“Ain’t no way in hell, I will ever be as good as that!”
— Alex Van Halen on his brother Edward‘s guitar playing at a very early age

“There’s only 1 Ed.”
— Alex Van Halen

“Ed, just play.”
— Alex Van Halen

Metal Sludge — In his first video taped interview in many years, Van Halen drummer Alex Van Halen speaks to a live crowd at the Frost Auditorium in Culver City California on October 24th 2025.

The oldest Van Halen brother speaks at length about life, growing up with his younger brother Edward and starting the band with David Lee Roth.

Van Halen starts from his early youth back in Holland and how the family came to the United States of America.

There is also talk about the backyard parties which led to the band playing clubs in Southern California.

One thing that immediately stands out is that Alex appears to be in very good spirits.

Van Halen is full of smiles, laughing and cracking jokes during the 70 minute interview.

At some point in the interview, Alex reads from the book and references his Father’s advice to stick together, to stay united and stay focused.

There is a point late in the interview where Van Halen gets choked up talking about his brother saying; “Ed fought it his whole life…”, which then finds the drummer taking a few moments to gather himself.

This was ironically near the end of the interview, after Van Halen speaks about going to rehab 8 times and his brother’s life-long battle with substance adding; “Ed was very brave, all the way up to the very end.”

We have shared the full video below.

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