Part 1 of my conversation with author Greg Renoff about his upcoming book about the early days of Van Halen.

Show notes:

• Check out Greg's Van Halen Rising page

• Book is out Oct. 1

• Greg's a college professor

• Fan of arena rock and guitar as a kid

• In grad school, wrote his disseration and a book about a traveling circus

• Many parallels to a rock tour

• Wanted to learn more about VH's beginnings

• Interviewed people around the scene starting in 2009

• Eventually talked to Michael Anthony, Ted Templeman, Donn Landee

• Started at the bottom and worked up

• Dug into the myths around VH's major label signing

• Eddie's beginnings on guitar

• VH hit a lot of dead ends along the way

• The first big tour really made the band

• The fine art of choosing opening acts

• Getting a book publisher isn't easy

• Putting together the book proposal

• Finished writing in summer 2014

• To be continued

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The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.