Hear the Full Version of Eddie and Alex Van Halen’s ‘Unfinished’
· Ultimate Classic RockAlex Van Halen has released the full version of “Unfinished,” the last song he wrote with Eddie Van Halen before the guitarist’s death.
The six-minute piece – subtitled “Between Us Two” – had been teased ahead of its inclusion in the audiobook version of Alex’s memoir Brothers, which is published today.
The track was made available for free download via the Van Halen website, and can be heard below.
READ MORE: All 75 David Lee Roth-Era Van Halen Songs Ranked Worst to Best
Brothers is a personal and emotional exploration of the siblings’ early years right up until David Lee Roth’s initial departure from Van Halen in 1985. Alex previously explained that he felt it became a different band after the “waste” of their split with the singer.
In a recent interview with the Guardian, Alex said he hadn’t fully dealt with Eddie’s passing in 2020 after a cancer battle. “In fact, I’ll probably be dealing with it until my dying day,” he reflected.
Alex Van Halen Says Eddie Could Have Been Alive Today
He added that his younger brother might still be alive had he paid attention to his family. “This is probably a spiritually, psychically wrong thing to say; but had Ed listened to our dad, he’d still be here. Instead, he did everything he could to fuck that up … We owe everything to [Dad]. He was the icon, the one who we respected.”
Citing the example of Eddie’s way of dealing with his initial tongue cancer diagnosis in 2000, saying: “[R]ather than going to an oncologist, he went to an oral surgeon, who used a blade that could fell a tree to cut part of his tongue out. Ed, what the fuck are you thinking?”
He also reported that their mom had pushed them to learn classical music as a way of fitting in as immigrants to America – and she’d always regarded Van Halen’s music as “a disgrace.”
Eddie and Alex Van Halen – ‘Unfinished / Between Us Two’