‘Unfinished’: Hear Eddie and Alex Van Halen’s Final Song Together
The full version of “Unfinished,” the final song Eddie and Alex Van Halen wrote together, is out now.
The song is featured in the audiobook version of Brothers, Alex Van Halen’s new memoir, which is out today (October 22).
As previously reported, Brothers is 384 pages, and the audiobook is 720 minutes. The book will delve into the story of Alex and Eddie Van Halen. Detailed in the book will be their story of immigrating to the United States from the Netherlands as children. It will also touch on Alex and Eddie’s mother and father.
Earlier this month, a preview of the Brothers audiobook was released. The clip had Alex reading a section of his memoir titled “Overture.” In the section, he talks about his late brother and bandmate.
Alex says during the clip, “… I watched you take your last breath. In that moment — all the stuff you did or made in this world — you can’t take it with you. Since you’ve been gone, I catch myself talking to you, yelling at you, in my head or sometimes out loud. I still have trouble believing you’re gone, and probably for me you never will be. Outliving my little brother? This just wasn’t the plan. As the older brother, I was supposed to die first. Same as always, Ed… butting in line.”
Alex continues, “I’ve watched — sometimes with anger, sometimes with grief, and other times with pride — as the world has mourned your passing, and other people have claimed to tell your story. But I was with you from day one. We shared the experience of coming to this country and figuring out how to fit in. We shared a record player, an 800 sq. ft. house, a mom and a dad, and a work ethic.”
Alex adds, “Later, we shared the back of tour bus, the experience of becoming successful, becoming fathers and uncles, of alcoholism and spending more hours in the studio than I’ve spent doing anything else in this life. We shared a depth of understanding that most people could only hope to achieve. We shared a last name, and we shared a band.”
Brothers ends with the 1985 Van Halen/David Lee Roth split. In the book, AVH writes that Roth leaving the band ” … was the most disappointing thing I’d experienced in my life, the thing that seemed the most wasteful and unjust. Until I lost my brother.”
