Music Rewind welcomes rock journalist Steve Rosen to discuss Who’s Next by The Who, his 50-year career and his most recent book, Tonechaser, about his friendship with Eddie Van Halen.
A legend in rock journalism himself, Steve Rosen has interviewed many classic rock greats over the decades for publications such as Guitar Magazine, Musician, Creem, Playboy and Rolling Stone. He was even able to interview members of The Who about this very album. The 1971 album Who's Next, originally meant to be a concept album called LIfehouse, but evolved into a classic in its own right.
Album: Who's Next
Artist: The Who
Year: 1971
Rough transcript available for download Here
Our Guest, Steve Rosen, has been a rock journalist for over 50 years and has interviewed many of the legends we all love for publications like Guitar World, Guitar Player, Playboy and Rolling Stone. He has also written 8 books over the years about the lives and musicianship of Jeff Beck, Black Sabbath, Prince, Eddie Van Halen and others.
You can pick up Tonechaser here: https://www.tonechaserbook.com/
You can find Steve on Instragram: @steve.rosen.guitar.picks
The Who: Who's Next with guest Steve Rosen
Transcript as follows: WEBVTT
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Steve Epley: See Hello and welcome to Music Rewind, a podcast where we look to tell the stories behind our favorite albums.
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Steve Epley: I'm your host, Steve Epley, and in each episode, we invite a guest on to tell us about their favorite music album, how they discovered it, and what makes it special to them.
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Steve Epley: Joining me today is professional rock journalist and author, Steve Rosen.
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Steve Epley: Steve has been a rock journalist for over 50 years and has interviewed many of the legends we all love for publications such as Guitar World, Guitar Player, Playboy, and Rolling Stone.
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Steve Epley: He also has written eight books to include his most recent book, Tonechaser, about his friendship with the late great Eddie Van Halen, which we will get to.
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Steve Epley: Welcome, Steve, and thank you for being on the show.
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Steve Rosen: Thanks, Steve.
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Steve Rosen: Good to be here.
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Steve Epley: This is going to be a great conversation.
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Steve Epley: I'm really looking forward to this.
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Steve Epley: Well, Steve, we'll jump right into your album.
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Steve Epley: What album did you bring to the table and what makes it special to you?
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Steve Rosen: I brought one of the greatest records ever made.
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Steve Rosen: It has to be one of the 10 greatest records ever made.
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Steve Rosen: The Who's, Who's Next.
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Steve Rosen: It's just an extraordinary record.
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Steve Rosen: One of those records I keep going back to, and one of the few records that you can actually listen to every single song, and it's just unbelievable.
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Steve Rosen: The Who made a lot of great records, but that one was their high water mark.
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Steve Rosen: Back in, I think it was 78 or 79, I had the amazing honor and pleasure to interview Pete Townsend.
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Steve Rosen: I flew to New York from LA, I was living in the Hollywood Hills, and he was doing some press for The Kids Are Alright, the movie, I think the album had just come out.
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Steve Rosen: So he was doing some press, and yeah, man, so I walk into the room and there's Pete Townsend.
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Steve Rosen: I mean, I had like 50 pages of questions, I mean, so much I wanted to talk to him about.
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Steve Rosen: But one of the things I knew I had to talk to him about was The Who's Next record.
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Steve Rosen: So we're talking and we get up to The Who's Next record.
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Steve Rosen: You know, I go, I go, Pete, you know, you guys are amazing.
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Steve Rosen: But for me, Who's Next was kind of like the greatest record you ever made.
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Steve Rosen: That was like the high watermark for me.
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Steve Rosen: He was, yeah, yeah, I agree.
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Steve Rosen: I agree.
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Steve Rosen: So to hear him say that was what was pretty amazing.
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Steve Rosen: It just, all those elements just came together so amazingly for them.
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Steve Rosen: I mean, we think of The Who as being this extraordinarily heavy band.
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Steve Rosen: And I mean, they were live, they were a heavy band, you know, they were a loud band.
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Steve Rosen: But, you know, you listen to that record and a lot of those songs are built around his acoustic guitar.
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Steve Rosen: You know, Going Mobile and Behind Blue Eyes, which kind of segues into an electric section there.
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Steve Rosen: But, but a lot of that stuff is just, you know, acoustic guitar.
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Steve Rosen: And he was just the master at blending acoustics and electrics.
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Steve Rosen: Jimmy Page was also pretty amazing at that.
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Steve Rosen: But Pete was just remarkable, you know.
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Steve Rosen: And what made that record all the more remarkable was it wasn't filled.
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Steve Rosen: In fact, there really aren't many kind of guitar solo, solo sections, you know.
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Steve Rosen: Pete wasn't that kind of a guitar player, you know.
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Steve Rosen: There's a violin solo on Bob O'Reilly and, you know, little kind of fill parts, you know.
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Steve Rosen: But it's not like you're listening to a purple record, right?
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Steve Rosen: Or a Zeppelin record where there's a break and Jimmy Page is doing a solo on Blackmore, you know.
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Steve Epley: You're right.
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Steve Epley: I never really thought of that as I was listening to it as far as, yeah, there's a lot of outstanding instrumental breaks where they're all jamming together, the three of them.
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Steve Epley: Obviously, Daltrey, amazing on the vocals, but when they're jamming, it's the three of them together.
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Steve Epley: And there's several of those bargain, you know, the first one that comes to mind.
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Steve Rosen: It's just unbelievable, you know, and you really hit it.
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Steve Rosen: As an ensemble band, those sections where they're playing together, like, you know, some people will say Zeppelin were the greatest, and, you know, The Stones.
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Steve Rosen: The Who were the greatest band, in my opinion, that maybe ever was.
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Steve Rosen: You know, when they were playing together, that ensemble thing, they were just unbelievable.
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Steve Epley: I have a newfound appreciation for The Who because of the show we did Quadrophenia in a previous season, and I had never listened to that one all the way through, nor this one all the way through, to be honest, until these, preparing for these episodes.
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Steve Epley: And newfound appreciation for the way Entwistle and Moon worked together.
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Steve Epley: You'd have in conversations, you know, best rhythm sections in classic rock, and people would say The Who, I would kind of brush them off.
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Steve Epley: I was kind of more of a cream preferred.
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Steve Epley: But I have a new appreciation for them because, man, those two together is magic.
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Steve Epley: And the way Townsend can write these songs around those two as the, not really a beating heart, because I can't call Keith Moon's drumming a beating heart because it's wild but amazing.
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Steve Rosen: No, exactly, man.
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Steve Rosen: You bring up some excellent points.
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Steve Rosen: Look, man, I love cream.
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Steve Rosen: I mean, you know, clapping with cream was just unbelievable.
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Steve Rosen: I'm a huge Jack Bruce fan, you know, and I loved his solo work after that song, Spratt Taylor, his singing, you know, and, you know, his cello playing.
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Steve Rosen: I mean, he was amazing.
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Steve Rosen: Baker, nobody played like that.
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Steve Rosen: The way he approached those songs, you know, and he kind of turned the beat around.
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Steve Rosen: And Politician, you know, you're trying to follow that.
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Steve Rosen: They were amazing, you know, and Jack is one of my favorite bass players.
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Steve Rosen: John Paul Jones is one of my favorite bass players, you know, Tim Bogart, Chris Squire.
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Steve Rosen: But I really believe that all of them owe a nod to John Etwistle.
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Steve Rosen: And as you so rightly bring up, yeah, Keith was all over the place, man.
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Steve Rosen: His timing was not good, which is why on Who's Next, it's so amazing because he was kind of reigned in.
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Steve Rosen: I think Glenn Johns came in to work on that.
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Steve Epley: He was a producer on a bit, yeah.
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Steve Rosen: Right, and so he was able to, you know, kind of corral Keith, you know, and yeah, that stuff that he did with Etwistle was amazing.
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Steve Rosen: And John, you know, what was so amazing about him, because Keith really wasn't the timekeeper, really, it was John, you know.
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Steve Rosen: So John is not only the bass player, he's the timekeeper.
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Steve Rosen: He's sort of a second guitar player, the way he plays those lines, you know.
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Steve Rosen: He's a percussionist, the way he plays, you know.
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Steve Rosen: It's kind of part rhythm guitar.
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Steve Rosen: It was just amazing.
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Steve Rosen: And The Who were one of the few bands.
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Steve Rosen: Bands are always either amazing on record, or live.
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Steve Rosen: The Who were incredibly good both.
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Steve Rosen: You know, you think about Zeppelin, look, they had their moments live, but a lot of those live shows, man, they were, you know, along the solos, you know.
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Steve Rosen: So in my mind, Zeppelin was a studio band.
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Steve Rosen: But The Who, my God, you know, live at Leeds was amazing.
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Steve Rosen: So they were just an astonishing live band, astonishing studio band.
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Steve Epley: I never got the chance to see them live, but I did see Roger Daltrey's solo.
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Steve Epley: And that was a pretty phenomenal show because he was very engaging with the crowd, number one.
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Steve Epley: He was just back and forth really, really feeding out the crowd.
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Steve Epley: But he played a lot of guitar on it, and it was a lot of acoustic guitar.
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Steve Epley: And he would talk about the songs and how, you know, Pete wrote this one, but we're going to strip it down to what it truly is, a blues song, you know, then they'll cut into like Magic Bus or whatever.
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Steve Epley: And it was it was really neat how they kind of played all of the great Who tracks but stripped down in a blues show.
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Steve Rosen: Yeah, that's interesting.
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Steve Rosen: You know, yeah, you don't you don't think of Beltree as a guitar player.
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Steve Rosen: I mean, I don't know if he ever played.
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Steve Rosen: I can't imagine he ever played guitars on Who records.
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Steve Rosen: I mean, I saw The Who a few times.
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Steve Rosen: I actually saw The Who the first time in 1966.
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Steve Rosen: Was unbelievable.
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<v SPEAKER_1>Yeah.
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Steve Rosen: There was a store called White Front, which is kind of like a predecessor to like a it's like a it's like a big department store.
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Steve Rosen: And they had like a little music section where you could buy albums.
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Steve Rosen: And if you bought certain albums, you got the tickets, you got these two tickets inside the album to this show that was being put on at the Hollywood Bowl.
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Steve Rosen: And it was The Who, The New Animals, you know, kind of that Monterey period, a band called Sop with Camel, The Everly Brothers, it was just one of these shows, you know, and I went there and with my buddy, I remember I bought, I'm trying to remember which record I bought.
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Steve Rosen: He bought the Mothers of Invention, the first one, Freak Out.
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Steve Rosen: I'm trying to remember what I bought, you know, but there was one ticket in each record.
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Steve Rosen: And it was kind of drizzling that day.
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Steve Rosen: And literally, I think the bowl holds, I don't know, 8000, 12000 people.
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Steve Rosen: I mean, it's huge.
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Steve Rosen: There was like 2000 people there.
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Steve Rosen: There was nobody there.
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Steve Rosen: So literally, we were sitting like in the front row.
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Steve Rosen: It was just unbelievable.
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Steve Rosen: My point being, yeah, I saw The Who several times.
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Steve Rosen: I don't think I ever saw Daltrey play guitar.
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Steve Rosen: Maybe in some of the more recent tours, he might have, you know, pulled out a guitar and played.
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Steve Rosen: I can't speak to that.
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Steve Epley: Well, that's got to be pretty amazing to see it so early on that, you know, obviously hit legend status.
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Steve Epley: And not only did you get to witness as a fan the evolution of their music and like you said, their high point or high watermark, because that Tommy and then Who's Next and then Quadrifenia in like a six year time frame, that's fantastic.
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Steve Epley: You got to interview them during that time.
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Steve Epley: I mean, were you able to ask like how they view their old stuff to their current stuff at the time and what their future was looking like?
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Steve Rosen: You know, I mean, I only interviewed Pete that one time, you know, and I think I did ask him about some of the earlier records.
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Steve Rosen: Again, I had so much I wanted to talk to him about, you know, he mainly wanted to talk about, you know, the kids are all right, which I did, you know, was an amazing record.
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Steve Rosen: So yeah, I mean, I probably did hard to remember specifically.
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Steve Rosen: I was also able, I actually interviewed all four guys.
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Steve Rosen: I interviewed Daltrey, there was a film, a documentary that came out about one of The Who's performances, and they had some kind of a premiere and Daltrey was there.
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Steve Rosen: So I literally had like 10 minutes, you know, they kind of shuttled writers in and out.
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Steve Rosen: So I talked to him for like 10 or 15 minutes.
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Steve Epley: It really wasn't enough.
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Steve Epley: A little gauntlet there.
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Steve Epley: Yeah.
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Steve Rosen: Same room with them.
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Steve Rosen: But I did interview John Entwistle twice, I think the first time was in 74.
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Steve Rosen: It was the cover of a guitar player, for a guitar player.
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Steve Rosen: And he was just amazing, I mean, God, he was just, he was open and, you know, just willing to talk about anything and very self-effacing.
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Steve Rosen: You know, the thing that was also so amazing about him is that he really was, you know, if I can quote the title of my Van Halen book, he really was a tonechaser.
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Steve Rosen: I mean, John was always experimenting with different bases, you know, man, and he was building his own bases, and he was trying different amp setups and different speaker configurations.
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Steve Rosen: So, he was always after that tone, you know, obviously, the John Entwistle bass tone is a huge part of The Who.
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Steve Rosen: And I also had the amazingly unique opportunity to interview Keith Moon.
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Steve Rosen: That was, that was unbelievable.
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Steve Rosen: That was right around the time he did Both Sides of the Moon, or Two Sides of the Moon, that solo record he did, which is a pretty terrible solo record, you know, Keith was like singing, you know, I think he did a couple of Beach Boys songs, you know, it's just an excuse for Keith to go out and, you know.
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Steve Epley: That's what Who's Next is missing is some, some Keith Moon vocals.
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Steve Rosen: Yeah, exactly.
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Steve Rosen: But he was pretty amazing.
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Steve Rosen: He was crazy, man.
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Steve Rosen: But, but what I really sensed from all three of those guys was their absolute and complete and utter devotion to The Who.
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Steve Rosen: They love The Who, you know, Keith said, you know, The Who is everything.
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Steve Rosen: I love them, you know.
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Steve Rosen: So, that was pretty amazing to hear that, you know.
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Steve Epley: So, how did you discover this album?
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Steve Epley: Like, obviously, you were a fan already, but like, were you like waiting for this to hit the stores?
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Steve Epley: Did you have advanced listens?
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Steve Epley: Like, how did that happen?
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Steve Rosen: I mean, that's a good question, man.
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Steve Rosen: I mean, I had a big record collection back in the day.
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Steve Rosen: Even before I started writing, I mean, I was collecting records.
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Steve Rosen: I probably had two or 3000 records before I started writing.
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Steve Rosen: And then as a writer, when you start writing, you get on all these mailing lists, you know, from the labels.
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Steve Rosen: So every month, you're getting their, you know, the releases, you know, so from Warners and Capitol.
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Steve Rosen: I don't think I was like waiting for that record to come out.
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Steve Rosen: I mean, certainly I must have heard about it.
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Steve Rosen: I had some friends who were big Who fans and maybe they had heard it.
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Steve Rosen: But I mean, the first time I heard it, I thought, oh my God, this is, this is just unbelievable, you know.
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Steve Rosen: And Tommy was amazing.
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Steve Rosen: But, you know, Tommy, I mean, Tommy, I don't know, man, it's hard to, it's hard to compare those two records because they're so different.
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Steve Rosen: But I just heard Who's Next, and I thought, oh my God, this is like his writing and the vocals, you know, you think about Dolce's vocals and the harmonies with Pete and John singing and those harmonies, I mean, my God, they were amazing singers, you know, and just the sound of the record, and it was, it was amazing.
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Steve Rosen: So yeah, I can't remember exactly how I heard about the record, but I knew as soon as I heard it, I go, oh my God, this is the greatest Who record I've ever heard.
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Steve Epley: Were you aware of the whole Lifehouse thing that it was supposed to be?
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Steve Rosen: Yeah, yeah, I was sort of into that Lifehouse thing.
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Steve Rosen: You know, not seriously, but yeah, I was aware of that.
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Steve Rosen: You know, you go back to those Lifehouse tracks now, you know, and you hear the songs on Who's Next, and you can hear where they started, and they're amazing, you know, I mean, going mobile, I mean.
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Steve Rosen: It's like a bad country song.
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Steve Rosen: I mean, the whole feel of the thing and it's all acoustic, and it's like, three times as fast.
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Steve Rosen: And one of the big changes, it's you know De De De Dee e minor.
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Steve Rosen: And then I think it's the C on The Who's Next, but there's no C.
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Steve Rosen: It's just D-E minor.
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Steve Rosen: And Pete in hearing it, he sang himself, It's.
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Steve Epley: Lines like that that make more sense when I took it, I went down the rabbit hole reading what Lifehouse was supposed to be about.
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Steve Epley: How the nomads in this post-apocalyptic world lived in air-conditioned cars because of the pollution.
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Steve Epley: And so I was like, oh, okay, it makes a little sense now.
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Steve Epley: But before it was just a cool lyric, now several of the songs make a little bit more sense to me in light of We're going to listen to a bit of the Attempted Concept Album, like Behind Blue Eyes, sung from almost the villain's point of view.
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Steve Epley: Yeah, so really kind of neat to dive down that rabbit hole.
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Steve Rosen: Yeah, absolutely.
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Steve Rosen: Behind Blue Eyes, I mean, I mean, is there a greater song?
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Steve Rosen: I mean, come on, man, that thing ranks up there with the best of the Beatles in my estimation, the Stones.
00:17:40.335 --> 00:17:44.195
Steve Rosen: It's just such a timeless song, and it's such a simple song, really.
00:17:44.475 --> 00:17:49.455
Steve Rosen: Pete's songs weren't that complex, you know, but it's just, you know, again.
00:17:49.635 --> 00:17:55.795
Steve Epley: It's amazing how they could take a song and you've got Daltry with such heartfelt lyrics.
00:17:55.815 --> 00:17:59.715
Steve Epley: He puts, he can convey a lot of emotion in just a few lines.
00:18:00.035 --> 00:18:02.775
Steve Epley: It's a very, very specific talent he's got there.
00:18:03.695 --> 00:18:08.335
Steve Epley: Not to mention just the range, but just the emotion that he can convey.
00:18:08.355 --> 00:18:13.855
Steve Epley: And then a few notes later, you're cutting into this long, hard instrumental break.
00:18:14.575 --> 00:18:16.035
Steve Epley: And I love that transition.
00:18:16.055 --> 00:18:17.535
Steve Epley: I love musical transitions like that.
00:18:17.535 --> 00:18:19.135
Steve Epley: And that's just really well done.
00:18:27.745 --> 00:18:31.845
Steve Epley: And hard to replicate, many bands have tried, but The Who perfected it.
00:18:32.085 --> 00:18:33.205
Steve Rosen: Absolutely, you know.
00:18:34.445 --> 00:18:39.145
Steve Rosen: And I don't think Daltry gets as much credit as he should as a singer.
00:18:39.705 --> 00:18:51.025
Steve Rosen: You know, you think about rock singers, there's always the same guys, you know, Robert Plant and, you know, I mean, Freddie Mercury and, you know, Jagger, but, you know, Daltry, my God, he was an amazing singer.
00:18:51.045 --> 00:18:52.385
Steve Rosen: You're right, man, he was so emotive.
00:18:52.765 --> 00:19:05.685
Steve Rosen: I remember one of the things, I remember this so clearly, and some of we were talking about, you know, The Who, obviously, and he said, you know, nobody can sing The Who songs better than me.
00:19:06.605 --> 00:19:14.105
Steve Rosen: It was just such a simple, you know, thing to say, but it's like, oh, my God, you know, you know, and Pete is obviously an amazing singer.
00:19:14.785 --> 00:19:15.685
Steve Rosen: Nobody can sing those songs.
00:19:15.905 --> 00:19:18.345
Steve Epley: There's a lot more towns and vocals on here than I expected.
00:19:19.045 --> 00:19:19.945
Steve Epley: He sang a lot more.
00:19:20.225 --> 00:19:21.065
Steve Rosen: Yeah, there are.
00:19:21.105 --> 00:19:22.745
Steve Rosen: I mean, he's an amazing singer.
00:19:23.505 --> 00:19:24.885
Steve Epley: I think he complements Daltry well.
00:19:25.685 --> 00:19:32.945
Steve Epley: I think, you know, his softer touch on the vocals, they convey the back and forth, a lot of successful tracks there.
00:19:33.505 --> 00:19:34.305
Steve Rosen: Yeah, definitely.
00:19:34.325 --> 00:19:34.945
Steve Rosen: Absolutely.
00:19:34.965 --> 00:19:39.485
Steve Rosen: You know, he'll always sing like a bridge section or a B section thing.
00:19:39.505 --> 00:19:40.105
Steve Rosen: Yeah, it's amazing.
00:19:40.125 --> 00:19:44.145
Steve Rosen: And Ed Whistle, you know, my wife, I mean, he's a great singer as well.
00:19:44.165 --> 00:19:48.345
Steve Rosen: You know, and Keith, you know, I don't know if Keith ever sings live, really, but, you know.
00:19:49.025 --> 00:19:54.085
Steve Epley: I found some footage of him singing Bellboy live from Quadrophenia, and it was pretty entertaining.
00:19:54.345 --> 00:19:55.145
Steve Rosen: Yeah, yeah.
00:19:55.945 --> 00:19:59.945
Steve Epley: So, this is probably a loaded question, but how do you listen to the album?
00:19:59.965 --> 00:20:00.485
Steve Epley: Straight through?
00:20:00.505 --> 00:20:02.185
Steve Epley: Or do you have certain tracks that you pick out?
00:20:02.705 --> 00:20:04.785
Steve Rosen: I mean, like I said, I used to have a big record collection.
00:20:04.805 --> 00:20:06.185
Steve Rosen: I don't have that collection anymore.
00:20:06.205 --> 00:20:14.365
Steve Rosen: And I'm ashamed to say I listen to music on my phone, but I'm at the gym all the time.
00:20:14.385 --> 00:20:19.125
Steve Rosen: And inevitably, you know, I'll go looking for records and the Who's Next will come up.
00:20:19.645 --> 00:20:22.705
Steve Rosen: Who's Next will come up, man, and I'll just go from track one.
00:20:23.405 --> 00:20:24.205
Steve Rosen: I'll go straight through.
00:20:24.225 --> 00:20:27.165
Steve Rosen: It's just a remarkable record.
00:20:27.185 --> 00:20:31.605
Steve Rosen: I don't know if it gets enough attention.
00:20:31.625 --> 00:20:36.325
Steve Rosen: You know, I don't know if it's on the, you know, 10 greatest records of all times list.
00:20:36.325 --> 00:20:42.805
Steve Epley: I mean, I know it's always a repeat one in the, you know, at least the top 50, top 100s when they come out.
00:20:43.965 --> 00:20:47.685
Steve Epley: But then you start with Bob O'Reilly and end with Won't Get Fooled Again.
00:20:47.705 --> 00:20:50.785
Steve Epley: I mean, those two songs are legendary on their own.
00:20:50.985 --> 00:20:51.985
Steve Rosen: Yeah.
00:20:52.045 --> 00:20:57.445
Steve Epley: Those two might have kind of surpassed the album itself as more known.
00:20:59.045 --> 00:21:00.145
Steve Rosen: That's an excellent point, man.
00:21:00.525 --> 00:21:02.685
Steve Epley: I'll say, well, you got Tommy and Quadrophenia.
00:21:02.685 --> 00:21:06.805
Steve Epley: Those two albums are well known just by their titles.
00:21:07.105 --> 00:21:07.545
Steve Rosen: Yeah.
00:21:07.565 --> 00:21:15.585
Steve Epley: And Who's Next is also, but if you ask someone to say, name me some things you think of when you hear The Who, you're likely to hear Tommy.
00:21:15.665 --> 00:21:15.925
Steve Rosen: Yeah.
00:21:15.945 --> 00:21:19.285
Steve Epley: You might hear Quadrophenia, but you're definitely going to hear Won't Get Fooled Again.
00:21:19.785 --> 00:21:20.225
Steve Rosen: I agree.
00:21:38.573 --> 00:21:39.953
Steve Rosen: Yeah, no, I agree.
00:21:40.173 --> 00:21:45.413
Steve Rosen: And so you think also, something that we haven't touched on, Pete's use of synthesizers.
00:21:46.253 --> 00:21:48.773
Steve Rosen: So here's this band known for guitars, right?
00:21:48.793 --> 00:21:52.113
Steve Rosen: And he comes up with those amazing synthesizer parts.
00:21:52.133 --> 00:21:54.873
Steve Rosen: My God, nobody did that.
00:21:55.173 --> 00:22:04.033
Steve Rosen: And then, if you fast forward a little bit, you think about Edward Van Halen, bringing Sinsinda Jump and that kind of thing.
00:22:04.433 --> 00:22:06.853
Steve Rosen: Edward was a huge Who fan.
00:22:07.353 --> 00:22:14.073
Steve Rosen: And there was talk about, at one point, Edward was thinking about doing a solo record and bringing in different people.
00:22:14.353 --> 00:22:16.553
Steve Rosen: And he had been in contact with Townsend.
00:22:16.573 --> 00:22:20.233
Steve Rosen: And I thought, oh my God, how amazing would that be, you know?
00:22:20.813 --> 00:22:23.593
Steve Rosen: Pete's writing and Ed's guitar playing.
00:22:23.613 --> 00:22:27.513
Steve Rosen: And it never happened, of course, but that would have been astonishing, you know?
00:22:27.773 --> 00:22:29.033
Steve Rosen: So, I'm not saying that-
00:22:29.813 --> 00:22:31.673
Steve Epley: That would have been amazing to be in that room, man.
00:22:31.693 --> 00:22:38.233
Steve Rosen: I'm not saying that Edward heard Who's Next and Pete playing since to come up with Jump.
00:22:38.853 --> 00:22:40.853
Steve Rosen: But I do know that he was a big Who fan.
00:22:40.993 --> 00:22:45.693
Steve Rosen: You know, you listen to some of his playing and, you know, it's definitely got a Who thing.
00:22:45.713 --> 00:22:46.773
Steve Rosen: And I had mentioned that to him.
00:22:46.793 --> 00:22:47.633
Steve Rosen: He goes, yeah, yeah, man.
00:22:48.013 --> 00:22:52.953
Steve Rosen: And in fact, back in the club days, Edward used to sing Young Man Blues.
00:22:53.513 --> 00:22:56.073
Steve Rosen: And he goes, yeah, man, I sing that pretty well, you know?
00:22:56.093 --> 00:22:58.473
Steve Rosen: So, you know, he did all those Who songs.
00:22:58.493 --> 00:23:00.593
Steve Rosen: So, there's definitely a connection there.
00:23:01.633 --> 00:23:11.473
Steve Epley: That doesn't surprise me that The Who would be a big influence on Eddie Van Halen with, because if I remember right, the Van Halens themselves were a musical family.
00:23:12.753 --> 00:23:14.193
Steve Epley: Was it jazz musicians?
00:23:14.213 --> 00:23:16.253
Steve Epley: I don't remember what his parents were.
00:23:16.993 --> 00:23:22.793
Steve Epley: But I know they were very, like, pushed into being artists at a young age.
00:23:22.813 --> 00:23:31.913
Steve Epley: You know, you will play the piano, you will play the, you know, the, they were not pushed, but, you know, encouraged to follow the musical trend.
00:23:31.933 --> 00:23:33.173
Steve Rosen: Yeah, no, they were, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:23:33.193 --> 00:23:37.313
Steve Rosen: The dad was a pretty successful clarinet.
00:23:37.733 --> 00:23:38.693
Steve Rosen: I don't think it was sax.
00:23:38.713 --> 00:23:39.493
Steve Rosen: I think it was clarinet.
00:23:40.213 --> 00:23:49.193
Steve Rosen: You know, he used to play in, you know, like orchestras, you know, back in the Netherlands where they're from, you know, and they do, like, live radio performances and that type of thing.
00:23:49.793 --> 00:23:53.173
Steve Rosen: Yeah, so, so Edward and Alex, you know, were around music all the time.
00:23:53.633 --> 00:23:57.993
Steve Rosen: Yeah, and they were pushed early on, you know, parents thought, you know, you've got to be able to read.
00:23:58.013 --> 00:24:04.813
Steve Rosen: And, you know, Edward started playing piano, which he hated, you know, and Alex was supposed to have been a pretty good violin player.
00:24:05.133 --> 00:24:11.233
Steve Rosen: They come over here and they start listening to British Invasion bands, Dave Clarke Five.
00:24:11.633 --> 00:24:18.693
Steve Rosen: They hear The Beatles and all of a sudden, you know, they want to play guitars, you know, and Edward actually started on the drums and Alex played guitar.
00:24:19.533 --> 00:24:20.113
Steve Epley: I didn't know that.
00:24:21.453 --> 00:24:29.513
Steve Epley: Well, so any final thoughts on Who's Next before we kind of transition into your career and other things that you've put out?
00:24:31.793 --> 00:24:34.213
Steve Rosen: No, I think that covers all of it.
00:24:34.973 --> 00:24:39.673
Steve Rosen: I just think that they were one of the greatest bands ever.
00:24:40.193 --> 00:24:43.093
Steve Rosen: And I think that record is one of the greatest records ever made.
00:24:43.113 --> 00:24:45.093
Steve Rosen: It's some of the greatest guitar sounds.
00:24:45.093 --> 00:24:47.893
Steve Rosen: And, you know, they were so heavy.
00:24:47.893 --> 00:24:55.793
Steve Rosen: And again, there's not any of those huge distorted guitars, but they were able to convey that kind of that heaviness through, again, that ensemble playing, you know.
00:24:55.813 --> 00:25:01.013
Steve Rosen: It was just a situation where those four guys, if you take away one member, it changes, you know.
00:25:01.033 --> 00:25:04.613
Steve Rosen: So sadly, we know that Keith Moon and John's passed away.
00:25:05.253 --> 00:25:10.553
Steve Rosen: You know, and Kenny Jones comes in to play for The Who, and I thought that was terrible.
00:25:10.973 --> 00:25:16.593
Steve Rosen: Zach Starkey, who's a very good drummer, a little bit more of that Keith Moon thing, you know.
00:25:16.793 --> 00:25:21.333
Steve Rosen: And then Pino Palladino comes in, plays bass, replaces John, who's an amazing bass player.
00:25:21.613 --> 00:25:24.493
Steve Rosen: But it was never the same, you know.
00:25:24.513 --> 00:25:27.893
Steve Rosen: So, you know, you can't, you couldn't replace any of those guys.
00:25:28.193 --> 00:25:31.133
Steve Rosen: So, yeah, one of the greatest records ever.
00:25:32.573 --> 00:25:33.013
Steve Epley: I agree.
00:25:33.113 --> 00:25:40.213
Steve Epley: It was, I knew all the songs, but I had never listened to them straight through as an album.
00:25:40.453 --> 00:25:42.173
Steve Epley: And great experience.
00:25:42.193 --> 00:25:43.513
Steve Epley: I recommend it to anyone out there.
00:25:43.533 --> 00:25:45.993
<v SPEAKER_1>If you haven't already listened to Who's Next, please go do it.
00:25:56.913 --> 00:26:00.333
Steve Epley: So, Steve, you're 50 years as a rock journalist.
00:26:00.533 --> 00:26:03.893
Steve Epley: Just let me throw out there some credentials here for our listeners.
00:26:04.633 --> 00:26:10.613
Steve Epley: You've written for magazines such as Guitar Player, Guitar World, Rolling Stone, Playboy, Cream, Circus.
00:26:11.373 --> 00:26:13.493
Steve Epley: You've interviewed, as mentioned, Mr.
00:26:13.513 --> 00:26:20.573
Steve Epley: Van Halen, Pete Townsend, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Frank Zappa, Zach Wilde, and several books out there.
00:26:20.873 --> 00:26:29.773
Steve Epley: Tonechaser, your most recent one, The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, Bruce Springsteen, The Beck Book About Jeff Beck, Story of Black Sabbath, Wheels of Confusion.
00:26:30.973 --> 00:26:31.893
Steve Epley: Amazing, man.
00:26:31.953 --> 00:26:35.873
Steve Epley: That is just, and just that's from what I was reading, the tip of the iceberg.
00:26:36.293 --> 00:26:36.933
Steve Rosen: Thank you, man.
00:26:36.953 --> 00:26:37.953
Steve Rosen: Yeah, you know, it's funny.
00:26:37.973 --> 00:26:45.913
Steve Rosen: I mean, yeah, I think back, I mean, I started writing, it was probably late 72.
00:26:45.953 --> 00:26:51.173
Steve Rosen: So it's legitimately 50 years, actually probably a little less than 50 years.
00:26:51.653 --> 00:26:57.893
Steve Rosen: I sort of, you know, kind of drifted away from writing the magazine thing.
00:26:58.333 --> 00:27:01.553
Steve Rosen: I probably haven't really done anything for any magazines, probably been about four years.
00:27:02.093 --> 00:27:06.133
Steve Rosen: So, you know, I'm probably more like 45 years.
00:27:06.153 --> 00:27:08.373
Steve Rosen: But yeah, there was a big body of work.
00:27:08.733 --> 00:27:15.133
Steve Rosen: I was lucky in as much as when I really started writing sort of in the early 70s there.
00:27:16.173 --> 00:27:24.753
Steve Rosen: It was a time when, you know, music magazines were sort of being born, you know, it was a nascent period, you know.
00:27:24.793 --> 00:27:37.333
Steve Rosen: So you had magazines like Guitar Player just kind of coming out, you know, and Craw Daddy and Musician, you know, these incredible magazines that were coming out.
00:27:38.113 --> 00:27:42.173
Steve Rosen: And they needed writers to provide content, you know.
00:27:42.913 --> 00:27:44.073
Steve Epley: How did you get into it?
00:27:44.273 --> 00:27:47.113
Steve Epley: What was your entry point?
00:27:47.813 --> 00:27:50.033
Steve Rosen: So I started writing for my high school newspaper.
00:27:50.053 --> 00:28:03.733
Steve Rosen: I was a senior, I got on the newspaper, The Culver City Centurion, and rather than write about some scholastic thing, you know, school newspaper's got to be about, you know, the drama club or the football team.
00:28:03.973 --> 00:28:05.973
Steve Rosen: You know, I thought, I want to write about music.
00:28:06.293 --> 00:28:09.493
Steve Rosen: So I approached the journalism teacher, Mrs.
00:28:09.513 --> 00:28:13.773
Steve Rosen: Carpenter, very sweet woman, and said, listen, I want to write about music.
00:28:14.173 --> 00:28:15.453
Steve Rosen: Okay, you go do that, you know.
00:28:15.793 --> 00:28:18.553
Steve Rosen: So I sent out letters to all the clubs, you know.
00:28:19.513 --> 00:28:25.353
Steve Rosen: You know, back in the day when you sit down, you type a letter and put it in an envelope and, you know, put a label on there.
00:28:25.373 --> 00:28:39.293
Steve Rosen: And, you know, so I sent out letters to the whiskey and the Troubadour, the Starwood, the Ice House, which is a club out in Pasadena, probably only a few blocks from where Van Halen's were living at the time.
00:28:39.553 --> 00:28:44.473
Steve Rosen: The Golden Bear, which is a club down south of where I was living in the Hollywood Hills.
00:28:44.913 --> 00:28:50.673
Steve Rosen: And, you know, most of them said yes, you know, just give us a call when you want to come by and review shows.
00:28:50.693 --> 00:28:53.053
Steve Rosen: So I started going and reviewing shows.
00:28:53.073 --> 00:28:56.193
Steve Rosen: I mean, I saw some amazing shows at the whiskey early on.
00:28:56.733 --> 00:28:57.613
Steve Epley: That's amazing.
00:28:57.633 --> 00:28:59.113
Steve Epley: I mean, in high school?
00:28:59.373 --> 00:28:59.733
Steve Rosen: Yeah.
00:28:59.753 --> 00:29:00.793
Steve Rosen: Yeah, man, I was in high school.
00:29:01.393 --> 00:29:02.333
Steve Rosen: I could not believe it.
00:29:02.353 --> 00:29:04.533
Steve Rosen: I thought they're going to laugh me off the planet.
00:29:04.973 --> 00:29:05.953
Steve Rosen: They all embraced me.
00:29:06.493 --> 00:29:08.853
Steve Rosen: Oh my God, you know, whiskey.
00:29:08.873 --> 00:29:12.233
Steve Rosen: My God, I saw this is like 71.
00:29:12.253 --> 00:29:14.473
Steve Rosen: I think I saw the Almond Brothers.
00:29:14.813 --> 00:29:16.213
Steve Rosen: I think maybe Chicago.
00:29:16.233 --> 00:29:19.933
Steve Rosen: I mean, just unbelievable gigs, you know.
00:29:20.033 --> 00:29:25.633
Steve Rosen: And Mario and Elmer, who were the two owners, they said, yeah, just show us the letter when you want to come.
00:29:25.973 --> 00:29:28.013
Steve Rosen: So I go show up and I show them the letter.
00:29:30.193 --> 00:29:30.913
Steve Rosen: It was just...
00:29:31.133 --> 00:29:34.093
Steve Rosen: Yeah, man, they just really embraced it.
00:29:34.113 --> 00:29:38.793
Steve Rosen: And I told them, I go, listen, you know, I'm the music editor for my high school newspaper.
00:29:38.813 --> 00:29:41.173
Steve Rosen: And, you know, 1,700 students go there.
00:29:41.173 --> 00:29:44.373
Steve Rosen: And, you know, I think some of these people would like to know about your club.
00:29:44.393 --> 00:29:44.913
Steve Rosen: They go great.
00:29:45.593 --> 00:29:52.913
Steve Epley: Well, looking at it from the outside, from the club owner, I mean, that's free advertising to 1,700 high school kids local.
00:29:53.493 --> 00:29:53.893
Steve Rosen: It is.
00:29:54.333 --> 00:30:02.953
Steve Rosen: And I will bet you, actually, what I'd love to know is how many people looking at my little reviews of shows there ultimately went to the whiskey.
00:30:02.953 --> 00:30:03.913
Steve Rosen: I've been a lot of them.
00:30:03.933 --> 00:30:06.373
Steve Rosen: Because I'd have people come up the next day, you know.
00:30:06.693 --> 00:30:08.073
Steve Rosen: And that's the other side of journalism.
00:30:08.093 --> 00:30:10.433
Steve Rosen: You know, I was not a popular kid in school, you know.
00:30:10.693 --> 00:30:11.653
Steve Rosen: I wasn't an athlete.
00:30:11.953 --> 00:30:15.613
Steve Rosen: But, you know, I'd write a story on seeing some amazing band at the whiskey.
00:30:15.813 --> 00:30:20.953
Steve Rosen: And the next day, you know, kids who would never talk to me would come up and go, Oh, I read your reviews.
00:30:20.973 --> 00:30:22.153
Steve Rosen: Yeah, that was great, man.
00:30:22.153 --> 00:30:24.153
Steve Rosen: I thought, there's something here.
00:30:24.173 --> 00:30:30.393
Steve Rosen: This is great, you know, I mean, I'll do this for free if I can talk to the cute girls.
00:30:30.413 --> 00:30:31.753
Steve Rosen: You know what I mean, right?
00:30:32.653 --> 00:30:36.613
Steve Rosen: So after high school, I went to UCLA.
00:30:36.633 --> 00:30:37.853
Steve Rosen: I went straight into UCLA.
00:30:38.053 --> 00:30:43.233
Steve Rosen: I thought, OK, you know, if you're going to try to pursue this, you know, become a better writer.
00:30:43.253 --> 00:30:44.573
Steve Rosen: So I took some English classes.
00:30:45.233 --> 00:30:48.833
Steve Rosen: And that was a nightmare beyond description.
00:30:51.113 --> 00:30:53.913
Steve Rosen: I remember one teacher and I write about him.
00:30:54.273 --> 00:30:58.173
Steve Rosen: If I can remember his name, I might have printed his name, but I couldn't remember his name.
00:30:58.193 --> 00:31:00.533
Steve Rosen: I probably wouldn't have printed his name.
00:31:00.813 --> 00:31:03.553
Steve Rosen: But this guy was a nasty guy, you know.
00:31:04.093 --> 00:31:09.133
Steve Rosen: I actually was able to get on the staff of the Daily Bruin, like the school newspaper.
00:31:09.333 --> 00:31:12.273
Steve Rosen: And there were some really, really, really good writers.
00:31:12.293 --> 00:31:16.053
Steve Rosen: I mean, you know, I mean, a lot of smart kids are going there.
00:31:16.073 --> 00:31:17.273
Steve Rosen: They had some great writers.
00:31:17.613 --> 00:31:21.293
Steve Rosen: So I was doing like reviews of like live stage shows.
00:31:21.313 --> 00:31:29.273
Steve Rosen: It wasn't rock and roll bands, but it was like, you know, live plays and things like that, which I was overjoyed to do, you know.
00:31:29.593 --> 00:31:32.153
Steve Rosen: So I remember, you know, I'd do one and it would come out in the paper.
00:31:32.173 --> 00:31:33.153
Steve Rosen: I'd see my little byline.
00:31:33.173 --> 00:31:37.573
Steve Rosen: I remember coming into class and the teacher would be behind his desk, you know.
00:31:37.873 --> 00:31:41.233
Steve Rosen: And he'd be reading the newspaper, the Daily Bruin.
00:31:41.253 --> 00:31:45.613
Steve Rosen: I'm thinking, God, I'm wondering if he's looking at one of my stories, you know.
00:31:46.013 --> 00:31:56.553
Steve Rosen: And, you know, he'd kind of be reading and then he'd kind of lower it, you know, and he'd kind of look at me, you know, and give me like a grin like he had read it and it's the worst thing he's ever read.
00:31:57.753 --> 00:32:03.733
Steve Rosen: And, you know, I hand in these papers and I was getting Fs and he'd write a big red, you know.
00:32:04.753 --> 00:32:05.553
Steve Rosen: Not good.
00:32:05.993 --> 00:32:07.093
Steve Rosen: What do you think you're doing?
00:32:07.113 --> 00:32:08.673
Steve Rosen: You know, and he took me aside one time.
00:32:08.693 --> 00:32:12.953
Steve Rosen: He goes, you know, you really think you're a better writer than you are.
00:32:12.973 --> 00:32:14.453
Steve Rosen: You're never going to make it as a writer.
00:32:14.853 --> 00:32:16.353
Steve Rosen: And I remember that clearly, you know.
00:32:16.713 --> 00:32:20.773
Steve Rosen: And, you know, maybe he said that to all the people he felt that way about.
00:32:21.113 --> 00:32:23.713
Steve Rosen: But yeah, so I left UCLA.
00:32:24.073 --> 00:32:27.093
Steve Rosen: I started reaching out to local papers.
00:32:27.493 --> 00:32:31.653
Steve Rosen: You know, I had a couple of things printed in a little local paper called the LA Star.
00:32:32.173 --> 00:32:35.233
Steve Rosen: And just live reviews because I wasn't on any lists.
00:32:35.253 --> 00:32:38.753
Steve Rosen: I couldn't interview anybody, but I could go review live shows, you know.
00:32:39.593 --> 00:32:41.893
Steve Rosen: At the Palladium, Hollywood Palladium, interview T.
00:32:41.913 --> 00:32:44.193
Steve Rosen: Rex and Wes Brisson-Lang, I remember clearly.
00:32:44.773 --> 00:32:46.353
Steve Rosen: So you use that as a calling card.
00:32:46.373 --> 00:32:48.053
Steve Rosen: And I used that.
00:32:48.313 --> 00:32:56.413
Steve Rosen: And then I sort of got into the LA Free Press, which is a very hip and highly respected, kind of an underground newspaper.
00:32:56.433 --> 00:33:00.113
Steve Rosen: It was like political, you know, but they had a little music section.
00:33:00.633 --> 00:33:05.713
Steve Rosen: And then that led to me meeting somebody, some people at Gibson and Stromberg.
00:33:05.713 --> 00:33:08.473
Steve Rosen: They were like the first rock and roll publicists.
00:33:08.953 --> 00:33:14.973
Steve Rosen: They handled the Stones and Jeff Beck and Steely Dan and Dr.
00:33:14.993 --> 00:33:18.853
Steve Rosen: Hook and Black Kangaroo, all these bands, and they sort of took me under their wing.
00:33:19.373 --> 00:33:25.213
Steve Rosen: And so they say, hey, you know, we'll let you interview Steely Dan if you interview, you know, Dr.
00:33:25.233 --> 00:33:25.453
Steve Rosen: Hook.
00:33:25.613 --> 00:33:26.873
Steve Rosen: I go, absolutely.
00:33:27.413 --> 00:33:40.653
Steve Rosen: You know, so having the access to that, I was now able to, you know, send out, you know, legitimate interviews to different people, have my first story in Guitar Player, which was Jeff Beck that they set up for me.
00:33:41.153 --> 00:33:45.333
Steve Rosen: That opened up, you know, a seven year run with Guitar Player.
00:33:45.353 --> 00:33:54.293
Steve Rosen: I wrote a couple of things for Rolling Stone and Cream and Musician and Circus and Zoo World and Music Life.
00:33:55.013 --> 00:34:03.433
Steve Rosen: I also started writing for some Japanese magazines, you know, and it just kind of, you kind of build, you know, guitar world in the mid 80s.
00:34:04.213 --> 00:34:05.213
Steve Rosen: And yeah.
00:34:06.173 --> 00:34:10.593
Steve Epley: Really kind of had the the almost famous Cameron Crowe.
00:34:11.773 --> 00:34:12.193
Steve Epley: Yeah.
00:34:12.213 --> 00:34:13.133
Steve Epley: Similarities there.
00:34:13.153 --> 00:34:15.033
Steve Rosen: You know, I knew Cameron kind of peripherally.
00:34:15.053 --> 00:34:16.233
Steve Rosen: I mean, we had run into each other.
00:34:16.253 --> 00:34:18.313
Steve Rosen: You know, Cameron was the golden boy.
00:34:18.333 --> 00:34:22.013
Steve Rosen: I mean, you know, Cameron at 16 had the covers and Rolling Stone.
00:34:22.033 --> 00:34:25.633
Steve Rosen: And, you know, I was I was so jealous I could slit my wrist.
00:34:25.873 --> 00:34:27.073
Steve Rosen: He was an amazing writer.
00:34:27.533 --> 00:34:33.233
Steve Rosen: You know, I'd like to think that somehow I made my way out of his shadow.
00:34:33.253 --> 00:34:36.793
Steve Rosen: But, you know, I'm not going to begin to say I was Cameron Crowe.
00:34:36.853 --> 00:34:39.793
Steve Rosen: But yeah, it was that really.
00:34:40.733 --> 00:34:48.313
Steve Epley: So how did how did the friendship with Eddie Van Halen, you know, start, progress and lead to Tonechaser?
00:34:48.933 --> 00:34:52.153
Steve Rosen: So I was going to the whiskey a lot by then.
00:34:52.653 --> 00:34:53.713
Steve Rosen: I was on mailing lists.
00:34:53.733 --> 00:34:57.513
Steve Rosen: So I was literally at the whiskey at least a couple times a week.
00:34:57.593 --> 00:34:59.233
Steve Rosen: I mean, I was I was there a lot.
00:34:59.953 --> 00:35:01.333
Steve Rosen: This is during the punk period.
00:35:01.353 --> 00:35:04.073
Steve Rosen: This is 77 and I wasn't a big punk fan.
00:35:05.033 --> 00:35:07.933
Steve Rosen: And the whiskey was was booking a lot of punk bands.
00:35:07.953 --> 00:35:12.453
Steve Rosen: So I honestly I just had no desire to see them to go drive the whiskey.
00:35:12.773 --> 00:35:18.553
Steve Rosen: But on this one night, and I believe it's June or July 77, Cheap Trick is recording a live record.
00:35:19.073 --> 00:35:23.333
Steve Rosen: I thought, wow, Cheap Trick recording a live record, the whiskey, that's worth seeing.
00:35:23.873 --> 00:35:29.513
Steve Rosen: So I take my brother, who I took along to a lot of shows, and we go to the whiskey.
00:35:30.353 --> 00:35:33.713
Steve Rosen: And we're downstairs waiting for Cheap Trick to come on.
00:35:34.613 --> 00:35:36.833
Steve Rosen: And somebody taps him on the shoulder.
00:35:37.293 --> 00:35:38.333
Steve Rosen: And it's Michelle Meyer.
00:35:38.653 --> 00:35:40.573
Steve Rosen: Michelle Meyer was the club's booker.
00:35:40.873 --> 00:35:43.413
Steve Rosen: I knew Michelle because I had a band at the time.
00:35:43.733 --> 00:35:47.353
Steve Rosen: And she actually booked my band into some of the clubs she booked.
00:35:48.073 --> 00:35:53.913
Steve Rosen: She booked a club called Madam Wong's East, which was a pretty hip punk club back in the day.
00:35:53.933 --> 00:35:55.193
Steve Rosen: It was like downtown LA.
00:35:55.213 --> 00:35:59.053
Steve Rosen: I mean, you really wouldn't want to go there at night and walk outside.
00:35:59.073 --> 00:36:03.933
Steve Rosen: But, you know, it was one of those dark, dang places that punk bands like to play.
00:36:04.213 --> 00:36:05.533
Steve Rosen: Somehow we played there.
00:36:05.653 --> 00:36:07.313
Steve Rosen: Plus, we also played Madam Wong's West.
00:36:07.673 --> 00:36:09.553
Steve Rosen: So I was forever indebted to her.
00:36:09.613 --> 00:36:11.553
Steve Rosen: I mean, you know, I loved Michelle.
00:36:11.573 --> 00:36:12.293
Steve Rosen: She was amazing.
00:36:12.873 --> 00:36:15.333
Steve Rosen: And she said, listen, there's somebody upstairs you need to meet.
00:36:16.073 --> 00:36:18.013
Steve Rosen: She knew I was writing for guitar magazines.
00:36:18.833 --> 00:36:26.493
Steve Rosen: So we go upstairs, and we go up into one of the dressing rooms, and, you know, the whiskey dressing room is like a, it's like an ashtray.
00:36:26.553 --> 00:36:33.453
Steve Rosen: I mean, the floor is littered with cigarettes, you know, man, and empty beer cans and empty beer glasses.
00:36:33.693 --> 00:36:36.073
Steve Rosen: And all the bands have actually written on the walls.
00:36:36.093 --> 00:36:39.653
Steve Rosen: There's probably some amazingly famous graffiti up there, you know.
00:36:40.293 --> 00:36:43.513
Steve Rosen: And I see this guy standing over the corner, you know, smoking a cigarette.
00:36:43.953 --> 00:36:47.373
Steve Rosen: And I'm looking at him, and I keep trying to run over in my mind.
00:36:47.773 --> 00:36:49.173
Steve Rosen: So this is 77.
00:36:50.353 --> 00:36:54.773
Steve Rosen: Van Halen was pretty famous in Hollywood by then, you know.
00:36:54.973 --> 00:37:00.613
Steve Rosen: The word was out, there was this band, Van Halen, who were playing the Sunset Strip, had landed a deal with Warner Brothers.
00:37:01.113 --> 00:37:03.413
Steve Rosen: But there were no kind of pictures of them.
00:37:03.713 --> 00:37:06.813
Steve Rosen: There were no magazines doing articles, because nobody knew them.
00:37:06.833 --> 00:37:07.553
Steve Rosen: They were still kind of...
00:37:09.553 --> 00:37:13.033
Steve Rosen: This is like eight months before their first record comes out, exactly.
00:37:13.373 --> 00:37:15.773
Steve Rosen: February 78.
00:37:15.793 --> 00:37:18.853
Steve Rosen: I think I'm pretty certain I recognized him.
00:37:19.493 --> 00:37:21.113
Steve Rosen: Maybe from Flyers or...
00:37:21.133 --> 00:37:22.453
Steve Rosen: I don't know.
00:37:23.213 --> 00:37:26.033
Steve Rosen: I just can't remember looking at him and thinking, who is that?
00:37:26.033 --> 00:37:27.313
Steve Rosen: So I kind of knew who it was.
00:37:27.673 --> 00:37:28.613
Steve Rosen: But here's the kicker.
00:37:29.013 --> 00:37:31.693
Steve Rosen: I had never heard Van Halen play.
00:37:32.373 --> 00:37:40.873
Steve Rosen: Though Van Halen were playing the whiskey and gazari's and starwood constantly, and I was at those clubs a lot, I had never seen them play.
00:37:41.453 --> 00:37:43.893
Steve Rosen: So I go in and she introduces me.
00:37:44.473 --> 00:37:45.313
Steve Rosen: Steve Rosen.
00:37:45.393 --> 00:37:48.533
Steve Rosen: This is Eddie Van Halen, Godhead.
00:37:48.693 --> 00:37:50.053
Steve Rosen: Eddie Van Halen, Steve Rosen.
00:37:50.273 --> 00:37:55.813
Steve Rosen: And when she called somebody Godhead, that was Michelle's way of saying, this is as great as great gifts.
00:37:55.913 --> 00:38:02.453
Steve Rosen: You know, she only used that description for the absolute kings of the hill, you know.
00:38:03.013 --> 00:38:04.373
Steve Rosen: So we start talking.
00:38:04.393 --> 00:38:09.833
Steve Rosen: And again, I'm aware that this guy was in a band called Van Halen and that they had a deal on Warner Brothers.
00:38:10.193 --> 00:38:14.273
Steve Rosen: So I'm assuming they've got to be, you know, he's got to be a good guitar player.
00:38:14.833 --> 00:38:20.293
Steve Rosen: They've got to be good band to get a deal on Warner's because no local bands had deals like that, you know.
00:38:21.373 --> 00:38:26.293
Steve Rosen: So, you know, I was kind of been off him just for the fact that he had this major record deal.
00:38:26.573 --> 00:38:35.753
Steve Rosen: So we start talking, you know, and somehow Eric Clapton comes up and, you know, he was a monster Eric Clapton fan.
00:38:35.753 --> 00:38:39.973
Steve Rosen: I was a huge, like I mentioned before, Steve, a huge Clapton fan.
00:38:39.993 --> 00:38:45.613
Steve Rosen: I mean, I knew Clapton, you know, Crane, Yardbirds, going back to the Roosters, all those blues bands.
00:38:46.133 --> 00:38:47.873
Steve Rosen: I was kind of a Clapton snob.
00:38:48.093 --> 00:38:49.573
Steve Rosen: I mean, I knew a lot about him.
00:38:49.673 --> 00:39:01.573
Steve Rosen: So if I was talking to somebody and they made some ill-informed comment about Clapton that I thought was like beneath me or like, you don't know shit about Eric Clapton, it's like I was very dismissive.
00:39:01.893 --> 00:39:09.133
Steve Rosen: So I kept waiting for Edward to make some comment like, you know, oh, yeah, Edward, did Edward play in a band called the Yardbirds?
00:39:09.853 --> 00:39:10.553
Steve Rosen: Something dumb.
00:39:10.573 --> 00:39:13.033
Steve Rosen: I was, my radar was tuned to that, you know.
00:39:13.453 --> 00:39:15.913
Steve Rosen: But with Edward, it was the other thing.
00:39:16.253 --> 00:39:28.573
Steve Rosen: He was so understanding of Clapton as a guitar player and tonally and, you know, talking about Eric's figure vibrato.
00:39:28.593 --> 00:39:35.793
Steve Rosen: I mean, you know, he did an infinitely deeper dive than I could ever do because I didn't understand Eric's playing like that.
00:39:35.973 --> 00:39:39.313
Steve Rosen: I played guitar, but I didn't understand like Edward did.
00:39:39.573 --> 00:39:42.413
Steve Rosen: So we had this amazing instant report about Derek Clapton.
00:39:42.453 --> 00:39:45.273
Steve Rosen: We start talking about Jeff Beck, Richie Blackmore.
00:39:45.293 --> 00:39:49.653
Steve Rosen: I mean, I loved all those guitar players, and it was just this extraordinary conversation.
00:39:50.173 --> 00:39:54.733
Steve Rosen: And so, you know, we're talking, and again, I can't remember, it could have been an hour, it could have been 45 minutes.
00:39:55.273 --> 00:39:57.773
Steve Rosen: He kind of, you know, says, hey, wait, hang on.
00:39:57.793 --> 00:40:02.673
Steve Rosen: You know, and he runs out of the room, and he kind of comes back, you know, and he's got a pencil or a pen in his hand.
00:40:02.933 --> 00:40:09.913
Steve Rosen: He picks up some scrap of paper off the floor, maybe it was a torn, you know, ticket or something, and he writes his phone number on there.
00:40:09.933 --> 00:40:11.633
Steve Rosen: He goes, hey, man, this is my phone number.
00:40:11.813 --> 00:40:14.413
Steve Rosen: Call me, you know, I'd like to, you know, talk to you again.
00:40:14.433 --> 00:40:17.513
Steve Rosen: I thought, yeah, that's great, man.
00:40:17.533 --> 00:40:18.233
Steve Rosen: That's amazing.
00:40:19.233 --> 00:40:23.493
Steve Rosen: So fast forward, February 78.
00:40:23.973 --> 00:40:28.273
Steve Rosen: As I mentioned, I was getting all the monthly releases from Warner's.
00:40:28.293 --> 00:40:29.173
Steve Rosen: I was on their mailing list.
00:40:29.373 --> 00:40:30.693
Steve Rosen: So I remember getting the records.
00:40:30.733 --> 00:40:31.973
Steve Rosen: It was Little Feet.
00:40:32.393 --> 00:40:38.673
Steve Rosen: It was that Beatles spoof, the Monty Python guys, my brain.
00:40:39.993 --> 00:40:42.673
Steve Epley: I know you're talking about, but I can't think of the name of it.
00:40:43.113 --> 00:40:44.773
Steve Epley: Eric Idle's thing, yeah.
00:40:45.073 --> 00:40:48.253
Steve Rosen: Anyway, you know, that and this Van Halen record.
00:40:48.453 --> 00:40:49.953
Steve Rosen: And I'm going, oh, there's that guy.
00:40:49.973 --> 00:40:53.993
Steve Rosen: And I'm looking at his picture, you know, I'm going, oh, is that a Strathedey's thing, you know?
00:40:54.273 --> 00:41:04.893
Steve Rosen: So, you know, I put the record on and I put it down on the first song, you know, and it's, and I'm listening and I go, yeah, that's cool.
00:41:05.693 --> 00:41:07.073
Steve Rosen: They kind of do needle drops.
00:41:08.013 --> 00:41:11.133
Steve Rosen: And I was really underwhelmed.
00:41:11.353 --> 00:41:11.913
Steve Epley: Really?
00:41:12.153 --> 00:41:14.053
Steve Rosen: I thought, yeah, it's good.
00:41:14.293 --> 00:41:24.273
Steve Rosen: It sounds like, yeah, man, you know, and I write about this in the book, and I'm thinking, if I write this, are people going to come screaming at me and burn my house?
00:41:25.813 --> 00:41:33.613
Steve Rosen: You know, my response to it, I thought it sounded like deep purple, but not as good.
00:41:33.973 --> 00:41:42.793
Steve Rosen: You know, they're kind of those same kinds of fast shuffles, you know, and Eddie had kind of the vibrato thing, and I just dismissed it.
00:41:43.513 --> 00:41:46.573
Steve Rosen: And I want to interject right here very quickly.
00:41:47.653 --> 00:42:05.473
Steve Rosen: The other reason was, so I grew up listening to Jeff Beck, you know, Truth and Beck Ola and the first Zeppelin record and the early Prokoham records with Robin Trower and Free and Paul Kossoff and, you know, Cream.
00:42:05.853 --> 00:42:09.573
Steve Rosen: So my yardstick, man, was really high.
00:42:09.593 --> 00:42:19.213
Steve Rosen: So if you weren't like, if you didn't blow me away like that first Jeff Beck record, you know, I just, it just didn't get me, you know.
00:42:19.773 --> 00:42:21.573
Steve Rosen: But I sat down and listened to it the next day.
00:42:21.593 --> 00:42:24.833
Steve Rosen: I go, you know, everybody in the world gets this record but me.
00:42:24.853 --> 00:42:26.593
Steve Rosen: I must be missing something.
00:42:26.753 --> 00:42:32.853
Steve Rosen: So I sat down and I tried to, you know, leave out all my preconceived notions.
00:42:33.193 --> 00:42:35.793
Steve Rosen: And I sat down, listened to it, and I go, oh, my God.
00:42:36.353 --> 00:42:42.573
Steve Rosen: This is that guy I was talking to, you know, and I realized electric guitars forever change.
00:42:53.084 --> 00:42:57.324
Steve Rosen: The sound of his guitar, his articulation, the way he used the vibrato bar.
00:42:57.864 --> 00:43:01.144
Steve Rosen: You know, it's funny, it wasn't, I mean, everybody got hung up on eruption.
00:43:01.764 --> 00:43:02.964
Steve Rosen: I didn't know what he was doing.
00:43:02.984 --> 00:43:07.144
Steve Rosen: I just thought it was cool, you know, but that wasn't it.
00:43:07.164 --> 00:43:17.124
Steve Rosen: It was more, it was just the way he, you know, he put the chords together, and it was a live recording, you know, they'd be playing, and when he broke into a solo, there was no rhythm guitar behind it.
00:43:17.384 --> 00:43:19.024
Steve Rosen: I love those kinds of records, you know.
00:43:19.424 --> 00:43:20.304
Steve Rosen: So it was amazing.
00:43:21.104 --> 00:43:29.384
Steve Rosen: So, 1978, from that point on, he was still living in Pasadena with his parents.
00:43:30.024 --> 00:43:31.384
Steve Rosen: He meets Valerie Bertinelli.
00:43:31.404 --> 00:43:33.824
Steve Rosen: Valerie has bought a house in Coldwater Canyon.
00:43:33.844 --> 00:43:37.944
Steve Rosen: I was living in Laurel Canyon, which is literally nine minutes away.
00:43:38.584 --> 00:43:41.404
Steve Rosen: So, he would come over to my house.
00:43:41.904 --> 00:43:51.104
Steve Rosen: I had a little guest house, you know, he'd come over, you know, and the first thing he'd do, he'd walk in and I had guitars, you know, in the stands and he'd pick up a guitar and he'd start playing, you know.
00:43:51.124 --> 00:43:55.484
Steve Rosen: So, we'd do interviews and he's sitting there playing songs and, you know, he'd come over.
00:43:55.504 --> 00:43:56.544
Steve Epley: That's so cool.
00:43:56.704 --> 00:43:57.404
Steve Rosen: It was unbelievable.
00:43:57.424 --> 00:44:02.484
Steve Rosen: He'd come over before like the second record came out and he goes, Yeah, man, you know, we're working on the second record, you know.
00:44:02.704 --> 00:44:08.064
Steve Rosen: So, we go down to his car and he'd play me tracks of guitars and there were drums.
00:44:08.084 --> 00:44:10.824
Steve Rosen: I don't even think there were bass or vocals on it.
00:44:11.144 --> 00:44:14.144
Steve Rosen: And I'd sit there and I'd hear the tracks, you know, naked.
00:44:14.904 --> 00:44:16.304
Steve Rosen: You know, it was just astonishing.
00:44:16.324 --> 00:44:24.064
Steve Rosen: Then we'd go upstairs and he'd pull up one of my guitars and he'd go, Yeah, man, this is what I'm doing in, you know, Romeo's Delight or whatever the song was.
00:44:24.324 --> 00:44:30.784
Steve Rosen: And he'd be playing those riffs in front of me on my guitar, on my electric guitar, unplugged.
00:44:31.464 --> 00:44:33.864
Steve Rosen: And I have that stuff on cassette.
00:44:33.924 --> 00:44:37.744
Steve Rosen: And it's, I was so lucky, man.
00:44:37.764 --> 00:44:44.964
Steve Rosen: It's like sitting there watching, you know, Da Vinci paint Mona Lisa or John Steinbeck type out East of Eden.
00:44:46.644 --> 00:44:48.524
Steve Rosen: It was just these extraordinary moments.
00:44:48.824 --> 00:44:58.644
Steve Rosen: And for the next, well, our relationship ended in 2003, and it did start changing probably in the early 90s.
00:44:59.084 --> 00:45:13.424
Steve Rosen: But for the next 12 years, it was just astonishing, you know, and I got to spend time with this Edward Van Halen, who is, you know, changing the world, you know, and saw the band perform live a lot of times.
00:45:13.464 --> 00:45:22.244
Steve Rosen: And, you know, then, you know, a couple of days later, you know, he'd be in my house, you know, sitting on the couch, you know, drinking a beer and eating potato chips.
00:45:22.604 --> 00:45:25.944
Steve Rosen: You know, it was pretty unbelievable, you know.
00:45:26.344 --> 00:45:39.404
Steve Epley: Were you with him as far as, did he have your ear during the band transition times, like going from Roth to Hagar, then the Gary Sharone dip, you know, did that, were you there for those points?
00:45:39.424 --> 00:45:44.564
Steve Rosen: I was, and in fact, he said to me, you know, when Dave left the band, he said, hey, man, find me a singer.
00:45:44.584 --> 00:45:47.524
Steve Rosen: And I figured he's just goofing around, right?
00:45:47.544 --> 00:45:49.704
Steve Rosen: Like Edward Van Halen can't find a singer.
00:45:50.664 --> 00:45:54.064
Steve Rosen: Like his Rolodex doesn't have every fucking singer in the world.
00:45:54.084 --> 00:45:55.884
Steve Rosen: He couldn't have anybody he wanted singing.
00:45:56.404 --> 00:45:58.244
Steve Rosen: But he was serious, you know.
00:45:58.244 --> 00:46:00.304
Steve Rosen: I wish I'd realized how serious he was.
00:46:00.324 --> 00:46:08.284
Steve Rosen: I think I actually went out and sort of half-heartedly, you know, looked for singers, but I figured he was just joking.
00:46:09.644 --> 00:46:15.984
Steve Rosen: The thing about Edward was he sometimes took the path of least resistance.
00:46:16.904 --> 00:46:23.444
Steve Rosen: So I don't think that he wanted, he certainly didn't want to.
00:46:23.944 --> 00:46:28.324
Steve Rosen: And I'm not even sure that he, if he was even wired about knowing how.
00:46:28.344 --> 00:46:31.964
Steve Rosen: Now, I'm just talking out loud here about being around him.
00:46:31.984 --> 00:46:40.444
Steve Rosen: And we never talked about this, about calling up singers and setting up an audition or having them send tapes.
00:46:40.704 --> 00:46:42.964
Steve Rosen: I just don't think he thought like that.
00:46:42.964 --> 00:46:47.384
Steve Rosen: I think he was too consumed with writing and doing things with the guitar.
00:46:47.404 --> 00:46:53.364
Steve Rosen: So he's at his mechanic and Sammy Hagar has the same mechanic.
00:46:54.024 --> 00:46:59.064
Steve Rosen: And Ed says they're looking for a singer and his mechanic says, Oh, what about Sammy Hagar?
00:46:59.084 --> 00:47:00.704
Steve Rosen: That's how that kind of came out.
00:47:01.184 --> 00:47:05.564
Steve Rosen: And in those early days with Sammy and the band, I mean, he was happy, man.
00:47:05.584 --> 00:47:06.904
Steve Rosen: He loved working with Sammy.
00:47:07.424 --> 00:47:09.644
Steve Rosen: It was an entirely different experience than Dave.
00:47:10.284 --> 00:47:14.364
Steve Rosen: I think with Sammy, it was more of him sitting in the room with Sammy, working on stuff.
00:47:14.384 --> 00:47:19.804
Steve Rosen: I think with Dave, it was more he'd work on guitar parts, give Dave the track.
00:47:20.384 --> 00:47:25.704
Steve Rosen: Dave would sit and do lyrics and melodies, and then come in the studio to record.
00:47:25.724 --> 00:47:28.124
Steve Rosen: But with Sammy, I think it was more they're in the room together.
00:47:28.884 --> 00:47:30.944
Steve Rosen: Sammy is a guitar player, he's more musical.
00:47:31.364 --> 00:47:36.504
Steve Rosen: I'm not saying he's a better singer than Dave, but he did play guitars.
00:47:38.404 --> 00:47:40.844
Steve Epley: I am a big fan of the Hagar era.
00:47:40.924 --> 00:47:51.004
Steve Epley: I like them both, but that is the biggest difference is that Sammy Hagar had more musicianship ingrained in him to bring to the table than Dave.
00:47:51.124 --> 00:47:57.684
Steve Epley: Dave was solely the front man and lyricist, whereas Hagar had that songwriting ability to contribute.
00:47:58.024 --> 00:47:59.224
Steve Rosen: Yeah, it was different.
00:47:59.244 --> 00:48:06.884
Steve Epley: I think it brought a lot of good out of the rest of the band, when it came to more complete songs that were a good evolution of the band.
00:48:07.804 --> 00:48:10.984
Steve Rosen: It was certainly the next step, undoubtedly.
00:48:11.624 --> 00:48:23.944
Steve Rosen: Yeah, for a long time, well, one or two records, Ed was really happy and then clashes happen, and Sammy's not working as hard as Edward wants him to, and things happen.
00:48:24.324 --> 00:48:30.824
Steve Rosen: Then by, so it's 95 when Gary Sharone comes into the band somewhere around there.
00:48:31.244 --> 00:48:34.964
Steve Rosen: By then, I didn't have the kind of relationship I did earlier.
00:48:34.984 --> 00:48:37.604
Steve Rosen: I was not hanging out with him as much.
00:48:38.184 --> 00:48:41.104
Steve Rosen: We did talk about Gary Sharone and he was really happy about Gary.
00:48:41.544 --> 00:48:43.304
Steve Rosen: I know a lot of people dismiss that record.
00:48:43.324 --> 00:48:44.484
Steve Rosen: I thought it was a pretty good record.
00:48:44.504 --> 00:48:53.944
Steve Rosen: I thought Gary's actually a good singer, but I don't think people were ready for, yeah, one singer placing Dave, but two singers in Van Halen.
00:48:54.464 --> 00:48:55.904
Steve Rosen: I think it could have been anybody.
00:48:55.924 --> 00:48:57.124
Steve Rosen: I don't think that record was good.
00:48:57.464 --> 00:49:04.204
Steve Epley: Gary Sharone is a phenomenal singer and Xtreme was a great band in the 80s and 90s with their new one guitar.
00:49:04.404 --> 00:49:08.204
Steve Epley: I feel bad for Gary stepping into a very volatile situation itself.
00:49:08.224 --> 00:49:09.804
Steve Epley: It was doomed to fail.
00:49:10.224 --> 00:49:11.064
Steve Epley: It was.
00:49:11.224 --> 00:49:13.944
Steve Epley: There was a powder keg in itself and obviously I wasn't there.
00:49:13.964 --> 00:49:20.844
Steve Epley: I've just read about it and I definitely would not put that album anywhere near any list of great albums.
00:49:21.504 --> 00:49:25.944
Steve Epley: But it's mediocre at best.
00:49:25.944 --> 00:49:30.564
Steve Epley: The lyrics are quite terrible, but the guitar playing is great at times.
00:49:30.584 --> 00:49:32.024
Steve Rosen: Yeah, his guitar plays really good.
00:49:32.044 --> 00:49:37.344
Steve Rosen: It's a much more dynamic, panoramic guitar sound.
00:49:37.944 --> 00:49:39.504
Steve Rosen: Nothing like those early records.
00:49:39.524 --> 00:49:43.584
Steve Rosen: But yeah, Ed could never have a bad guitar sound.
00:49:43.884 --> 00:49:45.684
Steve Rosen: It was just a changed guitar sound.
00:49:46.444 --> 00:49:54.024
Steve Rosen: In my mind, it was a little more less organic, less of the brown sound in my mind.
00:49:57.004 --> 00:50:11.484
Steve Epley: I remember that came out shortly after or somewhere after Twister, the movie that had that fantastic Respect the Wind track on it, which was Eddie and Alex, just the two of them, all instrumental.
00:50:12.624 --> 00:50:18.504
Steve Epley: Going from that just amazing song to Van Halen 3 was a step.
00:50:20.344 --> 00:50:23.584
Steve Rosen: Then there's a couple of songs they did for the greatest hits record.
00:50:24.604 --> 00:50:25.664
Steve Rosen: Oh man, my brain.
00:50:27.504 --> 00:50:28.984
Steve Epley: Humans Being was on Twister.
00:50:30.164 --> 00:50:34.264
Steve Rosen: A lot of people thought that could have been the next evolution for Van Halen.
00:50:35.784 --> 00:50:40.684
Steve Epley: What made you finally put all those years together for Tonechaser, the book?
00:50:42.424 --> 00:50:43.364
Steve Rosen: I'll backtrack.
00:50:43.384 --> 00:50:44.144
Steve Rosen: Just a minute here.
00:50:44.404 --> 00:50:52.364
Steve Rosen: In 1985, I asked Edward, I go, Ed, look, writers are going to come after you and they're going to want to write your life story.
00:50:53.284 --> 00:50:54.924
Steve Rosen: I'd like to be the person to write that.
00:50:55.344 --> 00:50:58.624
Steve Rosen: He goes, yeah, yeah, man, I can't think of anybody else who could write it.
00:50:59.484 --> 00:51:02.324
Steve Rosen: That was astonishing for him to say that to me.
00:51:02.744 --> 00:51:04.444
Steve Rosen: We signed a simple little contract.
00:51:06.364 --> 00:51:10.544
Steve Rosen: So I started working on what was going to be his authorized biography.
00:51:11.044 --> 00:51:18.904
Steve Rosen: So I'm now reaching out to his friends back in Pasadena, guys who would put on shows with the band.
00:51:18.924 --> 00:51:29.644
Steve Rosen: They sell out the Pasadena Civic or huge concerts at the schools and stuff, musicians he had played with, just doing a lot of interviews.
00:51:30.564 --> 00:51:37.184
Steve Rosen: I kept trying to get Edward to sit down and do some more interviews with me for the book.
00:51:37.484 --> 00:51:42.064
Steve Rosen: Look, I interviewed him a lot for the Guitar Magazine, so that was a specific kind of conversation.
00:51:42.404 --> 00:52:07.004
Steve Rosen: But I needed him to sit down and I wanted to talk to him about his life back in the Netherlands and what was it like, his relationship with his brother, and did he have any other relatives, and was he a popular kid, and when did you start smoking, and all that stuff that nobody knew about, that I had to talk to him about, that had to be part of the book.
00:52:07.364 --> 00:52:08.604
Steve Rosen: He would never commit to that.
00:52:08.624 --> 00:52:10.404
Steve Rosen: He always said, well, now is not the right time.
00:52:10.964 --> 00:52:13.844
Steve Rosen: If a book comes out, now people are going to think my career is over.
00:52:14.604 --> 00:52:17.184
Steve Rosen: And the only person who's going to think that is you.
00:52:20.424 --> 00:52:26.964
Steve Rosen: So, 2003, the relationship ends, fast forward 17 years.
00:52:27.764 --> 00:52:29.304
Steve Rosen: I thought about the book off and on.
00:52:29.324 --> 00:52:34.144
Steve Rosen: I just never, honestly, the real desire to do it.
00:52:34.524 --> 00:52:43.724
Steve Rosen: I thought, my God, if I try to put this together now, how am I going to remember all of those things that happened?
00:52:44.204 --> 00:52:48.244
Steve Rosen: But I had some guys who were always on, hey man, you got to write the book, got to write the book, got to write the book.
00:52:48.284 --> 00:52:54.864
Steve Rosen: And so my cat, Arpeggio, used to wake up at like two in the morning, and he wanted to be fed.
00:52:55.224 --> 00:53:06.424
Steve Rosen: So I'd wake up and I'd go downstairs, I live in this little two-bedroom, upstairs and downstairs little guest house, and I'd go and feed him, and I'd try to go back to sleep, and now I'm wide awake.
00:53:06.624 --> 00:53:16.004
Steve Rosen: So I remember going into my computer room, and I remember the day, it was August 24th, my birthday, and I just start typing, and I vaguely had the idea of the book.
00:53:16.324 --> 00:53:26.304
Steve Rosen: I just start typing, and I kind of come up with the first paragraph, that's the intro to the book, and I'm looking at it, and I go, that's pretty good, that's pretty interesting.
00:53:26.584 --> 00:53:34.344
Steve Rosen: And the next night the same thing happened, the cat wakes me up, and I started pulling out the cassettes, all the cassettes I'd done.
00:53:34.744 --> 00:53:43.844
Steve Rosen: I found these sort of hidden cassettes that I'd done with Edward that I call the Twilight Tapes, because he would call me at three in the morning and he wanted to talk.
00:53:44.504 --> 00:53:50.244
Steve Rosen: And I'd record those interviews, and he had told me, you can record anything, anytime.
00:53:50.664 --> 00:53:55.844
Steve Rosen: So if I wasn't too tired, or I could find the record button, I'd hit record.
00:53:56.064 --> 00:54:03.024
Steve Rosen: So we just have these conversations, and not specifically about music, but maybe on his family or things that he was thinking about.
00:54:04.464 --> 00:54:17.924
Steve Rosen: And I listened to some of those tapes early on when I started writing, and there was just some amazing stuff on there, and I go, oh my god, this really is amazingly intimate and insightful.
00:54:18.224 --> 00:54:32.724
Steve Rosen: So I listen to my cassettes and trying to chronicle everything, put things in order chronologically, and 14 months later, I finished Tonechaser.
00:54:34.444 --> 00:54:44.624
Steve Rosen: I wanted a publisher, so I reached out to some agents, and that one fucking agent would even return an email.
00:54:45.224 --> 00:54:47.784
Steve Rosen: And I thought, wow.
00:54:48.364 --> 00:54:57.904
Steve Rosen: And so I talked to my friend, Niels Lozauer, Van Halen's official photographer in the early days, and Niels, kind of an in-your-face kind of guy, he goes, don't be an idiot.
00:54:58.024 --> 00:54:59.144
Steve Rosen: Don't get a publishing deal.
00:54:59.364 --> 00:54:59.904
Steve Rosen: Do it yourself.
00:55:00.184 --> 00:55:03.504
Steve Rosen: You know, there's no money in publishing deals or anything, you know, publish it yourself.
00:55:03.504 --> 00:55:04.064
Steve Rosen: And he was right.
00:55:05.244 --> 00:55:26.124
Steve Rosen: So I found a printer and the books came and I had taken pre-orders and the response was amazing, you know, and I sold out of that first run of books, printed a second edition, different covers, a few more photos, just sold out of that.
00:55:27.044 --> 00:55:30.064
Steve Rosen: And I'm now actually having a third edition printed.
00:55:30.784 --> 00:55:35.224
Steve Rosen: I'm hoping to have those books in early March.
00:55:35.924 --> 00:55:42.364
Steve Rosen: And yeah, the response has just been amazing and, you know, people seem to have really embraced it.
00:55:42.384 --> 00:55:45.244
Steve Rosen: And I mean, it was a really personal book, you know.
00:55:46.724 --> 00:55:49.244
Steve Rosen: I mean, I think it revealed, not revealed, that's the wrong word.
00:55:50.784 --> 00:56:10.384
Steve Rosen: It talked about Edward in a very real way, not just as a musician, not Edward this bigger than life figure, you know, always smiling, but a guy who, you know, had marital problems and was worried about the band and, you know, got down on it sometimes, you know.
00:56:10.404 --> 00:56:17.204
Steve Rosen: And on the other side of that, so did I, and how supportive always he was of me, you know.
00:56:17.644 --> 00:56:19.544
Steve Rosen: And I think people responded to that, you know.
00:56:19.564 --> 00:56:29.224
Steve Rosen: And I think they saw, or they saw, I've read in letters that, you know, they saw similarities to their own relationships that they've had.
00:56:29.344 --> 00:56:39.024
Steve Rosen: Look, I'm not trying to pass myself off as a psychologist or psychiatrist and that, but being a rock journalist, as much as anything else, is just being a very good listener, and I was.
00:56:39.464 --> 00:56:49.444
Steve Rosen: So, you know, I listened and we talked, and I think I was somebody he could trust, you know, and respect, and people got that sense from the book, and that made me very happy, you know.
00:56:49.464 --> 00:56:50.924
Steve Rosen: That's what I was trying to convey.
00:56:50.944 --> 00:56:53.484
Steve Rosen: I was trying to humanize Edward Van Halen.
00:56:53.964 --> 00:56:55.544
Steve Epley: Well, that's fantastic.
00:56:55.564 --> 00:56:59.384
Steve Epley: I hope to get my hands on those, one of those next round of the printing.
00:57:00.164 --> 00:57:02.744
Steve Epley: I have not read it yet, but I am looking forward to doing so.
00:57:03.784 --> 00:57:05.584
Steve Rosen: Yeah, man, we'll definitely get you a copy.
00:57:06.884 --> 00:57:11.184
Steve Epley: And shout out to Doug Brinkler, who did Van Halen 1 on our first season.
00:57:11.464 --> 00:57:12.684
Steve Epley: Van Halen super fan.
00:57:12.844 --> 00:57:16.424
Steve Epley: Doug, I hope you're listening, and I hope you get your hands on this book as well.
00:57:17.884 --> 00:57:20.444
Steve Epley: If he hasn't read it already, he might have been one of your pre-sales.
00:57:22.724 --> 00:57:23.184
Steve Rosen: Cool.
00:57:23.504 --> 00:57:24.044
Steve Rosen: Cool, man.
00:57:24.364 --> 00:57:26.544
Steve Rosen: Can I put in a little plug here, Steve?
00:57:26.904 --> 00:57:27.424
Steve Epley: Absolutely.
00:57:27.444 --> 00:57:28.664
Steve Epley: This is, say, your time.
00:57:28.684 --> 00:57:35.044
Steve Epley: Tell us where to find the book or anything you want to plug or where they can find you online.
00:57:35.564 --> 00:57:36.204
Steve Rosen: Fantastic.
00:57:36.224 --> 00:57:46.044
Steve Rosen: So I am taking pre-orders, and as I said, I can't give you a drop dead date, but I would say the first couple of weeks of March, they will be here.
00:57:46.064 --> 00:58:00.344
Steve Rosen: So you can pre-order the book at tonechaserbook.com, tonechaserbook.com, one word, and as soon as I have books in hand, you'll be able to get them on Amazon, eBay, Reverb, and Etsy.
00:58:01.524 --> 00:58:04.324
00:58:04.344 --> 00:58:12.424
Steve Rosen: There's a lot of kind of fun photos and stuff up there, at steve.rosen.guitar.pix.
00:58:14.544 --> 00:58:18.224
Steve Rosen: And if anybody's interested in collectible guitar picks, I sell those on eBay.
00:58:19.284 --> 00:58:21.764
Steve Rosen: And you can check me out on Facebook, Tonechaser Book.
00:58:21.884 --> 00:58:24.024
Steve Rosen: I think if you just type that in, you'll find me.
00:58:24.624 --> 00:58:24.984
Steve Rosen: Yeah.
00:58:25.144 --> 00:58:31.884
Steve Rosen: So if you haven't checked out the book and you are a fan of Van Halen, I really think you'll dig the book.
00:58:31.924 --> 00:58:35.624
Steve Rosen: It's much different than the other books that are out there, and those are remarkable books.
00:58:36.004 --> 00:58:40.364
Steve Rosen: You know, Brad Tilinski and Chris Gill's book, and Paul Branigan, those are fantastic books.
00:58:40.884 --> 00:58:42.844
Steve Rosen: But this one's a little different.
00:58:43.304 --> 00:58:46.384
Steve Rosen: And yeah, so check it out.
00:58:46.964 --> 00:58:47.684
Steve Epley: Outstanding.
00:58:48.064 --> 00:58:50.224
Steve Epley: Well, Steve, I want to thank you for your time today.
00:58:50.744 --> 00:59:00.504
Steve Epley: It was a pleasure to sit and talk with you about Who's Next, your career, and your most recent book, Tonechaser, which is down on the top of my list, I must get my hands on.
00:59:00.864 --> 00:59:02.444
Steve Epley: And overall, thank you for being here.
00:59:04.004 --> 00:59:04.644
Steve Rosen: Had a great time.
00:59:04.664 --> 00:59:05.244
Steve Rosen: Thank you, man.
00:59:06.704 --> 00:59:09.504
Steve Epley:I'd like to thank you for listening to this episode of Music Rewind.
00:59:10.004 --> 00:59:15.664
Steve Epley:This season will be a little bit different on Roll Out, as I am currently on tour with Peter Pan the Musical.
00:59:15.684 --> 00:59:23.624
Steve Epley:Now, as a cast member, though, my son Reed Epley has the role of Michael Darling, and my wife and I are supporting him through their North American tour.
00:59:24.384 --> 00:59:28.704
Steve Epley:I'll get Music Rewind episodes in where I can, but family will always come first.
00:59:29.444 --> 00:59:40.164
<v SPEAKER_1>So your call to action this season is to first give Music Rewind a great review wherever you listen, and then go to peterpannontour.com to see this amazing production at a city near you.
00:59:41.164 --> 00:59:44.504
Steve Epley: And now, as I always say, listen to the full album.
00:59:44.944 --> 00:59:45.664
Steve Epley: Until next time.
00:59:49.804 --> 00:59:53.124
Reed Epley: A podcast from the Sidereal Media Group!