Eddie Van Halen’s performance on the Michael Jackson classic Beat It is widely recognised as one of the greatest guitar solos of all time. But his brother Alex, the drummer for Van Halen, wishes it had never happened - and describes it as “a mistake”.
In an interview with Rolling Stone to promote his forthcoming memoir Brothers, Alex talks about the time in 1982 when Eddie agreed to play on Beat It.
It was Alex’s belief that the four members of Van Halen should not work outside of the band. His logic was simple. It was all about maintaining a sense of unity within the group.
And so, as he reveals to Rolling Stone, he told Eddie not to play on the Michael Jackson song. He even thought of turning the tables and inviting Jackson to sing on a Van Halen track. But his appeals fell on deaf ears. Eddie lit up Beat It with that stunning solo. And all these years later, Alex Van Halen is still hurting about it.
“Why would you lend your talents to Michael Jackson? I just don’t f*cking get it,” he says. “And the funny part was that Ed fibbed his way out of it by saying, ‘Oh, who knows that kid anyway?’ You made the mistake! Fess up. Don’t add insult to injury by acting stupid.”
Eddie himself said of the fact that he never received payment for the Beat It solo: “I was not used. I knew what I was doing – I don’t do something unless I want to do it.” Eddie’s wife at the time, Valerie Bertinelli, was quoted as saying: “Ed never saw a dime, nor do I believe that he ever thought to ask to get paid. That was Ed.”
In the Rolling Stone interview, Alex Van Halen also states a belief shared by many Van Halen fans: that the band’s greatest music was created by the original line-up of Eddie and himself plus singer David Lee Roth and bassist Michael Anthony.
“The heart and the soul and the creativity and the magic was Dave, Ed, Mike, and me,” he says.
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