Runnin’ with the Devil: A Backstage Pass to the Wild Times, Loud Rock, and the Down and Dirty Truth Behind the Making of Van Halen by Joe Layden and Noel E. Monk…now that is a mouthful for a book title. The book takes you on the journey of the David Lee Roth era of Van Halen and for some the true era of Van Halen. The story is from the point of view of their Tour Manager and later Manager Noel E. Monk.
Before we get in to it, if you want to read a much better review of the book, go see my friend Deke at his blog as it was his review that made me get this when Amazon offered on the Kindle for only $2 (or was it $3)…either way it was cheap and worth that price.
The book picks up with Noel coming in as their tour manager for the tour supporting their incredible debut album ‘Van Halen’. We don’t get any insight into the making of that album or really any album for that matter as Noel didn’t go to the studios while they were recording (or rarely ever did). We also don’t get any information on their forming or even their time with Gene Simmons which would have been nice, but again, this is not a band member telling the story and I had to get over that fact.
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2 Loud 2 Old Music 