Eddie Van Halen Quotes

• 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

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  Tags in Entered, Minds

• 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

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  Tags in Simplicity, Fame

• 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

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• 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

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  Tags in Groove, Bands

• 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

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  Tags in Minutes, Verses

• 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

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  Tags in Lesson, Piano

• 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

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  Tags in Happening, Delay

• 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

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  Tags in Obviously, Play

• 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

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  Tags in Digital, Somewhere

• 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

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  Tags in Asking, Anyway

• 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

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  Tags in Meant, Recorder

• 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

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  Tags in Instrument, Starts

• 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

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  Tags in Fame, Alone

• 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

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  Tags in Recording, Break

• 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

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  Tags in Strings, Pulling

• 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

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  Tags in Fame, Musician

• 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

  Topics in Funny

  Tags in Playing, Election

• 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

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  Tags in Loud, Different

• 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

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  Tags in Piano, Beach

• ‘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

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  Tags in Balance, Immediate

Eddie Van Halen (63)

Birth:	26th January, 1955
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Guitarist, Lyricist, Record Producer

About

Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen was born in Nijmegen, Netherlands. He is a Dutch-born American guitarist, lyricist, and record 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.

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