Brothers

De: Alex van Halen

Narrado por: Alex van Halen

Featuring an exclusive, never-before-heard piece of music, the last written together by the legendary Van Halen brothers!

In this intimate and open account—nothing like any rock-and-roll memoir you’ve ever read—Alex Van Halen shares his personal story of family, friendship, music and brotherly love in a remarkable tribute to his beloved brother and band mate.

Told with acclaimed New Yorker writer Ariel Levy Brothers is seventy-year-old drummer Alex Van Halen’s love letter to his younger brother, Edward, (Maybe “Ed,” but never “Eddie”), written while still mourning his untimely death.

In his rough yet sweet voice, Alex recounts the brothers’ childhood, first in the Netherlands and then in working class Pasadena, California, with an itinerant musician father and a very proper Indonesian-born mother—the kind of mom who admonished her boys to “always wear a suit” no matter how famous they became—a woman who was both proud and practical, nonchalant about taking a doggie bag from a star-studded dinner. He also shares tales of musical politics, infighting, and plenty of bad-boy behavior. But mostly his is a story of brotherhood, music, and enduring love.

"I was with him from day one,” Alex writes. “We shared the experience of coming to this country and figuring out how to fit in. We shared a record player, an 800 square foot house, a mom and dad, and a work ethic. Later, we shared the back of a tour bus, alcoholism, the experience of becoming successful, of becoming fathers and uncles, and of spending more hours in the studio than I’ve spent doing anything else in this life. We shared a depth of understanding that most people can only hope to achieve in a lifetime."

There has never been an accurate account of them or the band, and Alex wants to set the record straight on Edward’s life and death.

©2024 Alex van Halen (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

An honest expression of love for a brother. A full account of the Van Halen story.

I was a beautiful series of memories, and an expression of truth and love about what and who Van Halen was and is! Alex does not sugar coat. His story is an experience unlike any other . I was left with a knowledge and uunderstanding of who my rock heroes are, it is a fun ride through their history and a passionate description of his and Ed' ridride through life and rise to the top. It is clear that he loves his brother and family dearly and misses him so very much. Love continues even after death. Love continues! Thank you Alex for sharing your story!

Brothers: Alex finally breaks his silence…somewhat

Let me start off by saying full credit where it is due, I immensely appreciate Alex having the courage to not only write a book about his life with Eddie, but also narrate it too which I’m sure had to be somewhat outside of his comfort zone. As a second generation diehard and lifelong Van Halen fan, I was really looking forward to this release and a a very rare opportunity to hear Alex speak his mind publicly. And while brothers has no shortage of praise for Eddie and his qualities and talents in his life, I can’t help but feel somewhat disappointed in how surface level it goes as a whole. For starters, I was hugely bummed to find out day one that Alex cuts their story off in 1985 right at the breakup of the original lineup of Van Halen with David Lee Roths exit. As any casual or above Van Halen fan knows Van Halen had multiple more chapters in the bands and more specifically, Eddies lifespan as a whole over the next 35 years. And well, yes, a number of those years were an extremely dark period of his life, Ed persevered and ultimately retook control of his life in what is my opinion, an incredibly inspiring rebirth that was more than worth mentioning! Another issue for me was the seemingly ongoing hazing of Michael Anthony while steadily praising Roth. You can count on practically one hand with fingers to spare the number of times Alex even mentions him directly throughout the book despite him having been, by Als own indirect admission, an integral part of the band. I also felt Al relies a bit too much on quotes from other people throughout the book where he could be inserting more of his own thoughts and experiences on the current matters at hand. Sammy Hagar is not even mentioned a single time that I can recall despite, you know, 4 #1 albums in a row with the man! Overall not bad by any stretch, just felt a bit rushed and thin throughout.

The love between brothers for the music

It was honest and beautiful and I recommend it to any one of any age musical or not.

all heart.

loved the heart that alex revealed. ❤️ such a smart guy with a pure love of his brother

The strong bond of the Van Halen brothers.

Only complaint is I wish he went into the later years of the band more. But this was about the brothers well done.

Heartfelt, emotional and entertaining!

I have been waiting for this audiobook to come out for months, and it did not disappoint. Alex Van Halen does a superb job of telling his story in a real, unfiltered way. The love for his brother, family and band shine through. Thank you for giving us a glimpse into your relationship with Ed and Van Halen.

Do not miss this book!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I really enjoyed learning more about Alex and Eddie’s relationship as brothers. It was great that Alex read the book, and he read it with honesty and emotion. I almost cried at the end when he was talking about Eddie. You can tell he deeply misses his brother. This is a really great work of art!

An emotional and factual read…

I will listen to this probably 3x to absorb all the info. A few highlights to me; Some stories and facts never in print before, a deep sense of who Alex grew into being as a later stage adult (universal understanding of humanity), his ability to call Ed “to the carpet” when it was fair to do so and his honesty about Dave and how much that early bond meant in his life(Alex’s life). I think he called that correctly in this book and saw the good and the bad about Dave but also summed it up perfectly by admitting that the band was always better as a whole and not individually-No one was bigger or could make life bigger by themselves. It was a family affair. The band and the brothers.

The content goes up to 11, but turn the speed down to .8

I loved this book. I loved the honesty and the little details. Very well put together. Alex is a smart and deep man. While I love Alex‘s voice, literally and figuratively, he was a little hard to understand at times (He sounds like the actor, Alex Rocco, by the way), so I would recommend turning the speed down to .8.

Loved! This was wonderful.

Loved hearing from Alex. He did his research. He quoted others who wrote about those connected to him and Ed. Still and forever the protective big brother.