The first time Van Halen played Pittsburgh, most of the people were there to see a Santana spin-off from San Francisco that had a hit with "Wheel in the Sky."

It was March 12, 1978, at the Leona Theater in Homestead, and Van Halen was at the bottom of the bill opening for Journey and Montrose. Van Halen's debut album had been released just a month before and the day before the show, the band's first single, a cover of the Kinks' "You Really Got Me," hit the charts.

Journey and Montrose (who, by the way, had just parted ways with Sammy Hagar) must have been a little intimidated to be sitting on this powder keg of a band that was about to explode and redefine hard rock for the next decade.

Of course, Van Halen would go on to eclipse both of them and headline in Pittsburgh at least a dozen more times, graduating from the Leona to the Stanley Theatre, the Civic Arena, Three Rivers Stadium and the Star Lake Amphitheatre.

Tomorrow -- God and Eddie Van Halen willing -- the Hall of Fame hard-rock band will return for the first time since 1984 with "Diamond" David Lee Roth fronting the band. It has been a long rock 'n' roll soap opera to get to this point, earning Van Halen the distinction of the World's Most Dysfunctional Band.

Credit Pete Bishop for seeing the signs during the band's third trip to town, on Nov. 1, 1982. The rock critic for the former Pittsburgh Press opened that review saying, "The overriding aspect of last night's Van Halen concert at the Civic Arena was the obnoxious, disgusting exhibition by singer David Lee Roth -- which Van Halen does not need."

While praising Roth for having "a better voice than most heavy metal singers," Bishop slammed him for his foul language, pandering to the audience, forgetting the words to songs and then coming out with the famous cheekless black leather pants. "Imagine paying 12 bucks [note the price] to get mooned -- that's NOT entertainment."

Roth was gone three years later, so obviously Eddie read that review.

The Granati Brothers were fortunate enough to witness Van Halen in action behind the scenes. The famed Pittsburgh band hooked up with Van Halen in 1979, opening for VH in Idaho and Utah and then getting the call to finish the tour, despite being more of a New Wave/power-pop band.

They have the utmost respect for Van Halen as musicians, friends -- and petulant rock stars. "We saw them trash hotel rooms, backstage areas and completely destroy them," Joey Granati says. "They weren't the kindest to women. We saw some debauchery on a massive level. Absurd behavior. Being from Beaver County, Pennsylvania, I was overwhelmed by it. Yeah, they did everything you read about in the '80s."

Rich Engler, the man who brought them to Pittsburgh most of those times, has largely fond memories of Van Halen. "They were very personable guys," he says. They drew big crowds and never trashed his dressing rooms, so what was not to like?

Of course, as a veteran promoter, Engler knew about a pound of prevention. Van Halen had that notoriously detailed rider complete with Article 126: "There will be no brown M&M's in the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation."

Roth has explained that it was inserted so the band could tell upon entering an arena whether or not the promoter had read the rider and thus whether the production specs would be up to their demands. They were famously not at a Pueblo, Colo., gymnasium, and Roth responded with a dressing room-trashing hissy fit.

Engler, while booking a Van Halen date in Las Vegas, says, "I'll never forget getting a call from out there saying, 'Rich, they don't want any brown M&M's. There are light browns and dark browns. Which ones should we take out?' I said, 'Take them both out. You don't want them to wreck anything.' "

There is one Van Halen occasion that still factors in Engler's nightmares. That would be Three Rivers Stadium, June 15, 1988, Monsters of Rock. That was the day DiCesare-Engler Productions lost about $400,000.

A precursor to Ozzfest, the bill was Van Halen, The Scorpions, Dokken, Metallica and Kingdom Come (featuring Pittsburgh's own Danny Steigerwald). By this time, Roth had left Van Halen, replaced by Hagar, and the band was riding high with "OU812." Asked by the Press how he would compare the two Van Halen singers, Eddie said, "I'd say there's no comparison. I mean, is Dave really a singer?"

On show day, Monsters of Rock may have been a good time for the kids in the black T-shirts, but it was a monstrous bust for the promoter.

"The name Monsters of Rock back at that time was a little outrageous, and I think it was a scary thing to a lot of parents," Engler says. "The kids told their parents, 'I wanna go to Monsters of Rock' and their parents told them, 'You can go to anything but that.' It just sounded bad. But the lineup -- Metallica wasn't as big as they are now, they were the second act -- it was a hell of a show. I needed 40,000 to break even and only did 33,000." In an unusually generous move, Van Halen's manager kicked back some of the money to help the promoter.

The next time Van Hagar turned up was three years later in the modern era of the outdoor amphitheater with newcomer Alice in Chains. The band played the Coca-Cola Star Lake Amphitheatre in '91 and then again in '93 and '95, despite "Right Here, Right Now" being the jingle for Pepsi. In '93, Michael Anthony told the PG, "I think the best stuff from Van Halen is yet to come."

In a way he was right -- if you're a fan of pure foolishness.

Van Halen did top the charts in 1995 with "Balance," the last album with Hagar, but no one's going to be screaming for any of those songs tomorrow night. Then, in '96, the band went bonkers, as lead vocalist for Van Halen became rock's most unstable job, next to Spinal Tap drummer and Grateful Dead keyboardist.

Hagar left. Roth almost returned but didn't. Then some guy named Mitch Malloy popped up. No one cared. He left. Then Roth came within an inch of coming back. The next thing we knew, Gary Cherone was the singer. Huh?

Van Halen had been consistently selling out Star Lake. In '96, only 7,500 people showed up to see the gravely singer from Extreme fronting the Van Halen III model. Cherone was history by '99.

Then it became downright surreal. While Eddie was battling cancer in 2002, Roth and Hagar actually toured together despite hating each other's guts. Hyping the Sam & Dave Tour stop at the Post-Gazette Pavilion, Hagar told us, "I try to pretend like he's not on the bill, and I'm sure he's trying to do the same thing.

2004: Hagar back.

2005: Hagar gone.

By early 2007, for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, the biggest honor a band can get, things were so messed up with Van Halen that Hagar and bassist Michael Anthony were the only ones who showed up.

Now, neither are in the reunited Van Halen that plays tomorrow night, as Anthony is replaced by Eddie's son, Wolfgang Van Halen.

Granati says that no matter who has the mike, Eddie is the show. "He's a super guy who has been through a lot of terrible things. When people go see Van Halen now, they go to see Eddie. Everything else has faded. Eddie's guitar playing is still every bit as significant now as it was 1978. He's still the monster guitar player of all times."

The appearance of Son of Eddie makes it conceivable that Wolfgang now could carry on this insanity for another generation. Roth has no children (that he knows of), but Hagar has four kids. And one of them just might want to be a monster of rock.

First Published: April 29, 2008, 8:00 a.m.