INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 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. Told with acclaimed New Yorker writer Ariel Levy Brothers is seventy-year-old drummer
Alex Van Halen's love letter to his younger brother Edward (Maybe "Ed " but never "Eddie")
written while still mourning his untimely death. 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 mom 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 behavior. 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 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 successful 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.
Brothers includes never-before-seen photos from the author's private archives.
