STEVE ROSEN: TONECHASER – UNDERSTANDING EDWARD: MY 26-YEAR JOURNEY WITH EDWARD VAN HALEN
This episode of Big Blend Radio features Steve Rosen, a veteran rock journalist who discusses his book, “Tonechaser – Understanding Edward: My 26-Year Journey with Edward Van Halen.” Rosen first met Edward in 1977 and had a friendship with him that lasted until 2003. “Tonechaser” chronicles that relationship and describes in poignant and heartfelt detail what it felt like to be friends with him. Watch here in the YouTube player.
As a contributor to “Guitar Player” magazine, Rosen also wrote a prodigious 16 covers in a six-year span and been tapped seven times to write books on several high-profile musicians, including Jeff Beck, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Black Sabbath, Free/Bad Company and Randy Rhoads. The traveling troubadour’s work has taken him to distant vistas in search of mysterious stories and elusive sagas—hand-selected to accompany numerous bands as a traveling wordsmith for the likes of Led Zeppelin, The Who, Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Loggins & Messina, ZZ Top, Aerosmith, Lenny Kravitz, Alice Cooper, The Firm, Van Halen, and others.
Recently, Rosen’s main focus has been organizing his incredibly extensive and rare collection of audio interviews dating back to 1973. The entire library represents well over 1,500 hours of content, with hundreds and hundreds of classic rock’s most-engaging, enraging and entrancing characters, including Edward Van Halen. This archival process led to the unearthing of what Rosen called “The Twilight Tapes”—50 interviews representing hours of late-night phone calls with the Van Halen guitarist, who happened to become a very close friend over the years. “The Twilight Tapes” sparked the idea to sit down to write TONECHASER in 2020 and the rest, as they say, is rock and roll history.
More: https://www.tonechaserbook.com/
Photos in the book and featured with this podcast are by legendary Van Halen photographer Neil Zlozower.
