Arriving in California as a young boy in the early 1960s, Edward Van Halen and his brother Alex were ripe for the coming musical revolution. The sons of a Dutch, saxophone-playing father, the brothers discovered the Beatles, Cream and others. From the moment their hugely influential 1978 debut landed, Van Halen set a high bar for the rock ´n´ roll lifestyle, creating an entirely new style of post-´60s hard rock and becoming the quintessential Californian band of the 1980s. But there was also an undercurrent of tragedy to their story, as Eddie´s struggles played out in public, from his difficult relationship with the band´s original singer, Dave Lee Roth, to substance abuse, divorce and his long-running battle with cancer. With unique insights, Paul Brannigan´s Eruption reaches beyond the headlines to explore the cultural and social contexts that shaped this iconic guitarist, while also turning up the dial on a life lived at volume eleven.