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The stories I found in my research for today's Van Halen offering are some of my favorites I've come across since starting this job four months ago.
As always, the hardest part is figuring out which stuff to leave out.
As always, the hardest part is figuring out which stuff to leave out.
So, because EVH has a special place in my heart, humor me as I continue dumping all my favorite info I picked up along the way.
First off: Eddie NEVER learned to read music.
“I fooled my teacher for six years. He never knew. I’d watch his fingers, and I’d play it.”
First off: Eddie NEVER learned to read music.
“I fooled my teacher for six years. He never knew. I’d watch his fingers, and I’d play it.”
We all revere Eddie as a guitarist (as we should), but he was also a piano prodigy — setting aside his guitar for months at a time and writing music solely on piano and synths.
At one point he even devoted himself to the Cello, playing along to Yo Yo Ma for hours at a time.
At one point he even devoted himself to the Cello, playing along to Yo Yo Ma for hours at a time.
"Friends told tales of him picking up unexpected instruments — a saxophone, a harmonica — and playing them at a seemingly professional level."
To think of EVH exclusively in terms of his virtuoso would be incomplete, as Eddie (a long-time alcoholic until he found sobriety in 2008) suffered the curse of so many tortured artists, grappling with intense self-loathing and insecurities.
From a young age, he'd be alone in his bedroom with his music and alcohol, hiding from the everyday stressors that sometimes proved overwhelming.
“It’s the universal vibration,” he explained to Rolling Stone in 2007. "It heals."
“It’s the universal vibration,” he explained to Rolling Stone in 2007. "It heals."
Eddie lived at home with his parents till he was 25 — despite having already 'made it' as one of the musical icons of his generation, known around the world.
Apparently, his mother had a hard time buying that the whole music thing would last.
Apparently, his mother had a hard time buying that the whole music thing would last.
In an interview with the Smashing Pumpkin's Billy Corgan back in 1996, EVH admitted:
"Every time I walk into the studio it seems like the first time. It's like I've never written a song before. I am just as scared."
"Every time I walk into the studio it seems like the first time. It's like I've never written a song before. I am just as scared."
By all accounts family always meant everything to Eddie.
So it's hard to not have your heart warmed imagining how he must have felt once his son Wolfgang took over as the Van Halen bassist in 2006, joining Eddie and his uncle Alex.
So it's hard to not have your heart warmed imagining how he must have felt once his son Wolfgang took over as the Van Halen bassist in 2006, joining Eddie and his uncle Alex.
At the 2008 concert in Florida during which Eddie played the hand-striped Charvel guitar coming to @OnRallyRd today, he was joined by his brother and son, as well as original vocalist David Lee Roth.
Eddie died this past October, and the NYT summed up his musical contributions beautifully with their subhead:
"His outpouring of riffs, runs and solos was hyperactive and athletic, making deeper or darker emotions feel irrelevant."
"His outpouring of riffs, runs and solos was hyperactive and athletic, making deeper or darker emotions feel irrelevant."
