Twister: Humans Being

[Mike]

One of my favorite movies. I was doing some research on the soundtrack and turned this up - Humans Being -

This song (a rocker) was contracted for the soundtrack for the movie "Twister" by Van Halen. Van Halen was supposed to have the first half of 1996 off and the time was going to be used for hip surgery for Eddie, Alex was supposed to get his neck fixed and Sammy's wife was preparing to have their first child. They were convinced by Ray Danniels that this movie was huge and the money would carry them for the remainder of 1996.

Sammy had written a song called "The Silent Extreme" which Alex later rename "Humans Being"

There was a lot af friction between the band and Sammy because Sammy was in Maui with his pregnant wife and they wanted him to fly home to the studio to finish the song. Eddie pleaded with Sammy and said they only needed a minute and a half of lyrics added and he suggested "Bah, bah, bah. I hate this, I hate that, you dirty rat." Sammy said "that sucked".

Sammy finally said okay, and came up with this line: "There is just enough Christ in me/To make me feel almost guilty/Is that why God made us breed/To make us see we're humans being." I wrote those verses in about 10-15 minutes on the hood of a car with Bruce. Sammy said It was so cheeseball the way it was done. We wrote the lyrics, I sang the song in three parts in about an hour and a half and split.

This played a key roll in the end of the relationship of Hagar and Van Halen.

* The phrase "Shine-on Shine-on" in the lyrics is similiar to "We all Shine on" from John Lennons "Instant Karma" - and this phrase according to Steven King inspired his term for "to shine" in his book "The Shining" - and subsequently the Stanley Kubrick film "The Shining " - furthermore, the film the "The Shining" is being played in the drive-in when a twister hits in the film "Twister".

Submitted: add a song fact 11/23/03

~ Mike