I went to high school in San Diego. My best friend and I were insane fans of early Van Halen. The first few weeks after me getting my drivers license we drove up to Los Angeles “to find Van Halen” and spent he day roaming the Sunset Strip. We actually got into the Rainbow and drank beer. We spent the entire day ooohing and ahhhhing outside Gazzarri’s and Whisky a Go Go.
That evening we’re driving back to the Hollywood freeway to go home when my friend starts violently slapping me and breathlessly saying “TURN AROUND, TURN AROUND”. David Lee Roth was actually filming what turned out to be a MTV video segment. It was also a Hit Parader magazine. He was walking out of the Hollywood Athletic Club with a couple of scantily clad women dressed as cops, hauling him away, with a bunch of faux 40s newspaper reporters flashing pictures. They had like 5 takes doing the same thing. So between takes I go up and ask for his autograph – and he gives me the biggest smile he’s got, and grabs the pen and bites it hard, leaving massive teeth mark imprints, and hands it back: “Here you go kid.” That was his signature.
My friend and I almost fainted at how cool that was.
We hung out and ultimately tried to follow him to wherever he was going. Alex Van Halen and like four other guys picked him up in an old thrashed VW bug. We tried to chase them but they ran a bunch of red lights and expertly ditched us.
Some time later I had a fistfight with a guy to lay claim to the guitar pick Eddie tossed to the crowd.