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November 11, 2011

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Iconic rock band Van Halen are set to sign with Interscope Records, says a source familiar with the negotiations.

The deal is expected to be finalized next week, marking the first time in 35 years that the band will not release music through Warner Music, its longtime label home.

It had been rumored -- and reported -- that the band was joining the Columbia Records roster. In fact, an insider tells The Hollywood Reporter that the contract for the Sony deal was drawn up and approved but hadn't been signed when Universal Music stepped into the picture.

The signing was a group effort involving UMG chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge, UMG International COO Max Hole, Interscope Geffen A&M vice chairman Steve Berman and Interscope's Jimmy Iovine, who, says a source, "heard the band was available and wanted to work with them. It was decided at the 11th hour." What came next was a series of meetings that presented the band with a global plan that included extensive marketing, merchandising, touring and, of course, recordings.

So what derailed the Columbia deal? The usual rock band complications, says an insider. While the group reunited with original singer David Lee Roth in 2006, the Sony label could not come to terms with Roth, who has a separate management, legal and accounting team than the other three members, guitarist Eddie Van Halen and his son Wolfgang (who replaced bassist Michael Anthony) and drummer Alex Van Halen.

The main issue for Roth? He was apparently adamant about being on a west coast label. "He was never on board [with Columbia]," says the source. "It was as complicated as anyone would imagine, when one side says black, the other says white. The label was pretty skeptical that things would work out."

It's expected that as frontman, Roth will have to carry much of the marketing burden and it seems the band members ultimately want their singer to be happy with the deal which is why they went with Universal's west coast-based Interscope.

A new album, their first studio effort since 1984, is believed to be nearly finished with the hope that it can be released in 2012. The band is expected to make a "special announcement" on Nov. 30 at the Grammy Awards nominations concert, which will air live on CBS from Los Angeles' Nokia Theater.

[Edited 11/20/11 21:43pm]

I don't care about what label they're on, but am curious about the music.

This is exciting.

Damn, that no good freaking Jimmy Iovine and his Interscope/A&M label is doing some seriously power moves in the music industy free agency market lately. First Madonna and now Van Halen!

TonyVanDam said:

WB is seriously crazy to not get Van Halen back. Fans are dying to hear this music, and I even believe most of them would pay to get the real product.

Gunsnhalen said:

Lord its still stupid what warner bros records did. Its bad enough they screw half or more then half of there artists over... like many record companies. But vh had all multi platinum albums save for fair warning[my personal fav album they ever did! And many other fans fav to] but it only went platinum. They had to albums that sold ovefr 10 million & the rest did 4,5,,7,6,3,3 etc. But they did the album with gary & only went gold. So wb kicked them off! Wtf.. you have an artists with constant multi platinum albums & big singles. Yet one eh album and its over? After 20 years? Fuck wb

My personal fav too i cant wait for the new album to drop

The only thing that would make this better would be if Michael Anthony was on bass and backing vocals. No, we have to have Eddie's son.

Sounds good, but at this point VH (and D'angelo) need to call their discs "Cry Wolf". You can only make the public and fans wait but so long.

And after reading Sammy's book, Micheal Anthony doesn't need to go back to the VH camp. As much as I love CVH, Dave and Eddie seem like they have major dysfunctional issues that are beyond belief.

I know no one is perfect but Micheal Anthony seems like the only guy that had some class in that group.

I don't care about class. I only care about great music.

For most reuniting bands I would say "It ain't gonna happen". But for van halen, with dave squared against the van halen brothers, I think there's a chance it could be good. I'm sure the guy is a major pain in the ass, but for integrity's sake I really think he could be the sole thing to make this new record respectable.

^ It seemed to most fans that it was David and Eddie who fought over the years.

I was surprised that Eddie and Michael had issues that couldn't be worked out.

I care about great music too..but if all the songs have the vibe like "Can't Get This Stuff No More" then I'm gonna be really upset. Supposedly they've been going back and listening to the old 76-77 demos for inspiration.

I remember reading a Billy Sheehan interview that said Eddie wanted him back in 1981-82 when Talas toured with VH. So Eddie might have been planning Micheal's exit back then.

Does anyone care about new music from Van Halen in 2011? I love the old albums but there is an extremely slim chance that anything they release now will come anywhere close to recapturing the magic that they once had. Stick a fork in them, they are done.

rialb said:

Does anyone care about new music from Van Halen in 2011? I love the old albums but there is an extremely slim chance that anything they release now will come anywhere close to recapturing the magic that they once had. Stick a fork in them, they are done.

It will be 2012.

That's your opinion anyway. I love when veteran artists release new music, as long as it's good.

I enjoyed the new Duran Duran, Blondie and Stevie Nicks albums this year.

Nick715 said:

That's your opinion anyway. I love when veteran artists release new music, as long as it's good.

I enjoyed the new Duran Duran, Blondie and Stevie Nicks albums this year.

oh im with you on that, im all for the veterans doing it because they show they do it better anyway, but for me Van Halen has other issues, i dont mind a new album, i mind the BS that goes with every record they do, im sure after a release and a few promo shots, eddie and dave will fight and then Eddie's cousin Burt will be the new vocalist.

Nick715 said:

That's your opinion anyway. I love when veteran artists release new music, as long as it's good.

I enjoyed the new Duran Duran, Blondie and Stevie Nicks albums this year.

Hey, if the new album is great I will be happy to be proven wrong but when you consider how little new music they have released since the Gary Cherone album it is not an encouraging sign.

I think lastdecember may be alluding to the fact that they may be doing this for a big payday rather than for the love of playing together. If that is true it is another reason to be sceptical about the quality of any new music they may release.

YES, they're done

it's surprising how weak and fragile Diamond Dave sounds, and Eddie still looks like an addict in the early stages of the rehabilitation...

I guess nobody can age as gracefully as Jagger,...perphaps he IS the devil, after all, who knows

lol

rialb said:

Nick715 said:

That's your opinion anyway. I love when veteran artists release new music, as long as it's good.

I enjoyed the new Duran Duran, Blondie and Stevie Nicks albums this year.

Hey, if the new album is great I will be happy to be proven wrong but when you consider how little new music they have released since the Gary Cherone album it is not an encouraging sign.

I think lastdecember may be alluding to the fact that they may be doing this for a big payday rather than for the love of playing together. If that is true it is another reason to be sceptical about the quality of any new music they may release.

Yeah im for them recording, i mean 99% of the albums i got this year are by artists that still record that most people call dinosaurs, but their still out there, touring, and recording new music too. I dont know VH's motives, i mean touring is money for everyone so i cant say their doing it for money, while others arent, they all tour to make money because a new record selling 100,000 is costing them, my issue is more the politics of this band, i have a bad taste in my mouth about the BS that Eddie has pulled, granted its his baby, BUT he is the type of guy if something goes wrong, he throws U under the bus and doesnt take it for the team, i mean lets look at his list, Sammy, Dave, Michael and what he did to Gary, he made Gary the "bad guy" in that disaster, when 90% of the record and 100% of the idea was Eddie and Alex.

rialb said:

Nick715 said:

That's your opinion anyway. I love when veteran artists release new music, as long as it's good.

I enjoyed the new Duran Duran, Blondie and Stevie Nicks albums this year.

I think lastdecember may be alluding to the fact that they may be doing this for a big payday rather than for the love of playing together. If that is true it is another reason to be sceptical about the quality of any new music they may release.

Roth isn't about that.

Gunsnhalen said:

I'm not without my doubts. 1st they have not recorded an entire album with diamond dick I mean dave in. 26 years. And I don't count that meh song from there 96 best of. Anthony I love him, but he's good in chickenfoot. Mike is the nice guy of the group. I think he has had enough of the halen brothers ways. Eddie is for whatever reason bitter all the time & alex just follows whatever he does. Dave is an ego maniac, who thinks he's the be all end all member of van halen. I know he probably still has that mind set...... and once theygo on a 2nd tour with him it wil itsl bring it to a breaking point. Its a shame so many years later these guys can't get along!

Who told you they aren't getting along?

rdhull said:

Gunsnhalen said:

I'm not without my doubts. 1st they have not recorded an entire album with diamond dick I mean dave in. 26 years. And I don't count that meh song from there 96 best of. Anthony I love him, but he's good in chickenfoot. Mike is the nice guy of the group. I think he has had enough of the halen brothers ways. Eddie is for whatever reason bitter all the time & alex just follows whatever he does. Dave is an ego maniac, who thinks he's the be all end all member of van halen. I know he probably still has that mind set...... and once theygo on a 2nd tour with him it wil itsl bring it to a breaking point. Its a shame so many years later these guys can't get along!

Who told you they aren't getting along?

They did personally of course i'm great fans with Eddie

Come on, after all these years i don't believe that there's not a lot of drama behind the scenes. Which is probably why the album Announcements have been coming and going since 2008.

Gunsnhalen said:

rdhull said:

Who told you they aren't getting along?

They did personally of course i'm great fans with Eddie

Come on, after all these years i don't believe that there's not a lot of drama behind the scenes. Which is probably why the album Announcements have been coming and going since 2008.

But they reunited, did a successful tour with no issues, and are/recorded a record together. There are no issues within VH regardinf Roth, Ed, or Alex dealing with each other.

rdhull said:

Gunsnhalen said:

They did personally of course i'm great fans with Eddie

Come on, after all these years i don't believe that there's not a lot of drama behind the scenes. Which is probably why the album Announcements have been coming and going since 2008.

But they reunited, did a successful tour with no issues, and are/recorded a record together. There are no issues within VH regardinf Roth, Ed, or Alex dealing with each other.

Well i'll keep believing that fairy tale

I just find it hard that everything is dandy under the sun....

Luckily since Diamond dave is old and can't quit do the splits anymore. He probably can't beat up Eddie with his martial arts moves anymore

I think it was Dave's way of making sure they had a business that was going to take care of them, and wanted to have people from the record company close by.

Warners signed VH and Prince around the same time, so they were able to record the music they wanted, but the money came much, much later. Dave wrote in his book how bad the deal was, and they had to split the money 4 ways. At least in Prince's case, he got more than they did.

I don't think Dave's that much of an egomaniac as much as he is self-aggrandizing when he's working as Diamond Dave.

But the tour did have issues. They had to postpone a bunch of dates towards the end.

As far as the music goes - you're talking about a band that has usually never had a problem coming up with a decent melody, but now they have to find something that matches up to the first 6 albums. They wrote a couple of new songs for the compilation, but not a full length studio album since 1998. For that matter, neither has Dave, who put his out 6 years ago, which was mostly covers.

Now imagine if Prince came onto Interscope

dalsh327 said:

I think it was Dave's way of making sure they had a business that was going to take care of them, and wanted to have people from the record company close by.

Warners signed VH and Prince around the same time, so they were able to record the music they wanted, but the money came much, much later. Dave wrote in his book how bad the deal was, and they had to split the money 4 ways. At least in Prince's case, he got more than they did.

I don't think Dave's that much of an egomaniac as much as he is self-aggrandizing when he's working as Diamond Dave.

But the tour did have issues. They had to postpone a bunch of dates towards the end.

As far as the music goes - you're talking about a band that has usually never had a problem coming up with a decent melody, but now they have to find something that matches up to the first 6 albums. They wrote a couple of new songs for the compilation, but not a full length studio album since 1998. For that matter, neither has Dave, who put his out 6 years ago, which was mostly covers.

To me VH never had a total awful album, yes even the one with Gerry had some great track’s [Which as a HUGE VH fan.. me saying that is like blaspheme

Yes they got screwed over bad; in fact a lot of bands I love got screwed over bad. Including almost all the Warner deals.

They made great albums with Dave & Sammy & a very hit & miss with Gary. Full of fantastic melodies, rifts, solos & sometimes clever writing. I find it will be hard for them to capture the magic back once again…

The new songs they did with Dave n 96 where eh, the new songs they did with Sammy on there 04 best of where ok. They where fun tunes but very mediocre for the band.