A biography for Eddie Van Halenhasn’t been written yet.
“I just consider myself slightly left-of-center. I'm not your average bear. I - what's the word? I'm not - normal.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“We're musicians. We make music for a living. It's that simple. Nothing else matters.”
“I have selective hearing.”
“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.”
“There are really three parts to the creative process. First there is inspiration, then there is the execution, and finally there is the release.”
“I'll be making music 'til the day I die. I've done all kinds of stuff, and more is coming.”
“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.”
“My son, Wolfgang, plays drums, guitars and bass.”
“The name Van Halen, the family legacy, is going to go on long after I'm gone.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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!”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”