Article on when they were discovered and signed.
"Van Halenās biggest issue was one that as a producer I feared I couldnāt fix. The truth was that Daveās performance in Sunset Sound only raised my anxieties about his abilities. Some of his vocal performances, to be frank, just werenāt acceptable. To be sure, he was distinctive as a singer; his train-whistle screams were identifiable in a good way. But every time I heard him get pitchy or completely miss a note, I worried that the public was going to be turned off by this band because of his limitations."
"They had a great big blackboard, like youād have in a classroom, and weād write these ideas down. At these rehearsals Dave would show me his lyrical ideas, things that became classics like āAtomic Punkā and āAināt Talkinā āBout Love.ā When we took breaks Iād talk at length with him. Thatās when I came to appreciate his astounding intellect; heād quote a line from Tom Sawyer and then a comic book. I still donāt know anybody who can keep those kinds of stream-of-consciousness raps going like he can. Captain Beefheart used to try to do that; all the guys around Frank Zappa thought they could do that. But Dave naturally is that way. His intelligence came through in his writing, too."
https://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/van-halen-ted-templeman/?fbclid=IwAR0H6HmMPHdQ2vBKRYBeC9TT-K6J1ha-fCUS7A4ZpObDAoSLnt_rkjfkIYQ