"We realized that we have never made a live album with Dave," says the guitarist. "Since we had already released a studio album with Wolfgang playing on it, it also made sense for us to do a live album with both Wolf and Dave. Another reason why we put out a live record was to give people the experience of hearing us play our classic songs live."

When it came time for the project, Van Halen had plenty of source material to choose from. "We have a Pro Tools rig out by the front of the house and have recorded every show since the beginning of the 2007 tour when Dave first got back in the band," Eddie explains. "But we never originally intended to put out a live record. We just recorded our shows to archive them.

"We have so much material that it was too overwhelming to listen to about 150 shows and pick the best one. I didn't even bother listening to any of the past shows, outside of a few jams here and there. We played pretty much the same set every night, although we changed a few songs here and there. We played the classics. That's what people want to hear."