Completely Conspicuous 368: In a Simple Rhyme

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   Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!   The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor by Text-Enhance" href="http://compcon.libsyn.com/">Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.