Roxor Blog

Van Halen - When I hear the name I immediately think back to the late 70s and early 80s when I was a teenager and  they were the talk of my High School. Everybody knew the name. Everybody had their albums. Everybody loved their music. I remember waiting for the next big album to come out. It’s just amazing how time flies! It’s still fresh in my memory. To me, their music was unique and they had their own special style that defined who they were. Van Halen will always have a place in my thoughts. But how did they come to be? I never thought about it until today. Some of you may know and some of you may not, so without further ado…

Van Halen was originally formed in Pasadena, CA way back in 1972 as a band called “Mammoth”. Eddie was the lead singer at the time (David Lee Roth auditioned, however he was turned away as lead singer for unknown reasons). The group mammoth continued playing at clubs and any place that would let them play. However, the money was tight and the group was paying a lot of money for the sophisticated sound equipment that they rented. Now, guess who they rented this equipment off of? right - David Lee Roth. Eventually the underpaid group needed to cut costs and save money so in exchange for the use of this equipment they allowed David Lee Roth to be their lead singer and the rest is history! Now that David is on board we still have this band called Mammoth. Well, the story is that Mammoth decided to change their name because it was discovered through undisclosed sources that the name was in use by another band - so the name “Van Halen” was born! This was in 1974, by the way.

Other cool facts are that Gene Simmons helped Van Halen out by giving them funds for their demo tape. Remember, “Runnin’ with the Devil”? That song was originally included on their demo tape.

If you know of any other cool things about Van Halen I’d like to hear form ya! So comment away!