Van Halen : Zero : (Gene Simmons Demos 1976)

I LIVE MY LIFE

LIKE THERE'S 

NO TOMORROW

 Van Halen: 

unquestionably one of

 the most influential 

hard rock

 bands of all time. 

By the mid-1980’s, 

every band had to

 have a 

“hot shot gun slinger”

 guitar player; 

such was the

 impact of 

Eddie’s innovative fretwork. 

David Lee Roth 

set the front man bar

 extraordinarily high. 

Where

 Ozzy Osbourne, 

Robert Plant 

and

 Freddie Mercury

 had mastered

 the art of 

driving a crowd wild,

 David Lee Roth 

took it airborne.

Van Halen formed in 1972,

 and released their debut album

 in 1978. 

Originally known as

 Genesis

 and then

 Mammoth, 

the original lineup 

featured 

Eddie and Alex Van Halen, 

plus bassist

 Mark Stone. 

By 1974 

they had replaced Stone

 with

 Michael Anthony, 

and added the flamboyant

 front man Roth. 

This legendary lineup 

would go on to record 

several landmark demos, 

many of which would 

be re-recorded later. 

Some songs appeared 

on the first

 few Van Halen records. 

Some wouldn’t appear

 on album until

 1984 

and 

A Different Kind of Truth

 (2012).

Famously, 

Van Halen 

hooked up with Gene Simmons

 to record a 

10-song demo.

 Simmons wished the band

 to change their name to

 “Daddy Longlegs”, 

and we should 

be grateful that

 this never occurred. 

The Simmons partnership 

was short-lived. 

According to Simmons

 in a 1988 

Much Music interview, 

record label heads 

thought David Lee Roth 

looked too much like

 Jim Dandy

 from 

Black Oak Arkansas. 

Simmons also claimed 

that labels 

“didn’t get” 

why there was no

 backing guitar 

when Eddie

 took a solo. 

Unable to land

 Van Halen a deal, 

Simmons tore up 

the contract

 he had with the band.

Other fruit from this period

 included three Kiss demos, 

still unreleased

 to this day. 

Eddie and Alex Van Halen

 played on Gene’s 

demos for 

“Have Love Will Travel” 

(aka “Got Love For Sale”), 

“Christine Sixteen”, 

and

 “Tunnel of Love”. 

These songs were demoed

 for 

Love Gun, 

but 

“Tunnel of Love” 

would not be released 

until Gene’s 

1978 solo album,

 in re-recorded form. 

These songs are considered

 a holy grail for

 Van Halen and Kiss fans alike,

 and to my knowledge

 they have never 

been bootlegged.

One demo that has been 

heavily bootlegged

 are the 10 songs 

Van Halen recorded with Simmons

 in LA and New York, 

referred to as the

 “Zero” demo. 

It has never been 

officially released anywhere. 

Fans hope that one day

 it will be released in a

 Van Halen box set

 of some kind. 

In the meantime, 

we have

 low-quality bootlegs

 to study and enjoy. 

So Sit Back Relax

 And Listen To

 VAN HALEN

FROM THE 

EARLY BEGINGINGS 

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