Today, Eddie Van Halen is universally understood to be one of the world’s greatest electric guitar players. Born in 1955 in the Netherlands, Van Halen became an American rock star with his titular group, which itself rose to fame in the 1980s.
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Though, Van Halen didn’t much care for fame and fortune. He just wanted to play. Now that same ethic is in his son, the prodigious Wolfgang Van Halen. But with all that life coursing through his veins and so much experience in the business, one might wonder, what did Van Halen, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 65, have to say about the world at large?
Indeed, what were his thoughts on life and love, his craft, his son, his career and more? Here are the best 20 Eddie Van Halen quotes.
1. “A guitar is a very personal extension of the person playing it. You have to be emotionally and spiritually connected to your instrument. I’m very brutal on my instruments, but not all the time.”
2. “I’m not a rock star. Sure I am, to a certain extent because of the situation, but when kids ask me how it feels to be a rock star, I say leave me alone, I’m not a rock star. I’m not in it for the fame, I’m in it because I like to play.”
3. “There are really three parts to the creative process. First, there is inspiration, then there is the execution, and finally, there is the release.”
4. “I don’t really know what inspires me to write the music I do, but usually, the music will set the tone for the lyrics.”
5. “The one thing I do have is good ears. I don’t mean perfect pitch, but ears for picking things up. I developed my ear through piano theory, but I never had a guitar lesson in my life, except from Eric Clapton off of records.”
6. “I’ve had a hip replacement, I’ve beaten cancer, I had my hand operation, and I stopped drinking. Something inside of me just went, ‘I’m done.'”
7. “When I was growing up and listening to bands like the Dave Clark Five, the groove was what initially got me going. I really like that funky, heavy groove.”
8. “Obviously you have to have rhythm. If you have rhythm, then you can play anything you need. If you have rhythm and you love music, then play and play and play until you get to where you want to get. If you can pay the rent, great. If you can’t, then you’d better be having fun.”
9. “The name Van Halen, the family legacy, is going to go on long after I’m gone.”
10. “I have pictures of me sitting in the racquetball court in my pajamas with an acoustic guitar, and Wolfgang is probably just two-and-a-half feet tall. I’ll never forget the day I saw his foot tapping along in beat! I knew then, I couldn’t wait for the day I’d be able to make music with my son. I don’t know what more I could ask for.”
11. “It’s all about sound. It’s that simple. Wireless is wireless, and it’s digital. Hopefully, somewhere along the line, somebody will add more ones to the zeros. When digital first started, I swear I could hear the gap between the ones and the zeros.”
12. “When I’m home on a break, I lock myself in my room and play guitar. After two or three hours, I start getting into this total meditation. It’s a feeling few people experience, and that’s usually when I come up with weird stuff. It just flows. I can’t force myself. I don’t sit down and say I’ve got to practice.”
13. “I never took guitar lessons. I took classical piano lessons from the age of six when we lived in Holland.”
14. “I was trying to take the band in a direction that I thought was appropriate, and Roth was trying to take the band in more of a Las Vegas direction. And there he is.”
15. “Music is for people. The word ‘pop’ is simply short for popular. It means that people like it. I’m just a normal jerk who happens to make music. As long as my brain and fingers work, I’m cool.”
16. “I never dreamt of being a musician for my livelihood. I certainly never would have wanted to be in the business that I’m in, meaning the fame and the glory, the glitter, the rock star, the famous part.”
17. “I don’t feel a day older when it comes to my approach to music or what gets me off than when I was a teenager. I’ve always been into different kinds of stuff and when I play I like to play loud. I like my arm hairs to move and I like my body to vibrate ’cause I like the feel of it; I’m still a teenager at heart.”
18. “If you want to be a rock star or just be famous, then run down the street naked, you’ll make the news or something. But if you want music to be your livelihood, then play, play, play and play! And eventually, you’ll get to where you want to be.”
19. “The piano is a universal instrument. If you start there, learn your theory and how to read, you can go on to any other instrument.”
20. “I destroyed a lot of guitars trying to get them to do what I wanted, but I learned something from every guitar I tore apart, and discovered even more things. Things like if the string is not straight from the bridge saddle to the nut, you’re going to have friction.”
Photo: David Tan/Shinko Music/Getty Images
