Eddie Van Halen 1982 Interview, Part 1

Audio: The Complete Diver Down Interview

In this wide-ranging interview, Eddie Van Halen gives a track-by-track tour of Diver Down. He demonstrates guitar parts and techniques by singing them and playing them on a 12-string acoustic guitar. He plays a keyboard synth demo he’d just made that contains parts of “Jump,” a year and a half before its release. He also offers remarkably candid insights into his family, bandmates, other guitarists, songwriting, his guitars and effects, record label, and more.

A note to readers: You may have already heard this conversation on YouTube, where a bootlegged copy was downloaded several years ago. Upcoming podcasts will include other in-depth Eddie interviews (from 1978 through 1995) that have never been publicly released. To stay up-to-date on these and other guitar-intensive articles and podcasts, subscribe.

Our phone interview took place on July 30, 1982, while Van Halen was on tour in the Midwest. The podcast begins with the brief set-up call that typically precedes interviews. Then, about a minute into the recording, the interview proper begins.

The transcription below has been very lightly edited; most of the changes involved removing “ah’s” and “umm’s” and most of the more than 180 times Eddie said “you know” during our conversation. Now, on to the interview….

***

The Interview

Hello, Ed. How you doin’?

Oh, I, uh…. I stayed up till about 10:00 in the morning, driving on the bus. It was a longer drive than I thought. So I stayed up playing guitar and all the sudden it starts getting light. We got here about 9:00 in the morning, and I couldn’t get to sleep until like 10:00, and I slept all day and forgot to call you.

Hey, no big deal. Did you play tonight?

Yeah, yeah. I just walked in the door.

What city are you in?

Goddamn it…

Cinci?

Umm… Louisville, Kentucky. [Pronounces it “Low-uh-ville.”]

“Luey-ville, Kentucky.”

Well, it’s… They get pissed when you say “Luey-ville.” It’s “Low-uh-ville.”

Yeah.

So how you doin’?

I’m doing good.

I’m not interrupting anything?

No, not at all.

Okay.

You up for a few questions?

Sure. What time is it there?

Must be about 9:15.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, we wanted to write a story about the Diver Down album.

Mm hmm.

And maybe have you talk about each cut a little bit.

Sure, fine.

Did you write most of the music?

Uh, well, actually it’s like half cover tunes and half our own, you know. And the fucking critics having been giving us shit about that. But, uh, I think it’s a bunch of crap. You know? I mean, like, “Dancing in the Street,” “Pretty Woman,” uhh, “Where Have All the Good Times Gone?” – you know, stuff like that. It’s not like the original. Whenever you do a cover tune – like, say, on the second album, when we did “You’re No Good.” Whenever you redo a cover tune, I don’t think you should do it like the original. And I don’t think any cover tune we’ve ever done has been like the original. You know? And it takes almost as much time to make a cover tune sound original as it does writing a song. You know? So fuck the critics.

Right on.

No, it just pisses me off. Because I spend a lot of time arranging and playing synthesizer and shit on “Dancing in the Street,” and they just kind of write it off like, “Oh, you know, it’s just like the original,” but that’s bullshit.

I know what you mean. There’s such a wide range of music on the album. How much did you toss?

Say that again?

There’s such a wide range of songs. How many did you record when you went to record it?

Oh. Let me see…. I think we did a couple of extra ones. One of them is called “Big Trouble,” and another one was called, well, actually it had no title but used to be called “House of Pain.” [Laughs.] Don’t even mention that. It was a good riff, it’s just we didn’t … What we planned on doing this year – or last year, when we came off the Fair Warning tour – we were gonna take some time off and spend a lot of time writing and this and that. Dave came up with the idea of “Hey, why don’t we start off the new year with just putting out a single?” And Dave wanted to do “Dancing in the Street.” And he gave me the original Martha Reeves and the Vandellas tape and I listened to it and I’m going, “Fuck, I can’t get a handle on anything out of this song.” I couldn’t figure out a riff or – you know the way I play, I always like to do a riff as opposed to just hitting barre chords and strumming. So I said, “Hey, look, if you wanna do a cover tune, why don’t we do ‘Pretty Woman’?” It took one day. We went to Sunset Sound, recorded it. And it came out right after the first of the year. And Warner Brothers is going, “Hey, fuck, man, you got a hit single on your hands, man – we need that album. We gotta have that record.” And we’re going, “Wait a minute. We just did that to keep us out there, so people know we’re still alive.” But they just kept pressuring – “We need that album. We need that album.” So we jumped right back in, without any rest, without any time to recuperate from the tour, and started recording.

How long did you spend making it?

Oh, twelve days.

Really?

Yeah. We had a totally different approach this time, and we used a different studio, too.

Where’d you go?

This is kind of funny. It’s now called Warner Brothers Recording Studios, but it used to be called Amigo. Everyone still calls it Amigo. So when you call information and you ask for Amigo Studios, they go, “I’m sorry, no listing.” You know? It’s owned by Warner Brothers. They had a real big room. It was just nice to have a change, because we’ve done every album at Sunset Sound. It was just a lot of fun going to a different studio. Getting back to what I meant about different approach on recording, the reason it went quicker…. I guess Fair Warning took longer than any album we’ve ever done, just because I did more overdubs. I don’t know, it just took more time. There were more things on tape that had to be mixed. I did so many different guitar parts and stuff that the mixing took longer and this and that. But this album [Diver Down] was actually cheaper to make than our first one. It costs us like 40, 46 grand.

Really?

Yeah. And the reason why, getting back to it once again, is the different approach was instead of going into the studio… Oh, wait, let me start at the beginning. What we always do is go down into the basement and work up our new ideas and stuff. And then Ted [producer Ted Templeman] comes down and listens and picks the ones that he likes and the ones he doesn’t like. So we’re already prepared before we go in the studio, whereas a lot of bands will go straight in the studio and actually try and write at 150, 200 bucks an hour. Which is bullshit. So we all kind of agree on the songs that we wanna do and then instead of going into the studio and doing ten basic tracks, we would do one basic track, come back the next day or the same day later on in the evening after dinner, and do the back-up harmonies and the lead vocals. And then that one was gone. You know? That one was in the bag. And then we’d record the next basic track and sing and do leads and whatever. So we took each song one at a time as opposed to doing ten songs all at the same time. You know what I mean? That way I could concentrate more on each song as opposed to…. Well, what we always normally do is we would get a basic track and we’d go and listen to it and go, “Hey, yeah, that’s great. Okay, let’s do the next one.” Instead of doing another song, we would finish that song completely before we started on the next one.

What was the order of songs? Which ones did you knock out first?

Well, the very first one was “Pretty Woman.”

That was a relatively straight cover. Weren’t you tempted to cut loose?

I think that and “Dance the Night Away” are the only two songs ever recorded by us that has no guitar solo. Hey, well, shit, you know. It almost makes me feel bad. It shows you how much guitar solos mean to people. “Pretty Woman” is actually our only legitimate hit. It got to number 11 or 10 or something like that in Billboard. I don’t know. It was straightforward, but the way I played…. Hold on one second…. [Returns with a guitar in hand.] I mean, a song like that, that has a riff, you know…. This is a 12-string acoustic, this will sound like shit. [Begins playing, drops phone.] I don’t know. I still think that…. Just like “You Really Got Me” was straightforward, the same, but it was updated. Actually, people didn’t even know that it was an old song until critics started saying, “Here’s Van Halen, doing cover tunes again.” They’re good fucking songs! Why should they not be redone, like the way we do ’em, for the new generation of people? You know, the opening riff [plays it on the 12-string]. I think it is different than the original, except that riff. That’s the main reason I wanted to do it [sings the original Roy Orbison guitar line]. It smokes! I love it.

It’s a classic. What song did you do next?

Mmm. Let me see. Okay, let me start from the end and work my way back. Oh, yeah, I remember the next thing we did. Have you seen our video of “Pretty Woman”?

No.

Oh, God. You missed the best video of your life! You’ll have to see it some time. You know “Intruder,” right before “Pretty Woman”? All the weird noise shit that I do? The only reason we did that is because we did a video for “Pretty Woman,” and we had a transvestite tied up and two midgets harassing her – you know, squeezing her ass and doing this and that. And Dave was Napoleon, Mike was a Samurai warrior, Alex my brother was Tarzan, and I was like a gunslinger, wearing leather pants and twirlin’ the gun and stuff. I guess the plot was…. And a hunchback was in it; he was up in a bell tower, looking down at the two midgets harassing this supposedly pretty woman. And he would hop on the phone and call each one of us. And I’d hop on a horse and come to the rescue, and so would Al and Dave and Mike. And at the very end, Dave pulls up in a limo – you know, he’s always the one that’s got the classy, crazy shit. [Laughs.] So he pulls up in a white stretch limo and looks at her. She starts running towards him like he’s her hero. And she pulls her wig off, and you see that she’s a dude! Okay. The reason we did “Intruder” was because the video was longer than “Pretty Woman.” So we just went right back in and said, “Hey, we need some more music.”

It almost sounded like a jam.

Oh, all I’m doing is – hey, I used a beer can, all kinds of weird stuff, just makin’ noise. It was first take – it took a minute and forty seconds to do.

How’d you make all the sounds?

Oh, just feedback –no overdubs, nothing.

What did you use the beer can for?

The beer? Okay, well, in the very beginning, I twirled my vibrato bar – it kind of sounds like a chain. Then the next thing you here is kind of like [demonstrates on the guitar].

Oh, the cricket sound.

I don’t know how to explain the sound.

It almost sounds like crickets or something. Was that with a can of beer?

A can of Schlitz Malt.

Are you just rubbing it on the strings?

Yeah, just on the low E [demonstrates]. No, I think the cricket sound you’re talking about was more [demonstrates] – you know, with the vibrato bar.

Are you picking above the nut?

Yeah, above the nut and the vibrato bar like all the way down. And I rubbed the springs on the back.

There’s a sound on there that sounds like an elephant….

Oh, oh, oh – you mean the “Reee! Reee!”

Yeah, yeah.

That was so funny. I just took my pick and right – ah, doddamn, it’s so hard to explain. Okay, my guitar has one pickup. I would take the pick, and right where the neck ends – where it joins the body, where it ends – I would just take it and scrape it up [demonstrates]. I would scrape the pick up to the pickup and the string would be hittin’ the magnet, the pole of the pickup. And it would just go “Reee!” So I just keep going “Reee! Reee!” Like that.

Sounds great!

Oh, hey. It was so much fun.

I know. There’s a real sense of humor on the album.

Hey, listen to all our albums. I think they all have it! [Laughs]

Yeah, yeah. But it seems like your playing is farther out than it’s been…in some cases.

Farther out? In a good or bad way?

Good.

Oh.

It’s more innovative.

Thank you. I just, uh, God, I don’t know how to explain the way I play, I just umm…

Whose idea was it to do “Big Bad Bill”?

Oh, Dave bought himself one of those Sanyo Walkman things, with FM radio. It’s not a Sony, it’s one of those jobs that has FM/AM radio and you can record off the radio if you like something you hear. He was at his father’s house, up in the bedroom, and all of a sudden he picked – this is funny, because it was picked up from the city that we’re in, from Louisville, Kentucky. In a certain spot in his room, if he pointed the antenna a certain way, he’d pick up this fuckin’ weird, like, I don’t know, what would call that kind of music?

It’s like early-’30s big band.

Yeah, but just acoustic guitars and a clarinet.

It’s like a little bit before swing music.

Yeah, I guess, whatever. He picked it up and recorded it. He played it to us, and we just started laughing ourselves silly. I’m going, “That is bad! Let’s do it!”

How’d you get your pop on the gig?

Huh?

How’d you get your father on it?

Oh! It was actually Dave’s suggestion. He said, “Shit, hey, listen to this, man! Get your old man to play it!” We said, “Sure!” It was so funny, because, I tell ya, I couldn’t play the song for you right now. I had to read – excuse me one second. I had to burp. Umm, there’s so many chords – [sings the comped chord progression] – stuff like that. I don’t know, I just couldn’t remember it. So, here’s my father sittin’ to the left of me – you know, sittin’ on a chair with a music stand and sheet music in front of him. I’m sittin’ next to him with a chair and sheet music and a stand. And Mike [Anthony] too – he’s playing, like, an acoustic bass – I don’t know it’s kind of weird, it’s just like an acoustic guitar. You know, like when you go to a Mexican restaurant and they come up and play in front of your face and aggravate the shit outta you – you know the kind of bass guitars they play? He played one of those. [Note: The instrument Eddie’s referring to is called a guitarrón.] I don’t know. It was funny as shit. We had a great time. It looked like an old ’30s or ’40s session.

What kind of guitar did you use?

I used some thick Gibson hollowbody.

Did it have F-holes?

Yeah.

Alright! How’d your father feel about playing on your album?

Okay, let me explain that. He hasn’t played his clarinet in ten years, because he lost his left hand middle finger about ten years ago. He tried to lift up a trailer and it fell on his finger and it just chopped the finger off. He’s been playing a little bit, but not… He was nervous as shit. And we’re just telling him, “Jan, just fuckin’ have a good time. Man, we make mistakes, that’s what makes it real.” I love what he did. But it’s just the he’s thinking back ten years ago, when he was smokin’, playing jazz and stuff. He just can’t do it anymore because he’s wearing dentures, and whenever you’re playing a wind instrument you gotta keep the muscle tone of your lips in shape. And your teeth have a lot to do with it too, and when you’re wearing dentures and missing a finger – it’s like we almost had to force him to do it. But, fuck, it’s exactly what we wanted.

He’s probably reached the biggest audience he’s ever reached too.

Uh-huh. I mean, I love it. I think it’s great.

Has he ever played onstage with you?

No. I asked him if he would when we played L.A. and he said “No way!”

What’s your favorite cut on the record?

Umm… “Secrets.” “Cathedral” and “Secrets.”

How come “Secrets”?

I don’t know. To me, that… Okay, wait. Let me re-answer that. I like everything on it. You know? I like certain parts, like, say… I like each song in a different way.

Sure. I understand that.

I like “Big Bad Bill” because it adds a different side, different sense of humor. Just like I even fuckin’ like “Happy Trails,” as ridiculous as it sounds. [Laughs] We’re even doing it in the show, man, and people go nuts for it!

Do you do it at the end?

Yeah. Our second encore is “You Really Got Me” and right after the guitar solo in the middle, we stop, and get Alex down front, and we sing it. And then launch back into “You Really Got Me” and finish the song. The reason I said I like “Secrets” as my favorite, and “Cathedral,” is because – “Cathedral” I’ve been doing for over a year and I wanted to put it on a record. Okay, what I’m about to tell you, don’t print.

Okay.

Please?

Okay, you got it, Eddie. [Note to readers: I kept my word with Eddie regarding not printing it when the original article came out in Guitar Player. Forty years later, it now feels appropriate to include the following observations.]

It’s just that Dave said, “No more fucking guitar solos.”

He’s crazy.

You know, he’s on an ego trip. He has always been. Whatever. And if you print this I’m gonna fucking come up to your house and blow your ass away.

[Jas laughs.]

No, but it’s true.

I’ve never printed anything you didn’t want me to before.

Yeah, I know. But he just said, “Fuck this, man. No more guitar solos.” Ted didn’t know that that’s the way Dave felt. And so one day when Dave wasn’t there, I said, “Ted, what do you think of this? And what do you think of that?” You know, I played him “Little Guitars,” the intro – the little flamenco sounding thing – and “Cathedral.” And he’s going like “My God! Why the fuck didn’t you show me this earlier?!” And I explained to him, “Well, Dave just said, ‘Fuck the guitar hero shit –we’re a band.’” So Ted just said, “Fuck Dave.” So we put it on anyway.

What are the effects in “Cathedral”?

Say that again?

You’re using a volume swell in “Cathedral” at the beginning?

I’m using like a ’61 Stratocaster. Just a volume knob. And I’m turning it like this [imitates the sound] – on, off, on, off, on, off, on, off. And I’m using an echo and a chorus.

What gave it the violin-like effect?

Oh, fuck, I don’t know. I don’t know how to explain it. Okay, it’s the same type of echo setting that I used on the Mini-Moog for “Dancing in the Street.” ’Cause all I’m really doing in “Dancing in the Street,” on the keyboard, is [demonstrates on the 12-string guitar]. You know, like that, but I set the echo in a way where it sounds like a sequencer. So it goes [sings the riff].

I see. That sounds almost like a Catholic church organ.

Yeah. You mean, “Cathedral”?

Yeah.

Yeah, that’s why I called it “Cathedral.”

I remember hearing music like that when I was a kid.

Uh-huh. But that’s all it is, I’m just going… Oh, God, it’s hard to explain over the phone. But I’m using a volume knob and all I’m playing is this [plays riff]. Except with a volume, just a knob. And what’s funny is the thing – a volume knob, if you turn it too much too fast, the thing heats up and freezes up. And I did like two takes of it, and right at the end of the second take, the volume knob just froze. It just stuck, it just stopped. But I gotta say that the way I play, I don’t claim to be Joe Bitchin’ or nothin’, but I think the best thing that I do is cheat.

Cheat?

Well, I mean, what I like to do on records is have things in between songs. Little segues, little whatever, to keep you interested as opposed to one song, next song, next song, you know, do it over. Like, say, “Cathedral” or “Intruder” or “Little Guitars (Intro)” – you know, stuff like that. I love making the album flow from beginning to end, where you can listen to it from beginning to end without being bored. I came up with “Little Guitars (Intro)” – the Spanish sounding thing. I bought a couple of [Carlos] Montoya records, and I’m hearing this guy going [imitates rapid-fire sound] fingerpicking! And I’m going, like, “God! This motherfucker is great! I can’t do that.” So what I did is kind of listened to that style of playing for a couple of days and I cheated. Steve Lukather – you know, the guy from Toto? – he was in the studio when we were mastering it, cuttin’ a disc, and he’s going, “How the fuck did you do that? You overdubbed that, huh?” And I’m going, “No, I didn’t, here. Here’s how I did it.” [Picks up 12-string acoustic guitar and plays the part.] What I’m doing is trilling on the high E and just slapping my middle finger on the low E. And then when I hit the C, I go to [demonstrates]. You know, I think it’s funny. If there’s something that I wanna do, I won’t give up until I can figure out some way to make it sound similar to what I really can’t do. Does that make any sense?

Yeah. Are you playing two parts at once in the “Little Guitars (Intro)”?

You mean the Spanish thing.

Right.

That’s just one guitar.

No, no. It’s like you’re playing two or three separate parts.

I’m doing the trill and pull offs with my left hand. If I had a different guitar here… Here’s what I’m doing with my left hand [demonstrates, accidentally drops the phone]. Dropped the phone. [Continues demonstration] And all I’m doing with the right hand is this [plays trills].

I got it. Where did you compose that?

At home. But anywhere.

Just listened to Montoya, huh?

Well, I just listened to it a little bit. Actually, I mean the guy is good, but every fucking song he did was like [plays flamenco chord progression and quick improvisation]. You know?

Real dramatic.

Yeah, but it was all the same stupid chords, you know?

When you did the electric part of “Little Guitars,” what effect did you use in the beginning?

I used a miniature Les Paul that I had custom made by a guy named Dave Petschulat.

At the Picking Parlor in Nashville?

No, he just works on his own, I think.

Is he out of Tennessee?

Yeah, yeah. He was just at the show tonight too. He just works out of his garage or whatever.

Is that what you used on the cut?

Uh-huh. The whole sing is a miniature, uh… You know the guitar Billy Gibbons plays?

The Chiquita?

The Chiquita, yeah. Okay, I actually had this guitar over a year ago before the Chiquita came out. Last year on the bus, I came up with “Little Guitars”  [Sings riff.] The whole thing is played on that little guitar. And I’m using a chorus, a Roland chorus-echo job, set on the chorus thing for the very beginning. [Sings part.]

What about in the guitar break near the end?

In the very end?

Yeah.

Umm, that was a note, you mean the part that goes like this? [Plays ending of the song.] You hear that? That part?

Yeah.

That was my regular old faithful, red-striped, garbage Strat.

When I first met you, you were playing a black and white Strat.

That’s the same guitar that I’m still using now.

You repainted it.

It has the same guts. Everything’s the same.

Is the pickup still stuck in there with matchbook covers?

It’s the same pickup. It’s just screwed right into the wood. I’m telling you, to me, man, it works. It sounds better to me when that pickup is mounted screwed directly into the wood as opposed to suspended by springs. You know? I don’t know, I might be crazy, but that guitar sounds better than fucking anything else that I’ve ever bought or built or owned.

“The Full Bug”?

Yeah?

Is Dave playing the acoustic guitar and harmonica?

Yeah, he plays the intro.

And the harp, too?

Yeah.

Yeah, your lines in that song are sophisticated. They sound more worked out, almost fusiony.

You mean in the middle? [Sings the part.]

Yeah.

Well, all right… I’ve been doing a lot of stuff. You know Allan Holdsworth?

Yeah.

I jammed with him at the Roxy.

I heard about that.

It was fucking great. I kind of wrote a tune and came down in the afternoon and got them to play it because they asked me if I wanted to jam with them. And I said, “Well, shit, I can’t play the kind of offbeat stuff that you guys do! So how about playing this?” It was a riff. It kind of went [demonstrates] – you know something that was their style but more my influence type of thing. And Allan is such a fucking nice guy. He spent the night at my house. We started talking, man, and he’s got two kids and a wife back in England, and he’s selling equipment to fucking pay the rent. And he came over here for his last chance to try to make some money playing. So some groupie chick, whose father is rich, flew him and his band out here and got him some gigs like at the Roxy and Golden Bear, or whatever – you know, places like that. Man, I started crying! I couldn’t fucking believe it! So after I jammed with him at the Roxy, I’m saying, “My God, man, you’re too fucking good just be pissed away like this.” He was selling records at the door.

You’re kidding.

Yeah! He’s not even on a label! So I fucking called Ted, our producer, and I said, “Goddamn it, check this guy out. He is hot. He might be a little out there, you know. He might be a little spaced out, but ….” Anyway, I got him signed to Warner Brothers.

Great! Good for you, man!

I mean, I just had help him, man. ’Cause he’s the only motherfucker that I get off on.

You’re the first person I ever heard talk about him.

Well, that shows you how much I like him. I love the way he plays. I think nobody ever even knew who he was until I started talking about him.

What appeals to you most about his playing?

Ahh, just, his – I don’t know how to explain it. He’s got feeling, he’s got a fuckin’ ear that’s unbelievable. I mean, you could play any chord change you want and he can improvise over it. But at times, I gotta say, he does get a little monotonous with his [sings a passage] – you know, he never stops. So I talked to him a little bit about that too, because I’m gonna be co-producing his album, which is gonna be a lot of fun. Allan is such a fucking nice guy, it’s unbelievable. And he’s just being fucked around. He’s been fucked around by EG Records or something like that, and somebody owned his publishing and this and that. I just took him to our attorney and I said, “Listen to our attorney.” So I think a deal is just about wrapped up with Warner Brothers. I spoke to him like just about two weeks ago, and he says he’s fucking happy as shit.

You did him a good turn, Eddie.

Hey, fuck, man, I’m not… You know, just don’t print everything that I’m telling you, okay? [Note: Again, Eddie’s wishes were honored and this next part was left out of the original 1982 publication]

Yeah, for sure.

There’s one thing that bothered me so much in the very beginning, in ’78, our first tour, is how people like Joe Perry and other guitarists would just give me the shaft with their eyes. Wouldn’t say hello. Wouldn’t be nice. No nothing. I’m not that way. I don’t give a fuck if I’m playing a Holiday Inn lounge, I enjoy playing. But I can’t stand to see a person with Allan’s talent, because of mismanagement and people fucking him around. You know, he was ready to sell his guitar and everything and work in a factory. And that is fucking sickening. So I just think about people like Joe Perry or Ritchie Blackmore, who all hate my guts anyway, they wouldn’t go out of their way to help anybody ’cause they would feel threatened. Hey, the way I look at it is I wish there were more people that were innovative so I would have somebody to cop licks from. It might sound a little ego’d-out, but there are very few guitarists that I can listen that make turn my head and go, “Whoa! How did he do that?” And Allan is about the only one.

Very sophisticated cat.

Yeah, but also very naïve.

He’s been through it now.

Yeah. And we’re still going through it.

Did you know Randy Rhoads?

Yeah. Goddamn. Fuckin’ poor guy.

What’d you think of him?

Well, he was one guitarist how was honest, anyway, ’cause I read some interviews that he did and he said everything that he did he learned from me. You know? And he was good! And goddamn it, what a fucking way to go. You know? Obviously – they must’ve been fucked up. Jerking around with the airplane. That wasn’t an accident. It was an accident, but they were definitely fucked up when it happened. They had to have been. You don’t fly that low and smash into a crew bus and then hit the house. They were jerking off, and that’s just plain stupidity. I fucking feel sorry for him. You never know – he might be up there jammin’ with Bonham and everyone else who kicked the bucket.

He was the first cat to come along after you and sort of inspire that sort of worshipping.

Oh, sure. But I don’t really think he did anything that I haven’t done. What do you think? Honestly.

He’s a little different, but I hear a lot you in him. The first time I ever heard him, I thought it was a guy copying you.

Mm hmm. Yeah, that’s what I mean. Anyone else who does the things that I do, it’s obviously is gonna sound a little different, but I can tell when someone is copping my technique. But there’s nothing wrong with that. You know, I fuckin’ learned from other people too.

It’s just something that people hear and they like and they want.

Sure, there ain’t nothing wrong with it, man. I’ve copied some other people’s licks, you know.

Due to Substack’s space limitations, the transcription continues here:

Eddie Van Halen 1982 Interview, Part 2

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