Runnin' with the Devil: A Backstage Pass to the Wild Times, Loud Rock, and the Down and Dirty Truth Behind the Making of Van Halen Hardcover – Illustrated, June 13, 2017

Van Halen fans will enjoy this. It's a cursory look into the band from its inception through its heyday in the David Lee Roth era told by their former manager, Noel Monk. It provides some really interesting detail about the Van Halen bros family and behind the scenes looks at life on the road. However, I personally would have liked more. Often times incredible stories are told in such a cursory and matter-of-fact way that it nearly renders them boring. Here's one example: when 1984 was about to be released, apparently one of the producers, in a drug-fueled inspiration, stole all the tapes for the album from the studio and took them home, holding them hostage until they were up to his "perfect" standards. Monk enlisted the help of an unnamed Warner Bros. asset who's "temperament was right for the job," and secured the return of the tapes so 1984 could go on and be released to the world. The tale is told in two paragraphs. That's it. That's all we get! Like.... WHAT? That's a hell of a story in and of itself, and gives me the impression there could be a whole book on the making and release of 1984, particularly since that album is what simultaneously rocketed Van Halen to MTV stardom and also was the catalyst for the band's breakup. This style throughout the book is why it loses one star for me. Nevertheless, the book is full of fascinating insights into the people who made up one of the most influential bands in rock n' roll history. I love Van Halen, so for me it's an entertaining and worthy read.

I’ve read numerous books that detail the typical debauchery and fame associated with rock and roll music. Whether they’re written by current/former members of a band or managers, the books usually follow the same set of rules: 1) the band is not what it once was 2) there are always tensions/troubles amongst the members and 3) drugs, alcohol and sex contribute largely to both 1) and 2). While every band is generally illustrated as being more decadent that others, the stories are all basically the same … the only difference being how believable the stories are and how well those stories are told. Van Halen’s story is neither shocking nor unique, but Noel Monk’s RUNNIN’ WITH THE DEVIL serves an interesting and believable snapshot of Van Halen’s early days that is worth reading.What I like best about RUNNIN’ WITH THE DEVIL is that is captures the explosive and raw original lineup of Van Halen (brothers Alex and Eddie Van Halen, David Lee Roth and Michael Anthony) … not the milquetoast-era Van Halen with Sammy Hagar (sorry, Van Hagar is not the band I grew up listening to). Noel Monk, who became the band’s manager after serving as its tour manager, offers readers a fly-on-the wall perspective of those critical, decadent years (1978-1985) that made Van Halen a modern pillar of the rock and roll Parthenon.Honestly, nothing that Noel Monk writes about Van Halen is really THAT outrageous or unbelievable. Right off the bat, he confirms what even casual Van Halen fans assumed about the band: the lead singer is an insecure prima-donna, the guitar wizard is in his own world, the drummer plays yes-man to his uber-talented brother and the quiet bass player stays in the shadows like a stow-a-way on a cruise ship. This eclectic group of individuals contributed to a chemical equation that was brilliant, yet fragile and combustible. Monk elaborates on what we already know … this incarnation of the band wasn’t meant to last. I found his storytelling both intriguing, entertaining and I every time I put the book down, I looked forward to picking it back up again to continue the journey. As stated previously, there really isn’t anything too shocking … I haven’t read a biopic of a famous rock band yet that wasn’t peppered with drugs and sex; Van Halen certainly had its fair share of both. I did find the rather “noobish” nature of the band members somewhat funny to read about. Edward Van Halen is portrayed as a cherubic kid all the way through book. Even though his musical virtuosity puts him in the same lofty status as Jimi Hendrix, the book conveys him as somewhat socially awkward and quite naive, even when courting his future wife, Valeri Bertinelli. The best parts of the book, though, are those with David Lee Roth. The “stud on stage” is, surprise, characterized as all bark and no bite … Monk accounts for numerous occasions where Roth’s mouth puts himself in embarrassing situations. Even though Monk calls Roth out for being less manly than his stage persona and a singer with limited ability, the author frequently affirms the spandex-clad Ken Doll as possessing the highest wattage in a 4-pack of dim bulbs. Business-savvy and artfully self-promoting, Monk asserts that no other singer was more suited to write and vocalize the lyrics that accompanied Eddie Van Halen’s trademark music style ... without the singer and the guitarist, Van Halen would not exist.Aside from accounting the personal side of band members, Monk provides us with the hectic and thankless job of managing a headlining rock band. We get a healthy dose of managerial issues that rendered Monk as more of a firefighter … there were always fires needing to be extinguished. Whether it be tricking a major record label into ignoring a contract deadline to re-negotiate a better deal for the band, fighting counterfeit merchandise peddlers (literally and figuratively) or serving as the glue and tape that holds the band together … we get a clear idea of the pressure Monk experienced with Van Halen. What is shocking is how much the band needed him, yet for his entire tenure, Monk never received anything but a month-to-month contract.The only issue I had with the book is guessing the rationale for writing the book. While not an overt hit-job on the band that unceremoniously dumped him, Monk presents himself as ultimately being victimized. There is a slight tone of saintliness throughout and Monk often uses “we” when referring to the band’s success on many levels; we never get any indication that he did anything wrong, so it’s easy to detect a slight whiff of sour grapes. This book was written shortly after the legal deadline allowing him write about the band had passed; one can assume different degrees of payback were motives in writing the book. Regardless, I still felt it was written in an honest and sincere manner. If anything, the book is openly empathetic to Van Halen’s bass player, Michael Anthony, who is duped and dumped-on by the other band members to this very day … probably the saddest and most pathetic aspect of Van Halen.This is one of the better rock biographies I’ve read in a long time (and I’ve read quite a few). Most of these books try to portray bands as Vikings who rape and pillage everywhere they roam. Monk reveals a lot of personal and even embarrassing Van Halen moments, but these stories come across as much more believable, not as cheap attempts to shock readers. RUNNIN’ WITH THE DEVIL is gritty and entertaining; an enjoyable read whether you’re a Van Halen fan or not.

If you went to high school in the early 1980s as I did, going to a Van Halen concert gave you instant access to “The Cool Kid’s Table”. Nobody put on a show as wild and as raunchy as these guys did. Forget about a “quality” show, these guys basically delivered a 2-hour party when they performed. They toured so regularly back then, that if you did miss a show, it wasn’t THAT big of a deal because odds were that they would be back to your town next year, and would basically put on the same wild show.Author Noel Monk was the band’s road manager, and later manager of the band during those days, and this book is essentially a backstage pass. (My guess is co-author Joe Layden collaborated in terms of flow and providing Monk with a thesaurus to give the book a lot of big, unnecessary words.) When we get an intimate glimpse into the life of Van Halen, we pretty much see what we expect. There’s a lot of cocaine, alcohol, fighting, cocaine, groupies, jail, cocaine, sex, debauchery, and more cocaine. Dare I say that, although this book really doesn’t feature any startling revelations that most fans don’t already know, it’s still a fun, quick read.Give credit to the author for not boring us with his own life story, or the life story of the band members themselves. He’s smart enough to know what the reader wants, and cuts immediately to the chase. We first meet the band when they start a tour to support their first album (in support of Journey and Montrose), which is when Monk enters their lives as road manager.We also already know that David Lee Roth and the Van Halen brothers are basically jerks, and that Michael Anthony, ironically, is a very sweet guy. So Anthony doesn’t get a lot of attention in the book. Even though we end up not really liking the other three, the author does a good job giving them credit where credit is due, and spends a fair amount of time sharing good times as well as bad with each of them.Although the author would become the band’s manager, the main focus here is the touring. More specifically, what when on backstage after the show was over. If you’re looking for a book that spends entire chapters on the making of each album, you’ll be disappointed. Each album gets very little page space, yet in a strange way, this is forgivable. In fact, it’s probably welcome. I’ve always been of the opinion that these guys never would have been popular had it not been for their live shows. It seems like in most cases, a new album was made because it was necessary – and helpful, so the band could schedule yet another tour around it. Plus, Monk states over and over again that he rarely went to their recording sessions anyway. No, he was mainly needed, it seems, to put out fires during the tour and make sure that the show went on, despite all of the X-rated drama.Not surprisingly, the band imploded during the 1984 tour. In addition to the 3 members firing Michael Anthony (he would stay with the band only as a salaried player for the next 20 years), they also fire Monk at this time. Why? Who can really say. Since Roth and the Van Halen brothers were drunk and stoned all the time, they probably just had to let off some steam. As Monk states in the book, after his firing he never saw the band again.So, naturally, after he’s sacked, the story ends. He feels that it would be wrong to comment much about the band after his departure, and that’s a fair feeling. Personally, I would have loved another chapter where he could reflect on all the nastiness after he left, and just provide some thoughts around the highlights. Maybe “lowlights” is a better word. Again, fans know that the drama just got worse in the later years – not surprising when you consider that Edward Van Halen has basically fired everyone in the band that wasn’t related to him at one time or another.So it’s rock and roll. Sometimes rock and roll just isn’t pretty. Everything in this book is pretty much what you would expect. I would say this is a must read for fans – even if the internet has probably already given you access to most of these stories already.

Podría llamarse algo así como: Podemos ser genios o virtuosos de la música pero apestar como personas!Vale la pena leerlo por cualquier fan de Van Halen pero hay que quitarse un poco el estigma del super virtuosismo musical ya que esto refleja la vida tal y como es!

Enjoyed it a lot. A good insight into band politics and how much they changed over the journey. How much greater they could have been had they been clean….

78年から85年までヴァン・ヘイレンのマネジャーだった人物による回想録（78年はロードマネジャー）。それ以前にセックス・ピストルズのマネジャーを務めていた著者がヴァン・ヘイレンと関わることになった経緯から始まり、デビューからほどなくしてコンサートでの圧倒的なパフォーマンスが評判を呼び、瞬く間に先輩バンドたちを追い抜いてビッグになっていくさま、またホテルや楽屋での乱痴気騒ぎ、メンバーのドラッグ癖などが、最も近くで彼らを見ていた者ならではの視点で赤裸々に語られる。これを読むとアレックスとエディの兄弟を含め、メンバー間は当初から必ずしも円満だったとは言えないようで、85年のデイヴの脱退も誰が悪いというのではなく、ある種の必然だったという気がする。全体的に湿度の高い文章で楽しく読める本ではないが、これがヴァン・ヘイレンの実像ならファンは受け入れるしかない。

I really enjoyed this book although some of the words used were a bit over the top. I had to look a few of them up but it would have been better to use Layman's terms. The book was very informative. I feel for Noel and how he was used and abused by the band and also the way the other 3 members of the band treated Michael Anthony. They are dead set pricks.

No punches pulled here, a frank and gritty account of the golden DLR years of Van Halen, albeit delivered with a tinge of bitterness.