In June 1980, Van Halen played a show in Leicester, England, the same night that progressive rock band Rush was in town. Rush rented out a bar to celebrate, and Van Halen’s road crew crashed the party. “And they cleaned the place out, which put their guys on edge a little bit,” Van Halen singer David Lee Roth told Creem in 1981 (via 2112.net). Nevertheless, Rush bassist Geddy Lee let the members of Van Halen into the bar and hung out with Eddie Van Halen. “They’d both been drinking a little bit, and Geddy was playing some Rush tapes on a tape recorder. He said something to Ed and Ed’s beer got into the tape recorder,” Roth explained. “Well that caused a little friction.”
A year later, Lee and Rush had their revenge. Rush opened for Van Halen in Las Vegas in 1981 and told the venue to not let anyone associated with the headliner in to see Rush play. The bands’ crews talked it out, and Rush relented, allowing a few guys to see its concert. Late that night, after both bands played their sets, Lee approached Eddie Van Halen in a casino with his hand out, seeking to make amends. Instead, he got slammed to the ground. “One of our security guards didn’t have the vaguest idea in hell who he was and he came up and bodytackled him,” Roth said.
