Van Halen Rising
How a Southern California Backyard Party Band Saved Heavy Metal

I know from personal experience writing The Youngs: The Brothers Who Built AC/DC how tough it can be when the subject of your biography refuses to cooperate. Not so much in the actual writing (at the end of the day, a writer is only as good as the story he or she tells and the research they do, not......more

Listened to the audio, had a bitchin' time and even cried a few times. I was not expecting to like this so much, but it was well written and entertaining. The author did A LOT of research, conducted so many interviews so I can only say thank you for putting in so much effort Mr Renoff, it totally sh......more

My favorite band ever. I was swooning. And Fangirling over David Lee Roth omg, saw them live in 1983, they were on fire and Portland Oregon last summer and they still rock. I can't wait to read this book. I screamed for joy when I discovered that my library has it. I put a hold on it immediately. I......more

Excellent historical documentation of the origins of one of the world's biggest rock bands. The author Greg Renoff is a historian, so the quality of this book is far better than most music biographies. Details and citations are meticulous, but most of all, Renoff really tells their story in an inter......more

This is fantastic scholarship that, my opinion, requires no love of VH. Put it this way: it ends with the first record being made. (This is not to say that DLR ((pronounced ‘Dealer’)) era Van Halen doesn’t kick absolute ass. From a purely mechanistic perspective, them Van Halen brothers were pretty......more