Van Halen /// Off The Record | Forensic Files

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] Hey. No, it goes Heyo. What's the guy on Howard Stern? Uh,
hit him with the hide. Hit him with the hide. You know, anybody that is not a fan of
Howard Stern really should what you should do if you're not a fan of Howard Stern is you should find one of your
favorite actors or or favorite singers or whatever and just listen to a long interview with Howard Stern and that
individual. you will learn so much more about that person and their character and and their true personality.
Well, and I'm a regular Howard Stern listener. I'm not an everyday listener. Used to be for a long time, but now I'm
just kind of a regular where I pop in there, pop in, pop out a couple times a week. Well, I love all the stuff that
he's been dumping on YouTube. Oh god. That That's trouble though because if you start watching that,
especially if you have a couple beers, you might find yourself stuck to the couch and having been there for 3 hours
or or four hours because you get you fell down some babaouie rabbit hole or even John Hine. Um, hit him with a high.
But the thing for me with Stern in his interviews, and I don't know if it's Stern is really good at it or it's the
setting or that the the famous person or whoever it is just feels relaxed because
it it generally turns into a conversation more so than your typical interview. Yeah. And the thing that I
like about it a lot, you know how many times that I've, and this is how dumb I am. Um, you know, we shouldn't judge a
book by its cover, but your cover looks smart. It's tough. It's tough to It's tough not to sometimes. Would you agree?
Like on the surface of things. No, I don't. I'm not I don't have a lot of prejudice. No, I No, I try not to do
that. But but where it's where it's highlighted for me that I find that I do in fact do that on occasion is I will
listen to an interview of an actor or some musician or some sports athlete right on his show and going into it I
think oh I'm not a big fan of soand so I'm not a big fan of this person it's probably going to be boring and then by
the end I'm a fan of that person like I I'm like, "Oh, cool. I'll go look up some of their, you know, music that I
already know, but now I'm I want to hear it with a with a different ear now." Or
or, you know, somebody's been through some real [ __ ] that you didn't know, and
you have a little more respect for them because their life wasn't so um you know, clouds and unicorns and candy
every day. Well, like I like I may have just assumed. And I was joking, but I'm not saying that I'm holier than thou and
and I don't have prejudice. I'm sure I'm sure I do. But I I think I come from a odd uh situation where I've I've
always dove deep into certain individuals. So like I do too, but we one only has so
much time. you. Well, being a being a musician, you have a lot more time uh than most people. But no, I think uh I
think maybe when I was younger, I'd be shocked by, oh, this guy came from here and then he went to here. Especially
like in the music realm, you know, you have a you take like Jimmyi Hendris for example. Jimmyi Hendris was uh you know,
basically played in like a R&B big band. M well you get from that to the Jimmyi Hendricks experience. What? How does
that make any sense? And then you find out uh you know one of his um biggest songs was a cover all along the
Watchtower by Bob Bob Dylan, right? Mhm. And then you find out that he was a huge
Bob Dylan fan and actually the best cover he probably ever did was Like a Rolling Stone. But all I'm saying is I
think when you're um especially like when you're in school for music or school for any like
you know really focused area that you really start diving into these you know people's background. So maybe maybe that
has led me to the idea of what is this guy's full story before going not so much into that guy. Mhm. Uh, and also
probably the conspiracy theorist in me is probably like, uh, we'll wait to judge this guy because let's see what he
has to say. Well, a lot of times for me too, it's not so much that I'm like, I don't like this person. It's just I'm
not like a huge fan. You know what I mean? Like or like even an example of of somebody that or a situation where I was
kind of a fan was like um Fogerty. He had Fogerty on and I was a fan of CCR. I I own the as much as I mean as much as
one our age would be. I guess I own the greatest hits album which is a really damn good album. It's extensive too.
It's like 18 songs, 17 songs. There's a lot of songs on there. Yeah. And but that was as far as I ever went with like
Fogerty or CCR. And he had Fogerty on there who's like 90 years old. Yeah. I'm I'm exaggerating. But uh still like a
fascinating dude and like uh I I ended up circling back and listening to all those old songs again and even watching
some other interviews and some things that Fogert's done on YouTube because like I said I I thought I was a fan but
after the interview much more so. You know it was so cool to hear a guy that you know Stern's like how did you know
when you're how did you know that you had a hit song? He goes, "When I was driving in my car listening to the radio
and it came on." Mhm. And then he went on to explain that in his opinion, hearing a song on the radio in your car
is in his opinion the way that it's meant to be played, the way that it's meant to be heard. And he has like a
huge respect for um and and still a strong desire to this day to listen to music in his car. Yeah. Uh and the
randomness of the radio. Did you see him uh they did that I think it was like CBS
did that uh special on Woodstock because it was the anniversary. Did you see him on um uh Fulgrity on
that? I did not. It it was really cool cuz they they were huge at the time and and they were such a there was such a
bad um the traffic was so bad and people were just parking their cars that they couldn't drive through there anymore. So
they actually had to take a helicopter in and I guess like CCR like made like some like kind of jokes about like we're
so big we had to take a helicopter. They got a lot of good songs but they uh he said like you could only like they
played at like 2 3:00 in the morning and like you could only see the first like couple
rows but he said it wasn't even like that loud. But it was almost people were just listening or maybe they're falling
asleep, you know. Um, but he wrote one of his big songs. Um, uh, Who Stopped the Rain? Oh, that's a
good one. And did we ever figure out even by the end of the song who in fact did stop the rain? No, because what's so
interesting about that song is it's uh it's about Woodstock. And so when they're talking about
Woodstock, he then, you know, sits there with his guitar in a studio and he he plays, you know, he's playing the song
and he says the third verse makes the most sense. and and and and the all the words sound like he's talking about
Woodstock, but he said as I'm writing it, I realized it wasn't just about it was almost like when he was on stage
at Woodstock that he saw what was happening there was a direct reflection of what was happening with his
generation within society. Mhm. And when he, you know, again, okay, maybe I'm a little bit prejudiced because to me CCR
songs, you know, classic always in like Vietnam um movies and and Yeah. Well, they're
they're that time period. They're super old, like late60s. Yeah. And a big part of like late 60s to
early '7s. Yeah. A big part of Forest Gump. And Oh, yeah. And I've always thought their s their songs were a
little simple. Mhm. But then when you, you know, when the guy is explaining that this um
connection between what was actually happening at Woodstock and what was happening in society and what they were
doing there and what it all meant, you're like, man, this real simple song is really deep. Mhm. You know, so I I
guess maybe I was prejudiced in that way. Um, but yeah, it was it was one of those moments where you're
you hear in a song that I used to play in a older classic rock cover band and they played a lot of CCR songs and we'd
play that song. Um, and it was almost like hearing it for the first time. Mhm. You're like, "Oh [ __ ] that's what it's
about." Well, and the other thing too with like a song like uh fortunate son Yeah. It it's it's interesting to learn
like the dude was drafted and to you know and to and and actually was uh served at uh some different forts and
that that makes the song mean more rather than when when you know you you some people might look at that and go oh
well this was just some punk punk kid that didn't want to go fight or or didn't have any experience with that
writing about something that they don't truly know about. Um, I will say this though,
and we will move on to some true crime stuff, I promise. But, uh, one more thought because it's a true it's a true
crime. We haven't talked about CCR on that's right. That's why we're that's why we got to it. This is something you
might appreciate, though. And it also goes back to the the whole thought that I mentioned about really getting to know
somebody through listening to these interviews is um, a friend of mine, Sned, you know, my good buddy Sned. Mhm.
And now one thing that Sned and I do, uh, that's a nickname. Uh, don't don't anybody out there believe that that a
mother would name their son Sned. I'm going to call him Sned. He looks like a Sned. He'll get all the women if we call
him Sned. So, my good buddy, one thing that we do together, something that we've we've shared uh this, you know, I
guess you call it a hobby or whatever since high school. Okay. uh well since just after high school is we typically
will go see bands that probably aren't they're well not probably they're definitely not popular anymore. They're
you know on the back end of their career kind of thing. They're they're playing the hits. Yeah. Yeah. We and we've
always done that. We're like every year let's go see two bands that that the nobody that the kids aren't listening
to. Right. Right. And um so I said to him, I said, "Hey, John Fogerty is playing at the Dublin."
So in in Ohio, in the greater Columbus area, they do a big fireworks display in all the suburbs and they usually take
place on the 4th of July. Mhm. And the one in Dublin, I don't know if it's called like the It has some name, some
name that they use every year, and I don't know exactly. I don't know if it's Fourth of July or the Dublin Festival,
something like that. Mhm. But it's usually a fairly big to-do. Like they usually get a band that's that's like
that that the kids aren't listening to, but all the old folks are going to know.
And so John Fogerty played the Fourth of July festival in Dublin, Ohio one year.
Yeah. Now, the cool thing about that that event is they do not charge for the tickets. There's no ticket price. Yeah.
So, it's a free show. And I and I I called him or I text him a couple months in advance and I said, "Hey, good news.
John Fogert, he's playing at this uh Fourth of July thing in Dublin. It's a free show. Do you want to go? I got to
know. I got shut down." He said, "Good news. Sounds like a big snooze." Right. Right. He said, and then he then stop.
Then about um I would say it was less than a year later because we know 4th of July, we know that date, right? It must
have been in in in in April or May of the next year. Okay. Fogerty did the interview on Stern and
my buddy calls me the next day and says, "You know who I would really like to see
in concert sometime?" And I knew who who he was I wanted to Oh, man. I knew it. But I was I was going to I was setting
it up. I was like, "You know what? This is T-ball. I'm going to watch him come up and and and hit this thing out of the
park." Exactly what I know he's going to say. And I said, "Oh, who is that?" He goes, "John Fogerty." And I thought, "I
would like to." And I said to him, I go, "You do realize you're a real son of a [ __ ] You do realize that less than a
year ago, he played here at a free show that I asked you to go to with me and you had it wasn't like he had prior
engagements or something else to do. It was a No, I don't want to go. And after saying all that, I will see
Sned this weekend. Well, we went to see um um cuz we've actually, me, you and Sn
have seen a lot of groups together. Some old ones. One of the best oldies but goodies experience probably ever. Um,
I don't know. Maybe in my top five was uh 311 cruise. We went on the 311 cruise. It was me,
you, SNED, and we were uh they were taking off, set in sail, and 311 was playing. And I think they
started with down, but I could be wrong. They played a That sounds right. they played something big that was unexpected
down or like from something from chaos maybe. But but anyways, it was one of those uh you know when the the wind is
blowing and you getting goosebumps on you and I just remember like going this is crazy and and the people obviously
there's thousands of people that paid a lot of money to be on this cruise and they were ob obviously going apeshit on
the Leo deck. on the Leo deck. Yes, that was Yeah, the Leo deck was very cool and
it was like in there they were doing the horn set and sail. Um what's the what's the
uh what's the awesome guitar player's name? Mahomes. Yeah, Tim Mahoney. Yeah, Mahoney. That's right. Uh I'm so wrapped
up in football right now. I'm thinking Pat Mahomes is the guitar player for 311. Uh Tim
Mahoney, like very underrated guitar player. Like for for those that don't know or or that that haven't checked out
311. And some people even if you don't like 311, it's hard not to like Mahoney as a guitar player. Perfect example of
not judging a book by his cover. He's this like rock and roll. Yeah. Hard rock guitar player. Plays Paul Reed Smith
guitars. I didn't know that he and this was a couple years ago. Um they were doing an interview and basically he
started like getting stoned and he fell in love with the Grateful Dead and he would just sit around his guitar, you
know, his apartment playing Grateful Dead songs and because Grateful Dead songs are structured in such a way that
you could improvise with them. So, you're almost just like playing in the band. You're not, it's not like uh AC/DC
where you have to play all the parts correctly for it to sound pretty good. You can kind of improvise while you play
along. And that's kind of how he got um so deep into music and so deep into guitar playing. Well, then I'll circle
back to judging a book by its cover. It seems to me like he's the most quote unquote rock and roll guy in that group.
You think? Yeah. I don't know. I don't like No. I don't think so because he's he's kind of a hippie. Maybe. Maybe not.
But he just seems to kind of ooze coolness like Yeah. But it's like a hippie. Yeah, you're right. It's not so
strong rock and roll. It's just kind of a like he's just a different dude than the
rest of us. Yeah. Everybody's going to be like, I want to talk about some true crime. Hey, we talk about this is this
is how the garage started. We always had kind of um mainly two two subjects, you know, music and and then
crime music. I mean, we talk about sports some, but that's I mean, we we never were much into like debating
sports. It's kind of like what do you think of this? Okay. Value your opinion and that's it. We've always Nolan Ryan
is the greatest pitcher of all. Yeah, we never done that. We but we've kind of done that with music but not
aggressively, you know, but we'll sit there. cuz that's a fun that's a more of a fun debate because you and I have
similar we like similar stuff but not I wouldn't say spot on but the thing the thing that makes it fun to talk with you
about it is that while we may disagree we respect the other's opinion one and we we're kind of like if you say so and
so is the greatest guitar player so and so is this and and this band is this it the other one goes I can see why you
think that. Yeah, I can see that. We had a really great debate that one time on who was the greatest guitar player that
was in a band like that wasn't Yeah. That didn't seem like a solo act. Yeah. Like like the band wasn't named after
the guitar player. Yeah. Like Van Halen doesn't count because like that's just like by naming the band Van Halen,
you've taken yourself out of the running. Yeah. But also like his role doesn't sit there with like
he he I would almost say that Eddie's more known for some of his crazy solos than he is like his awesome riffs. Mhm.
Where like or both like AC/Ds he has I would think more awesome riffs than solos. Edward Van Halen is the greatest
keyboard player guitar guy of all time. I love what he's like, "All right, I'm I'm not only am I going to do
the guitar, but from now on keyboards are mine, too." Well, I love what is his name? Mark Chapman. Have you met him
ever heard of him? Guitar player. I When you said Chapman, I was thinking of the guy that shot Lennon. Mark
Chapman. I think that's his name. Let me look it up real quick. Mark, have you met me Mark Chapman? I don't want to.
Uh guitar. Let me just look this. I think uh yeah. Yeah. Mark Chapman. He's uh I think that's I think there's um
if I'm correct, I could be wrong. The words from the pages turned into blood dripped down the pages and seeped
into my veins. Well, okay. So, the problem with what is that? chapter 27 or something. Uh, okay. Mark David Chapman,
I think I'm right. But anyways, there was a there was a a guitar player that was originally from Columbus that played
on all the Van Halen tours. Oh, he's like the the guy the guy that you see in the back standing. No, no, no, no. What
was so interesting about the Van Halen tours was he was never on stage. Oh, they didn't even let him on stage. He
played guitar and keyboards. So when and and this is smart. I mean like you could
have had a guy on stage if you wanted to. So when so when Eddie's playing keyboard, he's behind the scenes playing
the guitar and then when he's playing guitar, he's behind the scenes playing keyboard. Right. So instead of having Oh
wow. backing tracks. Yeah. Right. And he would play. But it's funny to me because
I'm just gonna say I think Eddie Van Halen is a douchebag and I think he's so I second that opinion. I think he's so
douchy that but I love him. Don't you? I love his guitar. I love his guitar playing. I love Van Van Halen, but he's
just I would like to slap Edward Van Halen in the face. Oh, my favorite is when he says, um, when then I said to,
then I said to David Lee Roth, I said, "If you say that, if you say that to me again, you better be wearing a cup."
That's one of the biggest [ __ ] lines I've ever heard in my line. Cuz I'm a guy that likes to kick people in the
junk. Yeah. I mean, it you know this. I mean, cuz you you got me to the there's that breaking point where you start
saying stupid [ __ ] you know, where the guy's you get so angry that the guy starts going, "Oh, [ __ ] you." And the
other guy goes, "Oh, no, [ __ ] you." We've all We've all been there. And my favorite is most of us. Adam Croll
always talks about is when it gets to the point where it gets very sexual. Oh yeah, I'm going to [ __ ] you up. Yeah,
I'm going to [ __ ] I'm going to [ __ ] you hard. And you're like, "What?" When it
gets weird. I thought you were just going to fight. When Corella does that, it's just But yeah, when who says that?
And then I told David Lee Roth that next time you say that to me, you better be wearing a cup. And they've done a couple
tours together recently. And now it's Sammy Hagar that they that Eddie and Alex refuse to make amends with. No.
Interesting thing. I just was uh I just heard this the other day. So David Lee Roth was doing like a long form
interview. He did he did one with Joe Rogan and and and some other people I think promoting like he uh does some
stuff with Sirius. David Lee Roth does like uh has where he actually picks the songs like actually he's a DJ. Mhm. Um
well he was a DJ at what was that? Kiss FM in LA for some time. Oh yeah. Yeah. But was what was
cool about the interview was they were saying oh this stuff is going to get back to his bandmates. He basically
said, "Look, we don't hang out together. We have a hard time getting along on the
road. Uh, we're not really friends, right?" You know, but he was also saying like, "Look, there's it's undeniable
once we go on stage and do our thing, it's undeniable." So, it was funny cuz all these people were going, "This is
going to get back to the Van Halens. You think the Van Halens care? They're multi
multi-millionaires. They don't need to go on tour. I don't even think they're listening. No, to whatever that was.
They're they him and his brother, they sit in the garage and they they play a concert every day for themselves. They
probably don't actually do that, right? That's But that's the joke. That's the running joke for the last and in in
fairness to Eddie and this is true in fairness to him and I had this on a a way smaller level than Van Halen, but in
fair in fairness to Eddie, you've seen throughout history, they used to call Eric Clapton god. They would actually,
you know, spray paint that all over London when Clapton came out and then Hendrickx came out and then he was God.
And you've seen this with Stevie Rayvon and whoever. And Van Halen had that thing. He did some stuff that nobody
else did. FYI, he didn't create tapping. Tapping was created long before Eddie Van Halen, but he gets credit for it.
And when you are seen in some people's eyes as the greatest guitar player in the world,
it can do a couple things. You can either meet the challenge head on and keep trying to progress or just or
block out all the noise and just kind of keep doing what you're doing and and create good music and not and worry
about that. Or what a lot of people do is they protect it by doing less. Because if you already did something
that it's like Michael Jordan playing with the Bulls, you win three times in a row,
you come back, you win three times in a row. You don't need to go to the Wizards.
You could just hang it up forever and sit on the fact that you might be the greatest of all time and they can always
argue that point. You you can you can look at so many Van Halen records and so many Van Halen solos, not just with Van
Halen, but with with Michael Jackson, and argue that Eddie Van Halen is one of the greatest guitar players of all time.
And I think he that's that's a very heavy weight to um to have on you. And I think he I think
it has made him uh want to do less if that makes any sense. Um, like the less I do, the less
I can be criticized for and but I already have enough stuff in the in the spectrum of rock legends that hey,
there's my argument. I'm not going to make any more arguments. Does that make any sense? Mhm. Well, he also beat
cancer. That takes up some of your time as well. Well, he said to cancer, "If you want to give me cancer again
next time, you better be wearing a cup. [Music] [Applause]

Van Halen /// Off The Record Episode: 70 Released: 8-26-2019 Nic and the Captain discuss: Van Halen www.TrueCrimeGarage.com #truecrimepodcast #truecrime #crime #crimenews #news #truecrimegarage

Brief Summary

Hosts discuss Howard Stern's interview style and its effect on music appreciation, featuring insights on John Fogerty and Jimi Hendrix.

Key points

The Power of Howard Stern. Listening to Howard Stern can change your perception of celebrities.
Uncovering Deeper Meanings. Classic songs often have profound messages that listeners may overlook.
Concert Regrets. A friend regrets not attending a free John Fogerty concert after hearing an interview.
Eddie Van Halen's Legacy. Exploring the weight of being seen as the greatest guitar player.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

You might find yourself stuck to the couch for 3 hours.

Discussing Howard Stern's interviews and their addictive nature.

1:27WatchJun 23, 2025

Tension

30/ 100Low tension

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