Famous Quotes & Sayings

Eddie Van Halen Quotes & Sayings

Enjoy the top 90 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Eddie Van Halen.

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Pinterest Share on Linkedin

Famous Quotes By Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 2084331

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1275760

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 830291

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1579825

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1590351

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1169999

Bass is for people who can't play guitar — Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 335808

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1435328

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1628327

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1476044

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1222855

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1646115

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 297096

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 427924

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 2000772

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 2246156

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1361562

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1699595

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 613194

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 546157

It's all about sound. It's that simple. — Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 2208711

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 996546

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1146356

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1722975

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 331079

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1170800

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1394569

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 514499

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 2138660

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 81648

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1500396

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 2247301

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1544508

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1549820

I'm just a normal schmo like anyone else. — Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 2243745

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 2206086

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1553201

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 2202751

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1575210

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 2160941

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1803297

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 2056284

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1592506

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1600970

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1641409

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 2036569

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 2025394

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1660692

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1863185

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1696121

You only have 12 notes. Do what you want with them. — Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1806106

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 2270671

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1732719

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1760819

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 468344

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 608651

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 565999

Rock stars come and go. Musicians play until they die. — Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 564122

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 558551

'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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 525608

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 520159

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 511020

I have selective hearing. — Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 473790

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 619194

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 436352

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 433749

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 401676

It's always about the music, never about anything else. — Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 328062

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 209932

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 163240

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 128673

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? Probably the one that I haven't hung most with recently. — Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 108097

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1104103

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1462075

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1383014

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1361863

Everything I did is because I wanted to do it. If I weren't playing this arena, if I were playing a club, I'd still be doing it because that's what I want to do. I love playing the guitar. — Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1211666

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1167944

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1165111

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1118865

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1117004

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1492952

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1073889

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1052747

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 1046636

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 944184

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 801853

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 765714

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

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 728243

The hell with the rules. If it sounds right, then it is. — Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen Quotes 658556

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