Eddie Van Halen famous quotes

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.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Fun #Play #Needs

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.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Running #Stars #Rocks

... I played 'Eruption' two times for the record, and we kept the one that seemed to flow ... there's a mistake at the top end of it whenever I hear it, I always think, Man I could've played it better ... but I like the way it sounds. I'd never heard a guitar sound like that before...
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Music #Mistake #Men

Most beginners want to learn lead because they think it's cool .. consequently, they never really develop good rhythm skills .. since most of a rock guitarists time is spent playing rhythm, it's important to learn to do it well .. learning lead should come after you can play solid backup and have the sound of the chords in your head
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Music #Thinking #Play

To hell with the rules. If it sounds right, then it is.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Music #Sound #Hell

Every song is like a kid. How can you have that many kids and have a favorite? Which one do I like to hang most with?
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Song #Kids

Music kept me off the streets and out of trouble and gave me something that was mine that no one could take away from me.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Trouble #Streets

If I can help a kid discover a liking, or even a passion for music in their life, then that's a wonderful thing.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Passion #Kids #Helping

It's Always about the music, never about anything else
-- Eddie Van Halen

I have selective hearing.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Hearing

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.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Piano #Goes On #Theory

We make music for a living. Like I've always said, if you like what you're doing, you're halfway there; if someone else likes it, that's even better. If they don't like it, at least you like it. Not to be selfish, but you kind of have to be.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Selfish #Doing You #Likes

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.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Guitar #Instruments #Brutal

Eventually you'll take the phrases and rhythm patterns you've copped and begin to put your own mark on them
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Music #Phrases #Patterns

If your going to learn to play lead guitar, get an electric guitar .. it doesn't have to be an expensive one .. acoustic guitars aren't good for learning lead, because you can't play up very high on the neck and they take heavier-gauge strings which makes it hard to bend notes
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Music #Guitar #Play

There are really three parts to the creative process. First there is inspiration, then there is the execution, and finally there is the release.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Inspiration #Creative #Three

We're musicians. We make music for a living. It's that simple. Nothing else matters.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Simple #Musician #Matter

Rock & Roll is feeling, and after you know most of the basics ... chords, rhythm, scales and bends ... getting that feeling is just about the most important aspect of playing guitar
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Music #Rocks #Guitar

I started doing all kinds of weird stuff on the guitar, which became part of my playing. I started doing harmonics and tapping on the guitar and pulling off strings and doing all this weird stuff that no one had ever done before.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Guitar #Done #Stuff

Cancer is like a cockroach. It just comes back stronger. I'm tearing apart the immune system of the cockroach and seeing how it ticks. I've opened up my own pathology center.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Cancer #Stronger #Cockroaches

I can't read music. Instead, I'd do stuff inside the piano, do harmonics and all kinds of crazy things. They used to put me in these annual piano contests down at Long Beach City College, and two years in a row, I won first prize - out of like 5,000 kids!
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Beach #Crazy #Kids

I took classical piano lessons from the age of five.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Music #Piano #Age

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.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Vegas #Las Vegas #Trying

Imagine if Beethoven had a tape recorder. Then you'd know exactly what he meant. Maybe he meant 'Da da da da' instead of 'Boom boom boom boom!' Who knows?
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Tape #Imagine #Recorders

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.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Mean #Guitar #Piano

The only band I was really over-into was Cream. And the only thing I really liked about them was their live stuff 'cause they played two verses, then go off and jam for 20 minutes, come back and do a chorus and end. And I love the live jam stuff, the improvisation.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Two #Jam #Band

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.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Growing Up #Listening #Band

Before the operation on my left hand I wasn't able to stretch my fingers open all the way. I've never had very big hands, but I could do the splits with them. Eventually I couldn't any more. I had a twisted tendon in my little finger that prevented me from being able to stretch.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Hands #Left Hand #Splits

I wanted a Gibson type sound, but with a Strat vibrato ... I bought a body from Charvel for $50.00 and a neck for $80.00 - I slapped it together, put an old Gibson PAF in it and painted it up with the stripes
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Music #Stripes #Together

I was just a punk kid, trying to get a sound out of a guitar that I couldn't get off the rack, so I built one myself ... I wanted a Gibson type of sound but with a Strat vibrato .. I went to town painting it and I put three pickups back in, but they don't work - only the rear one works
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Music #Kids #Guitar

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.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Hands #Two #Doe

I just consider myself slightly left-of-center. I'm not your average bear. I - what's the word? I'm not - normal.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Average #Bears #Normal

I'm not a drunk anymore, but since they cut out my tongue, I sound drunk.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Cutting #Drunk #Sound

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.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Couple #Guitar #Bending

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.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Writing #Inspire #Tone

I grew up on a lot of early Beatles, DC5, Cream, Clapton, Page, Beck and Hendrix.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Pages #Hendrix #Grew Up

I never took guitar lessons. I took classical piano lessons from the age of six when we lived in Holland.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Guitar #Piano #Age

A guitar is just theoretically built wrong. Each string is an interval of fourths, and then the B string is off. Theoretically, that's not right, all the strings should be off.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Guitar #Should #Strings

My son, Wolfgang, plays drums, guitars and bass.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Son #Guitar #Play

I boil the strings so they stretch.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Strings

Sometimes I just want to lick David Lee Roth in the nuts
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Nuts #Want #Sometimes

I'm just a guitarist in a kick-ass rock and roll band. What more could I ask for?
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Rocks #Rock And Roll #Band

And if I would have taken lessons I probably wouldn't have done it, and what forced me to do all this weird stuff on the guitar was I couldn't afford effects pedals, I didn't have all this stuff when I was a kid so I just tried to squeeze all the weird noises I could out of the guitar, which brings me to building guitars.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Taken #Kids #Guitar

Best believe that needle hurt you Best to see these true colors Than follow one of your false virtues A little secret to make you think: Why is the crazy stuff we never say, poetry in ink?
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Hurt #Crazy #Believe

Major third complications can be overcome by lots of alcohol.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Alcohol #Overcoming #Complication

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.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Mean #Long #People

It's funny, when bands or younger musicians ask me: 'So, what does it take to make it?' Well, first explain to me what you mean by 'making it': Do you want to be a rock star or do you want music to be your livelihood?
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Stars #Mean #Rocks

It's always a Catch-22 situation. They hate you if you're the same, and they hate you if you're different.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Hate #Different #Hate You

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.'
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Cancer #Drinking #Hands

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.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Teenager #Moving #Heart

On 'Van Halen,' I was a young punk, and everything revolved around the fastest kid in town, gunslinger attitude. But I'd say that at the time of 'Fair Warning,' I started concentrating more on songwriting. But I guess in most people's minds I'm just a gunslinger.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Attitude #Kids #People

I'll be making music 'til the day I die. I've done all kinds of stuff, and more is coming.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Done #Stuff #Kind

Nirvana was huge, but it didn't appeal to everyone.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Appeals

The name Van Halen, the family legacy, is going to go on long after I'm gone.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Names #Long #Legacy

I'll always leave the same set of strings on my guitars when I'm recording. If I break one I'll just replace it instead of putting on a whole new set of strings.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Guitar #Break #Strings

For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge' took a year to record; that's why the playing on it might sound somewhat labored. 'Balance,' on the other hand, was written and recorded in only four months, so the whole process was quicker and more immediate.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Hands #Years #Balance

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.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Stars #Rocks #Musician

It makes me feel kind of weird, but obviously the Man Upstairs gave me something and it touches people, and I'm just so blessed.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Blessed #Men #People

I'm writing, and just doing the same thing I always do.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Writing

I'm the one in the band that said I'm not going on tour unless we do a record.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Band #Records #Said

If you have a great-sounding guitar that's a quality instrument and a good amp, and you know how to make the guitar talk, that's the key. It starts with the guitar and knowing what it should sound and feel like.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Keys #Guitar #Knowing

It comes back to the same old question people are always asking me: 'When are you going to do a solo record?' Well, if I did, it would probably be similar to 'Baluchitherium,' meaning it would be Van Halen music - which I write anyway - but without singing.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Writing #People #Singing

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.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Simple #Firsts #Sound

On 'Honeybabysweetiedoll' I used a Whammy, a Boss OC-3 octave box, a Sustainer and a Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler. That's only on the intro, where all those weird noises are happening.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Boss #Delay #Lines

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.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Home #Guitar #Practice

When Van Halen started out, there was no path to fame. We just played what we liked. Even today it always comes down to the simplicity of rock and roll.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Rock And Roll #Rocks #Simplicity

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.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Stars #Rocks #People

I think Clapton is brilliant. He's the only one who moved me. The only one who made me want to play the guitar.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Thinking #Guitar #Play

Everything comes to me while I'm sitting on the pot.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Sitting #Pot

Actually, if I could deliberately sit down and write a pop hit, all my songs would be pop hits! Let's put it this way. I play what I like to hear. And sometimes I like to hear something poppy, and sometimes I don't.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Song #Writing #Play

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.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Stars #Kids #Rocks

A good producer brings out the best in the artist he's working with. You shouldn't be able to listen to something and say, 'So-and-so produced this album.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Artist #Albums #Able

I mean it's funny, playing music, how of course you want it to do well, you want them to like it, but it's not competitive like an election, it's the Olympics, it's not a Formula 1 race. The Billboard charts are just to show you what people like.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Mean #Race #People

David Lee Roth had the idea that if you covered a successful song, you were half way home. C'mon - Van Halen doing 'Dancing in the Streets'? It was stupid. I started feeling like I would rather bomb playing my own songs than be successful playing someone else's music.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Song #Stupid #Home

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.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Guitar #Nuts #Bridges

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.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Son #Guitar #Two

I applied to Uncyclopedia Bassists, and was accepted!!
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Accepted #Bassists

I'm blessed with a good pair of ears. That's how I fooled my piano teacher. I'd watch his fingers and I'd listen to it, and I just kind of basically learned it by myself.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Teacher #Blessed #Piano

I was so used to doing old blues licks with the first three fingers. When I started using my pinky and finding more spread things, that's when I started getting my own style.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Style #Firsts #Three

You've only got 12 notes and however you mix them up is your thing.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Notes

Practice. I used to sit on the edge of my bed with a six-pack of Tuborg. My brother would go out to party and get laid, come home at 3am., and I would still be playing with myself.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Brother #Party #Home

Music kept me off the streets and out of trouble and gave me something that was mine that no one could take away from me. Music education and families are dealing with the economic times, and I wanted to help them. If I can help a kid discover a liking, or even a passion for music in their life, then that's a wonderful thing.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Passion #Kids #Helping

I went to the zoo one day and saw a chimp playing with a beat-up acoustic guitar in a way I had never seen before. Instead of using the pick the chimp was banging the neck and tapping it with its fingers. I knew the chimp was on to something so I practiced this new technique in my room for hours until I'd perfected it.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Zoos #Guitar #One Day

There's a plaque on our wall that says we've sold over 65 million albums, and I don't feel I've accomplished anything. I feel like I'm just getting started.
-- Eddie Van Halen

#Wall #Albums #Accomplished