Brothers by Alex van Halen

A memoir from Alex Van Halen, drummer of Van Halen, written as a love letter to his younger brother Edward.

Told with New Yorker writer Ariel Levy, Brothers is seventy-year-old Alex Van Halen's account of growing up with, playing alongside, and grieving the loss of his brother. The man the world called Eddie, but who was always Ed to Alex.

Alex recounts the brothers' childhood, first in the Netherlands and then in working-class Pasadena. An itinerant musician father. A proper Indonesian-born mother who told her boys to always wear a suit no matter how famous they became, and who was both proud and practical enough to take a doggie bag home from a star-studded dinner. He tells of the musical politics, the infighting, and plenty of bad-boy behaviour along the way. But mostly this is a story of brotherhood, music, and enduring love.

"I was with him from day one. We shared the experience of coming to this country and figuring out how to fit in. We shared a record player, an 800 square foot house, a mom and dad, and a work ethic. Later, we shared the back of a tour bus, alcoholism, the experience of becoming famous, of becoming fathers and uncles, and of spending more hours in the studio than I've spent doing anything else in this life. We shared a depth of understanding that most people can only hope to achieve in a lifetime." Alex Van Halen

There has never been an accurate account of the brothers or the band. Alex wants to set the record straight on Edward's life and death. Brothers includes never-before-seen photographs from his private archives.