Matthew Perry & Eddie Van Halen Wife Affair Revealed

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Matthew Perry said in his new book he wanted to have an affair with the late Eddie Van Halen’s wife Valerie Berintelli in the 90’s. Perry stated he “was completely captivated” by Bertinelli, to the point where he was “obsessed” with the actress. He “harbored elaborate fantasies about her leaving [Eddie] and living out the rest of her days with me.” He would hang out at the couple’s house, “gazing at Valerie, trying to make her laugh.” One night, after a lot of drinks, Van Halen — who struggled with alcoholism as well — passed out. Van Halen was “not 10 feet away from us” in the same room when Perry initiated a kiss, and “Valerie and I had a long, elaborate make-out session.” He “told her I had thought about doing that for a long time, and she had said it right back to me.”

Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen recently revealed how the legendary Eddie Van Halen gave him a tip of advice about pickups and how it defined his sound on “Hysteria.” He noted how the band’s mega-hit “Pour Some Sugar Sugar On Me” got pieced together in a lighting-fast, no-fuss manner.

Phil Collen talks about Eddie Van Halen

With 1983’s “Pyromania”, Def Leppard had struck gold, as the album almost single-handedly made the Joe Elliott-fronted band one of the most popular outfits in the US. When it came time to record a follow-up, producer Mutt Lange and the band didn’t want to settle for anything less but another stellar success.

The meticulous, three-year-long writing and recording process behind 1987’s “Hysteria” famously became so expensive that the band reportedly needed to sell 5 million copies just to break even. However, one of its most successful songs, the ever-popular mega-hit “Pour Some Sugar On Me”, got thrown together almost as an afterthought. Here is what Phil Collen noted in the interview:

“We’d finished Hysteria, and [lead singer] Joe [Elliott] was sitting in the corridor, playing an acoustic guitar.

“Mutt Lange, who was producing, said, ‘What’s that you’re playing?’ Joe just looked at him kind of confused and said, ‘I don’t know, just this thing I’ve been messing around with.’ Mutt told him to play it again, and when he’d finished, he decided that we really needed to record it.

“What happened next was that it turned into a kind of hip-hop beat with a rap vocal. Joe and Mutt were coming up with lyrics, which were just random and kind of nonsense at that stage, trying to get something flowing. Prior to that, all we had was the line ‘Pour some sugar on me,’ and the chords.”

Interestingly enough, Collen’s guitar tone came as a direct consequence of advice previously given to him by none other than Eddie Van Halen:

“The main thing I used was a Strat that my mother bought me for my 21st birthday that I nicknamed Felix. I had a DiMarzio humbucker at the bridge where I’d cut a hole in it.

“I’d met Eddie Van Halen on Van Halen’s first tour of the U.K., and he’d said to me that I’d never be happy with the sound unless I changed that pickup. So I thought, If Eddie says I should do it, I’m going to try it!

“That turned out to be the main guitar that I used on the album. The opening riff was played on a Jackson Dinky and doubled with a Telecaster, but everything else was the Strat, and it was all played through a Rockman.”

As for how long it took to get the song on tape, Collen said:

“We didn’t demo it or anything. We just pieced it together quite quickly before we recorded it. It’s wonderful when something pulls together like that.”

Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe recently announced the official tour dates for the European leg of the “Stadium Tour” next year.

Check out the dates below.

  • February 18 – Mexico City, Mexico – Foro Sol
  • February 21 – Monterrey, Mexico – Estadio Banorte
  • February 25 – Bogota, Colombia – Parque Simon Bolivar
  • February 28 – Lima, Peru – Estadio Nacional
  • March 03 – Santiago, Chile – Estadio Bicentenario de La Florida
  • March 07 – Sao Paulo, Brazil – Allianz Parque
  • March 09 – Curitiba, Brazil – Estádio Couto Pereira
  • March 11 – Porto Alegre, Brazil – Arena do Grêmio
  • May 22 – Sheffield, UK – Bramall Lane
  • May 25 – Mönchengladbach, Germany – SparkassenPark
  • May 27 – Munich, Germany – Koenigsplatz
  • May 29 – Budapest, Hungary – MVM Dome
  • May 31 – Krakow, Poland – Tauron Arena Kraków
  • June 02 – Prague, Czech Republic – Prague Rocks *
  • June 03 – Hannover, Germany – Expo Plaza
  • June 07 – Solvesborg, Sweden – Sweden Rock Festival *
  • June 09 – Hyvinkää, Finland – RockFest *
  • June 11 – Trondheim, Norway – Trondheim Rocks *
  • June 14 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Copenhell *
  • June 18 – Dessel, Belgium – Graspop Metal Meeting *
  • June 20 – Milan, Italy – Ippodromo SNAI San Siro
  • June 23 – Lisbon, Portugal – Passeio Maritimo de Alges
  • June 24 – Rivas-Vaciamadrid, Spain – Auditorio Miguel Ríos
  • June 27 – Thun, Switzerland – Stockhorn Arena
  • July 01 – London, UK – Wembley Stadium
  • July 02 – Lytham, UK – Lytham Festival *
  • July 04 – Dublin, Ireland – Marlay Park
  • July 06 – Glasgow, UK – Hampden Park