Eddie Van Halen Interview at the Smithsonian

I've never been a huge fan of him. Can he play guitar? Of course! Is he an icon? Yep. But it really seems his personal life is always in shambles and he is just not a nice guy. Sadly, that's been the deal with him since VH broke on the scene and I personally can't get past that. Getting rid of Michael Anthony so his son could play Bass in the band was a D-Bag thing to do. Yes, blood is thicker than water, but MA helped build the band to the status it had and had knock out backing vocals.

Sorry, I just don't like the guy.
 
I've never been a huge fan of him. Can he play guitar? Of course! Is he an icon? Yep. But it really seems his personal life is always in shambles and he is just not a nice guy. Sadly, that's been the deal with him since VH broke on the scene and I personally can't get past that. Getting rid of Michael Anthony so his son could play Bass in the band was a D-Bag thing to do. Yes, blood is thicker than water, but MA helped build the band to the status it had and had knock out backing vocals.

Sorry, I just don't like the guy.

This.
I also don't really care for often how his solos have no context whatsoever with the songs they're found in.
Monster player, no doubt, and maybe it was just kinda' the "thing to do" at the time... whatever.
Hagar is the man. Roth is cool too. Haters gonna hate. Myself included I guess.
 
Ok, going way out there on this one... I've found that many true innovators and visionaries often lack basic social skills, in fact some have serious ethical and moral issues. It's like if you're amazingly gifted in one area, you're almost automatically lacking in the other. Think about it, Steve Jobs is one glaring example that comes to mind and I'm sure I could dig up a dozen others, but you get the point. I guess I respect them for the contributions they made and try not to judge them too critically for their weaknesses. BTW-our hero Cliff seems a little rough around the edges sometimes, again, not judging, just calling it like I see it. I respect him more than than I can verbalize. I wish I had half his engineering and problem solving skills. And in no way do I see any ethical or moral issues with him...other than his love of the Pats. :shock
 
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I've never been a huge fan of him. Can he play guitar? Of course! Is he an icon? Yep. But it really seems his personal life is always in shambles and he is just not a nice guy. Sadly, that's been the deal with him since VH broke on the scene and I personally can't get past that. Getting rid of Michael Anthony so his son could play Bass in the band was a D-Bag thing to do. Yes, blood is thicker than water, but MA helped build the band to the status it had and had knock out backing vocals.

Sorry, I just don't like the guy.

I completely disagree
 
My girlfriend does to actors what you guys do to musicians. Me? I watch the movie and listen to the music. I dont give a crap what the actors/musicians do outside of it. I don't personally know them nor do I care about band drama, and every band has drama... every one.

I find it interesting though that so many people trash on the icons at the end of their careers, for whatever reason.

Sometimes you just gotta take it for what it is, sadly people make up their own vision and then place a normal guy on this pedistal only to set themselves up for dissapointment when their hero dosent live up to the expectation.
 
I've never been a huge fan of him. Can he play guitar? Of course! Is he an icon? Yep. But it really seems his personal life is always in shambles and he is just not a nice guy. Sadly, that's been the deal with him since VH broke on the scene and I personally can't get past that. Getting rid of Michael Anthony so his son could play Bass in the band was a D-Bag thing to do. Yes, blood is thicker than water, but MA helped build the band to the status it had and had knock out backing vocals.

Sorry, I just don't like the guy.

Sorry too because I don't see why this matters. I don't buy into people's personal lives. I don't make my listening decisions based on what they do outside of the thing I was looking for musically. I don't invest myself in a musician's drug or alcohol problems or their divorces or if they're just a baseline arrogant asshole or not. I don't care about their politics either (Sting, Bono, I'm looking at you) or religious preferences. I don't take my cues about how to live my life from them.

I find Eddie's guitar playing fascinating and otherworldly and that's it, always have, always will and that's as far as it goes.
 
I'm so happy that he's fixed himself up. What I was amazed by this interview was all the things he apparently thought up whether he invented them or not he still created them without (directly) outside infleunces.

-Humbucker in a strat (basically the standard super strat thats still so popular today)
-Potted Pickups
-Attenuator
-Tapping harmonics
-Double handed hammer ons and pull offs (again i know this existed before him)
-Apparently even grip pickups (sand with glue on the plectrum)

Pretty interesting stuff. Also LOL at Dave being into disco @ 36:00 - surprise. surprise.. :D
 
I love Eddie- have ever since seeing them open for Black Sabbath and not having a clue as to who they were. There isn't a guitarist in the world that would be the same if he hadn't come on the scene and contributed all that he has. Glad that he's gotten healthy, looking forward to more music and at least another VH tour or two to attend...
 
Good for him! Public speaking has never been his comfort zone but this was great and informative. Sort of surprised nobody cared to ask the current state of Van Halen or future plans. I know he said Wolfgang is working on a new album which should be out next year which probably will just delay any new VH work another year or two. Amazing how much he sounds like himself as soon as he plays.
 
Just an amazing rock guitarist. Single handedly responsible for superstrats & the modded amp craze that lasts to this day. If an amp can do the "Brown Sound" it will sell & never stop selling! Dave Friedman even put a "VH" switch on the BE100 amps, but for obvious reasons had to drop the name of that switch. It is still there but just called the "Voice" switch now.

Couldn't care less if Eddie killed grandmas in his spare time........I just know that his incredible sense of rhythm & quirky off the cuff amazing soloing, plus that "tone" makes him one for the ages for sure!

I'm sure no guitarist has ever made more guys slow down records, tone chase & learn endless techniques more than Eddie.

At any amp fest or Namm show etc......the guy who just nails that VH playing & the amp that gets that tone, rule the day........this will never change!

Yeah, I'm a fan.........
 
Great comments by EVH. Too bad the interview was not conducted very well. The interviewer had an hour with him and those questions were the best she could come up with??? Brother and son are in the audience and no visual of them??? What a missed opportunity to ask so many more questions. Good that he was able to carry the interview pretty well alone and that the audience kicked in some good questions at the end.
 
I'll always remember the day in 1978, I was in a music store (remember those??) browsing through albums, and heard Eruption come on over the store stereo system. I cocked my head sideways and thought "mother of god...WTF is that?!?" I walked right up to the cashier and asked who it was, "Not sure, some band called Van Halen". I bought the album right then and wore that thing out.

I saw Van Halen in March of 1979 in Utah, and it was a life changing experience for me. His guitar playing was nothing short of phenomenal. There aren't enough expletives to describe the effect it had on me. After I overcame my initial gut reaction to go home and chop up my guitar into little pieces, that single experience had more to do with pushing me to new levels of playing than anything else. And for that, I'll always be grateful.

I'm just glad to see he has sobered up, and seems to have his life on track. He's always been socially awkward, and sometimes I think that has come across as him being a douchebag. In this video, I think he comes across as being genuinely humble and grateful for what he has. I'm glad to see it. I think it's awesome that he wants to play with his son. (and I love Michael Anthony) The old Van Halen is dead, there ain't no going back, so who he decides to bring together to play with him now is his own business.
 
Thanks for posting that interview! As others have mentioned, hearing Eddie for the first time was life altering experience and really focused my love of the instrument we all enjoy playing. His innovation, technique and fire will always be something new guitarists will marvel at and try to emulate.
 
Really enjoyed watching that...I liked the fact that he spent a good portion of the time on detailed guitar related information. He comes across as intelligent and thoughtful.....it's never too late to get clean.
 
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