Gregory Butz formerly served as the vice president and marketing director of Wire Stone, a digital-marketing agency in Chicago. Currently the vice president of marketing communications for Serta Simmons Bedding, Gregory Butz of Saratoga Lane in Glenview, IL, enjoys listening to the music of Van Halen.
Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, the group began as a quartet featuring brothers Eddie on guitar and Alex Van Halen on drums, lead singer David Lee Roth, and bass player and vocalist Michael Anthony. They originally dubbed the band Mammoth but changed it after they discovered another band with same name. The group also considered calling themselves Rat Salade.
Van Halen is credited with reinvigorating hard rock with their self-titled 1978 debut that sold six million records. Eddie Van Halen energized the ensemble through his guitar style, marked by high-speed riffing and tapping the fretboard. Roth’s flamboyant vocals and salacious persona also contributed to packed arenas.
Roth eventually left the band for personal reasons. Sammy Hagar, who had a successful solo career, joined in 1984 and helped continue the group’s hit streak. When Hagar was dismissed in 1996, replacement singer Gary Cherone participated in the band’s least successful album: Van Halen III. The band’s roster then became less stable, and Hagar and Roth performed with them throughout the 2000s. Eddie Van Halen remained the group’s mainstay despite a bout with cancer.
The ensemble returned to top form with 2012’s A Different Kind of Truth, which premiered at number two on the Billboard Top 200. However, plans for a 2019 tour with the original lineup did not materialize.
