Alex Van Halen Collection Auction, Items Sell As High As $200k

The Alex Van Halen Sale Is Over!  Backstage Auctions was the company that handled the sale of Alex’s items and boy were there some really cool things up for grabs.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, I don’t think Alex gets the respect in the drumming community that he should.  He’s a little underappreciated in my opinion.  Sure, Eddie stood out in the band because of his mind-blowing riffs and solos, but Alex…..what a force!  He had such a powerful yet nuanced playing style and really infused a mix of different types of rhythms in his parts.

Hot For Teacher alone would be something to show everyone!  But more than that, he had great fills and really a tight and solid back bone for each song.  It was very impressive sounding to me and has inspired me in many ways as a drummer myself.

Now, The Alex Van Halen Collection has some awesome stuff for sale through Backstage Auctions.  In just over a week a slew of items were sold off.  There were drum kits, personal items, autographed pieces, record awards, and more!

As for what brought in a bunch of money.  Some of the heavy hitters were the going that was part of the drum set on the Van Halen 1980 Invasion Tour.  That went for Over $200k!!!  He also sold off a gold record for the 1984 album which went for close to $28,000.   Plus, there was a set of three handwritten copies of Practice notes from the band that brought in over $3,000.

Alex commented on the Action saying, "What a fantastic auction! I am so happy to see my drums, gear, awards, and collectibles go to new homes. Enjoy and use them like I did... Van Halen fans are the best!!!"

What’s neat about it too is that a portion of the proceeds will go to the Ride on Therapeutic Horsemanship charity to further support the services they provide to those in need.

I’m just kicking myself that I didn’t hop on to see if there was anything I could afford!!

Black Sabbath is a band that has inspired so many other artists.  They have a huge library of tunes.  Let’s take a look at the 5 Top Black Sabbath songs according to Jersey!

Each weekday I do a feature called “First Call Last Call” at 5 pm.  I post a question of the day to our WDHA Facebook page. Listeners go on and answer with their band or song and then I put together a block of tunes based on those responses for 5 pm.  It’s a lot of fun to read through everyone’s responses. Sometimes they’re bands or songs I didn’t think of or forgot about. It’s really interesting to see!

Yesterday was the date in 2013 that Black Sabbath released their final album.  I thought, why not ask DHA listeners for their favorite Sabbath songs?  Of course, there were some great responses!  And it was fun to read them.

I personally love Sabbath and although Dio’s time with them gave us some awesome music, I lean towards the Ozzy era.  I love how much they would experiment and also how many different sounds they had.  They were dark and they were heavy and yet they still had moments of emotion and reflection.

They also had very interesting lyrics dealing with fantasy religion and dreams.  They kind of went through and covered everything.  Some very interesting stuff in their body of work!  And it’s always resonated with the DHA listeners.  And so many others who picked up a guitar and started a rock band and created music.  They are pioneers in the world of Heavy Metal.   

As I previously mentioned, I know there are fans of the Dio era and there are some killer songs they made with him.  But for me it’s all about the original lineup.  Either way, let’s take a look at the...

It's got such an iconic guitar riff that opens the song up. And it's so different in the fact that it starts heavy, but has this lighter interlude or prechorus. Really cool stuff!

Very unexpected from a metal band.  A ballad?  Oh yeah!  It works really well and is fun to hear Ozzy sing.

It's such a dark song.  Kicking off with that storm......then the devil chords.  It's haunting and eerie and man, does it let you know that Sabbath has arrived!

I think people love this one because of the harmonica, I really do.  It's so different and almost fun.  But yet still dark and heavy.  Only Black Sabbath could do this!

Such an epic song. Lots of open space with Ozzy railing against politicians and warmongers.  The band is so tight on on point in this one.  Which you have to be.  They sound in top form!