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Brothers

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What to expect

*Features an exclusive unheard track, the last written together by the Van Halen brothers*

In this intimate and open account – nothing like any rock-and-roll memoir you’ve ever read – Alex Van Halen shares his personal story of family, friendship, music and brotherly love in a remarkable tribute to his beloved brother and band mate.

‘A remarkable memoir’ Classic Rock

‘A highly emotional read’ Guardian

In his rough yet sweet voice, Alex recounts the brothers’ childhood, first in the Netherlands and then in working class Pasadena, California, with an itinerant musician father and a very proper Indonesian-born mother – the kind of mum who admonished her boys to “always wear a suit” no matter how famous they became – a woman who was both proud and practical, nonchalant about taking a doggie bag from a star-studded dinner. He also shares tales of musical politics, infighting, and plenty of bad-boy behaviour. But mostly his is a story of brotherhood, music, and enduring love.

"I was with him from day one,” Alex writes. “We shared the experience of coming to America 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."

There has never been an accurate account of them or the band, and Alex wants to set the record straight on Edward’s life and death.

Critics Review

'Brothers winds up telling a far more complex story than its author may even have intended. At once, it's a story about the power of familial love, the mysteries of genius, via Eddie's paradigm-shifting approach to the guitar, and the role of the immigrant in America, with all of its related issues of race and class. At the same time, it's an age-old story of rock'n'roll excess, told with the ribald humour you'd expect from a band that often served as a synonym for 'party'.' Guardian

'There's plenty of musical minutiae here, but it's a bigger, deeper read than that - it's about living and dying. The intractable grip of brotherly love and what happens when that earthly bond is broken forever. A wonderful book.' Classic Rock

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