On ‘Van Halen,’ I was a young punk, and everything revolved around the fastest kid in town, gunslinger attitude. But I’d say that at the time of ‘Fair Warning,’ I started concentrating more on songwriting. But I guess in most people’s minds I’m just a gunslinger.

— Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen Quotes

I think Clapton is brilliant. He’s the only one who moved me. The only one who made me want to play the guitar.

— Eddie Van Halen

Everything comes to me while I’m sitting on the pot.

— Eddie Van Halen

Bass is for people who can’t play guitar.

— Eddie Van Halen

I grew up on a lot of early Beatles, DC5, Cream, Clapton, Page, Beck and Hendrix.

— Eddie Van Halen

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.

— Eddie Van Halen

I’m not a drunk anymore, but since they cut out my tongue, I sound drunk.

— Eddie Van Halen

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

— Eddie Van Halen

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.

— Eddie Van Halen

Actually, if I could deliberately sit down and write a pop hit, all my songs would be pop hits! Let’s put it this way. I play what I like to hear. And sometimes I like to hear something poppy, and sometimes I don’t.

— Eddie Van Halen

When I was growing up and listening to bands like the Dave Clark Five, the groove was what initially got me going. I really like that funky, heavy groove.

— Eddie Van Halen

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.

— Eddie Van Halen

The one thing I do have is good ears. I don’t mean perfect pitch, but ears for picking things up. I developed my ear through piano theory, but I never had a guitar lesson in my life, except from Eric Clapton off of records.

— Eddie Van Halen

I started doing all kinds of weird stuff on the guitar, which became part of my playing. I started doing harmonics and tapping on the guitar and pulling off strings and doing all this weird stuff that no one had ever done before.

— Eddie Van Halen

I mean it’s funny, playing music, how of course you want it to do well, you want them to like it, but it’s not competitive like an election, it’s the Olympics, it’s not a Formula 1 race. The Billboard charts are just to show you what people like.

— Eddie Van Halen

Best believe that needle hurt you Best to see these true colors Than follow one of your false virtues A little secret to make you think: Why is the crazy stuff we never say, poetry in ink?

— Eddie Van Halen

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

— Eddie Van Halen

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

— Eddie Van Halen

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!

— Eddie Van Halen

Cancer is like a cockroach. It just comes back stronger. I’m tearing apart the immune system of the cockroach and seeing how it ticks. I’ve opened up my own pathology center.

— Eddie Van Halen

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.

— Eddie Van Halen
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