Ted Templeman

TED TEMPLEMAN ON WORKING WITH ALLAN HOLDSWORTH

Ted Templeman was Van Halen’s producer, and the man who signed Allan to Warner Bros at Eddie Van Halen’s behest. In his memoir of 2020, “A Platinum Producer’s Life in Music”, there are a few pages where Templeman recalls the making of “Road Games”. Here is a summary, with a few abbreviated quotes from the book.

Templeman went to see Allan at a gig, and found Allan to be one of the very best guitarists he’d ever seen. He didn’t like everything about the band, but he was there to scout Allan, and they signed a deal. Eddie was ecstatic, and expected to co-produce and play on the record. Things turned sour rather quickly, though. Templeman writes:

TT: “So the three of us came together for our first production meeting. Allan said, “I have a request. I don’t want you guys in the studio with me. Well, I want you guys to produce me but not be in the studio while I’m recording.” Ed looked panicked. He had talked this guy up to no end, and now he has made a totally insane request. So I told Allan, in my most diplomatic tone, that I wasn’t sure that was going to work for us.“

TT: “Ed then asked how Allan expected him to play on the record if he wasn’t going to be in the studio while Allan recorded? Allan then said, though he’d apparently been open to the idea initially, that he didn’t want Ed to play on the record.”

TT: “After Allan left, Ed and I were both out of sorts. “Ted, what the fuck are we going to do?” I told Ed I’d try to talk some sense into him. Ed said, “Can you believe this guy? He’s nuts!” All we could do was shake our heads and laugh, because, honestly, it was so off the wall all you could do was laugh.”

After this meeting, the situation turned even worse:

TT: “He fought me every step of the way. We clashed on everything from his band lineup to his musical direction. My job as a producer was to expose his abilities to a wider audience and to sell albums for Warner Bros. He seemed to have no interest in doing any of the things that I thought might get us closer to that goal.”

TT: “I left Holdsworth to his own devices in the studio much of the time, because working with him was so difficult. Warner Bros. released the project as an EP called Road Games. It sank without a trace upon release.”

Templeman’s book is available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3sCGcGv