Wolfgang Van Halen recently claimed that Alex Van Halen would have received much more praise if he hadn’t been in the same band as David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen.
This group of musicians made wonders in the music world. They even overshadowed Black Sabbath when opening for them. This is due to a perfect combination of elements that gave them a running start and a strong foundation for the future: Eddie Van Halen’s unreal guitar skills, David Lee Roth’s one-of-a-kind showmanship, Michael Anthony’s incredible backing vocals and strong bass lines, and of course, Alex Van Halen’s dynamic drumming.
Alex, however, isn’t receiving enough praise. When people talk of Van Halen, they kinda forget him because of Roth and Eddie. Wolfgang Van Halen certainly thinks so. Speaking to Drumeo, he stated his belief that Alex deserved better.
“I think if he wasn’t in a band with Eddie Van Halen, I think he would be lauded as one of the best, greatest drummers of all time, as rightfully, people do already – the people that really fu**ing get it. Especially seeing the show live, it’s like you have Dave f**king jumping around and doing pirouettes and sh*t, and then you got all the crazy sh*t dad’s doing.”
And really, how do you pay attention to Alex Van Halen’s drumming, when there’s a whole show happening in front of him? Wolf pointed this out and noted that if you really listen, there’s a treasure trove of sound beneath:
“There’s so much happening, you can’t really even lock in on the fact that Alex is just demolishing everything in the most amazing way. I think he’s the closest drummer out there that ever got close to bottom in terms of that feel.”
“When you hear Al play, you know it’s him. I don’t think anybody on the planet has a more locked-in double-kick shuffle than Al did. Like on ‘I’m the One,’ obviously ‘Hot for Teacher.’ It’s just unreal how perfect it is.”
