Ted Templeman did everything in his power to stop the original Van Halen line-up from breaking up
Ted Templeman did everything in his power to stop the original Van Halen line-up from breaking up
Renowned book author Greg Renoff was recently interviewed by Metal Mike for the 80’s Glam MetalCast 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.
Renoff indicated (as provided by the 80’s Glam MetalCast podcast):
“Ted didn’t think “Jump” would fit with Van Halen’s catalog at first. He thought it was too keyboard driven and too much of a left turn for the band.
Ted hated the idea of Van Halen breaking up. He did everything in his power to stop it from happening. Even though he thought there was no of replacing the original Van Halen, Ted thought it was amazing to work with the Eat ‘Em And Smile Band. He thought the musicianship was off the charts.
Ted’s sister really pushed him to go check out the BulletBoys. Ted was impressed [and got them] signed them to Warner Brothers. Ted to this day is very proud of the mix and big powerful sound of that album.”
Sleaze Roxx stated the following in its review of A Platinum Producer’s Life In Music:
“The Van Halen stories are what many fans would love about the book, and will not be disappointed. Ted talks about the problems during the 1982 Diver Down album, where the band only wanted to record a single of the Roy Orbison hit “(Oh) Pretty Woman” because the band wanted to make a mini movie, which forced them into the studio quickly due to the success of the song, to guitarist Eddie Van Halen and engineer Donn Landee hiding the recordings from him (missing the label’s deadlines) during the 1984 sessions.
These actions ended up splitting the band members and production crew into separate teams throughout the album’s process. Templeman discusses how the Van Halen brothers were at odds with Roth during this time, especially when the latter recorded his Crazy From The Heat EP, to locking Dave and Ted out of Van Halen’s 5150 studio when it was time to record songs.”
You can listen to the interview with Greg Renoff by Metal Mike on the 80’s Glam MetalCast podcast below:
80’s Glam Metalcast – Episode 30 – Greg Renoff (Van Halen Rising)
In this episode I talk to author Greg Renoff. He has a new book out called “Ted Templeman – A Platinum Producers Life In Music”. This is a great read for all…