Could This Be Magic: Van Halen Before 1978

Elizabeth Wiley is a Native American, Native California Pomo. She was the first Native California Pomo woman to complete law school. Due to a serious illness she contracted while taking the bar exam, she spent eight years learning to walk and talk again but was expected to die. Falling back on other life experience, she began working with her younger son training show horses, then racehorses, and moved on to equine therapy for children with a variety of issues. Foster sister Linda Estrada managed Red Ball Jet for some time, and Elizabeth took pictures of them, as well as other bands, for publicity fliers and press releases. As Red Ball Jet merged with Mammoth and eventually became Van Halen, the band practiced in her garage in exchange for helping her repair a house she had bought for her two children after a divorce. The author is currently disabled, retired, and volunteers in National Homes for Heroes/Spirit Horse II, a three-tiered housing and therapy program for veterans and high-risk youth through probation and vendors from the regional center. All veterans and children are included in the programs at no charge.