ON FIRE

Van Halen might not have been the same group without Ted Templeman, the producer who discovered and signed them, then produced their greatest albums. He tells Guitar Player how it all began with a friendly tip: "Ted, these guys are hot!"

- KEN SHARP

FROM HIS DAYS as an artist with the '60s band Harpers Bizarre to his multi-Platinum hit-making forays producing Van Halen, the Doobie Brothers, Aerosmith, Cheap Trick and Montrose, Ted Templeman has always been content to let the music do the talking.

But through all his many adventures, no one artist has had quite the impact that Van Halen did. In addition to signing the band to a contract with Warner Bros. Records, Templeman nurtured them through the making of their 1978 self-titled debut album and continued with the group through its most successful era. In the following interview, Templeman reflects on how he first heard Van Halen and what went down during the preparation and creation of their ground-breaking debut record, an album that introduced Eddie Van Halen to the world and changed both guitar playing and hard rock.

Take us back to being invited to see Van Halen at the Starwood. What was your initial impression of the band?

Marshall Berle told me about them. I knew Marshall for a long time. He's [comedian] Milton Berle's nephew, and he was kind of managing them. He said, "Ted, these guys are hot. Why don't you just get out there and see them?" So I went down there and went upstairs, so they wouldn't see me. I was watching Ed playing and I thought, Shit! I've never seen anything like this.