Neil Zlozower - Van Halen: A Visual History: 1978-1984

Copyright 2008 by Neil Zlozower.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available.

ISBN: 978-1-4521-1691-4

Book art direction and design by Tom Jermann / t42design

Copy Editor: Frank Meyer

Chronicle Books LLC

680 Second Street

San Francisco, California 94107

www.chroniclebooks.com

This is my very first published book and I would like to give special thanks to the following people:

Tom Jermann: Thanks for everything because without you and your vision, this book would have NEVER happened!

My mom and dad: Thanks for all the love, patience, guidance, knowledge, and wisdom!!!!

Zak Zlozower, the person in my life who keeps me going and is also the coolest guy in the world!

David Lee Roth, the greatest entertainer ever!!!!!

Plus,

Ruby

Edward and Alex Van Halen

Michael Anthony

Steve Mockus and everyone at Chronicle Books!!!!

Peter Mallick Thanks for everything as always!!!!

David Atlas Thanks man!!!

Baret and Vic Lepejian

Rosa Gomez The staff at A&I Photographic and Digital Services. The BEST photo lab / imaging house in the world!!!

Frank Meyer Byrd Leavell Man, we almost had it!!!!

Toby Yoo

Buddha

Dalai Lama

Nyree Bird Thanks for all the help with LIFE.

Illantra

Fidar

Evesta

Jes Christensen

Silvia Brown

Deepak Chopra Zakk and Barbaranne Wylde Love you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Randall Rhoads

Jimi Hendrix

Matt Sencio

Michael Karlin

Bill Lonero

Sandy Martin Plute Something special!!!!

Carmen Cole

Matt Beal Awake

Emmy Burns

Pete Angelus Ted Templeman

Brad Tolinski

And all the Van Halen fans throughout the world, because without you guys, there wouldnt have been this incredible band who made such INSANE music!!!!

THANKS!!!!!!

LOVE,

Zloz

Your ears are only the side door for truth. Our eyes tell the real story, and with Zloz its a series of a thousand word photos that have come to speak even more volumes with time.

Neils work routinely captures the artists vision, however content-rich or content-free, and delights in the process. While the tunes freeze a moment of intangible passion, great photography tells a better story. More importantly, perhaps we as people become more available to the realities of who we were and what the hell was I thinking when I wore that?

Frequently the simple idea that you had the willingness to wear something like that qualified as your entire personal statement. And all the statements are here, as well as all the ambition, delusions, faith, dreams, and small but manageable drinking problems. I have often found that by the time my dreams come true, Ive turned into somebody else. Zlozowers images remind us of who we were before that happened.

Neil is a rock star. His work will survive long after he puts down his camera. His efforts are internationally famous and you dont need to speak English to enjoy the show. His career is verging on Rolling Stones size and he is at home everywhere from Tokyo to Cheyenne.

How important is my great friends contribution to the general proceedings? If you had to choose, which would you rather be, deaf or blind? Thats what I thought. Me too.

Nothin but love ? Nothin but yeah!

David Lee Roth

The year: 1978

The place: Hollywood, California

I was a twenty-four-year-old kid/punk, but I always loved great hardcore Rock and Roll!!!! Unfortunately for me, the American music industry at that time was in a DISMAL state of being. The majority of the population was listening to DISCO, the Village People, Donna Summer, the Bee Gees. The BIG movie at the time was Saturday Night Fever, and as the Bee Gees said, Everyone Should Be DANCING, except I didnt want to dance!!!! I wanted to ROCK!!!!!!

One day I was in my office, doing some paperwork and listening to the radio, when all of a sudden I heard this strange noise!!!! It was a loud, blaring, air raid warning siren!!!!! I said to myself, OH SHIT!!!! ARE WE BEING ATTACKED???!!! But then I heard a BUMP BUMP BUMP BUMP and realized that YES!!!!! My senses, my body, and my soul were being attacked by four local homeboys/musicians from Pasadena, California. They called themselves VAN HALEN WOW!!!!!!! The song was Runnin with the Devil. Then the guitar chords hit me!!!! The guitar was RAW, CRUDE, NASTY, but TASTY!!!! Id never heard ANY guitar sound like that before!!! Then the singers vocals hit me!!!! ALSO RAW, CRUDE, NASTY, but TASTY!!!! Never heard ANY singer sound quite like that before. The rhythm section was tight as could be, and the background vocal harmonies were right on the button.

The next song started, and I heard guitar playing like NO ONE ON THIS EARTH ever played before!!! ERUPTION!!!!! OH MAN!!!! WAS THIS GREAT!!!!! It was so incredible it was actually SICK!!!!

For the finale, the radio station played You Really Got Me, an old Kinks song, but Van Halens version KICKED ASS on the original Kinks version!! At least I thought so. I WAS SOLD!!!! MY MOUTH WAS OPEN!!! Not only did I love what I heard, but I thought, These guys are going to be HUGE and going straight to the TOP!!! And I wanted to go there with them!! Right there, I said to myself, I gotta work with these guys!!!

I started shooting Rock photos back in 1969, and one of my strategies as a Rock photographer was to always try to have foresight to be able to realize what artists were going to make it and try to hook up with them when they were small and unknown, because once a band starts making it big, EVERY photographer wants to work with them. I did this with Ted Nugent AND Aerosmith and now I had my sights on Van Halen. I HAD TO WORK WITH THEM!!!!

And, a few weeks later, I was going to have my chance!!! At least I thought so. It was now summer 1978, and a couple of photographers I was working with at the time and I were hired to shoot a huge outdoor concert in Texas called Texas Jam. Scheduled to play were Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, Heart, Journey, etc., etc., and the ALMIGHTY VAN HALEN. Because we were hired by the promoter, we had total access to everyplace, everything, and everyone. At least I thought so

It was a blistering 115 degrees outside!! I was onstage about ten minutes before Van Halen was to go on, and I was really excited, when all of a sudden the most intimidating human being I have ever seen in my life approached me. He was only about 5-foot-3, but was wearing a black leather coat, skin-tight black pants, kick your ass black boots, black leather gloves, Peter Fonda Easy Rider aviator sunglasses, a pair of handcuffs on his belt, andI believe he had some Mace and a billy club. As he was approaching me, I thought Oh shit. What the FUCK did I do now???? He came up two inches from my face and said, Who the FUCK are you, what are you doing, and why are you here??? I said I was shooting for the promoter and had total access and was approved to be onstage to shoot the whole set for all the bands. In a very professional BUT very intimidating way, he said Yeah, all the bands and their whole set EXCEPT FOR VAN HALEN, and said, Get the FUCK out of here right now! I SPLIT A.S.A.P. with my tail between my legs!! I was really devastated at not being able to photograph the band that I thought was going to be the next huge success. BUT by not being able to shoot them, I had the opportunity to go into the audience to check out the band and see what they had and if they could deliver the goods. And they did not disappoint me one bit!!! From the second they hit the stage, they had the crowd, AND ME, in the palms of their hands. IT WAS BRUTAL!!! THEY DESTROYED ALL!!!! NOW, I wanted toneeded towork with them more than ever!!! A week after the Texas show, I decided to call their publicist, Bob Gibson (who I had known for years), and said I want to work with your band, Van Halen. He said, Okay, theyre playing some local Los Angeles shows. Ill get you a photo pass, and you can shoot them live. And so a week later I was driving down to San Diego to shoot a VH headline show, and the next night out to Long Beach to shoot another VH headline show. Once again, the band delivered the goods, and I guess no other photographers had the foresight to shoot them, cause I was the only one photographing them at those shows. A few weeks later they were playing a Day on the Green show at the Oakland Coliseum and --I decided to fly up to shoot them live, PLUS I was able to set up a QUICK five-minute session before they went onstage. I posed them against a yellow, orange, and green background that was backstage, and I did my usual Zloz yelling-and-screaming routine to try to get some rock and roll attitude out of them, and I think they were a little takenoverwhelmedby the way I was working with them. I really dont think they ever had a photographer work with them like that before!!!