Producer Ted Templeman was hoping David Lee Roth would rejoin Van Halen after ‘Eat ‘Em And Smile’

Producer Ted Templeman was hoping David Lee Roth would rejoin Van Halen after ‘Eat ‘Em And Smile’

Renowned book author Greg Renoff was recently interviewed by Mitch Lafon for the Rock Talk with Mitch Lafon podcast to promote his latest book that he wrote about producer Ted Templeman and titled A Platinum Producer’s Life In Music. Templeman provided Renoff with his story and the latter put it into a book format.

In a prior interview with the 80’s Glam Metalcast podcast, Renoff had revealed that Templeman did everything in his power to stop the original Van Halen line-up from breaking up. Templeman ended up producing lead vocalist David Lee Roth‘s debut full-length solo album Eat ‘Em And Smile after the singer left Van Halen. The remaining Van Halen band members — guitarist Eddie Van Halen, drummer Alex Van Halen and bassist Michael Anthony — ended up joining forces with former Montrose singer Sammy Hagar and releasing the album 5150.

In his interview with Lafon, Renoff indicated (as transcribed by Sleaze Roxx): “Even when he [Ted Templeman] was doing Eat ‘Em And Smile, which I thought was really fascinating, was that Ted said in the back if his mind, he always thought ‘This is just a segue way to get Dave back into Van Halen. Basically, when the two albums come out, 5150 and Eat ‘Em And Smile, and they do so well, Ted thought, ‘Well, this is a no brainer. Both guys, meaning Ed and Dave, can come back to each other. Nobody has to come back begging for the other to come back. They both can come back from a position of strength and say, ‘Let’s put this back together with the original’, kind of like how Aerosmith did eventually in the mid-’80s and it just never happened ’till much later.

So I think, as Ted mentions in the book, that was one of the most profound disappointments of his career because he just wanted the band back together. And to be clear, Ted made it clear to me, he didn’t really have the expectation that he would produce another Van Halen record necessarily. There had been a lot of static during 1984 and it was just sort of… I think that Ted sort of seen it as a fait accompli where his time may have passed but he just thought that ‘These guys need to be together because there’s something special’ and it didn’t happen.”

You can listen to the interview with Greg Renoff by Mitch Lafon for the Rock Talk with Mitch Lafon podcast below: