Van Halen Backyard Washed Out
December 11, 2007

The backyard of Eddie Van Halen was washed out by a broken water main this week as the legendary guitarist was out on tour with his band. According to E!, a water main burst near the home of Eddie Van Halen near the Hollywood Hills and it caused a mudslide that ended up working its way through the guitarist's backyard. The LA Times reports that at around 1am on Monday morning, an air valve on a 26-inch main ruptured and unleashed a torrent of mud and litter that flew down a 300-foot slope and landed in the swimming pool of Eddie Van Halen. Luckily, for the singer, the disastrous water main break stopped short of destroying his home because firefighters had places sandbags there in during the night, anticipating the mudslide to come.

Still, it's not pretty in the backyard of Eddie Van Halen. The mess even shut down the very busy intersection of Coldwater Canyon Avenue and Mulholland Drive in Studio City. Emergency crews had to work on the damage and the water main break all night to try and clear it before the morning rush. According to E!, the damage was fixed by the Department of Water and Power in time for the roads to reopen yesterday morning in time for the commute but it was too late to save the pool of Eddie Van Halen, which is currently filled with all kinds of unmentionably awful debris.

Janie Liszewski, the publicist and live-in girlfriend to the 52-year-old rock legend, told the Times that Eddie learned about what happened early on Monday morning from the firefighters who saved his house. After a concert that night in Edmonton, Canada, Eddie Van Halen quickly hopped a plane home to assess the damage himself. When he returned he saw what was essentially a swamp in his backyard and Liszewski quotes him as saying, "Where's the pool?" She also added, "You're tired, you're beat up, you come back to find your backyard completely wasted."

The pool itself was so buried in mud from the water main break that it was basically non-existent, according to Liszewski. The home of Eddie Van Halen was the only one in the area unlucky enough to suffer any damage, but it could have been significantly worse. E! reports that the flow ran with enough momentum from the water main break point that it covered two miles of ground before it was stopped by the sandbags from getting into the interior of the home of Eddie Van Halen.

Van Halen will play the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Friday night. The tour continues across America and wraps up in Dallas in March. The reviews by critics and fans of the Van Halen tour have been very positive. We hope Eddie Van Halen can continue to rock without a pool.

Van Halen was far from the only band to reunite this year. Check out some news items about the Led Zeppelin reunion and the news about Their London Concert. Finally, The Eagles returned to the studio with a fury. Read about it here.