Three Lessons I Learned Touring With Van Halen by Stevie Adamek

[Guest blog post by Stevie on Hellhound Music]

“Van Halen’s first album had just come out in early 1978, and they had two huge hits, Running with the Devil and You Really Got Me. I was in a band called Bighorn, a five-man group based out of Seattle that sounded like a cross between Elton John and Queen. We had just been signed to CBS Canada and USA. I had been a producer for five years at Seattle West studios, which produced Heart, Foghat, Shyanne, and other bands. Based on some studio work I had done with a couple of the other band members, Bighorn’s management had asked me to join the band in August 1977 to write songs for the group as well as play drums. Then Bighorn was recruited to open for Van Halen.

This was our first big tour. We had toured the Pacific Northwest for about a year, but we were excited because this was our first national tour, and it was with one of the biggest rock bands in the world at the time.

The tour ended up being five dates, or two and a half weeks, with Van Halen. Then we switched over to opening for Boston and Journey after that. I was on the road with Bighorn for a total of about a year, on and off, as we would get signed on to the national tours and then come back for a while and play regional shows.

Looking back on those days, I can see there are a few very important lessons I learned early on from this experience that have served me well over my music career.” [Read more here]