I've always enjoyed Van Halen. They've never been a favourite, but I, like most others, am constantly blown away by Eddie's skill with the guitar. Having said that, never been a fan of David Lee Roth, and will always consider Van Halen 2.0 (with Sammy) as the better band.

I'd already read Red, Sammy's bio, including his time with the band, so this feels like it fills in those missing years.

Monk is a decent—not amazing, but decent—storyteller, and even if only half the stories and anecdotes in this book are true, it's still mindblowing that the band's still around, forty years later (though they really seem like they're on life-support at this point).

Monk gives a down-and-dirty insider's view of the band, from their signing to Warner through to the end of the 1984 tour. You hear about the full DEA (as Monk refers to it, the Drugs, Ego, and Alcohol), as well as the sex, and the dirty, behind-the-scenes deal-making and infighting and power games.

It's not a deep book, and there's not a lot of insights here, but it's fun, all the same. Sort of like your standard Van Halen album. ( )

“Runnin’ With the Devil” by Noel Monk and Joe Layden is a pretty good rock band biography.

Monk was Van Halen’s road manager for their first few tours, coinciding with the release of their first couple of albums, before the band promoted him to their overall manager, with an equal share in the band. By the time he joined their first tour they’d already had a few years experience playing together at parties, receptions, small clubs, and smaller gatherings around Southern California, but no experience with a national or international tour.

He spent nearly 24/7 with them at the start, managing every aspect of their tours, which is how they came to trust him enough to eventually manage the band, from their third album up through their mega hit album “1984”. So, writing the book Monk knew what went on with the band behind the scenes and in their personal lives.

Monk doesn’t cover much about the creativity or meanings behind any of their songs of music, he covers a lot more of their tour antics, personal issues and business aspects. He’s quite clear early on that he stayed away from any of the music creativity, that wasn’t his area at all, and hardly spent any time with the band during any of their studio time.

Near the beginning of the story, when the band was younger and hungrier he writes more about their backstage antics, the parties, the girls and what-not. He writes about using threats and sometimes force to keep merchandise pirates from undercutting the band’s genuine merchandise.

But from the point in their lives where Monk got married through the end, he writes a lot less about the fun antics, less about the sex going on, and a lot more about the band members drug and alcohol problems.

He mentions that for their first few albums the band kept asking him, as their manager, to get more time to write and record albums instead of just going on the road, then taking two to four weeks to record, then going on the road again. And how he kept giving in to the record company to interrupt that time for tours here and there.

But then once he managed to give them a year off for “1984” it nearly ended the band. The personal and artistic differences between music virtuoso, Eddie Van Halen, and lyrics-writer and frontman David Lee Roth had too much time to drive a wedge between them.

I wasn’t a Van Halen fan at all during the time period covered by the book, in fact I loathed their music terribly, being part of the soundtrack of being picked on at school, and being a stuck up snob for much heavier, much less popular metal. I didn’t come to appreciate their music till much later in life. But now, reading about the band in that time period I can match up their progress as a band with the videos I saw on MTV and what songs were playing at the time in classrooms and what-not…. It brings back some memories. ( )

A fascinating story of the beginning and the end of the David Lee Roth era of Van Halen as told by their manager during that time, Noel Monk. Unbelievable that a band that had so much success was so dysfunctional. ( )

Sex, drugs and rock & roll circa 1978-84, as recounted by the band's erstwhile road manager. (Whether Eddie Van Halen was in fact "our Mozart," as was recently asserted at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction telecast or not, he was a great talent, and this is a fairly shallow but interesting portrayal of him.) ( )

The opening to Running With the Devil is probably one of the most recognized opening lines from the age of hard rock. Van Halen made up quite a bit of my high school era rock but quickly faded out after the departure of David Lee Roth. Monk's book takes the reader from the formation of the band to the last concert with all the original members. Eddie and David Lee Roth seem childlike. Alex is shown as the adequate drummer and alcoholic. Michael Anthony is portrayed as the only normal person in the band, balanced and stable, but unable to stand up for himself.

The book is written from the manager's point of view and does not concentrate on the music. For example, an album is mentioned but none of the tracks. I really don't remember what songs were on Fair Warning. It's been a while since I listened to Van Halen.

I saw Van Halen live once. On May 29, 1983, Van Halen was paid a record $1.5 million to perform on set 90-minute set. The event was the US Festival and I was one of the 350,000 people there. It was a day when Ozzy Osbourne was more coherent than David Lee Roth. Monk calls it the worst performance by the original Van Halen lineup. I remember David Lee Roth forgetting the words and cursing at the crowd (not in a fun way). We left before the set was over. Van Halen went downhill from there evolving into Van Hagar.

Monk offers his experiences as Van Halen's manager. The reader must remember that Monk was fired by the band right about the time it broke up. That may help explain the treatment of the different band members in the book. I listened to the audio version of this book and it did bring back some memories of the era of party rock and just plain partying. ( )