EDDIE VAN HALEN - IN HIS OWN WORDS

IN THIS COLLECTION OF QUOTES — STARTING IN 1981 AND ENDING WITH A 2016 INTERVIEW MAKING ITS FIRST-EVER APPEARANCE IN GUITAR WORLD — EDDIE VAN HALEN DISCUSSES EVERYTHING FROM DEBUSSY TO DAVID LEE ROTH’S FIRST SOLO OUTING, FROM “ERUPTION” TO “SPANKED,” FROM COLLEGE TO CLAPTON, FROM HIS “BLACK SABBATH FUNK” TO HIS BELOVED EVH GUITARS AND AMPS

- SCOTT HARRISON

THE NATURAL

GW, January 1981

MY FATHER HAS been a professional musician all his life, and he said, ‘Kid, you’ve got it,’ Some people have got it and some people don’t. Even people who don’t have it can practice long enough to get it down to a point. But there’s always a difference between a person who has the feel and those who don’t. The difference is in the amount of emotion expressed in your playing. I listened to Debussy by two different pianists and it was like day and night. One guy had it and every note was beautiful. The other guy had lead fingers.

COLLEGE? WE DON’T NEED NO STINKIN’ COLLEGE!

GW, November 1982

ON STAGE, IT’S different… that’s my world, my life. I don’t have to deal with being accepted by jocks or bikers or that in high school. The band is a family and I’m accepted in that family. That’s what made me get into guitar, because I felt like I had nothing to lose. If I couldn’t play guitar, I’d be pumping gas. I mean I got a low IQ. When everybody graduated, all the rich guys going, “Hey, which college are you going to?” and I’m going “College?!? I just went straight back home, locked myself in my room, played guitar, wrote songs, and hoped to God I got somewhere.”

...AND A SONG CALLED “JUMP”

GW, January 1984