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To hell with the rules. If it sounds right, then it is.

Eddie Van Halen

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Eddie Van Halen
Age: 65 †
Born: 1955
Born: January 26
Died: 2020
Died: October 6
Composer
Guitarist
Musician
Record Producer
Singer
Songwriter
Amsterdam
Netherlands
Edward Van Halen
EVH
Edward Lodewijk van Halen
Edward Lodewijk Van Halen
Rules
Hell
Sound
Music
Right
Sounds

More quotes by Eddie Van Halen

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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
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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
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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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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
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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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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
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Some people think a song without words isn't a real song. Tell that to Beethoven and he'll kick your ass!
Eddie Van Halen
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Jimmy Page is an excellent producer. Led Zeppelin I and II are classics. As a player he's very good in the studio, but I've never seen him play well live. He's sloppy. He plays like he's got a broken hand and he's two years old. If you put out a good album and play like a two year old, what's the purpose?
Eddie Van Halen
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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
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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
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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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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
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Nirvana was huge, but it didn't appeal to everyone.
Eddie Van Halen
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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
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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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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
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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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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
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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
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Bass is for people who can't play guitar
Eddie Van Halen