Top 100 Halen's Quotes
#1. I've never really heard anybody imitating anything of mine the way they do with Edward Van Halen's stuff.
Steve Vai
#2. 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
#3. 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
#4. The name Van Halen, the family legacy, is going to go on long after I'm gone.
Eddie Van Halen
#5. Holdsworth is so damned good that I can't cop anything. I can't understand what he's doing. I've got to do this [does two-hand tapping], whereas he'll do it with one hand.
Eddie Van Halen
#6. I liked a lot of the things other people liked - Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Van Halen, AC/DC - but if I compared it to my dad's music, there just seemed to be elements missing.
Dweezil Zappa
#8. The human mind is like Van Halen. If you just pull out one piece and keep replacing it, it just degenerates.
Fran Kranz
#9. In Van Halen there were moments, like in some of the ballads, I put my heart and soul into those records. Those lyrics when I sang 'em, I gave myself goosebumps.
Sammy Hagar
#10. 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
#11. When I left Van Halen, I went in the studio and made a CD called Marching to Mars with all studio musicians. I did it immediately. With the disappointment riding on my shoulders of the breakup of the band.
Sammy Hagar
#12. A guitar is just theoretically built wrong. Each string is an interval of fourths, and then the B string is off. Theoretically, that's not right, all the strings should be off.
Eddie Van Halen
#13. I'm writing, and just doing the same thing I always do.
Eddie Van Halen
#14. 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.
Eddie Van Halen
#15. It's always about the music, never about anything else.
Eddie Van Halen
#16. Eddie Van Halen was probably the most influential.
Tony Iommi
#17. Everybody has a high point and a lot goes into that: timing, situation, general consciousness.
Alex Van Halen
#18. It's always a Catch-22 situation. They hate you if you're the same, and they hate you if you're different.
Eddie Van Halen
#19. 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.
Eddie Van Halen
#20. 'For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge' took a year to record; that's why the playing on it might sound somewhat labored. 'Balance,' on the other hand, was written and recorded in only four months, so the whole process was quicker and more immediate.
Eddie Van Halen
#21. There is a volatile mix, and that's because we're all intense. And there's no denying that.
Alex Van Halen
#22. People say that life is a cesspool of darkness and dispair. Well we of Van Halen are sailing through it in a yacht!
David Lee Roth
#23. We make music for a living. Like I've always said, if you like what you're doing, you're halfway there; if someone else likes it, that's even better. If they don't like it, at least you like it. Not to be selfish, but you kind of have to be.
Eddie Van Halen
#24. If I can help a kid discover a liking, or even a passion for music in their life, then that's a wonderful thing.
Eddie Van Halen
#26. Dave thought he was bigger than Van Halen the band. So there was this catfight going on for 10 years.
Gary Cherone
#27. 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.
Eddie Van Halen
#28. The president's stump speeches could carry the forced air of a Van Halen reunion tour with Sammy Hagar in for David Lee Roth.
Mark Leibovich
#29. when Roth joined, all of Mammoth's followers "seriously thought [the Van Halen brothers] had ruined Mammoth," telling Edward, "'Wow. I can't believe you did this. This guy sucks.' Eddie was apologetic, but he'd say to us, 'Be nice to him. He's okay.
Greg Renoff
#30. I did some research and tried to pull out some old, classic Van Halen that they had not played in 10 or 15 years. I think that was Sammy's mistake. I he didn't want to do the Dave stuff.
Gary Cherone
#31. There's nothing worse than having everybody thinking alike, talking alike and having the same direction in mind. It gets stale that way.
Alex Van Halen
#32. 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.
Eddie Van Halen
#33. How do you know it's love? I don't know, but it lasts forever.
Van Halen
#34. It's hard to say this about a guy like Eddie Van Halen, one of the greatest guitar players who ever lived, but he's really limited to a style and they're locked into it.
Sammy Hagar
#35. 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.
Eddie Van Halen
#37. A good producer brings out the best in the artist he's working with. You shouldn't be able to listen to something and say, 'So-and-so produced this album.'
Eddie Van Halen
#38. There's no great guitarist that doesn't sit down and listen to Chet Atkins and Eddie Van Halen, and all these other great players.
Lee Ann Womack
#39. If you have a great-sounding guitar that's a quality instrument and a good amp, and you know how to make the guitar talk, that's the key. It starts with the guitar and knowing what it should sound and feel like.
Eddie Van Halen
#40. I never took guitar lessons. I took classical piano lessons from the age of six when we lived in Holland.
Eddie Van Halen
#41. There's very little greatness in this world, but in the crucible of quality there's a special corner reserved for Van Halen.
Bob Lefsetz
#42. I played 'Eruption' two times for the record, and we kept the one that seemed to flow ... there's a mistake at the top end of it whenever I hear it, I always think, Man I could've played it better ... but I like the way it sounds. I'd never heard a guitar sound like that before ...
Eddie Van Halen
#43. 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
#44. Yeah, we have our differences, but we put those aside, and now we're making music. It's great.
Alex Van Halen
#45. I was so used to doing old blues licks with the first three fingers. When I started using my pinky and finding more spread things, that's when I started getting my own style.
Eddie Van Halen
#46. It's part of our nature. As much as I love (brother and guitarist Eddie), if you put us in a room with no one else for 15 minutes, we'd be at each other's throats.
Alex Van Halen
#47. 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
#48. Imagine if Beethoven had a tape recorder. Then you'd know exactly what he meant. Maybe he meant 'Da da da da' instead of 'Boom boom boom boom!' Who knows?
Eddie Van Halen
#49. 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.
Eddie Van Halen
#50. I'll always leave the same set of strings on my guitars when I'm recording. If I break one I'll just replace it instead of putting on a whole new set of strings.
Eddie Van Halen
#51. Jeff Beck is my idol .. sometimes he finds notes that I just do not have on my guitar. Frank Zappa's another one .. I loved Frank Zappa ... I do think Van Halen reinvented the guitar ... he's an excellent musician, a shrewd guitarist and as a person he's wonderful ...
Ritchie Blackmore
#52. You've only got 12 notes and however you mix them up is your thing.
Eddie Van Halen
#53. My first impression of Van Halen was that David Lee Roth was a god, and that so was Eddie.
Dave Mustaine
#54. Without a doubt, Eddie Van Halen is the greatest guitar player who has ever lived.
Zakk Wylde
#55. The piano is a universal instrument. If you start there, learn your theory and how to read, you can go on to any other instrument.
Eddie Van Halen
#56. The first Van Halen album makes Johnny Rotten out to be what he really was and still is: a hairdresser.
Henry Rollins
#57. We're musicians. We make music for a living. It's that simple. Nothing else matters.
Eddie Van Halen
#59. Sometimes I'll listen to a little old Van Halen, or some Beatles, Zeppelin stuff, classical music ... I like a lot of different things.
Eric Carr
#60. I'll be making music 'til the day I die. I've done all kinds of stuff, and more is coming.
Eddie Van Halen
#61. Practice. I used to sit on the edge of my bed with a six-pack of Tuborg. My brother would go out to party and get laid, come home at 3am., and I would still be playing with myself.
Eddie Van Halen
#62. 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.
Eddie Van Halen
#63. I'm the one in the band that said I'm not going on tour unless we do a record.
Eddie Van Halen
#64. There are really three parts to the creative process. First there is inspiration, then there is the execution, and finally there is the release.
Eddie Van Halen
#65. When the tour is done, that's the end of the U.S. tour. We'll regroup and see what we're going to do.
Alex Van Halen
#66. 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.
Eddie Van Halen
#67. 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.
Eddie Van Halen
#68. I applied to Uncyclopedia Bassists, and was accepted!!
Eddie Van Halen
#69. 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.
Eddie Van Halen
#70. More and more, I enjoy hearing people who are good at their instruments and who've found a distinctive voice. In death metal, a lot of guys are Eddie Van Halen disciples, but they take his style to really expressionistic places. It's a real pleasure for me to hear people pushing their craft.
John Darnielle
#71. 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.
Eddie Van Halen
#75. 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.
Eddie Van Halen
#76. When you leave the planet, you leave music behind.
Alex Van Halen
#77. It's the most natural progression for me to becoming a singing sensation next. And so many people have offered to be on it. Eddie Van Halen ... and Prince, Madonna and Cyndi Lauper will probably be a backup trio.
Paul Reubens
#79. I look at Van Halen as social workers. What we're really doing is creating jobs for rock critics.
Alex Van Halen
#81. 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
#82. You have Extreme and Van Halen and the history that I have with other people I played with. There are some effects that will hopefully break that stereotype.
Gary Cherone
#83. It's unfortunate nine years were in between - you can't take that time back; you can't undo it.
Alex Van Halen
#84. Sammy and I got together and it was like we hadn't missed a beat.
Alex Van Halen
#85. If I would have ever dreamed that I wouldn't be in Van Halen anymore and was going to have resume my solo career again, I would have never contributed anything towards my own greatest hits package.
Sammy Hagar
#86. 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.
Eddie Van Halen
#87. I had a solo career before Van Halen. My fan base filtered through Van Halen with me and came right on out the other side with me.
Sammy Hagar
#88. Dave was great in Van Halen. No question about it. He was one of the best at being Mr. Rock Star. But it's sickening to see a guy still trying to be that with a wig on 20 years later.
Sammy Hagar
#89. Some people think a song without words isn't a real song. Tell that to Beethoven and he'll kick your ass!
Eddie Van Halen
#90. When I was in Van Halen I was hitting notes that were out of my range. I never went for those registers before until Eddie pulled it out of me.
Gary Cherone
#91. People keep asking "Jacob or Edward?" when the really important question is "Diamond Dave or Sammy?
Ysabeau S. Wilce
#92. 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?
Eddie Van Halen
#93. 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.
Eddie Van Halen
#94. 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
#96. Whatever our personal differences are, there are no bigger fans of this band than the people who are in this band.
Alex Van Halen
#97. Van Halen can keep providing the rain and I'll keep providing the parade.
David Lee Roth
#98. The Beatles will never get back together and David Lee Roth will never again sing with Van Halen.
Alex Van Halen
#99. Few bands in hard rock history have been so adept at balancing the awesome and trivial as Van Halen in their prime.
Chuck Eddy
#100. 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
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