… Rather think of this as a memory journal, a chronicle filled with observations, illuminations and interpretations and what they hell does that mean? (p. There are no in-depth analyses of album releases or his profound and absolute rewriting of the entire canon of electric guitar playing. You won’t find discussing about tapping, taping or touring. In his introduction, Rosen says, “ What you will read here is not a biography, a history, or an exacting chronology. At that point the book morphed into a chronicle of their friendship. He felt maybe they might be useful one day for the autobiography. He had recorded many, many late night phone casual conversations with Eddie Van Halen. What exactly is TONECHASER? When re-starting his book, Rosen came across a set of cassette tapes. When he finally did start he realized that the autobiography would never be what it needed to be without the participation of the sole person who could no longer participate. Rosen had this long nagging and yearning desire to finish what he started. For reasons that Rosen details in this book (but I won’t go into here) the relationship disintegrated. Rosen had been working on an unauthorized documentary about the early years of Van Halen, using all his vast resources, previously compiled for the unpublished autobiography. It had been about seven years that they had spoken. Over time the two drifted apart as friends do. Eddie wasn’t engaged and/or it wasn’t a priority. Obviously an ‘official’ Eddie autobiography never happened.

With the autobiography agreed upon, Rosen set to work and accumulated a mountain of material for that book. Rosen had after all interviewed him dozens of times for various guitar magazines around the world.

Sometime around the early to mid-80’s Eddie Van Halen and Rosen struck a gentlemen’s agreement (even with a quick note to that effect) the Rosen would write Eddie Van Jalen official biography. More importantly, Eddie trusted Rosen, perhaps more than any other journalist. Rosen himself admits they were not inseparable, Eddie Van Halen was too aloof for that, but Rosen spent a huge amount of time between 19 hanging out with Eddie Van Halen. Van Halen was about to be deified into ‘guitar god status, almost single-handedly re-defining what the term ‘guitar god’ meant, and Rosen was a budding rock/guitar journalist. Steve Rosen and Edward Van Halen became friends back in 1977. He believed so much in this project that has put his money where his mouth is a self-published what might be one of the most important and intimate portraits of Edward Van Halen ever published.Ī little back ground is necessary.

Necronomicon ex mortis pages