The bizarre reason why Geddy Lee banned Van Halen from a concert

While general positivity surrounds the guitarist, there has always been a bit of tension between Van Halen and Rush. Geddy Lee was never a big fan of Eddie and it was all due to a concert the two were doing in the same city.

“We’re going back in time now — back a year to Leicester, England,” said David Lee Roth, recalling the incident, “We’d just finished playing; great show, everyone’s really up, it was Michael (Anthony’s) birthday and we went back to the bar and Rush was staying at the same hotel.”

Van Halen didn’t know that Rush was also staying at the same hotel, and that’s where the tension started: “They’d rented the bar with all the booze in it. And our guys didn’t know that, and they came in and said, “What, free booze?! Wow!!’ And they cleaned up the place, which put the guys on the guys a little bit.”

The real friction came when Rush returned to the bar. While they were happy to share alcohol with the band, when Geddy Lee started showing some Rush tapes to Eddie, in his drunken state he ended up ruining the records. “Geddy was playing some Rush tapes on a tape recorder. He said something to Ed, and Ed’s beer went into the tape recorder… Well, that caused a little friction.

While the Van Halen boys believed that mistakes were made, Lee never got over the stolen alcohol and the destroyed tape recorder. The band found out about it the next time they met in Las Vegas and realized that Rush had banned everyone, including the road crew, from their after-show party.

“Rush is playing before Van Halen in Las Vegas and it’s been known that no one from Van Halen is allowed into the show. No one. No road crew, no one,” Roth said. Lee tried to find Eddie after the show to clear the air, and when he approached, the guitarist ended up being rugby tackled by one of his bodyguards. Since then there has been an ongoing tension between the two bands and it all started with a spilled beer.

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