In a recent interview on Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast, Alex Van Halen revealed that he and Eddie Van Halen had some doubts about what to name the band at first. However, the unexpected help came from KISS’ Gene Simmons.
“We can give credit for that to Dave [Lee Roth], believe it or not. He was someone who suggested it. A few years after we had started getting some kind of recognition in the LA area, Gene Simmons [of Kiss] said, it sounds like a shift company. Change it to… I forgot what it [was]… He wanted ‘Virus’ or something,” he explained.
The drummer continued: “With all due respect, he’s been there. So you take his opinion with a little bit more weight than you would somebody who’s not done it before. But it just didn’t sound right. So we stuck with Van Halen.”
Sure, the brothers later used their own last name to name the band, but it felt strange to them at first. “It sounded awkward in terms of being egomaniacal,” Alex added. “And that just wasn’t who Ed and I were. But we kind of warmed up to it. And then the rest is history.”
It was Roth who suggested they use Eddie and Alex’s last name for the band. He believed it would give the group the lasting power they were aiming for. Roth earlier revealed that another name under consideration was Rat Salad, taken from an instrumental track on Black Sabbath’s album ‘Paranoid.’ However, Roth intentionally guided his bandmates toward a more personal choice.
“Let’s make something that’s going to have some longevity to it, that has a little bit of shadow, and a little mystery,” Roth told the band when he suggested using the name Van Halen. “You’re not sure what a Van Halen is. It’s like Santana. That could be the name of a place, it could be the name of a person.”
As it comes to why Roth didn’t suggest his own last name, he added: “Single syllables never swing.”
The name stuck, and Van Halen became one of the most important bands in rock music. They went on to become one of the best-selling bands ever and were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. After Eddie passed away in October 2020, Van Halen broke up, ending more than 50 years of making music together.
