Eruption: Conversations With Eddie Van Halen was written by music journalists Brad Tolinski and Chris Gill, and was released in October 2021. The book was comprised of over 50 hours of interviews with Eddie, most of which were conducted in Eddie's 5150 Studio and were unreleased prior to the book being published.
Eddie's brother (and Van Halen drummer) Alex Van Halen released his own book Brothers earlier this month about his life alongside Eddie both in and out of the band. Tolinski read Brothers and noticed there were quite a few quotes that allegedly sounded pretty familiar. In a post on Facebook, Tolinski accused Alex Van Halen of lifting roughly 40 quotes from Eruption: Conversations With Eddie Van Halen, all of which were unattributed.
"I just finished Alex Van Halen's Brothers," wrote Tolinski. "I found much of it very engaging…if not a little familiar. My co-author Chris Gill and I, counted close to forty quotes taken directly from our book Eruption: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen—most them unattributed. Okay, technically all them unattributed, since he never directly mentions our book. I guess it's a back-handed compliment—it means our reporting was accurate. However, I would add, if you've read Brothers and enjoyed it, it's only half of the story. Read our book and get Ed's perspective."
Alex Van Halen has not responded to Tolinski's claims.
