Eddie Van Halen Interview at the Smithsonian

I can truly say that I don't ever recall watching an interview where he was this candid. I wonder if he is starting to realize that he is getting closer to the grave and is trying to change his attitude and the way he interacts with people in general... IDK.

Anyway nice post!
 
Looking at someone's personal life through the very subjective and narrow lens of the public is not enough to really be able to know someone let alone judge them. Sure we've all heard all kinds of stories, but it's kind of like the news; only the bad stuff is considered worthy of reporting because people are either intrigued or emotionally affected.

EVH has and always will be my favorite musician. I would say that anyone that thinks that he is not talented is insane because I have a very strong bias towards him. I would never say that he is underrated because he obviously is not, but I do think that people focus on his solos and not nearly enough on his rhythm playing which for my money is the best part of his playing. Musically I don't know if there is a more creative force that I enjoy. I mean looking back at my musical listening history I basically went from the Beatles to Van Halen as what I considered to be the best thing going.

As for the personal life stuff....no one is perfect, but most people aren't saints nor are they pure evil; we're usually just trying to get by in the world and usually want to be happy. If you really want to judge someone's merit as a person I think that one of the first places to really measure them is to look at their children. I don't know Wolfie, but I get the impression that regardless of what we've all read or heard about Eddie in his personal life that he was a good father. We all know that many of these children of celebrities turn out to be either just shallow little monsters or end up in some kind of tragic event. I'd bet that the last thing that anyone with a turd for a father would want to do is to be in a band with him.

And as for having Wolfie replace Michael Anthony....to me no one replaces Michael Anthony, but you only live once and if you have an opportunity to bring your kid into the family business and he has the talent to be a productive part of the brand you have to do it. To me that speaks more about family values than ego and shit.
 
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.

Have you heard him play lately? Many, many YouTubes out there that show how badly his proficiency has faltered due to some of his life choices in the last few years.

I remember reading a "Best Guitarist" list in Rolling Stone some time ago and EVH didn't even make the top 10. When the editors were asked why, they said something like "Have you ever met him???"
 
And as for having Wolfie replace Michael Anthony....to me no one replaces Michael Anthony, but you only live once and if you have an opportunity to bring your kid into the family business and he has the talent to be a productive part of the brand you have to do it. To me that speaks more about family values than ego and shit.

MA was part of why the band was a success. Replacing him with your son because you think he can do the job (even though he can't sing), is a slap in the face to the founding band member. Sorry, can't agree with you there.
 
To each his own I guess, Every day when I play guitar something of VH comes out though my fingers, guess he's had an influence on me. I thought it was a great video:)
 
My likes list - Nobody plays a fast boogie with a swing like EVH can. Nobody...
He has groove off the charts.
He has a killer ear for tone too.

Dislikes - He invented the question mark and the umlaut, among his other ground breaking discoveries.
Ditching Michael Anthony. I always thought MA was the weak link in the band until I really started actually listening to their music. Dude can play his ass off and sing amazing. Maybe he's an asshole? I dunno? Seems cold though to someone that stayed loyal to your project for decades though.
EVH playing keyboard is like Michael Jordan playing baseball.

On a related note, I saw a commercial for a new TV show with Valerie Bertinelli and she still looks like she's in her 20's!

PPS. luke, SS is a good dude for sure. He seems very accomodating and genuine. I love Flamenco.A.Go.Go.
 
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Very cool stuff. Things happen when you are in business and art that may seem one way to outsiders and another way to you. As somebody who is thought of as a good guy by some and an absolute villain by others professionally, I can see both sides of the story. When you have your eyes on a goal that not everyone either sees or respects, when you defend reaching for that goal, you very easily get called a jerk or worse.

That is OK, even the most virtuous of people have detractors and other people that want to take them down a notch for what they do due to differing perceptions or goals.

I really enjoyed learning more about him from his own words.

Food for thought: people get all in a kerfluffle about Michael Anthony being replaced. He was not even the original bass player if you think about it, Mark Stone was (a footnote like Stu Sutcliffe or Pete Best that easily gets forgotten because there are few recording of him with the band). Being in a band usually means a member gets replaced for some reason at some point as very few successful and long lived bands statistically have the same members throughout their entire career.
 
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Have you heard him play lately? Many, many YouTubes out there that show how badly his proficiency has faltered due to some of his life choices in the last few years.

You are talking about some vids from the 2007-2008 &/or the tour a few years earlier than that as well........he was still seriously messed up then. After that '07-'08 tour he got sober & beat tongue cancer.

He was back to playing his ass off every show on the last tour a few years ago. Everyone said he played as well as he ever did.

Get your facts straight & get over your Michael Anthony butthurt........shit happens & Mike had a great run.
 
The first two Van Halen albums dropped when I was 18 and 19, and they changed the world of music forever. Eddie was different, and his influence over rock guitar has been matched by a handful of folks at best. Credit where it's due, the man made a mark that won't be forgotten by players. Glad to see that he lived long enough to get clean and appreciate where he is and has been. So many didn't.
 
Have you heard him play lately? Many, many YouTubes out there that show how badly his proficiency has faltered due to some of his life choices in the last few years.

I remember reading a "Best Guitarist" list in Rolling Stone some time ago and EVH didn't even make the top 10. When the editors were asked why, they said something like "Have you ever met him???"

Who cares what RS magazine says? That rag is an irrelevant waste of paper and ink. Bunch of egotistical elitists who don't have a clue about rock music.
 
Aside from my personal opinions of Eddie over the years (which I will say have gone progressively worse with time), the guy's music (classic DLR-era) still kills me every single time!

There have been a lot of bad moves, IMO, by him over the years and he has not always been a model citizen... But the same can be said of most high profile rock stars.

However you want to look at it, he innovated a new style of playing and influenced multiple generations of musicians.

This interview was really cool. I agree that he seemed very humble and grounded. I thoroughly enjoyed it :)


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I met a guitarist, chris....wish I could remember his last name in London in '71 who hacked a strat to put a humbucker in the bridge.

nice interview, ed comes across well.
 
Vince Neil had Steve Stevens with him to open fir VH at Jones Beach in '93 I think it was. He broke out the fingerstyle and i was like what just happened?.
 
He looks good with that goatee. Glad to see he's playing well too. Thx for posting.

I'll always remember when I first heard VH and my brother calling it "bubble-gum" rock. lol
 
I met a guitarist, chris....wish I could remember his last name in London in '71 who hacked a strat to put a humbucker in the bridge.
IIRC Allan Holdsworth was using a Strat with a pair of humbuckers when he joined Soft Machine in 1975. Hell I still have a 72' Telecaster Custom that I loaded with a pair of humbuckers back when I bought it new. Modding Fender guitars goes way back before VH.
 
Vince Neil had Steve Stevens with him to open fir VH at Jones Beach in '93 I think it was. He broke out the fingerstyle and i was like what just happened?.

I was at that show! Steve Stevens ruled that night plain an simple!
Come to think of it Steve has ruled every night I have ever seen him.

Seen Ed back in the day, namely opening for Sabbath. He was so on top of his game.
 
My take was Ed was saying he didn't copy anyone else when he put the humbucker in the strat, he did it for his own reasons, and it wasn't about who was first. Still can't deny his guitar was a huge influence on musicians and luthiers first or not.

Robbie Robertson had humbuckers in a Strat in the early seventies too IIRC. Robbie was the first I know of to use banjo strings on his electric guitar so he could bend notes. Before that, the guage was so heavy you couldn't bend. The banjo string "trick" was something he didn't let on to for a while. Blew minds to do all those bends in a live show.
 
I liked this interview. EVH seemed humble and down-to-earth about his career and influence on music, which is a breath of fresh air in contrast to the culturally acceptable narcissism that typically surrounds 'stars'.

And I too remember the first Tele Custom with the humbucker as a factory model from Fender. I thought Keith Richards played a part in that guitar being made, as he said was ready to change to something else unless Fender made it. Not sure if that's true, but there it was in 1972.

Of course Eddie wanted a Strat because of the tremelo and, to my knowledge, there wasn't a commercially available HB model Strat at the time.
 
Have you heard him play lately? Many, many YouTubes out there that show how badly his proficiency has faltered due to some of his life choices in the last few years.

I saw him at two stops on the last tour, and he was in TOP form. To judge 40s years of playing by a two year or so rough patch is ridiculous. Everybody goes through a slump, it's called being human.
 
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