Eddie Van Halen Quotes

"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."

"It's all about sound. It's that simple."

"It's always a Catch-22 situation. They hate you if you're the same, and they hate you if you're different."

"We're musicians. We make music for a living. It's that simple. Nothing else matters."

"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 just consider myself slightly left-of-center. I'm not your average bear. I - what's the word? I'm not - normal."

"It's always about the music, never about anything else."

"I never took guitar lessons. I took classical piano lessons from the age of six when we lived in Holland."

"Nirvana was huge, but it didn't appeal to everyone."

"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."

"If I can help a kid discover a liking, or even a passion for music in their life, then that's a wonderful thing."

"I'm writing, and just doing the same thing I always do."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"My son, Wolfgang, plays drums, guitars and bass."

"I have selective hearing."

"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."

"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?"

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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 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."

"I'm the one in the band that said I'm not going on tour unless we do a record."

"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?"

"I never took guitar lessons. I took classical piano lessons from the age of six when we lived in Holland. And when we moved to America, it was just the typical thing except I was really good at it; so was my brother."