Eddie Van Halen on How He Switched From Kid Classical Pianist to Shredding Axeman
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- čas přidán 20. 08. 2015
- The legendary guitarist talks to Billboard about his rock'n'roll start as a kid and how a good guitar riff "engulfs you."
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Rest In Peace, Eddie.
@HARRY CHILDS no difference
@@PreachinBlues_ hush
EDDIE IS IN HELL
@@dalemclean5254 no
@@dalemclean5254 go away
I would argue that Eddie Van Halen's influence is just as important as Hendrix's. I think they are the 2 most influential guitarists in rock history.
Eddie is in the top 10 rock guitarists, you cannot take that away from him - but as a shredder he is no better than Michael Schenker (UFO) and in some ways not as good as Michael, booze and drugs hit them both - but for a time, and a very GOOD time it was: they both kicked ass. Suggest anyone who likes good fast guitar get UFO's "Strangers In The Night" CD - released in the mid 70's it was to this day the creme of the crop.
I would say it's Clapton and EVH. The original rock guitar style was rockabilly. Elvis' guitarist Scotty Moore brought that one in with Chuck Berry and Carl Perkins. The Beatles showed up and they were still playing that style.
Clapton changed that. Suddenly it was about playing a more blues based style with single note lines instead of chordal based rockabilly. That lasted all through the 70s with all the bands having a Clapton style guitar player. Then EVH showed up and changed it again and the 80s was all about the EVH style.
Hendrix had his own style, but it really didn't catch on like Clapton's style. You can pretty much count on one hand the number of guitarist who tried to sound like Hendrix while every band from KISS to Heart to Journey to Boston to Bad Company had a Clapton style player. Hendrix was a guy everyone said they liked...but then they preferred to play like Clapton.
you can spend eternity arguing the nuances of "who's better"...but Mark Anderson is correct....people who never got near a guitar know who EVH is...try going out on the street and randomly ask peeps "what's your opinion of Michael Schenker?" and wait for the bemused "who's that" look on their faces. EVH is the most influential guitarist since Hendrix....and I'm not a shred rocker...grew up on Clapton/Page etc...but it's just a fact...he dominated the 80s and influenced not only players and people who wanted to play but also the actual industry...locking tremelos etc. It's good he made it through the Hell Portal of drugs and abuse...far too many didn't. It's sorta fun watching the old guy shred.
BloozeDaddy A lot of people know who Justin Bieber is too - fame doesn't mean shit as to influence on art.
BluesLicks101 bad analogy...what did Justin Bieber bring to singing that wasn't there already? Nothing. My point was NOT about fame itself...about musical influence of musicians. Reading comprehension required.
Watching as many old interviews with King Edward to ease the pain of his passing. The world is a little less bright without him
But all the brighter for him being here . His light shines forever.
Van Halen was the sound track to my youth.
40 years later they still my band.love you guys for ever.
I love the way you said this ❤
So very sad he is gone but his music will live on forever
Imagine all the recordings never heard
@ Scotty Poker very true - would love to have that job to go through all of tapes at 5150 and hear what was going on in his mind 🤟🏽🤟🏽🤟🏽
@@robertmedrano2768 yeah usually it's some of guitars players best stuff never heard
Eddie and Alex picked up the rule book, looked at it, and went "fuck this", and tossed it in the trash
Lol
Then lit it *ON FIRE*
Indeed. TRUTH. As a drummer, Al doesn't get enough credit for his own tinkering and tone chasing he did with his one of kind custom Ludwig kits he had on those early tours.
Every aspiring guitarist since 1978 owes this man a huge debt of gratitude. He singlehandedly changed the entire guitar landscape and its boundries. I kept holding on to the hope to see him tour again and he just left us, just like that. This one hurts more than Petty, and let me tell you, that one really hurt.
💔🎸🙏🏻....SO HANDSOME....HE LOOKED SO HEALTHY HERE.......SO TALENTED✨
RIP, Eddie ... a true American success story!
Born in Amsterdam. Great conviction as an immigrant coming from the bottom. RIP
@@gianmcaso3303 sorry old boy, but as a fiercely patriotic Englishman, I don't think coming from Europe is "starting at the bottom "
More sort of "A Millennium or two of history " Relocated
No Apologies will be given
Glenn Lilley not sure what you mean but VH’s mother was Indo, meaning he was treated as “non-white” when his family arrived in California in the 60’s. I know. My family’s journey is almost a mirror image of VH. In fact, my uncles were friends of his in Pasadena because they shared the same language and blood. EVH was, indeed, a true American success story.
@@justsnappy sorry old boy but my response was to Gian M Caso
I'm afraid that I have, really big thumbs, and cheap Glasses
Glenn Lilley cheers
Happy trails to you...until we meet again...r.i.p Eddie...🎸🤘
The Van Halen brothers are a national treasure.
Thanks for all the awesome tunes.
WT Hendrix Musically, yes. It's just too bad they're not nice human beings.
+ROOKTABULA
Seems most that make it to the top in Rock N Roll are not nice.
They for sure did not start out this way.
Swimming in that shark tank would be hard on me.
Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,... a National treasure from Holland!!!
eduardo garelli
Yeah, to California and and around the world.
You think they would have recorded their music in Holland?
eduardo garelli
Yeah, to California and and around the world.
You think they would have recorded their music in Holland?
RIP Mr. Eddie Van Halen . Thanx for great memories.
It most definitely worked out for the best Eddie! RIP brother.
May he R.I.P. We lost one of the all-time greats
RIP Ed. we will all miss you
R I P Buddy. You Inspired generations.
I love his smile
Always. The best.
I don't think I've ever heard him speak before. Just heard him play. And I grew up in the 80s.
Words aren't enough for me to describe how much I admire this guy as a musician.
3 days ago it was a shocking news for me since one of my true idols passed away. But each passing day I get sadder everytime I see his face on internet. Normally when some famous musician dies we say "oh, how sad...". But this time I'm really feeling it, my days got a little gray. I feel I tiny piece of me had gone too.
Wow, same here. Can’t explain it, but it hurt bad, like I knew him. Never felt that before. Just loved him I guess.
Love the bond between these brothers!!!!!! ❤️
Thank you Eddie, God bless your soul, RIP, 🙏
RIP eddie so many great memories from my youth your music brings back
RIP Edward Van Halen 😭❤🌹⚡⭐
He really rose from the ashes. Ten years ago he was a wreck and I'm gladhe got his act together.
Stone David. I hear ya brother
so sad he is gone now.... rest in peace, Eddie. 10/06/2020
And he’s back in the ashes now
Thank you Alex for taking Ed's drums. The world thanks you. Long live the mighty VH!!
You can hear Ed's piano origins in his guitar playing. He has such a classical feel for that guitar and has incredible depth and fullness to his tone. Much like a classical piano player. There's a lot of rhythm in his hands.
I've been saying this for decades as a classical pianist. I just get strange looks. But you can hear the melodies, the arpeggios..and intertwined harmony and tone ....he's playing piano on guitar. It's not a coincidence he named his son Wolfgang.
Unchained was written on the piano apparently. That probably explains why it's one of the weirdest guitar riffs but still sounds cool.
Correct, in the Netherlands eddie en Alex were taught classical piano 💫
He plays big chords by stretching his hand across the fretboard, and “hammers” the instrument -sometimes two handed - as if it was a piano.
@@trudydeboer4761 And continuing as a kid in Pasadena, California, Eddie won the Youth Bach Piano competition several years running.
For those of you too young to have been around or have a sense of what it was like, you cannot imagine what an impact this guy had when the first Van Halen album was released. There was NO ONE like him. He single handedly changed how kids wanted to play guitar.
You know, as much as I worship VH's music I love just watching videos of Eddie talking about random stuff just as much. If there was ever a musician who's spirit I loved as much as their music it was Eddie's and also Stevie Ray Vaughn. Eddie was such a non-conformist and I loved him for it.
Good mention. Cant live without my SRV some days. Those two are pluggin in for sound check and waiting for me.
Same here bros
Is good to see EVH good & healthy.......God bless! :)
+Orvin J. Lugo - I agree so much. I am a bit of a Van Halen Fanatic, and have followed them since 1978. He looks great and, God willing he'll be around to deliver to the world a few more insane albums with David Lee Roth.
I just saw them in concert on 9/28 in Phoenix and they were great!
:( so sad....Rest in peace, Eddie
Life is fleeting. RIP EVH
Not anymore
Sadly!!!
Rest in Paradise, Eddie 💔
RIP Eddie - We LOVE you!
RIP Eddie. :(
Eddie's an UNDENIABLE ICON!
It's so cool how Eddie has come so much more into himself as he's gotten older.
most of us do.
He always was into himself. Just ask Randy Rhoads. Well, anyone who knows of their feuds in the late 70's.
RIP Edward Lodewijk Van Halen... 1955-2020 🙏🏻
Oh my goodness , he died too young!😮
RIP Guitar God! You'll be sadly missed!
Rest in peace, King Edward Van Halen #ripeddievanhalen #ripkingedwardvanhalen #💔
Edward's work will age like a fine wine.
R.I.P Eddie Van Halen, u will be missed
That guy is a true legend. RIP Eddie
Over two weeks ago i said how lucky we were to still have Eddie ! Randy Rhoads and EHV will always be my favorite !
So good to see him healthy and sober
Sadly we all go at some point. Van Halen was a big part of my growing up years. I think Eddie is wonderfully amazing, and I'm grateful that I got to live and love the amazing music he made and gave to us. Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen are True guitar Heroes. They were such huge guitar trail blazers. And they made it look so easy.
I agree, I just wish he stopped smoking maybe we would have had him longer :(
It's amazing he's still alive, legends like this NEVER live past their prime...amazing.
Yeah, look at Keith Richards. He looks like a living dead person. LOL
well, sadly he's gone now....rest in peace, Eddie.... 01/26/55 - 10/06/20.....just 65 years old....too young to go...cancer sucks....throat cancer got him... :(
GOD Bless You 🎸🎸🎸
I miss the Rock Guitarists of the 1980s it was a good time.
I still think of EVH as a 70s guitarist. He did his most memorable work in the 70s. Yes the 80s brought on 'chart hits', but that doesnt really translate to ground breaking guitar licks. Most of those he did in the 70s.
Check out Guthrie Govan
@@douglasgreen437 Yes I love Guthrie Govan's music. "Wonderful Slippery Thing" being his best known. Guthrie Govan in The Aristocrats is great too. I'd like to do a shout out to for another, older, who hasn't been mentioned: Mark Knopfler.
RIP Eddie! We all miss you so much already 💕💕💕
The man. The myth. The legend! Love yah Ed!
Scott sterling
"Worked out for the best" the understatement of the millennia EVH you are and will always be the benchmark..
Love his smile
"Glad All Over" by Dave Clark Five is pretty powerful when you turn up the bass with a smidge of treble.
Eddie was voted greatest guitarist several times, had a few beautiful wives, net worth over 100M, fame, reputation but STILL was just a normal guy who would talk with anyone, sign autographs and be a kind, generous, caring guy.
Lesson here for everyone.
Wow. Amazing....
I don't think I've ever seen him so sober.
He's been sober since 2009
He even quit smoking.
+M effin Patriot nah,I love Ed
I liked 1984 to 1986 "happy drunk" Eddie. During "Balance" he was a bad drunk, and the whole VH3 phase he was a fucking mess. So even if he is an asshole now, it's good to see he's cleaned up.
Jay Bonderant is that you, valerie?
RIP EDDIE!!!! Thank you for your gift of playing!
We won't ever see the likes of Eddie ever again!!!!! R.I.P Brother! I remember the first Van Halen sing I heard, Ain't Talking Bout Love! I was blown away!!! Still am after all these year!
King Edward, the best there ever was and will be, good looking guy even as he aged, that's why girls went nuts over him.
More than looks, some people just have a quality, and he had it.
RIP Eddie Van Halen
I wore out the first Van Halen album with my Audiovox Cassette Deck in my 72 Ford van listening to Eddy play in a style I had never heard. Later on after reading an interview with Eddy I found ZZ Topp guitarist Billy Gibbons had tapped a couple of notes in his "Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers" song. It inspired Eddy and the rest is history. Through modern technology (CZcams) we now know there were others but Eddy was the first guitarist to make the style famous. Thank you Edward!
I still cannot believe he is gone and no more music
😢
R.I.P EVH
RIP Eddie
Rest in Peace Eddie ❤️
Thank you for taking the guitar to a place no one else could!
Lotta people are going to miss the original Van Halen with Eddie, Alex, Anthony and David Lee. I lived in LA when they were starting and playing many times at Gazzaris's. Great days for clubs in LA. Saw so many great bands all over LA.
Ed looking great man. I have been battling the bottle for 10 years. It is a tough one. You and Eric Clapton have been definite influences on my recovery. My music is one thing, my life is another. You look great and I am proud of you brother. You are awesome.
Garegh62 I would like to reply to your comment by saying....fuck you....and Michael Anthony....and DLR....and anyone else you may like. Have a nice day.
,
A late reply here, but your assessment is unfair to large extent. Eddie is apparently hard to work with, but so what? That's a personality flaw that he shares with many, especially those who are exceptionally talented in some way or another.
As for Mike Anthony, I like him a lot, always have, but he and Ed have had troubles since day one, as Dave and Ed have had. Is it simply because Eddie's difficult? To a point, but not entirely. It had to do with the creative process, and with how Eddie makes music. Mike apparently doesn't fit in with that in the way he fits with Sammy or Joe Satriani. So Eddie wanted to get him out of the band. Do I like how he booted him out? No, not at all! But, humans be crazy.
But Eddie and Sammy got along very well for years, writing songs together. So he could work with Sammy, just not with Mike, or in a different way maybe, not with Dave.
As for Ed's drugs issues, and teeth problems, yeah that's what happens when you're an alcoholic and drug addict. He's a stellar musician, but he's also human, like the rest of us, subject to the same weaknesses and pitfalls. Thank God it didn't kill him like it does many other people. He got past the addictions and got back on his feet. How many people you know that have gone from the very top of the world, fell all the way down to the basement, and then bounced back to living a healthy, normal life again, with his family and career as intact as possible? Not many, I'd wager. So give the man some slack and allow for his great talent as well as his humanity.
Garegh62 well don’t YOU sound like a nice person to have a cup of tea with. Omg calm down there, Sally boy. Stop being so bitter and lighten up
He cant touch the talent of Taylor Swift period......
Man he really cleaned up, got sober, hit the gym, got his mind working well..amazing rebirth
RIP Ed. Had a beer for you last Saturday night rocking out.
"take my damn drums, I'll play your guitar" and changed the world of future guitar players!
its on my bucket list to meet the homie eddie.
I miss you man, greatest guitarist in 🌎
Thanks for capturing a king on film.
"Worked out for the Best"!!!!!!! Understatement of the Millennium!!!!!
Yep, The King. Always had it, Always will.
The boys from Pasadena are still alive. Thank God for that. Please make another studio album, with either Sammy or Dave. Or both. "Peace be with you, Eddie, always and forever".
The greatest musical story ever told, to ever unfold.
Wow, this is the most down to earth and earnest interview I have ever seen with Eddie. Where is the rest of it?
Eddie VH....like no other....a guitar God....please have a VH reunion with the 5150 line up! Now that would kick major ass!
I love ya Ed’ you did so much for me as a guitarist, I speak for most if not all musicians when I say your impact on us all is immeasurable, we miss you
I love knowing i can visit EVH anytime - just hearing his continued enthusiasm he still had and that smile. 🧚💜 sure help with abroken heart
A very complicated man but, bottom line, I love the guy. I'm reading Noel Monk's book right now, he speaks very highly of Ed, warts and all. I'm just grateful as hell that Dave and Ed crossed paths and gave the world the best rock n' roll that I have ever heard.
It's cooler to say your into Hendrix than into Van Halen, But VH is the king.People thought Hendrix took the guitar as far as it could go. Van Halen blew that notion out of the water.I do enjoy some of Hendrix music,but you can't tell me that Jimi himself wouldn't have checked Eddie out in '78.
One guy played brilliant lead guitar AND sang lead in a three-piece at the same time. That's a feat in and of itself. One guy has lived over 2.25 times longer as the other, and as a result has gotten more notoriety. One guy was really only professional for the final four years of his life & four years after his debut album was released. One guy continued putting out new compositions the other, not so much. Thought experiment: If for example, both JH and EVH had died only 4 years after bursting onto the scene and both having lived only 10,158 days and EVH died Nov 18 1982 having put out the first four albums and nothing else, would the opinion be the same? Who can say?
Phillip S damn that’s a good way to put it
Pali Gap or Little Wing is fine wine. I’m The One is a twelve pack of Bud. It’s all the mood of the moment.
Don't forget what MADE Hendrix is that he had NO ONE to copy what he did from... Eddie comes along and re-invents the use of the guitar which no one before had done.. both unique,, both make guitar HISTORY..but it is comparing apples and oranges.. Greatness is subjective... In the ear of the beholder. There is no "GREATEST GUITARIST EVER".. only opinions..
Yep.
Happy trails Eddie, you’re my hero.
Eddie was looking and playing so good in 2015. In retrospect it's just weird that was the last year we saw him play.
the greatest guitarist of my generation period
Uhhh...WRONG
ah yes. obviously you never seen him live dude or listen to the 1978 live shows. I've seen him 15 times. really
FULLBUG 5150MOOK love the comment. thanks. I wish I seen them in 78. Man Eddie was a damn beast. kinda feel sorry for Tony Iommi who had to follow that performance.
Me too Greg but I was only 2 years old. LOL. I would feel sorry for anyone who would have to follow one of Eddie's performances. EVH RULES
FULLBUG 5150MOOK you got that right! when I first so them in 83 it was at the US Festival over 300,000 people for the heavy metal day. His solo was just awesome! 15 minutes of kick ass. let me tell you, there was a lot of talent that day. from Jake e Lee, Rick Emmett, the boys from judas priest and mattis jabs from scorpions. Eddie was the king that day but Rick Emmett was very good too.
Eddie would lay down 10 guitar solos, record them and then pick some from each recording and make one solo from the mix. Then he had to figure out how to actually play what he created. Talent plus genius worked out good for Eddie, Van Halen and us who dared listen.
I miss Eddie so much his face was always on TV and in rock magazines His music was everywhere when I was growing up
I felt like I knew him
Very sad he had to leave so soon
Miss you Ed R.I.P. old friend
The best 1 minute and 39 seconds i spent all day. rock in peace Ed
Van Halen was the most influential guitar player ever for both the players and the equipment.
Definitely was a Cool Guy
There will never be another like you. You are missed.
I'm going to miss you more than any of them. You will always be the King
The Last Guitar GOD...DAMN RIGHT!!
Damn wrong. There is only ONE God - YHWH. Eddie is just a man. Stop calling men “gods”.
Looking good especially for someone who led the lifestyle he did for so long. In his 60s but doesn't give off any geezer vibes. RIP.
love this guy. Humility+ natural teacher
One of the greatest gatarist of all time,will be so missed.We love you Eddie,rest in peace.
He really unrecognizable from when he was younger. Almost like he became someone else
Happens to everyone...……..will happen to u to someday if not already....
Def one of the top riff axe men, god eddies fucking awesome. Van Halen AND Van Hagar forever!! 🔥🎸😎
Miss Ed every single day. RIP King Edward
Fly high Eddie Van Halen 🕊🕊🕊