The Real Story Behind Van Halen’s Lost Boy

No one knew the true story until "Everybody Wants Some: The Van Halen Saga" came out. Then we learned about Mitch Malloy.

According to the book and the Van Halen News Desk, Sammy Hagar was out of the band. Van Halen needed another lead singer, and Mitch's name came up and they had already checked him out. The band brought Mitch Malloy up to the studio to try him out and talk.

Mitch was a good candidate, in my opinion, he told me he had already told the band he would sing all of David Lee Roth era songs, and he would sing the Sammy Hagar era songs. He had a huge range and was a good performer. Malloy would spend a month at the 5150 studio jamming Van Halen songs. Eddie Van Halen walks up to Mitch Mallow and says, this is your gig, you're the lead singer of Van Halen.

As Malloy tells below, Van Halen left for an MTV appearance. That's when Mitch's heart sank. There was Van Halen on stage with David Lee Roth, and Roth says, "We're Back!!!". That's when Mitch Malloy thought to himself, maybe he didn't want this drama. He told Eddie Van Halen, he wasn't interested in being one of the lead singers, he wanted to be THE lead singer.

In the video, Malloy says, during the time he spent with the band, they gave him a song to work on, Eddie said, take it home and finish it. One of those songs was called "It's The Right Time". He has finally finished it and has the blessing of the band to play it for people.

So, over time there were rumors that there was a song from a "Lost Boy" who had done some time with the band and left. Who else can say they turned down Van Halen?

I was able to talk to Mitch about the experience and what he's up to today and found him to be a very creative man, and also one that is very thankful for everything he has. He has a wealth of stories and he told me some of them. It was an incredible couple of hours talking about music and about our favorite band, Van Halen.

Here's Mitch singing Panama, just imagine what the band would have been.

Here's the lost song