about Queen probably think it’s Freddie’s band. He thinks of a direction, everyone fights a bit, but generally follows meekly behind. True?”

May’s response: “It’s a continual fight, because we all have very definite ideas of what direction we want to go in, and none of them are the same. It’s a continual battle, and it’s very democratic, and it’s very painful. Most of the time when we’re recording, it’s hell. You have this constant dividing line between being up and positive about what you’re doing, and the other side is that you may be trying to push what you want down someone else’s throat, and maybe the other three will take it for a little while but in the end, they’ll say, ‘No, this is rubbish, we hate it, stop pushing.’ And that’s what’s happened a lot.”

In the summer of 1983, Ed wrote three synthesizer songs (one of which included a guitar solo) for his wife’s made-for-TV movie, The Seduction of Gina.

In early 1984, Eddie started to work on music for Cameron Crowe’s pseudo-follow-up to Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Wild Life. None of the score was officially released, except for the track, “Donut City.”

One instrumental from these sessions got reused for the much bigger film Back to the Future.

So in the span of a year and a half and near the end of the height of Van Halen’s fame, Eddie recorded many tracks that would end up in three movies, jammed with a renowned guitarist from a legendary band that turned into an album, patented a piece of guitar gear, helped produce a record for Frank Zappa’s son, built a home studio, and recorded on an album that would end up blocking 1984 from the #1 spot on the charts. (And he performed live with Jackson during the 1984 tour.) Plus, if Ed had had his way, he would have also produced and played on the Allan Holdsworth’s album.

Even in the early years of Van Halen, Ed played outside the group. In 1977, Alex and Eddie recorded with Gene Simmions of KISS, and in 1978, Ed played on the Templeman-produced album by Nicolette Larson. He also played on Tim Bogert’s (Vanilla Fudge) “Don’t Leave Me This Way” in 1983.

There is nothing wrong with Ed doing all these side gigs, and I get why Roth thought it was no big deal for him to record four basically throw-away cover songs on his own. But this would be cited repeatedly by many people as the last straw for Edward.

When David Lee Roth first heard “Beat It,” he thought someone was ripping off Ed’s licks. But then he found out it was actually Eddie. Roth said: “It was at that point I said maybe I’ll do something on the side as well. Certainly, nothing that would conflict with what we were about as Van Halen, but I’ll keep my eye open. It was some months later when I was in Mexico with my trusted assistant, Ed Anderson. We were sitting under a thatched-roof, empty little bar out in Playa Blanca, looking out upon the sea, and the Beach Boys were on the stereo. Ed said to me, ‘You should do this song.’ It was ‘California Girls.’” This novel idea — combined with Ed already working outside the group, and the frustration of wasting time sitting outside for hours at Ed’s 5150 studio hoping he’d wake up so they could work — led Roth to wonder: Why can’t I do a solo album?

According to Roth, everyone in the Van Halen camp knew of his solo pursuits. But accounts from Monk and Anthony say the first time the band knew about it was while waiting for a Concorde flight to their European Monsters of Rock shows.

Michael said: “I remember we were going to Europe, and we were sitting at the airport, and he played us the tape, the EP of the songs that were going to be on the album. I thought it was pretty shitty that he’d always get on Edward’s case because he was being approached to do different things like ‘Beat It’ and all kinds of different things. And Roth was, ‘If this affects me, I want to know.’ And then all of the sudden, one day he goes, ‘Hey, I got these four songs that Ted Templeman and I are going off and doing’… He plays us this tape and it’s like, “Mmm, yeah, good.” I wasn’t going to tell him to his face that I thought it stunk.”

Eddie’s public response in 1984 was very diplomatic. He said: “I think it’s something he always wanted to do. I think it’s great he’s actually doing it.” But privately, Ed thought of it as a novelty item and felt betrayed.

Monsters of Rock: After an exhaustive U.S. tour, Van Halen decided not to tour Europe extensively. Instead, after a four-year hiatus from Europe, they decided to join the multi-band Monsters of Rock tour for five dates. Sandwiched between openers Motley Crue, Dio, Ozzy Osbourne, and other bands, and headliners AC/DC.

For the most part, the band’s five European dates were standard shows — full of Roth’s swaggering wise-ass, spectacular stage presence and energy. (At the Castle Donington gig, he took what may have been a slight jab at Ed by saying to the crowd: “Michael Jackson ain’t got shit on heavy metal.”) And the band played with enthusiasm as they did nine months earlier at the start of the tour in Jacksonville, Florida.

Backstage at Castle Donington, Ed was starting to show his frustrations — with Roth, presumably — by lashing out at others.

World-renowned rock photographer Ross Halfin relayed his dark encounter with Ed. “I remember shooting them onstage, and Edward was smiling at me, so I was smiling back. I went backstage to see them afterwards, and Eddie was hanging out with Neal Schon from Journey and John Entwistle from the Who, so I took a few photos. Then Eddie said, ‘Hey, fag, what’s your fucking problem?’ I said, ‘What?’ And their tour manager said, ‘Oh, look, just ignore him.’ But he kept going, ‘What’s your fucking problem, fag? Smiling at me like a fucking fag.’ He just turned completely nasty. I realized he was drunk, and when he was drunk, he could turn from the nicest, most charming guy to the most horrible person in the world.”

According to Noel Monk, Ed was backstage with Neal Schon of Journey ungraciously noting that Michael Anthony’s solo, which the crowd loved (even though he ripped his pants in the middle of it), had been composed and spoon-fed to the bassist by Edward. “I had to teach him that,” Edward said. “Every note.” Later, Edward had a meltdown in the dressing room after their set, provoked by a guitar glitch during the show.

On September 2, 1984, in Nuremberg, Germany, after an encore of “Happy Trails,” the band, with the original lineup, would never perform together again. Unknown to everyone, the Van Halen we loved was over.

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The 1984 Tour

• Episode aired Aug 9, 2023

The 1984 Van Halen tour marked the peak of their mainstream success, with the original lineup inching closer to their downfall. The tour's success and backstage issues symbolized Van Halen's... Read all The 1984 Van Halen tour marked the peak of their mainstream success, with the original lineup inching closer to their downfall. The tour's success and backstage issues symbolized Van Halen's rise and fall. The 1984 Van Halen tour marked the peak of their mainstream success, with the original lineup inching closer to their downfall. The tour's success and backstage issues symbolized Van Halen's rise and fall.

• Mark Enochs
• Michael Anthony
• Ross Halfin
• Donn Landee

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• August 9, 2023 (United States)
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Might as well jump: Van Halen opened tour 40 years ago in Jacksonville

It was 40 years ago today when Diamond Dave told the band to play.

Rock band Van Halen was riding high on the success of its new single, "Jump," when it came to the old Jacksonville Coliseum on its 1984 Tour on Jan. 18, 1984. It was opening night for the tour, the first time "Jump," Panama," "I'll Wait" and "Hot for Teacher" were played before a live audience.

Shawn Stokes was 13 and attending his first concert, with his brother and a cool uncle.

"The Coliseum was very smoke-filled, and not just Marlboro Reds," Stokes said. "Beach balls, Frisbees, chicks pulling their tops off. It was very eye-opening for a kid of 13."

Although he never saw the band again, memories of the show still stick with Stokes, he said. "This was Diamond Dave and Ed in their prime. Dave was jumping off a big stack of Marshall amplifiers and doing splits. Michael Anthony doing a bass solo while drinking half a bottle of Jack." 

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Official capacity at the Coliseum, which was demolished in 2003 , was a little over 10,000. Some online stories about the show say 11,600 people were there, others put the number at 22,000. Stokes said he doesn't know how many were there, but it was sold out and he was very aware that there weren't a lot of young teens at the show.

The road crew arrived in Jacksonville two days before the concert to set up the stage and equipment. They brought 18 trucks packed with 30 tons of stage equipment, 50 tons of sound equipment, 25 tons of lights and 15 tons of band gear and risers for the show. It took a crew of 100 people — half on the band's staff, half recruited locally — to set it all up.

The band played 22 songs that night, opening with "Unchained" and encoring with "Aint' Talkin' 'bout Love" and "Happy Trails." California band Autograph opened the concert and Van Halen's bass player Michael Anthony later said that he split his pants while playing "Runnin' with the Devil' and had to do a quick change backstage while the rest of the band stalled for time.

The setlist remained pretty consistent for the rest of the 101 U.S. dates on the tour, which also played Lakeland and Hollywood before wrapping up in Dallas in July. By the end of it, singer David Lee Roth was gone from the band (although he'd return a couple of times before Eddie Van Halen's death in 2020 brought an end to the group).

Tommy Harrison lives in Jacksonville but is a professor of music business and technology and associate director for School of Performing Arts at the University of Central Florida. He said the band likely chose to open the tour in Jacksonville for logistical reasons — starting in one corner of the country makes sense — but also because it's a fairly small market, where they could work out the kinks in the tour before playing Madison Square Garden, the LA Forum and other high-profile venues. The band was also familiar with the venue, having closed the U.S. leg of its Hide Your Sheep Tour there in December 1982.

Harrison didn't live in Jacksonville at the time and didn't see the band live until 1988, but he wrote his PhD dissertation on Van Halen's music and fan reception in the period of 1978-'86. He said 1984 was a huge year in music and Van Halen was right in the thick of it.

See it live: 24 big concerts coming to Jacksonville in 2024: Strait, Willie, McGraw, NKOTB, Combs

Everybody Wants Some!! Jacksonville was a regular stop for Van Halen tours

The "1984" album and tour came at the height of MTV's popularity and the album spawned several hit videos, for "Jump," "Panama" and "Hot for Teacher."

"'1984' came out at the exact perfect time for music videos," he said. "If you look at the videos that were on MTV for the first few years, they were a hodgepodge. At that time, Van Halen’s only video was for 'Oh, Pretty Woman,' and it didn’t get tons of airplay. Videos that followed, like 'Panama,' like 'Jump,' and especially 'Hot for Teacher,' these were much more well thought-out. "

The "1984" album never made it to the top of the Billboard charts in 1984, the heart of the MTV Era. The charts were dominated for the first 15 weeks of the year by Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and the last 22 weeks by Prince's "Purple Rain." The "Footloose" soundtrack, Huey Lewis & the News' "Sports" and Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" also topped the charts that year. Tina Turner won the Song of the Year award at the Grammys for "What's Love Got to Do With It," and Lionel Richie won Album of the Year for "Can't Slow Down." "Jump" finished at No. 6 on Billboard's year-end Hot 100 singles chart. "1984" was eventually certified as a "Diamond" album by the Recording Industry Association of America, meaning it sold at least 10 million copies.

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1979 tour dates – world vacation tour, 1980 tour dates – world invasion tour, 1981 tour dates – fair warning tour, 1982 tour dates – hide your sheep tour, 1984 tour dates.

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The Mighty Van Halen

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Your cart is currently empty., 1984 eagle shirt.

Features the famous Van Halen 1984 design, with the flying eagle carrying "VAN HALEN" in it's talons. A "Tour of the World" banner floats above planet Earth. The back of the shirt is blank. Officially licensed.

About the "1984" tour: Van Halen's legendary 1984 tour was their most massive tour ever, consisting of 75 crew members, midget body guards, and 175 tons of equipment loaded onto nine trucks and five buses, bringing the world's biggest rock 'n' roll music party to millions of people. David Lee Roth performed a kung fu-style sword dance. Eddie used a tray table on his guitar, allowing him to play horizontally. The band employed their ground breaking "grid system" that allowed them to more easily connect with female fans.

The Mighty Van Halen was a music and visual tsunami that left nothing and no one untouched, often playing 2 or 3 nights in cities, annihilating everything in it's path. 

Their concerts were as uplifting as they were awe-inspiring. You left the show feeling like you were walking ten feet off the ground, energized and invincible.  

Their t-shirts, especially this one,  were the must-have souvenirs that showed everyone that YOU were a part of it! To this day, the "1984 Eagle" shirt has been one of the most iconic concert shirts of the ’80s.

The '84 Eagle logo is also available on a  Grey Tee  &  White Tee .

SIZING : Regular-Fit. 100% Pre-shrunk Cotton.

How we measured: With the shirt laid flat, we measured from armpit to armpit (across). For "down back" we started at the very top of the neck (in the center), straight down to the bottom edge of the shirt.

Customer Ratings & Reviews

1984 Smoking Baby Shirt 3 Ratings Snapshot 4.7 out of 5 5 (2) 4 (1) 3 (0) 2 (0) 1 (0) Would recommend this product. 100%

Vintage 1984 Shirt | Write the First Review

Sketch Logo Shirt 1 Ratings Snapshot 5.0 out of 5 5 (1) 4 (0) 3 (0) 2 (0) 1 (0) Would recommend this product. 100%

'Live 1982' Shirt 2 Ratings Snapshot 5.0 out of 5 5 (2) 4 (0) 3 (0) 2 (0) 1 (0) Would recommend this product. 100%

Forever Tee 2 Ratings Snapshot 5.0 out of 5 5 (2) 4 (0) 3 (0) 2 (0) 1 (0) Would recommend this product. 100%

Stage Tee 1 Ratings Snapshot 5.0 out of 5 5 (1) 4 (0) 3 (0) 2 (0) 1 (0) Would recommend this product. 100%

Vintage Eddie Concert Jersey 1 Ratings Snapshot 5.0 out of 5 5 (1) 4 (0) 3 (0) 2 (0) 1 (0) Would recommend this product. 100%

Vintage Eddie Tee 2 Ratings Snapshot 5.0 out of 5 5 (2) 4 (0) 3 (0) 2 (0) 1 (0) Would recommend this product. 100%

Vintage Eddie Tee | Write the First Review

EVH Forever Tee | Write the First Review

• Michael Anthony

Michael Anthony Details Journey Trying To Kick Van Halen off Tour “Every Week” and How the Record Label Stepped In

by Chris Piner May 29, 2024, 8:35 am

Back in 1978, music lovers received a special treat when Journey went on tour. Although touring numerous times over the decades, the 78 tour was special. And the reason was due to the band sharing the stage with Montrose and even Van Halen. With three great rock bands on a single stage, the rockstars constantly put pressure on each other. The pressure became so great that Michael Anthony recently admitted that Journey tried to get Van Halen kicked off the tour.

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Discussing the famous tour with Sirius XM’s Eddie Trunk , Anthony recalled some of his most memorable tours with the band. And sure enough, the 1978 tour rose to the top as the musician said, “We were just freaking fired up so much that first tour in ‘78 with Dave [Lee Roth].” While releasing their debut album that same year, Van Halen knew how to command a stage. Their stage presence was so powerful that the band consistently fired up the fans in attendance. And given Van Halen was the opening act – it put a lot of pressure on both Journey and Montrose. 

Not remotely letting up when they stepped foot on stage, Anthony added, “They were trying to kick us off the tour every week on that one. But we were selling tickets. The record company kept going, ‘No, you can’t kick them off the tour.’”

[RELATED: Michael Anthony Says He Didn’t “Settle Any Differences” with Eddie Van Halen Before Guitar Legend’s Death]

Michael Anthony Not The Only One To Remember The 1978 Tour

Anthony wasn’t the only one to remember that famous tour as Journey singer Steve Perry admitted Van Halen’s star power. “Now, you’ve got to remember that Eddie [Van Halen] and the group were on their first tour with Journey and we brought them out to open at the 3,000 seaters we were doing at that time. They cleaned our clock plenty of times and woke us the f**k up pretty quick. They were so focused and so on fire that they were just relentless. That was the most musical relentlessness that I’d ever seen.”

Even Neal Schon, the guitarist for Journey, said in a separate interview , “All I can tell you is that at that time, Eddie was red hot, but I was jamming hard, Ronnie [Montrose] was jamming hard, we were all jamming hard, you know? [We were] holding onto our own, but I was glad I wasn’t coming after Van Halen at that point…”

(Photo by Kayla Oaddams/Getty Images)

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Zach Bryan Furious Over “Pink Skies” Heading to Pop Radio, Unloads NSFW Rant: “I Never Approved This”

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Van Halen’s free 1991 concert in Dallas’ West End to be released on video

The concert at the west end marketplace in downtown is finally seeing the light of day..

By Thor Christensen

11:47 AM on May 29, 2024 CDT

Van Halen played its last show in 2015, five years before the death of guitarist extraordinaire Eddie Van Halen . All these years later, the group’s most famous Dallas concert is finally seeing the light of day.

On July 12, Warner Bros. will release the band’s December 1991 outdoor concert at the West End Marketplace. The performance — issued both on CD and Blu-ray video — is part of a 5-disc expanded edition of its reissued ‘91 album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.

Never officially released (but often bootlegged), the free hourlong West End concert was legendary among Van Halen diehards and Dallasites who remember the commotion it caused. A next-day front-page headline in The Dallas Morning News dubbed it a “West End Swarm” and reported that police estimated 25,000 people were there, while promoters claimed there were 50,000.

Like many crowd estimates, it was a gross exaggeration. The newly-released promo video of the band playing “Poundcake” shows there was just a fraction of that number.

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Whatever the actual crowd size was, it was a swarm indeed. With so many fans jockeying for position in a relatively small area, fans smooshed and pushed in front of the temporary stage. Several fans offered a shop owner $100 to stand at his window, The News reported.

More than 100 officers were on hand, and police reported the breaking of a large restaurant window and the stabbing of one concertgoer after a car accident. (He survived.) The show was the long-delayed makeup gig promised by singer Sammy Hagar in 1988 after his voice went kaput and the band cut short its set at the Monsters of Rock-Texxas Jam at the Cotton Bowl.

The Hagar years weren’t Van Halen’s best. The band’s glory days ran from Van Halen to 1984 , all featuring clown prince David Lee Roth, he of the waggish lyrics, Tarzan screams and jujitsu kicks. That version ranks as one of the all-time great American rock bands.

Still, as the “Poundcake” clip reminds us, Hagar added an earthy charm of his own to Van Halen, bouncing impishly across the stage and using his meaty blues-rock yowl to ground Eddie’s high-flying guitar solos.

The limited-edition set is $99.98 at www.vanhalenstore.com .

Thor Christensen . Thor Christensen is a former pop music critic for The Dallas Morning News and The Milwaukee Journal whose work has appeared in The New York Times and several books, including Musichound: The Essential Album Guide (Visible Ink Press). He’s interviewed two Beatles, a pair of Rolling Stones and hundreds of musicians from Beyoncé to Bono to David Bowie. He’s a Chicago native and a longtime resident of East Dallas.

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Alex Van Halen Historic Instrument and Gear Auction to Benefit Ride On Therapeutic Horsemanship

June 1, 2024 —by VHND Leave a Comment

“I hope that passing on all these pieces will inspire current and next generations to be the best they can be.”

Alex Van Halen is selling his personal instrument and gear collection in a new auction, which Backstage Auctions, Inc. announced as “The Alex Van Halen Collection.”

The company stated:

The auction event will feature rare music memorabilia, including iconic tour and studio-used gear and personal items directly from Alex Van Halen’s private collection.

Backstage Auctions is proud to present one of the most iconic and historical auction events of the year, featuring the personal collection of legendary drummer Alex Van Halen. With over 350 lots, the auction offers a wide array of memorabilia, such as drum kits, snare drums, kick drums, road cases, drumheads, cymbals, gongs, sticks & mallets, personal items, record awards, autographed pieces, and so much more.

“I kept all these drums, cymbals, heads, and all other kinds of gear, instruments, and road cases in my warehouse for decades, and it will bring me great pleasure to see them end up in the hands of my fans and fellow drummers,” says Alex. “A portion of the proceeds will go to the Ride On Therapeutic Horsemanship charity to further support the services they provide to those in need.”

Each piece featured in the auction is essentially a highlight item, but to select a few standouts, we must mention the legendary 5150 Tour kit, the 2015 Tour kit (and the last kit Alex ever used in concert), his personal collection of vintage RIAA record awards, the exceptionally rare rosewood snare drums that helped define his signature sound, the eye-catching and iconic gongs, a kick drum from the early backyard party days, and even a piano from the Van Halen family home.

“It is an unbelievable honor to represent one of the greatest rock drummers of all time and we could not be any more excited. Alex is the reason why so many people picked up a pair of drumsticks and this auction is a fantastic opportunity to see so much of his instruments and gear go to new homes. All of these pieces have a thick layer of magic “Al” dust and we can only hope that it will bring boundless joy and thrills to their future owners,” comments Backstage Auctions owner Jacques van Gool.

The auction celebrates a 40-year career that saw Van Halen sell nearly 100 million albums worldwide, making them one of the best-selling groups in music history. Alex Van Halen’s place in the pantheon of rock ’n’ roll drummers is legendary. The incredible body of work he created alongside his brother, Eddie, is memorialized in Van Halen’s historic catalog of genre-defining music.

The auction bidding will open on June 1st, 2024, and will close on June 9th, 2024. The auction is open to fans and collectors worldwide. For more information and to register for a VIP All Access Pass visit: www.backstageauctions.com

“I always have pursued the best possible sound, which drove me every single day, every single album, and every single tour to be on top of my game,” comments Alex. “I hope that passing on all these pieces will inspire current and next generations to be the best they can be. Now, let’s have some fun – Van Halen style!”

BACKSTAGE AUCTIONS – A boutique online auction house specializing in authentic music memorabilia direct from the personal collections of legendary musicians and entertainment professionals. Every auction event is unique, reflecting the artist’s legacy and legendary career.

ALEX VAN HALEN – Alex Van Halen and his brother Eddie Van Halen formed a band called Mammoth in Pasadena, California in 1972, then renamed it Van Halen. Alex’s drumming skills and powerful drumming style helped define Van Halen’s sound. Van Halen was one of the biggest rock bands in the world and was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2007. Alex Van Halen shares his personal story of family, friendship, music, and brotherly love in a remarkable tribute to his brother and band mate with his upcoming book Brothers. The book includes never-before-seen photos from the author’s private archives and is scheduled to be released in October 2024.

RIDE ON THERAPEUTIC HORSEMANSHIP – Ride On teaches adaptive horseback riding to children and adults with physical and cognitive disabilities and we provide Physical, Occupational, and Speech and Language therapy specializing in using the movement of the horse to improve specific medical conditions. Ride On’s mission is to promote the welfare of people with any type of physical, intellectual, or cognitive disability and of at-risk youth by means of equine-assisted activities and therapies and by providing instruction and education for all in equestrian-related social, vocational, and recreational activities. https://www.rideon.org

More info on the Alex auction: https://www.backstageauctions.com/catalog/auction.php

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Van Halen to release HD footage of legendary free 1991 concert in Dallas' West End as part of new box set

One of the most iconic concerts in Dallas history is about to get a high-definition revisit.

This week, Van Halen announced plans to reissue their chart-topping 1991 album "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" with a new box set release . Included in the package are multiple LPs, two CDs and a Blu-ray DVD featuring various rarities, promotional videos and previously unreleased live concert footage from the band at around the time of that album's release. A further expanded version of the set also includes a collection of seven-inch singles from that era of Van Halen's music.

Dallasites should be especially interested in the live concert footage aspect of the new drop. Per the release's promotional material, the "main attraction" of this new collection is the previously unreleased high-definition video of Van Halen's famed December 4, 1991, performance in Dallas' West End.

That show, hosted in the once-bustling nightlife destination known as Dallas Alley, remains the stuff of legend even three decades on.

Its backstory is special, too. 

The performance's genesis can be traced to a show the band performed at the Cotton Bowl three years earlier. In 1988, Van Halen hit the road as part of a package called "The Monsters of Rock Tour" that also featured fellow '80s icons Metallica, Dokken, Scorpions and Kingdom Come on the same bill. 

That tour's Dallas stop hit a bit of a snag, however. Van Halen's lead singer at the time, Sammy Hagar, was dealing with a litany of injuries by the time the tour arrived in North Texas for two nights of shows. He was suffering from a broken tailbone, an ear infection and a sinus infection, the last of which made singing a difficult prospect for the renowned vocalist. Though he soldiered on for much of the tour, Hagar found himself unable to sing up to the standards he'd shown in previous North Texas tour stops. And so, in the middle of the band's first song, he outright stopped trying to sing. After letting the crowd sing on his behalf for a few cuts, the band eventually cut that July 3, 1988, performance short. 

Before Van Halen left the Cotton Bowl stage, though, Hagar made a promise to the fans in attendance that night. He swore over the mic that the band would come back and host a free show in Dallas to make up for any disappointment his ailments had caused.

To hear Hagar tell it, his bandmates weren't exactly thrilled with Hagar's offer.

"It almost broke the band up," Hagar said with a laugh, recalling that moment in 2023 . 

And, though it took him three years to make good on it, Hagar came through.

"We've been trying to do it ever since," Hagar said in a press conference before the 1991 show. "When you promise people that much in Texas, you better be a man of your word -- otherwise, you're history."

The ensuing show turned out to be quite the spectacle. Hosted in the afternoon sunlight, and open to all comers as promised, it's estimated that anywhere from 20,000 to 80,000 people showed up to watch Van Halen on that December 1991 day. 

No one really knows for sure. 

This much, however, is confirmed: The 11-song concert itself was loud . It saw the band pulling heavily from the released-just-six-months-prior "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" (including its smash single "Right Now"), and playing the band's David Lee Roth-era hit "Panama" and even the pre-Van Halen solo Hagar single "I Can't Drive 55" as the Dallas audience jammed out and crowd-surfed along to Van Halen's famous riffs.

What's perhaps most remarkable, though, is how smoothly the show turned out. The Dallas Police Department reported no arrests and just seven people needing medical attention for dehydration at the event.

In an interview with legendary Dallas radio DJ Redbeard immediately after the show , Hagar and the rest of the band were thrilled at how the show turned out.

"I think it was fantastic," Hagar said. "It was so real and so honest. We didn't use a set list, we didn't plan anything. We didn't say how long it was gonna be, how short it was gonna be. We were just gonna play until it was over -- and then, when they asked us to stop, I think it was cool. It was a good time to stop."

The crowd certainly got its money's worth. And, based on that reaction, it seems Van Halen did, too. In the years since, Hagar has said the band spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $200,000 on production for the free show.

For Hagar, anyway, it was money well spent.

Added the singer to Redbeard: "I told the audience, 'We're even now. Now let's start over. Van Halen and Dallas, let's start over.' Because I really feel that we came to terms with everything."

Well, for 30 or so years, they did, anyway. Bootleg footage from that legendary West End show has existed online  for some time, where millions have enjoyed reliving it -- albeit in the kind of resolution one might expect from an early '90s VHS recorder.

With the announcement of the 2024 reissue and the concert footage coming out alongside it, Van Halen released high-definition footage captured of the band performing the uproarious "Poundcake" as its opening song from that fateful 1991 show. The crisp clip serves as an exciting taste of what's to come in the full box set release -- and as positive a sign as any that, even 33 years later, one of Dallas' most famous concerts of all time might just have some legs left in it yet.

Iconic, indeed.