Eddie Van Halen
Eddie Van Halen
Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halenis a Dutch-American musician, songwriter and producer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, occasional keyboardist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen. He is considered to be one of the world's greatest guitarists, and one of the most influential rock guitarists of the 20th century. In 2011, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Van Halen number eight in the list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists. In 2012, he was voted in a Guitar World...
NationalityDutch
ProfessionGuitarist
Date of Birth26 January 1955
CityNijmegen, Netherlands
I'll be making music 'til the day I die. I've done all kinds of stuff, and more is coming.
My son, Wolfgang, plays drums, guitars and bass.
Nirvana was huge, but it didn't appeal to everyone.
The name Van Halen, the family legacy, is going to go on long after I'm gone.
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.
You know, most people, they want to go to Hollywood. They want to be a star. They want to be a rock star. That thought never entered any of our minds, the Van Halen family.
I think Clapton is brilliant. He's the only one who moved me. The only one who made me want to play the guitar.
Everything comes to me while I'm sitting on the pot.
Holdsworth is so damned good that I can't cop anything. I can't understand what he's doing. I've got to do this [does two-hand tapping], whereas he'll do it with one hand.
Bass is for people who can't play guitar
I grew up on a lot of early Beatles, DC5, Cream, Clapton, Page, Beck and Hendrix.
The stainless-steel frets were a major breakthrough, because of the amount of playing and bending that I do. I have to get my guitars refretted every couple of months.
I'm not a drunk anymore, but since they cut out my tongue, I sound drunk.
I just consider myself slightly left-of-center. I'm not your average bear. I - what's the word? I'm not - normal.