Van Halen II was released March 23, 1979 and if you look in the liner notes, you’ll see that the band thanks the Sheraton in Madison WI. Why???
Van Halen and Montrose were on tour opening for Journey’s “Infinity Tour” on March 8, 1978 at the Orpheum Theater in Madison Wisconsin. The Orpheum stage was too small for the equipment of all three bands and Journey chose Montrose to open. Van Halen got bumped and settled for playing a nightclub called The Shuffle Inn. They were not happy about the bump and took it out on their room and Journey.
Van Halen proceeded to trash the 7th floor ambassadors row of that hotel, lamps were drummed to pieces, smashed hotel room mirrors, bathroom doors off their hinges, fire extinguisher fights and TV’s, furniture, toilet seats, and telephones thrown out the windows. Alex Van Halen also glued people’s door knobs shut and put vaseline on the door knobs so people couldn’t turn them.
No big deal, Van Halen blamed the whole thing on the headliner…Journey. Thanks to David Reese for leaving the comment below with all the details.