"What people don't suspect is that we're rehearsing, individually and as an ensemble, constantly," he says. "Year-round, stopping only for personal injury, and right now the band is doing phenomenally. But it's not like we're the Stones, living and jamming together in the South of France and getting drunk and sharing dames after we practice. It was never like that."
Barring further personal injury, Van Halen will continue as it is now: a massive box-office draw that will put out albums every few years, quite possibly featuring songs that weren't conceived in the Carter administration. There will be rumors that the band members aren't all best pals; these will be too true and too mundane to necessitate refuting, but the refuting is part of the deal, as much a part of the band's mystique as any song. What was once the Platonic ideal of rock 'n' roll indulgence is now structured around, literally, family values; for true adventure, Roth looks elsewhere. This is not a complaint, it's a fact. Without the clout and imprimatur of Van Halen, The Roth Show loses a little luster, a little marketability. Predictability is a punch worth rolling with.
"The creative process for Van Halen could be more Technicolor," he says. "Let's go somewhere French, Tahiti or the West Indies, woodshed in a studio that's on a boat, travel to little islands, and play the local bar on Wednesday and Friday nights. Somewhere that has international influence to alternately complain about and celebrate and adds more to the emotional menu than, 'We went up to Ed's place.' That mantra hasn't changed in 20 years and isn't going to. Everyone else has very real families, very real tent stakes. To me, travel is still exciting, but for others, it can smack of alienation or disenfranchisement. There are no surprises here at all. We're on that James Bond schedule, every three years."
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Originally Posted by trurl
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