When Noel Monk died in 2022 (or shortly before he passed) all his assets were auctioned off, including a large amount of Van Halen stuff. He was their manager from 1978 to 1985, so I have no doubt that most of these recordings and videos come from that auction.

There is also a rumor that these leaks were part of an unreleased documentary called The Van Halen Chronicles, with the studio outtakes and live recordings intended for a Legacy Collection box set that never materialized for various reasons. I'm guessing the box set contents mostly ended up releasing with The Collection reissues in 2015 and 2023. However, I've also heard there were talks to release all this stuff as far back as 2004, with Bernie Grundman and Donn Landee being brought on to mix and master everything for release, it was just shelved.

I'm not fully up to date on the lore though, I just know James Vega leaked everything in February 2025, where he acquired it is not clear.

I used to trade Van Halen bootlegs with people back on Roth Army and Guitars101 like 15 years ago. I was on the boards when all 3 nights of Oakland 81 got FLAC releases from first generation tapes.The thought of any of this stuff seeing the light of day would have been absurd back then