DISGRACELAND - Bonus Episode: Guacamole Fights, Red Hat Retribution, and Supportive Slayer Stans

Episode Date: March 28, 2024

This week in the After Party, Jake talks the motivating factors that drive people to the guitar, the new DISGRACELAND episode on Van Halen, the new episode on Layne Stayley of Alice in Chains ONLY in the Disgraceland All Access club, and of course your emails, texts, DMS, and voicemails. Is Eddie Van Halen the greatest rock n roll guitarist of all time? Is Van Halen the greatest band to ever rebound from the departure of their original singer? Is Van Halen's Pretty Woman the greatest example of a cover being better than the original? Get in touch at 617-906-6638, [e-mail], or on socials @disgracelandpod, and come join the After Party.To hear an extended version of the After Party with a wild story about Eddie and a certain Nü-Metal/Rap-Rock frontman, and more from the DISGRACELAND community, become a Disgraceland All Access member at disgracelandpod.com/membership. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is exactly right. Double Elvis. Hey, Discos, you can listen to an extended version of this after-party episode by becoming a member of Disgraceland All Access. Just go to disgracelandpod.com slash membership for more details and to sign up. Hey, guys, welcome to Disgraceland, which is brought to you by Double Elvis. This week, we have a brand new episode on Van Halen in the Disgraceland feed. We also have a brand new exclusive episode on Lane State.

of Alice and Chains. Now that is available to our All Access members and our Patreon and Apple subscription feeds. So be sure to make sure you're all signed up for our All Access content, either on Apple Podcasts or on Patreon. And speaking of Van Halen, over in the Shred with Shifty feed,

Chris from the Food Fighters, Chris Schifflett, has a new episode featuring Eddie Van Halen's son, Wolfgang Van Halen. So check that out. That's a double Elvis production. You're going to want to hear that. All right, after party. Here we go.

Hey, discos, need a little more disgrace land in your life? Just a touch to get you through? Yeah, me too. This is the podcast that comes after the podcast. Welcome to Disgraceland, the After Party. Welcome to the Disgraceland bonus episode. A little thing we like to call the After Party. This is the show after the show, the party after the party,

the bridge to get you from one full episode of Disgraceland to the other, the backyard to dig into the dirt. On this episode, we are talking about our brand new episode on Van Halen. The sources we used for this episode, which helped us uncover a crazy story about how the band partnered with U.S. Marshals to bust a bootleg merchandise ring. Also, another brand new episode this week, an exclusive episode on Lane Staley of Allison Chains available to our all-access members. And of course, your voicemails, text, DMs, and more. And as always, a whole lot of rosy, all right discos, let's get into it.

I made my parents buy me a knock-off red Stratocaster from the Sears catalog just so I could hockey tape the shit out of it. The first riff I ever attempted to play on guitar was, you really got me, and it wasn't because of the kinks. First bong hit I retook was in the backseat of Ritchie Hoag's shipbox with eruption, bleeding my ears and blowing my mind. Eddie Van Halen made his guitar in that song sound like aliens were landing, and his music made me feel something different, older, dangerous, like a card-carrying member of teenage wasteland. Eddie Van Halen was everywhere during my youth, and he deserved to be. He was that good, that inventive, mind-blowing, a fucking beast whose influence is immeasurable. I even secretly like those awful Van Haig cartoons that came later. I still do, but don't tell anyone. Rest in peace, Eddie Van Halen. I wrote those words back in October 2020 when

Eddie Van Halen passed away and I went and dug them up this morning before recording this to remind myself of what Eddie Van Halen is meant to me, not just as a musician, which I barely am anymore, but more as a music listener. It's hard to expect anyone who was not a teenager in the 1970s, the 1980s, the 1980s, or the 1990s to understand the actual importance of Eddie Van Halen. Sure. You can imagine that the guy had a thing, that he was a thing, that he was a guy, that he was a guy, You can imagine that he even that he was or is iconic, that that sly smile, that, that wacko, like I mentioned before, hockey tape guitar design, the red strat with the white stripes. Maybe even when you hear him, you start to understand that his sound was unique and that he was this, this unique player in rock and roll. But to fully understand, I think it's a you had to be there kind of thing.

And I'm not trying to sound like the old cool dude. Not that those things can coexist old and cool. Of course they can. But that's not what I'm trying to do. When we were kids, we would argue about who the greatest living guitar player was. And you almost wouldn't even talk about Eddie Van Halen in the context of that argument because it was a conversationender. It was just known that he was the best. Sure, you could argue about Angus Young, Steve Vi, or pick your guitar player, whoever else was gracing the pages of hip parade or that month.

But you couldn't choose Eddie unless you were. wanted to shut the conversation down and, you know, talk about something else, football, or maybe steer the hang toward a game and spin the bottle or something. Eddie Van Halen was truly the best. And Van Halen, the David Lee Roth version and the Sammy Hagar version, were worthy of Eddie's immense talents. They made great music. And in the here and now, a day after the release of our Van Halen, Disgraceland episode, as I walk around the world thinking about the band, I find them to be wildly compelling still to this day. They prompt a lot of the last. lot of fucking questions, all right? The obvious one, was Eddie Van Halen the greatest rock and roll

guitarist of all time? I put a list of five guitar players together up on Instagram yesterday, and it was like throwing bloody chum into a pool of fucking hammerheads. Everyone has an opinion relative to Eddie's greatness. The five guitarists I listed were Eddie, Hendricks, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, and Steve Ray Vaughn. Now, of course, it's a list. It's subjective. It's just my opinion, man. Actually, it's not even my opinion. I just wanted five guitarists that I thought were universally thought of as being the greatest in rock and roll. Clapton and Stevie Ravon wouldn't be on my list, but that's not the point. Eddie would be at worst second, and like I said in the post, I can make an argument as to why he could be first. People, of course, were super passionate about their five picks, but almost no one doubted

the importance and the placement of Eddie Van Halen on the list, and I can't say the same for any of the others except for Hendricks. That makes my point. Eddie Van Halen. Totally unique, not just another great guitar player. One of the greatest, maybe the greatest, definitely in the top two. That's my opinion. Come at me with Jeff Beck, all you want. Eddie Van Halen, all day, every day over Jeff Beck. Just saying.

So, driving around yesterday, admittedly, probably a little too fast, and listening to Dreams by Sammy Hagar, from the Sammy Hagar version of Van Halen, I should say, a song that I hated growing up, but have now somehow found space for nostalgia will do that i guess but anyways when listening to dreams and best of both worlds i can't believe i'm saying this and other hey cartoons it prompted another question this one i've yet to ask and it's this is van haelen the greatest band ever rebound from the departure of the original singer the contenders ac dc of course black sabbath uh foreigner

I guess audio slave and velvet revolver need to be included in this list, even though they changed the names from Rage Against the Machine and Guns and Roses. And, you know, Van Halen, they prompt this question, and I like that. But better than Dio's version of Black Sabbath? I don't know. Maybe. Maybe. Certainly a bigger impact, I think, culturally, now that I'm thinking about it.

But better than ACDC, Brian. Johnson's ACDC. Not that I'm saying Brian Johnson's ACDC was better than Bond Scott's ACDC because it definitely was not, but I still think Brian Johnson's ACDC is better than Sammy Hagar's Van Halen. Now do we dock Van Halen for the Gary Sharon era? That is the real question. No shade to Gary Sharon, but I mean, come on. All right, another question. This one prompted also while driving around yesterday and listening to Van Halen, but listening to the David Lee Roth era. There are good cover songs and there are great cover songs. To me, good cover songs are fine.

There are plenty of them, and sometimes it's just fun to hear a band that you really like, mess with the song with another band that you really like. Those are good cover songs. Faith No More, covering Warpigs by Black Sabbath, the Beatles covering Anna by Arthur, Alexander,

the Super Suckers, and Steve Earle, covering Keith Richards before they make me run. These are all perfectly good cover songs. Songs I love, versions I love, covers I actually seek out to listen to. But then there are great. cover songs. The difference is any musician can learn someone else's song and learn how to play it and play it well even, uh, even do it in their own style. But it takes a special musician to record

someone else's song and make you forget about the original or to be more kind to record someone else's song and completely turn it into their own into something totally new and unique and into something that wouldn't have existed without their hands being on it. Stevie Ray Vaughn's version of Little Wing by Jimmy Hendrix is a good cover, but it doesn't take the song anywhere new. Now, Jimmy Hendricks cover of All Along the Watchtower by Bob Dylan made Bob Dylan never want to play his song his way again. He only now plays it Hendrix's way, okay? That's what I'm talking about. I love Roy Orbison, and I love Roy Orbison's Pretty Woman. But Roy Orbison's Pretty Woman doesn't make me feel like I'm in a deleted scene from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Roy Orbison's Pretty Woman

doesn't make me feel like I want to go pound beers up at the tracks with my friends from high school. Roy Orbison's Pretty Woman doesn't make me want to learn how to play guitar. Eddie Van Halen's version of Pretty Woman makes me want to do all of those things and more and has since the first time I heard it. And hearing it again yesterday when driving around, it walloped me. That guitar playing, that sound and tone, the harmonies from the band, the incredible charisma from David Lee Roth. In light of the greatest guitar player question we're asking, I got to ask another super obvious

question is pretty woman the greatest example of a cover being better than the original if not let me know what is 617 90666 638 and while we're at it also let me know who your number one pick for greatest rock and roll guitar player of all time is is it eddie van halen is it jimmy hendricks is it gulp dare i say tom morello jeff beck jack fucking white it's not but i just got to throw it out there someone else let me know 617 9066638 i'm going to take a quick break and I'll be back in the flash to discuss some of the sources behind this episode and some dude with a red baseball cap. All right, let's talk Van Halen sources.

There are two primary books that we use for this episode. Remember, this episode focuses entirely on the first incarnation of Van Halen with David Lee Roth as the frontman. Will we do a Van Hagar episode? Will we get back into the later David Lee Roth reunited days? We got to do it. All right, I'm just saying it now. Even though like two after parties ago, I said no more two-part episodes, but there's so much more

of this freaking band story. That, yeah, at some point, we will do a part two, I'm sure of it. The first book we used for this episode is called Running with the Devil, a backstage pass to the Wild Times, Loud Rock, and Down and Dirty Truth behind the Making of Van Halen. This was written by Noel Monk. Okay, this guy, you might recognize this name if you just listen to the Van Halen episode. We released.

Noel Monk features prominently in that episode. He was, at the time, Van Halen's manager. He was first their tour manager, and then he became their actual manager later on. And this book is jam-packed with nutso behavior. Crazy shit. It's where we got all the stuff on Van Halen's team going after merch, bootleggers with the help of U.S. Marshalls, the story about smashing the Black Sabbath fan

over the head with a beer bottle, the stuff about the sleeves ball manager who taped the pornos and played them for the secretaries at Warner Brothers. And I must clarify right now that that was not Noel Monk, who was the manager at the time who did that. Okay, it was another guy that Monk is writing about. And honestly, there were a lot of people on the payroll with very similar titles at the time,

so it's easy to get confused. There's also, in the history of Van Halen, as I'm sure you know, and I, you know, forgive me. Don't forgive me. I just got to address this. There's lots, lots of childish rock star antics in Monk's book in the past in Van Halen's history, which honestly, you know,

it's become a bit of a cliche. So we didn't want to make this episode all about guacamole fights and groupies smeared in ketchup and all that fucking brown M&M bullshit, okay? It's there if you want it, you can get it elsewhere. Our themes for this episode were a little bit different. Themes of innovation of protecting those innovations, even if it means being ruthless in your defense of your innovation. All that comes from a different book, a book called Eruption, Conversations with Eddie Van Halen that was written by Brad Toulinsky and

Chris Gill. Tlinski was the editor-in-chief at Guitar World Magazine. Gill was a regular contributor, and for years, decades even, the two of them went up to Eddie Van Halen's 50-50 studio to hang out and talk. And this book Eruption stems from over 50 hours of unreleased interviews that they recorded before Eddie's death in 2020. It is a great read. If you're a fan of Van Halen and a fan of Eddie's playing, if you're into the guitar, you want to get inside the head of one of the greatest guitars to ever do it, that I highly recommend this. Also sheds light on why, and this is the key thing, why Eddie Van Halen innovated the way that he did, not only because he didn't have any money and he literally had to build the guitar, had to build the thing that he wanted from cheap scraps, but because he was bullied as a kid.

Okay? That's something I'm sure we can all of a certain age relate to when we weren't so protected as children. We went out into the neighborhood no matter where we were from. We ventured beyond those neighborhood boundaries. We got our asses kicked. Some of us even got our asses kicked in the neighborhood. Some of us were from other places with hard to pronounce names and had hard to pronounce names like Eddie Van Halen and they were bullied no matter where the fuck they went. A kid moving from Holland to America who was bullied and humiliated in the the outside world and that drove him inside into his bedroom where he channeled all of his frustration and complicated feelings into his guitar playing into building his guitar and his guitar

sound fascinating stuff and it comes from this book eruption conversations with eddie van helen you're going to want to check that out i related to this uh i know zeth who who wrote this episode related to this this is something i think we can it you know i was driven inside my room all the time for different reasons basically because i was a little fuck up and my mom was grounding me all the time, but it drove me straight into books, straight into guitar, straight into music, straight into writing, straight into figure out and making who I am today. So this was very, very relatable to me. Not that I'm comparing myself to Eddie Van Halen. I am, however, comparing myself somewhat to his experiences. I'm sure you guys can as well. I want to know your thoughts on Van Halen. Is Eddie Van Halen

the greatest player of all time, like I asked before? Is Pretty Woman the greatest example of a cover being better, exceeding, blowing the original out of the water? is Van Halen the greatest band to recover from the departure of their lead singer? I don't think so, but I have to ask. 617-906-66-6638 voicemail and text to let me know, just like the 904 with this voicemail. The Van Halen episode is this is, and you broke it right at the right spot. Too much to text that I'm driving, but you brought up the M&M's, which is hilarious.

That was on their tour rider. And they wanted to make sure that they actually read the tour rider. So they put in ridiculous shit like a bowl full of M&Ms with all the right place. You know, oh, whose Ferrari is that? Stuff, man, can't wait for the part two. Can't wait for Lane Staley and Allison Chains. Keep it going. You got it, 904.

We can't wait for the part two either. That episode just teed up the part two. We weren't even trying to do that, frankly. It just did it. Glad he picked up on that. Appreciate the call Drive Safe out there, all right? All right, let's check out this voicemail from the 773. Hey, what's up, man?

I love the show. I just wanted to put in a word for a show about HR from Bad Brains, arrested constantly. I had tickets to see him twice and miss both shows because he was in jail, recorded Sacred Love from jail, alleged rapist, homophobic, aggravated assault, you name it. schizophrenic. I think it would make a great show. Keep doing what you do. Keep on rolling. Love it so much. And thanks, man.

773. Thanks for the show. Thanks for the, excuse me, thanks for the voicemail and thanks for the episode recommendation. You know, Bad Brains is one of my favorite bands ever. And like top five of all time. And I know very little about their history. I've read next to nothing. I've never seen them live. I mean, that's not true. I did see live like 10 12 years ago something like that but it wasn't you know you know what i'm saying i've never seen them live um and uh i don't know a lot about them of course i knew about the homophobia

don't blow no bubbles that song from with the quickness from quickness excuse me um rapist never heard that before i need to look into that see if that's true uh i think i knew that sacred love was recorded from jail and uh uh the schizophrenic thing schizophrenia is new to me. This is all shaping up in my head to be an episode I want to write and I want to write soon. And Zeth Lundy, please make a note of that. Sounds like something we could get into in a really interesting way. So thank you, 773. I appreciate that. Plus 4-6 over in Europe writes to us, Steve McQueen, hey, listening here from Sweden, maybe it's just because I'm European, but I always felt Steve McQueen was influenced by French actors much more than his native contemporaries. Folks

like is montaigne de laun there's some others here i'm not going to mention them because i'm going to fuck up their pronunciation of their names and i'm going to sound like an idiot uh but the texter goes on to say beautiful tough guys who sometimes speak louder in silence than words love the pod stay cool is uh elaine delon is that the guy in french connection i think it is um i could be wrong um text back and let me know and you know give me a couple movies here plus four six over in Sweden, if you don't mind. Text me a couple movies from these actors you mentioned that are good starting points. Don't give me a bunch, just like one each.

Like if I want to watch an Elaine Delon movie, which one is it? Maurice Rune movie, which one is it? Give me some wrecks. I would appreciate that. Sarah, text her is Sarah here. She says, love the pod. Stay cool. Sarah.

You got it, Sarah. I'll do my best. The 917 writes in, the ads on your podcast make me want to shoot myself. Well, 917, I got to tell you, man. You know, first of all, don't shoot yourself. Do not do that. That's not going to be good for anyone, especially you. Second, there's a solution, and it's a cheap solution.

It's an easy one. It's five bucks a month. You become an All access member. And boom, no more ads, all right? Ad free. Ad free listening on Apple Podcast and Patreon. Okay? It's that simple.

617-906-6638 on the text, on the voicemail to hit me up. That's how you do it. You can take a quick break, be right back. All right, we are back. And as I mentioned at the top of the show, in addition to our new episode on Van Halen this week, we also have a brand new episode on Lane Staley of Allison Chains and it's out right now.

And you can go listen to it right now. But to do so, you've got to become a member of Disgraceland All Access, and the good news is that that is super easy to do. Super easy to become a member. Just go to disgracelandpod.com slash membership and sign up with a click of a button. Five bucks a month is all it takes. It's even less if you sign up for a year.

It's going to get you some great perks, like an exclusive fully scripted disgrace land episode each month, just like this new exclusive episode on Lane's daily that I'm going to preview for you right now. That's right, check it out. Here's a little taste of what you're missing over in the Disgraceland All Access Club. Man in the Box also helped get Allison Chains on the Clash of the Titans

tour during that same year, opening for Megadeth, Slaar, Anthrax. But just because Allison Chains were Seattle heavy. They were not Ant-Brags heavy. They weren't even Megadeth heavy. Dave Mustaine and Megadeth reminded them of this fact with the posters he had printed up and pasted all over the massive arenas that they played in. Posters of Alice and Chains from years back, hair teased, spandex tight, still spelling their name Alice N chains. That's apostrophe capital N. Getting trolled by fucking Dave Mustang of all people, that must have stung. But not as bad as

the physical violence Allison Chains endured up on that stage, hazed by Slayer fans, fans that did not give a shit for Allison Chains, N or no N. They pelted them with all manners of subterfuge, spit on them, threw them mercilessly. Lane Staley, for one,

wasn't just going to stand there and take it. He started throwing all that shit back at the crowd, and he jumped the barricade and got red in their faces and spat back at them. Lane Staley fought back, fought off the hordes, did well in the prime. process, stood up for himself, and had the last laugh. Or so he thought. After the show, he and the others were greeted by a group of Slayer fans waiting outside their tour bus, Slayer fanatics, that is,

and fanatics being the operative word, these dudes were hard. Lane braced himself, ditto for Jerry and the others. No longer protected by the stage, they were about to endure an extreme ass kicking by a bunch of pissed-off metalheads. Lane and the boys got closer. And the Slayer kids were blocking the entrance to their bus. Lane's pulse quickened. He looked around for some kind of blunt instrument that he could use of shit went the way he thought it was going to. And then, one of the Slayer fans gave the Alice and Chains guys a head nod. Hey, the kid said, you guys are all right.

You didn't puss out back there. The hardcore Slayer dudes parted and let Alice and Chains get onto their bus. And then it was off to the next stop to do it all over again, to be humiliated, attacked. and ultimately forgiven, a roller coaster of emotions that took its toll on Lane Staley, despite the brave face he put on night after night. And soon, he would need more than just a brave face and a big voice to keep it all at bay. A different kind of coping mechanism. Heroin.

All right, that was a clip from our brand new episode on Lane Staley of Allison Chains, which you can hear right now by going to disgracelandpod.com slash membership and signing up for disgraceland All Access. There's another exclusive episode available for you there as well on Hunter S. Thompson, and every month we're going to be dropping a new fully scripted exclusive episode for members. Baskiat coming up after Lane Staley, Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Audio Slave, of course, Wayland Jennings, and so many more. So you're not going to want to miss this when you go to disgracelandpod.com slash membership to sign up for all access.

You guys can choose between Apple Podcasts or Patreon. It's going to give you the same perks, but if you choose Patreon, you get an all-a-example. you get an always on chat. I'm in there. Your fellow discos are in there. We're not just talking about disgrace land episodes. We're talking about music.

We're talking about film. We're talking about what we're doing this weekend, what we're eating, what we're listening to, what we're making, what we're getting up to, talking all kinds of shit over the other past month, and it's been awesome.

And I appreciate those of you who are in there with me, and I just want to open the gates to everyone, okay? I'm not about gatekeeping. That's not what I'm doing. Finally, your All Access membership gets you bonus weekly content

as well, an extended version of this here after party every week. You're going to get deeper discussions about the revelations learned in the creation of this week's episode, like the story we uncovered about Eddie Van Halen driving an assault vehicle into Beverly Hills and putting a gun to Fred Durs from Lindbiscuit's head. Come join us and all access to hear about all of that and more right now. Discracelandpod.com slash membership back in a flash. All right, let's recap, shall we? Number one, there's more afterparty to listen to right now and a brand new exclusive episode on Lane Staley of Allison Chains.

to do is go to disgracelandpod.com slash membership and sign up to become an all-access member. But if that ain't your bag, then number two, right now in your feed, a brand new episode on Van Halen. Number three, coming tomorrow, a rewind episode on Snoop Dog. Four, over in the Badlands

feed, we've got episodes from the archive on Lana Turner and Joe Namath. Five, next week in the disgrace land feed, a classic episode for you on Monday, not Tuesday. Number six, my number is 617-9066638. Call me on the telephone or text Number seven, remember, no one cares about the music that you love more than you do, and well, that is a disgrace.

And now my moment of bliss in honor of this week's episode on Van Halen, me reading you the Pasadena, California phone book from 1926, some 30-something years before Eddie Alex and their parents relocated there from their native Holland. Keene F. 309 West Walnut Terrace 8474-W. Keenan, E.C., Colorado-1655. Keene, Alice, Colorado, 975. Kenny F. 1226 Stevenson, Niagara, 1646. Keeper, Kenneth, Sterling, 8063.

Kise, Age, 379 East Colorado, Terrace, That's 2105. Colorado 6406 Stevenson Colorado 126. 0955

106. 8409-1-1063 North Michigan 9 seconds 9 seconds 29 Talking and start mixing

and start mixing Curit!