Eddie Van Halen

by Neil Zlozower

  —C.C. DeVille

  There really isn’t any accolade that I can write that hasn’t already been bestowed on Edward Van Halen from a guitar magazine or a fellow guitarist. He is an icon for all guitar players and rock ‘n’ roll fans alike. What I want to talk about here is what I have always heard in Eddie’s playing: the British blues, and Eric Clapton in particular.

  If you listen to the solo on “Hot for Teacher” and Eric’s solo on “Have You Heard” from the John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers’ “Beano” album, you will hear the same entry, phrasing, timing, and fire. It’s not about copping the same phrases or lead lines. It’s about summoning the passion of the blues and interpreting it in a way that makes sense for the music you are making, be it hard rock or the blues. The concept of playing with passion and fire remain the same.

  Edward’s playing begins and ends with the blues. In the same way Clapton’s and Richie Blackmore’s does. It is timeless and classic. It’s dangerous, flashy, and yet very basic in places.

  So why do we all refer to Edward as one of the greatest of all time? It is simply because every time he picks up his guitar, he plays with bad intentions. That’s what separates the originators from the pretenders.

  —Joe Bonamassa

  VAN HALEN

  Think big. Think really big … like the Queen Mary. Yeah, BIG! And that’s where the first encounter with Edward Van Halen and BFG came to pass. And of course Eddie’s intense beginnings have come full circle … really BIG!

  It is interesting to follow the rise of EVH’s popularity, which friends, followers, and fanatics have been able to enjoy in Edward’s masterful and artistic expressions as he takes the Spanish electric six-string up to a place called Out There! And what an enjoyable high it is to discover the amazing strides ahead in technique and style that Eddie designed, created, and delivered for listeners on this planet and beyond.

  I suppose the word is exuberance, that uncanny ability to wrangle the drive underlying what lurks within one’s soul. EVH snatched it from the ether and has maintained the energy and exuberance to propel his many remarkable talents, whether they be shown back in the woodshed or front and center stage. It’s all there, and it’s all about his dazzling force of sizzling entertainment.

  Van Halen’s enrichment of what the guitar can deliver is a testament of Edward’s true talent. And why not?!?!? He brings to the guitar party what it may not have been thought a guitar could do. Dive-bombs and hammer-ons can do no wrong when Edward’s at the wheel.

  I mean it! Dig into this in-depth discovery of what EVH is all about. Take it and make of it what you will. Edward Van Halen’s already there for sheer enjoyment. Rock on!

  —Billy F. Gibbons

  When I was growing up, it was all about Jimi Hendrix. I first heard him playing over the loudspeaker at a skate park when I was a young kid. I thought, “What is that sound?” It wasn’t long after that I picked up a guitar and became obsessed with learning how to create such unearthly vibrations. I devoured anything guitar-driven from that day forward, and no other artist would have such a profound impact on me … that is, until I heard Van Halen for the first time.

  I got my first copy of Van Halen while I was in grade school. (I ended up having to get several copies as time went by, because I would eventually burn through each one.) EVH’s playing on that album was so inspired and new to me that, once again, I had the same feeling as I did when I first heard Hendrix. This time, I thought, “Thank God I already do this guitar-playing thing!” Ed’s tone and ability combined with his raw and performance-oriented tracking technique were both exciting and refreshing. I now had two heroes. The difference was that now I could potentially meet one of them.

  Years later, I was driving somewhere in the Valley on my way to pick up my drummer friend, Stephen Perkins. We had a rehearsal that day for our first band, which was mainly a cover band of metal tunes, including several versions of our favorite Van Halen songs. On the way, I accidentally cut off another car. The driver slowed, flipped me off, and hocked a huge loogie on my windshield. The driver was Edward Van Halen! I proceeded to rush over to Stephen’s house to tell him the great news. “Dude! You’ll never believe who spit on my car! EDDIE!!!!”

  —Dave Navarro

  I’ll never forget driving around in Los Angeles in 1978 and hearing this song on the radio called “Running with the Devil.” I was blown away by this new guitar player named Eddie Van Halen. Just hearing such a killer song getting airplay was an inspiration. The way Eddie used the tremolo bar with all the harmonics was very influential in my earlier years. We finally met at one of the early 1980s NAMM shows, and watching him jam at a few of the star-studded nightly events was a treat.

  Another time, at the infamous Rainbow Bar and Grill, his guitar tech Zeek invited my buddy Dan Chauncey (.38 Special) and me over to Eddie’s house around 2 a.m. for a little party. We arrived at this secluded Hollywood pad, where Zeek took us out back to Eddie’s 5150 studio. Eddie showed up looking excited to get out of the house, and we started jamming, Eddie on guitar and me on bass! Just as we started getting into it there was a huge banging on the studio door … his wife, Valerie, was pissed, and yelled out, “Party’s over, boys!” Eddie retreated back to the house and we all had to leave… Ooohhh.

  —Brad Gillis

  I first met Edward in late ‘71 or early ‘72, and I saw a kid with a baby face. Ed had some kind of respect for old people, which was something I liked in him, and he was always smiling. When people are born with something, it’s easy to see. As soon as I saw him play, I could tell he had fast fingers. I had been working with many groups, like the Monkees, the Rolling Stones, and Steppenwolf, and I saw his control immediately. My first vision of him was that he played differently from other people, and it was so clear when he moved his fingers. Now I can’t tell you how many kids come here and say, “I want to play like Eddie Van Halen.”

  I call Edward an innovator because he was the first guitar player who used the guitar more than just as an instrument to play typical rock music. He started to use his special technique. God had given to him something entirely different, and this I want to emphasize.

  I had a big problem with cancer, but in 1980, Eddie asked if I could join him on tour. We spent a few days together, and that was the first time that I really felt like he was some kind of angel for me, because we talked so closely together with an open heart about life and situations. I also learned how tough it could be to become a big guitar player, all these things I didn’t really know. I used to say, “Oh, rock music is just for fun.” But then I found out that one song played for five minutes takes months of rehearsal, so many hours and days. The band finished here at the Inglewood Forum, and I came back and I was so happy. It was the best medicine, instead of that pill I had to have every day. That was the best I ever felt in my life.

  Edward gave me a compliment that was better than if he had given me money or jewels. He said, “I became number one in rock music maybe because I play different, and create different stuff, but I never could do it without this man, Jose, because he modded and blended and made the amplifier the way I wanted to make it.” And that was a really nice compliment.

  We’d been working very hard to get the sound he wanted. Don’t think this was a couple months … one year to another, I came up with something that became much better as we modified it, a little bit of this and that. He started to find that the amplifier had a different kind of sound than before, and he used that sound in the way he wanted. Mainly, we tried to keep the amplifier with the early sound of the Marshalls.

  Edward said, “I want a clear sound where I can feel the fingerprint on the string. But at the same time, I need a ballsy sound that everybody can feel in the stomach and the chest.” And I said, “Well, I think I can make something that can go through the skin. They will feel it inside.”

  —Jose Arredondo

  I really enjoy Ed’s unique style. What impresses me most about him is that no matter what he plays, y
ou can still hear references to his blues roots. Great guitarist, great feel, and creativity. A true groundbreaker.

  —Johnny Winter

  Edward Van Halen is undoubtedly one of the best guitarists of all time. I’ve known Ed since he was nineteen, and every time I listen to him, he just keeps reinventing himself, from smooth and fluid solos to screaming, radically insane playing. He just keeps getting better and better.

  —Mick Mars

  I remember the day when a friend came to my flat, in our town in Switzerland, and said, “You have never heard anything like this before.” When it came to “Eruption,” we guessed that this must be synthesizer or SOMETHING… Well, we all know now what this “something” was—it was Eddie’s fingers! It was, Welcome to the new world of guitar playing!

  —Fernando Von Arb

  Eddie Van Halen is the first guitar player I wanted to emulate as a child. He is youthful, exuberant, cocky, and badass all at once. To say his leads are awe-inspiring is to say too little. His rhythm playing is undeniably in the pocket, yet off the rails. He takes familiar ideas and melds them with unfamiliar territory, seamlessly marrying rock ‘n’ roll guitar to classical stylings like it’s no big deal. My favorite thing about his playing is that he almost sounds like he may lose control at any moment, only to come back to hit you on the head for even thinking such a thing. Who else sounds like this? NO ONE.

  —Allison Robertson

  The first time I heard Eddie play, I knew he would be a big star. His playing sounded like it was on fire and melting. He was using techniques that nobody was using at that time, or at least not taking them to the top like he did.

  The first album was recorded so well, performed so well, and beat everything! The songs were great, the playing was great, the singing was great, the recordings were incredible—you couldn’t go wrong!

  His playing definitely influenced everyone in one way or another, including myself.

  —Carlos Cavazo

  My discovery of his ability to take the instrument to another dimension has been forever life changing for me.

  —James “Munky” Shaffer

  In the beginning, there were the big four: Clapton, Page, Beck, and Hendrix. In the interim, there has been no force more important and influential than the iconoclastic Edward Van Halen. He reinvented the landscape of guitar playing for his generation and succeeding generations and set the bar at a new level. There have been many great guitar players in the history of modern music, but Ed is in a class by himself, and all of us who love the guitar owe him a tremendous debt.

  —Grover Jackson

  Eddie Van Halen personifies rock guitar. There is a controlled chaos about his playing. Van Halen came out when the world was listening to Diana Ross, and Eddie slapped everyone upside the head and demanded their attention. There is no bullshit with Ed. I’ve never seen a guitar player have so much fun onstage, and at the same time you know he’s giving you 150 percent. Edward sent all the guitar players back to the drawing board and ushered in a whole new era of guitar. Thank you, Mr. Van Halen!

  —Bill Lonero

  In the post Hendrix/Clapton/Page world of guitar, Eddie came along and blew a bazooka-size hole in everyone’s idea of what guitar playing was. The style, technique, tone were all completely original and to this day instantly recognizable as Eddie. He is the undisputed champion of all time!!!

  —Scott Ian

  Eddie’s playing, both rhythm and lead, on those first Van Halen records was startling, rocking, groundbreaking, and just BADASS. At first I just wanted to learn to play “Eruption” of course, but later his playing encouraged me to think outside the box and see what new horizons there might be to explore on electric guitar.

  —Tom Morello

  I’m very thankful for Eddie Van Halen, because he was probably the soundtrack to my parents getting it on. If it wasn’t for his shredding abilities, I may not have been born.

  —Zacky Vengance

  Eddie’s such a unique, powerful guitarist and musician. As a player, I’ve always connected to the guitarists who have their own voice, meaning their own sound and energy or twist with all that filters through—from traditional prewar blues, jazz, and rock ‘n’ roll, to hard rock and metal; it’s the power of that voice that burns into the primal part of the music. Eddie’s tones, attack, sensitivity, and having an open-channel connection with his instrument has always been the source of that fireball. From his creative, intense rhythms to his blistering leads and chops, Eddie made them all uniquely his own by pushing the limits.

  —Eric Sardinas

  I first met Eddie when I was on tour with my band UK. We were playing at some of the same festivals, and I used to like going over to the VH stage to listen (with my mouth open, of course). Eddie and I became friends and hung out a few times, sometimes over at the Charvel guitar factory.

  Eddie is an amazing guitarist. His playing is beautiful, and truly organic, and he always gets a really fantastic sound. Besides his tremendous talent, he is a very warm and generous man. I miss the hang.

  —Allan Holdsworth

  I can honestly say it’s a rare day when you really feel you’re part of music history.

  I remember back in 1978 when Van Halen was the opening act for Black Sabbath, and the first show of the tour, at Sheffield City Hall, listening to the band and particularly the guitar playing of Eddie Van Halen, and all I could say was, “Wow, what the hell was that!?!” This was something we’d never heard, and it made you turn your head and smile.

  I worked for Van Halen as a production manager from 1978 to 1984, six of the best years of my life. I listened to Eddie play literally hundreds and hundreds of shows. Eddie’s relaxed yet unbelievable playing never failed to amaze, and his classic solos became the high point of every night, with the cigarette sticking in the strings and a smile on Eddie’s face. From the classic American festivals of the late 1970s to the massive European festivals of the 1980s, Eddie was and still is a legend in the business—an innovator and an amazing guitar player.

  —Patrick Whitley

  Eddie Van Halen is the most influential and important rock guitarist since the days when Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck changed everyone’s approach to the electric guitar.

  Eddie’s playing on the first Van Halen album was the reinvention of electric guitar as we knew it. No one had heard the kind of extreme playing that Eddie whipped out on tracks like “Running with the Devil,” “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘bout Love,” and most notably, “Eruption,” arguably the most stunning display of solo electric guitar ever put down on record. With whammy bar screeches and impossibly fast, finger-tapped runs, Eddie displayed amazing virtuosity, especially for a guy in his early twenties. From that point forward, he seemed to have an endless supply of new techniques and sounds that he pulled out of his bag of tricks with each succeeding album. The fact that Eddie still inspires guitarists more than thirty years later is something very few musicians of any era can claim.

  Something rarely mentioned about Eddie is that he was much more familiar with the tools of his trade than most guitarists. Not content with guitars off the rack from the local music store, he stripped his instruments down to their bare essentials, mixing and matching parts, hand-painting the bodies, tinkering with the electronics, and experimenting with every piece of the guitar until he got the instrument he wanted. Along the way, those experiments resulted in three patents and several signature models that bear his distinctive imprint and design.

  What this all comes down to is that Eddie has been the single most important guitarist of the past three decades. Scrutinized and studied at a level afforded to only one other guitarist—Jimi Hendrix—Eddie has contributed more as an innovative guitarist to the genre of post-1960s rock guitar than anyone else. He’s taken the simplicity of basic rock songs, often consisting of only two or three chords, and fleshed out those chords with extraordinary levels of complexity and ornamentation, from taps and squeals to whammy bar dives and remarkabl
y fluid runs, that no other guitarist would have considered. That brilliance makes Eddie Van Halen worth listening to every time he picks up a guitar.

  —HP Newquist

  What makes Eddie special is being aware of what came before him. If you know where you came from, it’s easy to get where you’re going. Eddie listened to all the best people, and then his own talent took over; his own soul came through. He didn’t sound like them, but walked in the footsteps of giants. He’s a remarkable player, and his own unique personality on the instrument always comes through.

  Music is only twelve notes. A producer’s job is to intuitively find the right people to deliver it from the heart. I told Michael [Jackson] I wanted black rock and roll, and he came up with “Beat It.” We were on a very tight schedule with Thriller and at one time we had three studios going. I remember calling Eddie on the phone and saying, “Hey, it’s Quincy Jones; I wanna see if you want to do a session for me,” and he said, “Fuck you!” and hung up [laughs]. He thought it was a joke and didn’t believe it was me. I had to call him back three times until he finally realized it was me. I told him, “I want you to come down and play a solo on a song for Michael’s new album. We can do this in two hours. You need to lay down a solo on this song because it has your name written all over it.” Being a producer, I trust my intuition of what will work. Combining the right elements to make a record unique is like emotional architecture.