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81-515: Lou Brutus (born November 10, 1962) is an American radio personality, program director , voice-over talent, musician, and photographer. He is best known as the host of the nationally syndicated rock radio programs hardDrive with Lou Brutus and hardDrive XL with Lou Brutus , as well as his work at Sirius XM Radio . As host of hardDrive with Lou Brutus and hardDrive XL with Lou Brutus , as well as through his music programming for Sirius XM Radio , he has assisted in breaking many rock bands in

162-640: A Steinberger GL2T guitar. Its distinctive switch-operated vibrato system can be heard on the 5150 album. From 1991 to 1995, Van Halen worked with Ernie Ball / Music Man, developing the Music Man EVH model guitar, which was later renamed the Axis after the partnership ended. In 1996, Van Halen teamed up with Peavey , where they developed the Peavey EVH Wolfgang ; this relationship lasted until 2004, when Van Halen joined forces with Fender , initially releasing

243-639: A headstock . The first recorded keyboard work by Van Halen is " And the Cradle Will Rock... ", written and performed on a Wurlitzer electric piano through a Marshall amp . The riff for "Dancing in the Street" (on Diver Down ) was written and performed on Minimoog . " Jump " and " I'll Wait " were written and performed on an Oberheim OB-Xa , while " Dreams ", " Why Can't This Be Love " and " Love Walks In " are with Oberheim OB-8 . Eddie also wrote " When It's Love " and " Right Now " on keyboards. During

324-461: A 2012 CNN interview, he said, "I listened to the song, and I immediately go, 'Can I change some parts?' I turned to the engineer and I go, 'OK, from the breakdown, chop in this part, go to this piece, pre-chorus, to the chorus, out.' Took him maybe 10 minutes to put it together. And I proceeded to improvise two solos over it." He added, "I was just finishing the second solo when Michael walked in. And you know artists are kind of crazy people. We're all

405-407: A Half Men . His first guitar, purchased as a child from Sears and Roebuck , was a Teisco Del Rey . He played the guitar in his elementary school band, The Broken Combs. Van Halen played many custom-built and heavily modified guitars, especially early in his career. Upon embarking on his professional music career, he purchased a Gibson Les Paul , for which he replaced the original P90 pickup on

486-463: A Wolfgang USA guitar with a black finish and ebony fretboard. For the 2015 tour, he used a white Wolfgang USA guitar designed by Chip Ellis, featuring a custom kill switch . Van Halen's first string endorsement deal happened around 1989 when Ernie Ball launched the 5150 EVH line of guitar strings. The gauge of the strings differed slightly from typical electric guitar strings at the time, which were 9, 11, 16, 24, 32 and 42 (in thousandths of an inch) -

567-780: A battle with lung cancer in an Instagram post shortly after his death. Van Halen died of a stroke at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California , on October 6, 2020, at the age of 65, surrounded by his wife, Janie; son and then-current bassist of Van Halen, Wolfgang; ex-wife Valerie Bertinelli; and brother and co-founder/drummer of Van Halen, Alex. His son, Wolfgang, confirmed his death on social media later that same day. Some of Van Halen's childhood landmarks in Pasadena became memorials where fans could pay their respects. In February 2017, Van Halen donated 75 guitars from his personal collection to The Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation ,

648-633: A clip of him performing with G. E. Smith from a February 1987 show, which was hosted by Valerie Bertinelli. In 2020, the Pasadena Library, located in Pasadena, California , offered several archives and documents related to Eddie Van Halen. The collection included several albums, along with photographs by Neil Zlozower, and several CDs. The library also uploaded Van Halen's albums to Hoopla . On November 16, 2020, his son Wolfgang Van Halen announced on The Howard Stern Show that Van Halen would not continue as

729-697: A first name of "Bo" and the last name of a famous punk rocker with Brutus becoming lead singer Bo Biafra, the last name a nod to Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys . While finding an early champion in Columbus, OH radio station WWCD-FM, the group's no-holds barred approach immediately garnered negative press including the November 19, 2004 front page of the Detroit Free Press with the headline "OSU Punks Rip into U-M Rivals." Brutus as Biafra appeared alongside footage of

810-552: A five-hour, weeknight version was launched and has gone on to be heard in over forty markets in the United States. The program's features include Rant of the Day, Poetry Corner, Weird World News, Odd and Ends, Flix Pix, Are You Game and It Came From the Web . In 2011, Lzzy Hale of the band Halestorm was added to the program doing an "Ask Lzzy" segment where she answered personal questions from

891-446: A heavy metal and hard rock album. By the early 1980s, Van Halen was one of the most successful rock acts of the time. Their album 1984 went five-times Platinum a year after its release. Its lead single, " Jump ", became the band's first and only #1 pop hit and brought them a Grammy nomination. The band won the 1992 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocals for the album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge . In 2019,

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972-518: A hobby. He has stated on the air that he as yet does not wish to pursue selling his hobby shots for fear of turning it into work. In November 1996, guitarist Eddie Van Halen of Van Halen chose The Lou Brutus Experience as the name for the all star band he put together to play the Jason Becker ALS Benefit concert. The group also featured Steve Lukather , Billy Sheehan and Pat Torpey . Chicago street singer Wesley Willis recorded

1053-498: A janitor, his mother as a maid. Since the boys did not speak English as a first language, they were considered "minority" students and experienced bullying by white students. They began learning the piano at age six, commuting from Pasadena to San Pedro, Los Angeles , to study with an elderly piano teacher, Stasys Kalvaitis. Van Halen never learned to read music. Instead, he watched recitals of Bach or Mozart repertoire and improvised. Between 1964 and 1967, he won first place in

1134-634: A job as morning show producer for John DeBella and shifts as a weekend disc jockey. He was there in those capacities from 1984 to 1988. In 1988 he accepted a job as morning show producer at WPLJ-FM in New York City where he worked with Jim Kerr, Shelli Sonstein and Howard the Cab Driver under Program Director Larry Berger. After a brief stint, Brutus left WPLJ-FM to begin his first ever full-time on-air hosting job at WHJY in Providence, Rhode Island . It

1215-481: A limited-edition " Frankenstrat " inspired guitar. In 2009, they continued to press forward on the guitar front by releasing the Wolfgang-inspired EVH guitar line. The brand has since expanded to include additional guitars and accessories. Van Halen was awarded three patents related to guitars: a folding prop to support a guitar in a flat position, a tension-adjusting tailpiece , and an ornamental design for

1296-425: A little bit strange. I didn't know how he would react to what I was doing. So I warned him before he listened. I said, 'Look, I changed the middle section of your song.' Now in my mind, he's either going to have his bodyguards kick me out for butchering his song, or he's going to like it. And so he gave it a listen, and he turned to me and went, 'Wow, thank you so much for having the passion to not just come in and blaze

1377-453: A log. It's very organic. So it wasn't my brown sound. It was Alex's." In 1993, Van Halen collaborated with Peavey Electronics to develop a series of amplifiers and cabinets, collectively called the 5150 series, which ended in 2004. Van Halen then began work with Fender, developing the EVH products and brand. In 2007, the first EVH branded amplifiers were produced by Fender, followed shortly after by

1458-494: A program that provides musical instruments to students in low-income schools. At the 2020 Billboard Music Awards , Eddie Van Halen was honored by several former musicians he worked with. Jack White from The White Stripes , G. E. Smith , Charlie Benante from Anthrax , and Dierks Bentley gave speeches as a tribute to his career. Wolfgang Van Halen also shared several personal photos between him and his father. On October 10, 2020, Saturday Night Live paid tribute by playing

1539-406: A pull-off to an open string, and I thought wait a minute, open string ... pull off. I can do that, but what if I use my finger as the nut and move it around? I just kind of took it and ran with it." Until it expired in 2005, Van Halen held a patent for a flip-out support device that attaches to the rear of the electric guitar. This device enables the user to employ the tapping technique by playing

1620-682: A reckless-abandon kind of way." Speaking at an event at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in 2015, Van Halen discussed his life and the American Dream . "We came here with approximately $ 50 and a piano, and we didn't speak the language. Now look where we are. If that's not the American dream, what is?" Eddie and his brother Alex formed the band Mammoth in 1972. Two years later, David Lee Roth joined Mammoth as lead singer, and Mammoth officially changed its name to Van Halen. It became

1701-412: A single functional pickup, a Gibson PAF bridge pickup from his ES-335, which he enclosed with paraffin wax to prevent feedback. The middle pickup was removed and in its place he had stuffed a non-functional selector switch and random wires, while the neck pickup slot was replaced with a red single-coil pickup, that was also non-functional. The original selector switches and tone knobs were removed, and

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1782-441: A solo but to actually care about the song and make it better." Eddie was so pleased, he refused payment for his work. Ironically, Jackson's Thriller went to the #1 spot on the charts, pushing Van Halen's album 1984 to #2. In addition, Van Halen made cameo appearances in the music video for Frank Sinatra 's " L.A. Is My Lady ", an episode of Café Americain starring his then-wife Valerie Bertinelli, and an episode of Two and

1863-793: A staple of the Los Angeles music scene, playing at well-known clubs such as the Whisky a Go Go . At a 1976 concert at The Starwood in California, the band opened for UFO . Kiss bassist Gene Simmons saw the performance and said, "I was waiting backstage by the third song." He asked the band about their plans, and they said, "There is a yogurt manufacturer that is going to invest in us." Gene begged them not to go that route and invited them to record some demos at Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village , New York City. Gene signed them to his company, and

1944-436: A third of his tongue. He was declared cancer-free in 2002. He blamed the tongue cancer on his habit of holding guitar picks in his mouth, stating in 2015: "I used metal picks – they're brass and copper – which I always held in my mouth, in the exact place where I got the tongue cancer. ... I mean, I was smoking and doing a lot of drugs and a lot of everything. But at the same time, my lungs are totally clear. This

2025-519: A tour stop in Nashville, Tennessee. He later purchased a second mini-LP guitar, built to slightly different specs, the first being a honey-sunburst with mini-humbuckers, and the second being dark wine-red with a thicker body and full-size humbuckers. In 1982, Van Halen made his first guitar endorsement by launching the Baretta model with Kramer . This partnership lasted a decade. In the mid-1980s, he purchased

2106-492: Is "...basically a tone, a feeling that I'm always working at ... It comes from the person. If the person doesn't even know what that type of tone I'm talking about is, they can't really work towards it, can they?" In an interview with Billboard magazine in June 2015, he stated that with the expression "brown sound" he actually tried to describe the sound of his brother Alex's snare drum , which he thought "...sounds like he's beating on

2187-458: Is a fine player, of course, and he's the one who named the technique." George Lynch said in an interview that he and Van Halen saw Harvey Mandel tap at the Starwood in the 1970s. Van Halen named Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin as an influence, saying in one interview with Guitar World : "I think I got the idea of tapping watching Jimmy Page do his " Heartbreaker " solo back in 1971. He was doing

2268-632: Is a member of both ASCAP and NARAS . As a photographer, Brutus has worked on field capturing images of Major League Baseball as an accredited league photographer including home games of the Washington Nationals , New York Mets , Baltimore Orioles , Philadelphia Phillies , Oakland Athletics , Chicago Cubs , Chicago White Sox , San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers . He has photographed numerous music acts and festivals he has covered during his radio duties. He also frequently photographs lighthouses and American Civil War battlefields as

2349-453: Is just my own theory, but the doctors say it's possible." In 2012, Van Halen underwent emergency surgery for a severe bout of diverticulitis . Recovery time required due to the surgery led to postponement of Van Halen tour dates scheduled in Japan. Van Halen was later hospitalized in 2019 after battling throat cancer over the previous five years, and his ex-wife Valerie Bertinelli also mentioned

2430-689: The Dutch Air Force , while his mother was an Indo woman from Rangkasbitung on the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia ). After six years in Indonesia, the family moved to Amsterdam and later moved to Nijmegen , Netherlands. After experiencing mistreatment for their mixed-race relationship in the 1950s, the parents moved the family to the US in 1962. They settled near family members in Pasadena, California , where his father worked as

2511-634: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame . Individually, Van Halen received acclaim for his guitar work in the band. Van Halen engaged in several projects outside of his band, including solo work and partnerships with his brother on film soundtracks such as The Wild Life , Twister , and Sacred Sin as well as musical collaborations with Kiss bassist Gene Simmons , singer/songwriter Nicolette Larson , Queen guitarist Brian May , Sammy Hagar , Black Sabbath , Roger Waters , Toto guitarist Steve Lukather , and LL Cool J . In 1982, Eddie Van Halen contributed

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2592-456: The active rock radio format notably Slipknot , Stone Sour , Avenged Sevenfold , Godsmack , Disturbed , Five Finger Death Punch , Sevendust and Halestorm among others. He was an early hire for XM Satellite Radio , later merged with Sirius Satellite Radio to form Sirius XM Radio, where he has acted as program director , senior program director, disc jockey, interviewer and voice-over talent. Brutus' voiceovers there include acting as

2673-531: The "100 Greatest Guitar Solos", showcased the tapping technique, which uses both left and right hands on the guitar neck. Although he popularized tapping, he did not invent the technique. According to MusicRadar , Steve Hackett  – lead guitarist with Genesis in the 1970s – is "widely credited with inventing two-handed tapping" and was an influence on Van Halen. When asked about this, Hackett said, "Eddie and I have never spoken about it, but yes, he has credited me with tapping... Eddie

2754-840: The 1995 Molson Ice Polar Beach Party in Tuktoyaktuk , Canada which featured a private performance by Metallica . Brutus would also host the 1997 Molson Ice Polar Beach in Churchill, Manitoba with a performance by Collective Soul . Despite its success, the station changed formats within a few years. When asked about the station's short life Brutus said, "Its run may not have been as long as some other stations but I am reminded of Joe Turkel 's line to Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner , 'The light that burns twice as bright burns for half as long – and you have burned so very, very brightly.'" While in Chicago, Brutus

2835-551: The 4th greatest guitarist of all time in its list of the “250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” in 2023. Van Halen dealt with numerous health issues beginning in the 1990s. He died in October 2020 due to complications from throat cancer . Edward Lodewijk Van Halen was born in Amsterdam on January 26, 1955, the son of Jan van Halen and Eugenia (née van Beers). His father was a Dutch jazz pianist, clarinettist, and saxophonist working for

2916-577: The 5150 and OU812 tours, Eddie Van Halen would play keyboard parts live while Hagar played the guitar. From the For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge tour, Van Halen played guitar throughout the concerts, while the keyboards were played backstage by touring keyboardist Alan Fitzgerald up through 2004, a fact kept low-key in the press. Van Halen's 1978 instrumental solo " Eruption ", which was voted number 2 in Guitar World ' s readers poll of

2997-664: The EVH Ernie Ball strings measured 9, 11, 15, 24, 32 and 40. After this endorsement deal ended, guitar strings became part of the Fender EVH line and are now sold as EVH Premium Strings. Van Halen used a variety of pickups , including 1970s Mighty Mites, which were made by Seymour Duncan and were copies of DiMarzio Super Distortion pickups. He also used Gibson PAFs , one of which was rewound by Seymour Duncan in 1978. In an interview with Guitar World in 1985, Van Halen stated that his guitar sound style which he called "brown sound"

3078-531: The Edward-endorsed Art Series guitars under Fender's Charvel brand and later developing the EVH brand. In 2006, Fender created the "Frank 2", a near-perfect production replica of the original Frankenstrat; Van Halen later claimed that when presented the two guitars in a blind comparison, he had some trouble picking out the original home-made guitar from Fender's production replica. For Van Halen's 2012 tour, and early 2015 television appearances, he used

3159-482: The Program Director is a senior manager responsible for the overall success of the program. A program director's role in a company that sells professional services is similar to a product manager 's role in a company that sells tangible goods. In radio or television , a program director or director of programming is the person that decides what radio program or TV program will be broadcast and when. In

3240-510: The Rock Radio format in regard to its artists relations, "I believe the rock end of the business needs to get its act together much in the way that country did when it comes to making artists a more integral part of each radio station. Management and labels need to step up and make their artists available to the stations. On radio's end, you must do a great job every time an artist is taking time out of their probably already overworked schedule. We on

3321-558: The Seal. The comics were drawn by Alan MacBain. An online only version, meant to be downloaded and colored, was released in 2010 under the title " Brutusman: The Dark Nut Returns ." The comic was again drawn by MacBain and written by Brutus. Brutus has produced at least two micro-brewed beers including "Brew Loutus Ale" and "Lou-In-Brau." They were produced thru local beer brewers in the Providence, RI and Chicago, IL areas. Label design for each beer

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3402-407: The United States. It was originally distributed by Sony SW Networks later moving to distribution through Media America and then United Stations Radio Networks . The show has been cited as an influence by hard rock and metal musicians including Breaking Benjamin and Corey Taylor of Slipknot who listened to the program while working at an Iowa porn shop as he plotted his path to stardom. In 2007,

3483-506: The age of 12, and he stated that he eventually needed alcohol to function. He entered rehabilitation in 2007, and shared in a 2015 interview that he had been sober since 2008. Van Halen was diagnosed with chronic avascular necrosis in 1995. After suffering from lingering injuries from past, high-risk, acrobatic stage performances and crashes, Eddie underwent hip replacement surgery in 1999. Van Halen began receiving treatment for tongue cancer in 2000. The subsequent surgery removed roughly

3564-579: The annual piano competition at Long Beach City College . Their parents wanted their sons to be classical pianists, but the boys gravitated towards rock music, and were greatly influenced by 1960s British Invasion bands such as the Beatles and the Dave Clark Five . Initially, Alex began playing the guitar, Eddie bought a drum kit; however, after he heard Alex's performance of the Surfaris ' drum solo on

3645-411: The ash body was bought for $ 50 as the wood had a knot in it. The tremolo bridge was originally taken from a 1958 Fender Stratocaster , and was later replaced with a Floyd Rose tremolo. He frequently replaced the neck on the guitar, going through a number of different ones through the years, and the pickup configuration was also frequently changed. In its most commonly used configuration, the guitar had

3726-505: The audience. Brutus left Chicago in 1998 to accept the morning show host position with WHFS-FM in Washington, D.C. He left in 1999. In late 2000, Brutus accepted the position of program director at XM Satellite Radio where he began in early 2001. It was at XM that Brutus began the genre bending Special X channel which mixed varied musical and spoken word formats into a bizarre amalgam known as Weirdness on Special X. Wired described

3807-843: The band Jehovah Waitresses and Guzda in 2011 for the band Grumpy Old Punks. Like the Dead Schembechlers, their music rooted in classic punk rock, with lyrics spoofing the problems of middle aged men. The band released the EP " Grumpy Old Punks " in 2011 and " Anarchy in the Prostate " in 2012. Artwork for both albums provided by underground cartoonist Derf Backderf . Song titles include " My Adjustable Rate Mortgage Sucks ," " That's No MILF That's My Wife ," and " Gotta Get A Nose Hair Trimmer ." Lou Brutus Links Dead Schembechlers Links Grumpy Old Punks Links hardDrive with Lou Bruts Links Sirius XM Radio Links Program director In program management ,

3888-545: The band in the HBO documentary " Michigan vs Ohio State: The Rivalry " with one pro-Michigan reviewer calling his on camera appearance "awful." The band announced their retirement following Bo Schembechler's death just a few hours before their 2006 "Hate Michigan Rally." They have since sporadically reformed with proceeds going to the Bo Schembechler Heart of Champion Fund charity. Brutus joined with old school friends K Roy of

3969-448: The band ranked 20th on the RIAA list of best-selling artists, with 56 million album sales in the US and more than 100 million worldwide. Additionally, Van Halen charted 13 number-one hits in the history of Billboard ' s Mainstream Rock chart; meanwhile, VH1 ranked the band seventh on a list of the top 100 hard rock artists of all time, and, in 2007, Van Halen was inducted into

4050-502: The band recorded early demos of their songs, including " Runnin' with the Devil ". Excited about the band, Gene approached Kiss manager Bill Aucoin and Kiss frontman Paul Stanley about them, but they dismissed his desire to sign them to Aucoin's management fold. Stanley later said he "rejected Van Halen to protect Kiss", and that they made an effort to make Gene drop the band to "keep Gene in check". The discouraging words caused Gene to rip up

4131-463: The baseball-centric "Play Ball" and the novelty holiday Special X-Mas programming. For Valentine's Day it featured The One I Love Ripped Out My Heart and Fed it to a Pack of Wild Dogs Anti-Valentine's Day Spectacular . Additionally, the channel presented a two-hour daily program of strange cover songs entitled Cover Songs That Give You a Burning in Your Esophagus . When Special X was dropped from

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4212-502: The bridge with a humbucker in order to sound like Eric Clapton. He later bought and briefly used a Gibson ES-335 , also because of its association with Clapton, though he damaged the body while modifying it and it later became cannibalized for parts on numerous other home-build guitar projects. He also owned an Ibanez Destroyer that was used extensively on the debut Van Halen album. Originally used in its natural wood finish, he later painted it white and made several modifications to

4293-532: The context of non-profit organizations , a program director is responsible for managing one or more of the organization's programs or services in a role similar to that of a chief operating officer . This job-, occupation-, or vocation-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Eddie Van Halen Edward Lodewijk Van Halen ( / v æ n ˈ h eɪ l ən / van HAY -lən , Dutch: [ˈɛtʋɑrt ˈloːdəʋɛik fɑn ˈɦaːlə(n)] ; January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020)

4374-466: The contract, and he "let them go" after feeling he may have held the band back. The next year, Warner Records offered Van Halen a recording contract. Eddie remained on good terms with Gene. It was rumored that Eddie nearly replaced guitarist Ace Frehley after his departure from Kiss in 1982, but that Gene talked him out of leaving Van Halen. However, neither Paul Stanley nor Eddie Van Halen remember this happening. Stanley did recall Eddie coming down to

4455-424: The electronics. After recording the album, he used a chainsaw to drastically modify the body shape, cutting a deep V into the bottom of the guitar, and painting it in a similar way to his later, more famous, Frankenstrat. Inset into the V, he hand carved teeth and set two eyehooks and chains; the new distinctive shape led to it being nicknamed "The Shark". He only played it for a short time in this state, however, as

4536-461: The greatest sports rivalry of all time by ESPN . Named for former Michigan head coach Bo Schembechler , The Dead Schembechlers featured pro-OSU/anti-Michigan songs like " Michigan Stadium is A Pile of Shit ," Ann Arbor Girls Are Dirty Whores ," and " I Hate Michigan ." Full length albums from the group include " Rocket to Ann Arbor ," " Wolverine Destroyer ," and " Rodriguez to Ruin ," which also featured artwork by Alan MacBain. . Each band member took

4617-471: The guitar in a manner similar to the piano with the face of the guitar oriented upward instead of forward. In 1980, Van Halen met actress Valerie Bertinelli at a Van Halen concert in Shreveport, Louisiana . They married in California eight months later on April 11, 1981, and had one son, Wolfgang , in 1991. In 2005, Bertinelli filed for divorce in Los Angeles after four years of separation. The divorce

4698-415: The guitar solo to " Beat It ", for Michael Jackson 's album Thriller , which became the biggest selling album of all time. Eddie became involved after The Who guitarist Pete Townshend became unavailable and recommended him. Eddie met with Quincy Jones and Jackson. Unsure of what he could add to a pop song, he played along with the song and ended up restructuring it before adding the classic solo. In

4779-467: The line up in 2008, Brutus was tasked with creating the first ever punk rock radio station Fungus 53 . Assistant programmer on the channel was DJ Russ Brown. The channel became respected enough for its support of the genre that it was celebrated by punk band NOFX in the song "Fungus". The song featured the lyrics, "I hate the radio but I like Fungus. The only punk-rock station, it's humongous. I think they just play Misfit's Walk among us. Fungus 53." After

4860-527: The modifications changed the tone of the guitar in an unsatisfactory way; he did retain the guitar for the rest of his life. The final state of the Shark can be seen on the cover of Women and Children First , where he posed with the guitar. He is most associated with the Frankenstrat , a custom guitar he built from parts. Originally pictured on Van Halen's self-titled debut album , the maple neck cost $ 80, while

4941-615: The monikers Ol' Dirty Brutus (nerdish hip hop music) and Lou Brutus and the Perfect Pachydermus Percussion Pitches (baseball themed tunes). He was a co-writer on the Dash Rip Rock concept album Hee Haw Hell . Early in his career, he created tracks to WMMR 's Morning Zoo Abbey Dirt Road and Zoo's Next albums. He has contributed liner notes and or photography to several artists including Frank Zappa , Mary Prankster , The Phenomenauts and The Methadones . Brutus

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5022-532: The music world, he is creator and lead singer of the comedy-rock bands Dead Schembechlers (a send-up of the Ohio State University versus University of Michigan football rivalry) which he formed with members of the Columbus, Ohio-based band Watershed as well as the Grumpy Old Punks (a band which features comedic punk rock takes on middle aged life). Other novelty flavored music has been released under

5103-469: The night shift. He remained in this capacity until offered the afternoon drive position at WRCX-FM in Chicago, Illinois . It was while at WRCX, dubbed Rock 103.5 on the air, that Brutus began to reach a national audience. During this time he started to host album premiere specials for trade publication Friday Morning Quarterback . He also traveled extensively including being the lone U.S. radio representative at

5184-502: The primary voice of the '40s on 4 channel which he based upon Bing Crosby announcer Ken Carpenter . Brutus has also hosted radio specials and created music channels for artists including Metallica , Disturbed , 3 Doors Down , Rush , Theory of a Deadman , Slipknot , Smashing Pumpkins , A Perfect Circle and others. In 2011, Five Finger Death Punch used Brutus to host their military intelligence-themed press conference in Los Angeles, California, for their Trespass America Tour . In

5265-449: The programming as, "Bizarre enough to make Dr. Demento woozy...a wild mix of wacky theme programming and 'categorically challenged' music." Brutus appeared on channel in the character of Generalissimo "Stoshu" Ortega during vignettes produced to sound like Cold War era Communist propaganda broadcasts promoting weird music instead of politics. The other regular channel voice was actor Joe Turkel . Special X also hosted themed programming like

5346-1094: The punk rock format and channel were axed in 2008, Brutus was named as Senior Program Director of the Active Rock format. This has included working with Sirius XM Radio channels Octane , Liquid Metal , Rock Bar, Faction and The Grateful Dead Channel as well as creating the Mandatory Metallica limited run channel. Brutus became host for the Artist Confidential Series following the death of original host George Taylor Morris . The long form music and interview series put Brutus together with artists as diverse as James Taylor , Evanesence , KoRn , Hank Williams Jr ., Smashing Pumpkins , Shinedown , Harry Connick Jr ., Weezer , Cheap Trick , Indigo Girls , Snow Patrol , Reba McEntire , Fall Out Boy , Eddie Money , Wynonna , Megadeth , The Oak Ridge Boys , Graham Nash , David Gray , Chicago , George Thorogood , Testament , The Fray and many more. He has criticized

5427-527: The radio have got to make the artists feel like they have to be on the air with us or they're missing out on something. Both sides need to respect each other, help each other and feed off each other." After 22 years with SiriusXM, Brutus was one of 475 employees who were laid off in March 2023. In 1992, Brutus began a series of comic books entitled " The Adventures of Brutusman ." The comics featured other personalities and characters from his radio show including Sammy

5508-457: The song " Wipe Out ", he gave Alex the drums and began learning the electric guitar. According to him, as a teen he often practiced while walking around at home with his guitar strapped on, or sitting in his room for hours with the door locked. Eddie and Alex formed their first band with three other boys. Calling themselves The Broken Combs, they performed at lunchtime at Hamilton Elementary School in Pasadena. Eddie cited this performance when he

5589-567: The song "Lou Brutus" for his 1998 self-released album Rock 'N Roll Jackflash . Author Elwood Reid included a character named Lou Brutus in his first book D.B.: A Novel . Brutus was born in Newark, New Jersey , on November 10, 1962. At an early age, his family moved to a farm in Englishtown, New Jersey . He is a graduate of Manalapan High School in Manalapan Township where he was active in

5670-512: The studio, being "blown away" by their song " Creatures of the Night ", and telling Stanley he wanted to get into playing keyboards. Stanley was confused at Eddie's interest in keyboards, but his interest resulted in the creation of " Jump ". The band's 1978 album Van Halen reached #19 on the Billboard pop music charts and was one of rock's most commercially successful debuts, highly regarded as both

5751-483: The theatre program as well as producing music concerts with local rock groups and acting as announcer of the afternoon PA announcements. It was at the suggestion of the school principal that Brutus was invited to be one of four students to record short vignettes for New York City radio station WABC-AM , which would be his first time on the radio. He later attended Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, New Jersey where he

5832-441: The volume knob was replaced with a knob labeled "TONE". The Frankenstrat, as shown on the cover of Van Halen I, was originally painted white with black stripes, but was recoated with Schwinn red bicycle paint in 1979. Before and during the recording of Van Halen II , he built a second "partscaster" guitar painted in a distinctive black-and-yellow striped paint job that earned it the moniker "The Bumblebee Guitar". That guitar

5913-946: Was a disc jockey on its radio station WBJB-FM . It was his growing up in Monmouth County in Central New Jersey that Brutus acknowledged as giving him a well-rounded appreciation of the radio world at an early age as signals were received from both the New York City and Philadelphia radio markets as well as the New Jersey stations. He has named radio personality Dan Ingram as a significant, early influence as well as Harry Harrison and Ron Lundy . He has also cited Scott Muni , Alison Steele and Vin Scelsa as others. While attending Brookdale Community College , Brutus began an internship with WMMR in Philadelphia . The internship led to

5994-438: Was an American musician. He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen , which he founded with his brother Alex in 1972. Van Halen is widely regarded as one of the greatest guitarists in rock history and was well known for popularizing the tapping guitar technique, allowing rapid arpeggios to be played with two hands on the fretboard . Rolling Stone named Van Halen

6075-405: Was approached by industry veteran Corinne Baldassano at the suggestion of Jacobs Media to host a new, nationally syndicated radio program, which would showcase the burgeoning active rock format. hardDrive with Lou Brutus debuted in thirty-five markets on July 4, 1996. Designed as weekend specialty programming, the two-hour, weekly show has since gone on to be heard in over 120 markets throughout

6156-516: Was at this juncture that he began his trademark of closing his radio programs with a quote from writer Hunter S. Thompson . He met with Thompson twice during this time during appearances by the author at the Somerville Theater outside of Boston, Massachusetts . They stayed in contact until Thompson's death in 2005 including Brutus' unsuccessful attempts to convince the author to host a hybrid music/political program on XM Satellite Radio . Brutus

6237-648: Was by Alan MacBain. Lou Brutus won the Radio Contraband Rock Radio Award for "Dj of the Year" for 2013 and 2014 for "Syndicated DJ of the Year" In 2004, Lou Brutus teamed with Colin Gawel and Joe Oestreich of the Columbus, OH based rock band Watershed to form the group Dead Schembechlers. The group took a satirical look at the football rivalry between Ohio State University and the University of Michigan , named

6318-726: Was finalized in 2007. The following year, Eddie proposed to his girlfriend, Janie Liszewski, an actress and stuntwoman who was Van Halen's publicist at the time. The two married in 2009 at his Studio City estate, with his son Wolfgang and ex-wife Bertinelli in attendance. His brother Alex Van Halen is an ordained minister, and he officiated Eddie's 2009 wedding and that of his former sister-in-law, Valerie Bertinelli, when she remarried in 2011. In 2024, after Van Halen's death, his son Wolfgang disclosed that his dad drank due to anxiety and felt like he needed Wolfgang there to stay clean and sober. Van Halen struggled with alcoholism and drug addiction throughout his life. He began smoking and drinking at

6399-400: Was in the fourth grade as key to his desire to become a professional musician. He described supergroup Cream 's " I'm So Glad " on the album Goodbye as "mind-blowing". He once claimed that he had learned almost all of Eric Clapton 's solos in the band Cream note for note. "I've always said Eric Clapton was my main influence," he said, "but Jimmy Page was actually more the way I am, in

6480-420: Was later donated to Rita Haney, the longtime partner of Dimebag Darrell Abbott , shortly after his death; it was placed in his casket and buried along with him. Eddie Van Halen used a mini- Les Paul guitar for " Little Guitars " ( Diver Down ). This is the only Van Halen recording that the guitar was used for. The mini-Les Paul was made by Nashville luthier David Petschulat and was pitched and sold to him during

6561-562: Was let go from WHJY in the spring of 1992. He did return for one night in 2003 to host a memorial edition of The Metal Zone in honor of his friend Mike "Dr. Metal" Gonsalves who perished in The Station Nightclub Fire . Shortly after his departure from WHJY, Brutus joined the staff of WBCN-FM in Boston, Massachusetts where he worked weekend and fill in shifts. By fall of that year, Brutus was back at WMMR in Philadelphia as host of

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