When Eddie Van Halen soundtracked an erotic movie
Van Halen was never afraid to get their hands dirty when laying down their greatest tunes. Throughout their long history, Eddie Van Halen was looking to get the sounds that he heard in his head down on paper by any means necessary, always working a way to push his songs in a different direction whenever he walked into the studio. Although he may have worked wonders working with Sammy Hagar and David Lee Roth, his opportunity to fly solo got a little more risqué.
As the 1990s ended, Van Halen was at a low point in popularity. Although the band had massive hits at the start of the decade with songs like ‘Right Now’, the Hagar era swiftly came to an end with the release of ‘Humans Being’, which cast a dark cloud over the rest of the group’s work for the next few years.
While the band tried to turn things around by hiring Gary Cherone as their new vocalist, things didn’t go as planned, with Cherone never finding his place when working on songs like ‘One I Want’ on the band’s third self-titled record. Although Eddie would sing a song himself on the next record, the following years would result in him going on a binge of every single legacy tour he could think of.
When working on a greatest-hits package for the band, Eddie wanted to get Hagar back into the fold to record some new tunes, creating songs like ‘Learning to See’ and ‘Up For Breakfast’ for the album. Outside of the mainstream Van Halen output, Eddie would eventually work his way into the world of adult entertainment for his next project.
For Eddie, boundaries between projects were always fluid. He never viewed music as something that needed to be protected by prestige or context, only by whether it allowed him to experiment. If an idea sparked his curiosity, it was worth chasing, regardless of how it might be perceived from the outside. That instinct had fuelled his greatest breakthroughs, but it also left him vulnerable when discipline gave way to indulgence.
By this stage of his life, the studio was less a place of focus and more a refuge. Eddie continued to chase sound and sensation with the same intensity he always had, but without the structure that once kept him grounded. The results reflected that imbalance, flashes of brilliance wrapped in moments that felt unfocused or unwell, signalling that his creative restlessness was beginning to mirror his personal struggles.
Instead of doing the traditional instrumental solos he was so good at, Eddie lent his talents to soundtrack the adult film Sacred Sin. While the medium had been a new venture for Van Halen, he did provide any needed services, including letting the film crew use his house for some of the shoot and even recording his music video of him performing on the guitar.
Although the idea of Eddie Van Halen doing soundtrack music sounds enticing, the results are a lot more off-putting once you know what was beneath everything. Despite being one of the premiere guitar players in the world, Eddie was not taking care of himself around this time, leading to various parts that sound tonally off and the accompanying music video of him looking like he was abusing his instrument.
Hagar also painted a grim picture of what Eddie’s life was like when he returned for a reunion tour a few years later. Although Eddie was a massive downward spiral, things would turn around when David Lee Roth re-entered the fold. Drafting in his son Wolfgang Van Halen to play the bass, Wolfie wouldn’t perform if he knew his father was using, causing Eddie to quit cold turkey before going back out on the road.
Eddie lending his skills to an adult film may have seemed like an exciting detour in his career, but it lands right in the middle of his wilderness period, where everything started to go sideways for one of rock’s finest guitarists.
