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The book, due October 5, also includes chapters on EVH’s guitar builds and personal stories from the guitarist detailing oddities from his gear collection
A new Eddie Van Halen biography entitled Eruption: Conversations With Eddie Van Halen will be published by Hachette next month.
Due October 5, the book has been written by Brad Tolinski and Chris Gill who – as former editors of Guitar World and Guitar Aficionado, respectively – spent a huge amount of time speaking directly to the legendary guitarist.
The new book sees the authors pool over 50 hours of unreleased interview material with Eddie Van Halen, as well as additional discussions with the likes of Tony Iommi, Steve Lukather and Steve Vai, who reflects on the challenges of tackling EVH’s parts while playing with David Lee Roth.
The biography covers Van Halen’s career, from his difficult early years as an ostracised child of immigrant parents in '60s Pasadena, through to world-conquering fame via albums like 1984. However, as you’d expect from two guitar journo lifers, the book also goes into extensive detail on EVH’s weird and wonderful gear innovations.
We’re told by the authors that Eruption: Conversations With Eddie Van Halen will examine the guitarist’s pioneering builds and mods, through to his relationship with Kramer and establishing his own firm, EVH. It will also contain a section featuring pictures and comments on ‘Eddie’s Oddities’, the various unusual or lesser known instruments he used throughout the years.
“Our goal was to tell the story of Ed’s entire life though his own words,” says co-author Chris Gill. “We wanted to do it in an entertaining and informative manner for the general music fan while also going deep into Ed’s contributions as a guitarist, songwriter and musical instrument innovator, as well as one of the greatest guitarists and musicians of the 20th century.”
Hachette is describing the book as “a candid, compulsively readable, and definitive oral history of the most influential rock guitarist since Jimi Hendrix.”
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You can pre-order the book now on the link below, however, if you can’t wait until its full publication next month, check out the new issue of Guitar World for an extensive extract on the evolution of the Frankenstein.
Eruption: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen is available to preorder now via Hachette Books.
Matt is Deputy Editor for GuitarWorld.com. Before that he spent 10 years as a freelance music journalist, interviewing artists for the likes of Total Guitar, Guitarist, Guitar World, MusicRadar, NME.com, DJ Mag and Electronic Sound. In 2020, he launched CreativeMoney.co.uk, which aims to share the ideas that make creative lifestyles more sustainable. He plays guitar, but should not be allowed near your delay pedals.
